The Final Desperation

After the battle, Genji patched himself up with some nearby plants before helping the others with first aid. After all, he was considered half a doctor with his knowledge of the human body. Then they tallied up the casualties.

There were no survivors after the explosion. Some might have survived the initial earth spikes, but the blast had been too large for the injured to escape. Most of them didn’t even have bodies anymore, as they had disintegrated into various strips of flesh, leaving only chunks of iron from their broken weapons as a reminder of their existence.

The team gathered these remains, placed them in a crater with the reanimated corpses, and set everything on fire. This cremation burial would prevent any other unholy beings from desecrating their bodies again.

When the last ashes faded into the ground, they covered the hole and began their journey back. This took another day but was otherwise uneventful.

They reported their findings and claimed their rewards before going about their day. Genji headed to the castle rooftop to sunbathe and think, while the others prepared to hold another recruiting session. Due to the high casualties, they needed to replenish their numbers after every exploration.

Yet by now, people had gotten word of this terrifying position and avoided it like the plague. They might consider the job if it was for the castle guards or city patrol, but not the exploration team.

At this rate, they would struggle to put together a decent team for another expedition—not that Genji minded. He only had 7 days left in this world and had no intention of continuing this gauntlet of investigation.

Instead, he would rather focus on Cainance’s side quest. Not only was it safer, but it would also provide better rewards. If this endeavor went well, he would obtain some powerful blood to upgrade Bruce’s abilities. Otherwise, he could loot the bodies of the fallen to supplement his income. There were no downsides. The hard part was actually convincing enough people to make this effort worthwhile.

‘I need to lure out a lot of realm members. Let’s see if I can leverage the queen’s authority for this.’

Genji waited for the sun to set before sneaking into the queen’s chambers. She was still awake when he entered, sitting at her bedside table with her chin against her palm. Her eyes were unfocused, indicating deep thought over unknown worries.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking up at Genji with furrowed brows. “I gave you the rewards for the bounty.”

“I’m here for a different reason. I noticed that you’re short on competent fighters. I know a way to attract more of them.”

“What are you after?” The queen’s eyes grew suspicious. “This isn’t like you. What do you have to gain from this?”

“I want one weapon for every three people you hire through this method.”

“Five,” the queen countered. “I don’t have many spare weapons right now.”

Genji faked a hesitant pause before reluctantly agreeing. “If that’s the best you can do… Here’s the method.” Genji handed over a paragraph he had previously drafted.

The queen read the note and unimpressively asked, “That’s it?”

“Yes, believe it or not, it will work. You just need to send out this message and people will come to the recruitment.”

“If you say so.” The queen shrugged. “You’re the one losing out if this fails.”

“Trust me, I don’t make losing deals.” Genji walked out, and the queen squinted at the door.

Although unclear, she suspected there was more to the proposition than Genji was letting on. But she allowed it anyway since the deal wasn’t detrimental to her. After stowing away the page, she exited the room and headed down to the basement.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall. Tell me who is the fairest of them all.”

“My queen, although your looks are praiseworthy, Snow White remains the undisputed winner.”

Hearing this, the queen’s emotions boiled over, and her face twisted with obsession. “WHY?! WHY IS THAT BITCH STILL ALIVE?! CAN’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?! WHY DO YOU KEEP TORMENTING ME?!”

She threw her lamp at the wall and stomped on it. Meanwhile, Genji listened to the commotion from the hallway outside, wondering what could have gotten the queen so worked up.

 

---

 

To my daring explorers and world roamers, I officially invite you to partake in a rare opportunity I've discovered. The rewards and risks are great, but I know many who are undeterred and would appreciate the prospect. If this interests you, please meet the "Advisors of Sagas" in the Castle's recruitment hall. He will fill you in on the details of this job.

This notice was posted on various announcement boards the following morning. At a glance, it seemed like an unappealing recruitment pitch, but realm members knew better.

By pairing several keywords in the passage and applying some critical thinking, readers could easily reach a certain conclusion: someone had found a high source of income but couldn't resolve it alone. Thus, the person chose to publicize it and seek cooperation with others—at least, that was the cover Genji was going for.

It was unknown how many would join this pitch, but it didn’t hurt to try. Genji arrived early at the specified location and sat in the corner with a nameplate in front of him. The others gave him strange looks since it was unusual for Genji to be so diligent.

“Hey, that’s new,” the lumberjack said with a wide grin. “For a moment, I thought you would ditch us and slack off the whole day.”

“I could do that, but I have an incentive to be here today. Let’s just say I made a deal with the queen,” Genji replied.

“You and your deals. Why are you always thinking of these things anyway?” The lumberjack then picked up his wooden nameplate. “What’s this? Your new name? It sounds cringy. Advisor of Sagas. What kind of title is that? Do you tell people how to write stories or something?”

