Michael immediately signaled Fudge to move in closer to the ailing adventurer.
An unsuspecting shadow slithered through the ground without arousing any suspicion, which was easy because everyone’s attention was on the adventurer lying helplessly on the grass.
"Woah, what happened to him?"
"Another impatient bastard bites the dust…that’s why I said we shouldn’t go in before the Knights arrive."
"Are you kidding? By the time they arrive, they’ll have scooped up any treasure in the tomb!"
The adventurers got too caught up in their squabble, which allowed Fudge to inhabit the shadow of the fallen man.
"How is it?" Michael asked Fudge.
A small bit of the slime’s head peeked back up from Michael’s shadow, shaking its head.
"He’s gone, Master."
Michael was going to try and help the unfortunate guy, but he was too late. The man had already used up the last of his remaining Life mana to warn the other adventurers of the dangers in the discovered tomb.
"Clear out, everybody. Give the man some space."
A commanding voice from a bald man wearing bulky red armor carved through the nosy adventurers.
Now, as a group of rebels, it was in their nature to never take commands from other people. But as they were about to yell at the guy for saying such audacious words, they realized the insignia born on his right chestplate. HammerStone company.
The unruly adventurers ended up backing down in front of the twenty-something fighters from the 495th-ranked HammerStone company. They knew they were outclassed just from the clean CLINK sound of their armor alone.
"Do we know what happened to him?" asked the bald man, clearly the leader of the whole group.
"His legs are in terrible shape. It’s a miracle he was able to even get out of the tomb."
Michael couldn’t hold in his curiosity any longer. He turned his entire body into a shadow and glided through the backs of unsuspecting adventurers until he reached a large tree overlooking the whole situation below.
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Coincidentally, the best view he could get of the whole situation was by hanging onto a branch on the tree directly above the adventurers.
I owe the Shadow Orcs an apology. This is actually quite a stealthy way to eavesdrop on someone.
Michael looked down at the corpse below, expecting to see only Dark mana permeating the body. But, instead, he also saw large chunks of Poison mana on it, specifically the legs.
Poison…ChatJK3, can you find out the cause of death?
[I have seen traces of some kind of acid present on the corpse.]
"Look at his chestplate," the bald man from HammerStone said curiously. "It’s barely scratched. It’s the complete opposite of his lower body, which seems to have been eaten through the bone…some kind of acid or poison maybe."
The other experienced adventurers drew their own conclusions, not that much different from the bald man’s guess.
"That means the tomb has an acid section that must be traversed. And this unfortunate soul didn’t have any protection at all for it."
"That’s why it’s important to have leg armor."
Everyone thought that the man foolishly tried to swim through acid with nothing but leather boots and a can-do attitude.
"Wait! I know him," said one of the adventurers. "He did have leg armor on! And it’s full-on steel armor as well."
If the man’s words were to be believed, then this meant that his leg steel armor did nothing to protect him from the acid.
That’s why he said we need legs or leggings, Michael thought. I’m guessing this acid could permeate through the smallest of crevices in the leg armor, which they didn’t anticipate.
Michael looked at the bald man and saw his eyes gleam with understanding as well.
"We know now that to storm the tomb, one must have strong metal leggings to withstand the acid," the bald man said.
It didn’t take long for the other adventurers to see through the meaning behind his words.
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Slowly, they began to walk away from the forest with only one thing in mind: searching for the best steel boot leggings money could buy!
If they were to get their hands on leggings like that, then it was more than possible that they would be the first ones to get through to the treasure room of the tomb!
The problem now would be to find a blacksmith good enough to create such a craft.
Michael listened in on the conversation of an adventurer group planning on going back to Angora City to find a blacksmith.
"Where are we going to find a blacksmith that can create something this fast?"
"How about HammerStone? Surely they have a lot of metal leggings to sell. Let’s buy from them even if we have to pawn off some of our stuff."
"No. Didn’t you see them out here? They don’t plan to share the tomb with anybody else. I’m betting that they won’t be selling any leggings in Angora City by tomorrow. They’ll hoard it for themselves, I guarantee it."
After being a ’good ninja’ as Fudge liked to call it, Michael found out that the HammerStone was a blacksmith company. It made sense, seeing as how well-equipped their fighters were.
And he also thought that the adventurers had a point. HammerStone would definitely keep acid-proof leggings to themselves for this tomb campaign.
"What should we do, Master?" Fudge said, returning to Michael’s shadow. "As much as I hate to admit it, those scaly meanies can enter the tomb by themselves."
It wasn’t just the Dragonborns, Michael was sure that any Rebornian could bypass the acid section of the tomb quite easily. They had the [Lesser Unity Defense], after all.
But, Michael wasn’t just thinking about the tomb and its treasures. Instead, he was also thinking about a way to spread the Reborn company and the new Golden Road to a much wider customer base.
He reached down into his shadow, letting part of his hand reach Neo Orcs, as he picked up one of the blueprints for the Golden Road project.
As he observed the outskirts of Neo Orcus on the map, Michael’s eyes latched onto the jungle portion of the territory.
ChatJK3, use this map as a reference to tell me my exact location.
[Very well. Scanning your surroundings…]
[Complete!]
Just then, a small light suddenly appeared on the blueprint, just on the borderline of the paper.
That was his current location on the map.
Coincidentally enough, the location of the tomb was very near and close to the path of the new Golden Road!
"Come follow me," Michael said to Fudge.
"Where are we going?"
"We’re taking a little visit back to the Parched Lands. We need the Dwarves’ help on this."
Michael was planning on becoming the main supplier for the adventurers! This would be a tremendous opportunity for the Reborn company.
He would supply not only acid-proof leggings, but also food, armor, weapons, and other such necessities for the campaign.
This would earn him a lot of reputation within the adventuring community.
But of course, Michael wasn’t planning on just letting the adventurers have the tomb for themselves.
While selling the leggings for the adventurers, he was also planning on diving into it himself and getting the treasures inside! It was a double win!