“Don’t worry about it. I have my reasons. Now I would appreciate it if you put down my thing and stop blocking the way.” Genji met the lumberjack’s gaze indifferently and held it confrontationally.

The lumberjack clicked his tongue and stepped back. “Tsk, you’re no fun. Always so annoying outside of battle. It’s like you’re trying to be unlikable.”

Genji said nothing, and the lumberjack eventually left him alone. Genji noticed hoodie guy and Lynn giving him second looks, particularly at the nameplate he chose, but they kept to themselves. They whispered about something, though the exact contents couldn’t be deciphered.

This situation lasted a few minutes before they received their first visitor. The person looked around the room until his eyes settled on Genji’s desk, at which point he immediately strode toward him.

“I heard that you have the information?” he asked, treating Genji more like a messenger than a realm member.

“Yes. I’ll say it after we get a few more people. There’s no point in repeating it multiple times when we need a big team.”

The person nodded in satisfaction and sat down beside him. Over the next hour, more people trickled in, all of whom joined the waiting crowd. None of the newcomers approached the others, creating a somewhat awkward scene as they sat with nothing to do.

When the hour ended and the room reached half capacity, Genji stood up and pulled out a scarlet card. With a thought, the card ignited with transparent flames and dissolved into wisps of smoke that enveloped the participants. Everyone’s eyes widened with surprise, but they refrained from taking any action.

["Advisor of Sagas" has offered you the quest: Raiding the Giants]

[Raiding the Giants]

Description: Cainance, a powerful warrior, seeks to attack the giants and needs some helpers. There are no obligations if you choose to join this quest. The only request is that you don’t sabotage the others if you choose to leave. Any rewards you pick up along the way are yours to keep. Cainance won’t fight you over any of them.

Part: 1/2

Requirements: Arrive at the giant beanstalk within 5 days. (Map is attached)

Note: If you choose not to participate, you can disregard the provided information.

 

The realm members in the group received this notification, while the natives who came out of curiosity suddenly found the information inside their heads.

This was the same method Bechel from Primordial Echoes had used to grant Genji the "grandson saving" quest. Genji had adopted the method after some experimentation and consulting EverRealm. But while the trick was interesting, it didn’t garner much attention.

The biggest factor was that the provided quest was completely optional. There was no guarantee that the receiver would help out. At best, it was a convenient but wasteful way of exchanging information. The issuer might offer rewards to make the request more tempting, but there were no penalties for ignoring it.

Only the natives, who had no access to the realm interface, would use such a method, as realm members had inter-realm contracts and other, more suitable ways to form alliances.

Some of the natives were slightly interested in the method, but they were more occupied with the information in their heads. As such, no one mentioned anything about the burnt scarlet card.

“If you're done, please leave. I still need to tend to the people after you. Unless, of course, you want to join the castle units as well,” Genji said after a few seconds.

The room slowly emptied, leaving a few realm members behind. These members approached him and asked, "Who's behind you? And don't play dumb. I know someone entrusted you with this. Why did they send you instead of coming themselves?" Up to this point, they still thought Genji was a native, not a fellow explorer.

“I can’t say. One of the conditions was that I wouldn’t mention her,” Genji said, casually dropping a red herring. “Just know that she’ll join the event as well.”

“Her?” They latched onto the clue and inwardly raised their alertness. The way this session had played out made them suspicious. After all, most people who hide behind the scenes are schemers. Who knows what kind of trap they might fall into? Maybe they wouldn’t even have recognizable bodies by the end.

“In that case, we’ll discuss this with our teams.” They stopped pressing for answers and left, all while trying to recall any notable female figures from SagaRealm.

Genji used five more scarlet cards before the recruitment session officially ended for the day. He cleaned up his station and headed out, with hoodie guy following closely behind.

They walked to a remote corner, where hoodie guy confronted him about his doubts. "You’re a realm member, aren’t you?" Though posed as a question, his tone was confident, like a detective who had solved a difficult case.

“Yes,” Genji readily admitted. There was no point in hiding it anymore. He’d practically flaunted his status during the event.

“What game are you playing? I know for certain you’re not from SagaRealm. You don’t use real information for a throwaway disguise.”

“Does it matter?” Genji asked. “It’s not going to affect you anyway. Why don’t we go our own ways and pretend none of this happened? Or would you rather have me reveal your plans to the queen?”

Hoodie guy narrowed his eyes, wondering how much Genji knew. It couldn’t be that much, right? They had been pretty secretive about their preparations, but he didn’t want to take any risks. “Fine. To each their own,” he relented before walking away.

‘So they also have ulterior motives,’ Genji thought to himself. ‘I wonder what they’re after.’

Just as hoodie guy had suspicions about Genji, Genji also had doubts about their team. After all, they had taken more risks than necessary during their last expedition. You would think they’d retreat after a teammate’s death, but they had insisted on confronting more dangers. It was hard not to be suspicious. One doesn’t take so many risks without something to gain.

Genji shelved these thoughts and walked back to his room. Along the way, he smelled an acrid odor drifting from the basement stairs and followed it to its source. His nose twitched a few times as he broke down the components of the scent.

'Three portions bitter root, two portions mandala flower, eight drops of magical snake venom, faint traces of acid metal, and at least two grams of Cyprus gel. All poisonous ingredients. What is she making down there?'

Genji stepped into the stairway, purposely letting his footsteps echo to announce his presence. He followed the smell to a room ventilated with air magic. At the center, the queen stood, hunched over a large bubbling cauldron of green liquid. She stirred the concoction with a metal ladle, occasionally scooping some up to check the viscosity.

“Don’t you know it’s dangerous to brew toxic materials in an enclosed space? You could seriously poison yourself or, even worse, get high off it,” Genji lightly joked.

“I can’t do this anywhere else,” the queen replied, glancing upward and revealing bloodshot eyes. “This needs to stay a secret from my knights.”

“So who crossed you this time? You don’t seem like the type to get personally involved.”

“That’s because most aren’t worth my time. But this time is different. She needs to DIE!” The queen’s breathing grew ragged, and her arms trembled as she gripped the ladle tighter.

“I assume you want me to handle this alone?”

“No. This time, we’re going together. I won’t rest until I see her dead with my own two eyes.” The concoction had now reduced to a small puddle, and the queen dropped a fresh apple into it after cutting the heat. The fruit rolled around in the cauldron, absorbing the poison and becoming more succulent.

Finally, the queen put on gloves and pulled out the most perfect apple imaginable. Her eyes gleamed with madness, and her lips curled into a crooked grin of malice.

“Sure,” Genji agreed. “But you’ll have to pay the bounty ahead of time. I don’t want to get involved in your affairs any more than I have to.”

In her obsessiveness, the queen agreed without hesitation. “Can you leave tomorrow?”

“Push it off another day. I want to finish my recruitment sessions first.”

“What’s the point? You won’t get anyone, judging by today’s results.”

“I want to try anyway,” Genji replied firmly.

The queen brushed him off, and they agreed on a location to meet after dark. Genji returned to his room, and soon the morning was upon him. He distributed the information using seven more scarlet cards before sneaking out of the castle.

Trudging between alleyways and shadows, Genji soon reached a dimly lit stand. The queen, now dressed in black robes, stood waiting for him. Without a word, she led him through more twisting passageways until they arrived at the Tooth Fairy’s shop.

Bright lantern lights illuminated the ground outside, inviting shady dealers into its midst. They entered, and several customers in similar attire came into view, exchanging suspiciously bloody molars for the fairy’s wares.

The queen waited on the side until the shop was empty before approaching the Tooth Fairy. In a raspy voice, she said, “I need something to change my appearance and make people believe me unconditionally.”

The fairy assessed the queen’s figure and reached under the counter, pulling out a tin can containing a thick, silver cream. “Morphing cream. Smear it on your face, imagine what you want to look like, and pour mana into it. You’ll see results after five minutes. When you’re done, wash your face with 30% coarse dirt and 70% water. It’ll come right off without leaving a trace.”

The fairy set the cream down and grabbed a bottle from a shelf behind her. “This is a potion of persuasiveness. Drink it 15 minutes before talking to your target, and they’ll consider anything you say. It lasts for one hour, including the warmup time. I’ll sell you both for 600 teeth.”

The queen pulled out a coarse pouch, which jostled loudly with each shake. The fairy took it, poured some teeth onto her palm for inspection, and roughly weighed the bag. “782,” she said after a few moments.

“Then give me some anti-detection powder,” the queen added.

The fairy nodded, satisfied, and went to the back of the shop to fetch the goods. A few dozen seconds later, she returned with a pouch of powder. “Anything else I can get for you? Your total comes to 660 after this.”

“No. I’ll take my leave now.”

The fairy returned the excess teeth and then turned to Genji, silently asking if he wanted to make a purchase. He shook his head, indicating he would return another time.

“Okay. I wish you luck in your endeavors, whatever they might be. Hopefully, you’ll bring me more teeth to play with.”

They said nothing and slipped out of the shop, returning into the darkness like fish in water. They bypassed the night patrol and approached the boundary.

“So? Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Genji asked as they neared the edge.

“West of here by 300 kilometers. It should only take six zones, but we need to traverse them in a specific way. The location is remote and obscured by strong magic.”

“That’s oddly specific. Mind if I ask where you got this information?”

The queen’s silence acted as her answer.

Genji dismissed the question and changed the topic. “Fine, I won’t ask. Let’s get this journey started.”

The queen nodded, and they stepped through the boundary.