The desert wind and stinging sand cleared Harvey's dizzy head, and he realized he had been swindled.
"This doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't I be meeting my death right about now? How did I run into con artists at a time like this?"
Harvey couldn't figure it out, but he had no intention of letting those two crooks off the hook. How dare they interrupt him at such a critical moment, just as he was rushing toward his fated demise?
Meanwhile, Hastings and Hares were already holed up in an inn in Sweetdew City.
Shedding their disguises, they revealed their bizarre bodies constructed of clockwork machinery and liquid mercury.
"Heheheh, who would've thought we'd stumble into such a fat sheep? Now we've finally scraped together our travel expenses." Hastings's voice emanated from the mana power reactor in his chest, accompanied by a strange mechanical reverberation.
Hares, having dissolved entirely into a puddle of mercury, let out an emotional sigh. "Who knows how many days we've wasted? We haven't caught sight of a single paladin. Now we can finally cross the Death Line and track some down. But this money still isn't quite enough. We need to buy some gear in Sweetdew City so we don't get cleaved in two by a single strike from a paladin."
After Anbaixiu transformed the two of them into irregular undead, he had saddled them with an arduous mission: test whether these new bodies could withstand a paladin's Divine Smite.
Yet Anbaixiu had only handed down the command without sparing them a single gold coin.
When the two brothers returned to the surface, the war between the dwarves and Ryan had already drawn to a close, and the desert's Death Line had become the border separating the two nations.
Crossing the Death Line on foot was completely impossible; even a golem puppet's reinforced body would be ground to dust by the endless sandstorms.
They had gone to great lengths to discover that certain people offered smuggler services across the border—a trade locals referred to as "running the line."
In truth, it was a secret, specialized underground tunnel capable of bypassing the Death Line.
However, the figures who controlled this tunnel were far from easy to negotiate with; their asking price was a staggering ten thousand gold coins per person.
The brothers didn't possess a single coin between them. Relying solely on the fact that undead had no need for food or water, they had managed to hold out for this long. Where were they supposed to come up with that kind of money?
At first, Hastings had wanted to resort to brute force.
After all, they were no longer the frail wretches of their past. Hastings's golem puppet body was the newest model from the City of Alchemy, and combined with Hares's mercurial form, their strength easily matched that of high-tier adventurers.
Handling a few thugs involved in smuggling shouldn't have posed much difficulty.
Upon investigation, however, they discovered that the men negotiating prices were merely low-level goons who had no idea where the hidden tunnel was located. Only after the gold was handed over would the real mastermind show their face.
If the brothers acted rashly, they would only alert the snake in the grass, causing the true mastermind to go into hiding.
Left with no other choice, they had to return to their old trade—taking bounties and commissions in the tavern, while moonlighting as swindlers.
They had still been short a fair amount, never expecting to run into an easy mark like Harvey.
Over a thousand gold coins had landed right in their laps, bringing their funds up to the required total. Now, they were ready to smuggle themselves across to the other side of the desert at any moment.
"What sort of background does that kid have? Is he really a divination wizard?" Hastings asked Hares.
It was Hares who had pointed out the divination wizard to Hastings earlier, prompting their approach. If not for his brother's tip, Hastings wouldn't have even known such a profession existed.
Hares's liquid mercury body rippled slightly before he answered, "I only found out after serving Master. When that brat was gambling, he made several subtle somatic casting gestures identical to Master's—just like an apprentice mimicking his teacher. Only a divination wizard could win that kind of money at a gambling table."
The two brothers had dared to swindle Harvey despite knowing he was a divination wizard because the original scheme called for Hastings to lie while Hares told the truth.
Had Harvey chosen Hares, Hares genuinely intended to use the scale to complete the commission.
That scale had originally been handed over by Anbaixiu when turning in a quest at the tavern. Hares had waited until no one was looking, slipped into the tavern's storeroom as a thread of mercury, and stolen it back. Turning it in would have raised no suspicion whatsoever.
Hares's real trick lay in splitting the reward: he planned to invent every excuse under the sun to slash Harvey's share and claim the lion's share for himself. Pulling off that trick a few times would have been enough to raise their smuggling fee.
Yet Harvey had proven far easier to fool than anticipated. Without lifting a finger, they had pocketed the cash and walked away.
Now that their preparations were essentially complete, it was time to head into paladin territory and get hacked by a Divine Smite.
Hares's mercurial body surged, slithering over Hastings. Once they donned an oversized coat and a mask, the two of them passed as a single person. Ten thousand gold coins would be just enough for one passenger.
What neither brother expected was that the moment they stepped out of the inn, Harvey was standing by the entrance with a cold sneer, clearly having waited for some time.
Hastings acted as though he hadn't seen a thing, casually strolling right past him.
Seeing this, Harvey hurried to call out, "Hey! Is that any way for a con artist to treat a victim who comes knocking?"
Hastings feigned confusion. "Excuse me, friend, are you talking to me? I don't believe we've met."
Harvey's eyes widened in utter disbelief at the man's sheer shamelessness. He snapped furiously, "You cheated me out of over a thousand gold coins in that tavern, and now you pretend we don't know each other? You think I wouldn't recognize you just because you swapped your cloak and mask?"
Not in the least rattled, Hastings replied calmly, "Listen to yourself. The man you met was wearing a mask, and it wasn't the one I'm wearing now. How can you claim we're the same person? Did you ever see his face? Would you like me to lift this mask so you can inspect it?"
"You!"
To his shock, Harvey realized he couldn't out-argue this professional swindler. If his divination hadn't locked onto the man before him, he wouldn't have been certain they were one and the same—and right now, he possessed no hard evidence.
"Very well. I'm a busy man. If I happen to run into the crook you mentioned, I'll be sure to remind him to return your money. Farewell."
Hastings delivered the words with impeccable politeness, then moved past Harvey once more.
Harvey knew he couldn't beat a career fraudster with words alone. Thus, he chose to employ his own methods: a single Dice of Fate landed silently on Hastings.
A few seconds later, the sharp sound of tearing fabric tore through the air, followed by a loud rattle as gold coins began cascading from beneath Hastings's cloak onto the street.
Hastings hastily lunged to catch them. In his careless stride, the mechanical joints of his chassis had pinched the coin pouch, and a few paces had worn straight through the fabric.
Neither brother possessed a spacious dimensional pocket, leaving them with no choice but to haul ten thousand gold coins on their person.
Now that the cloth sack had burst, glittering gold coins scattered across the cobblestones.
Naturally, this drew a crowd of onlookers. A mob of pedestrians approached with predatory grins, offering enthusiastic shouts:
"Oh my, how careless! Here, let me help you pick them up!"
In the next instant, more than a dozen hands fell upon the coins. By the time those hands vanished, half of the spilled gold had vanished with them.
Hastings burned with fury, lunging to pin the thieves to the ground, but they had already scattered like smoke into the alleys.
Such was the rustic simplicity of Sweetdew City's local folk.
Gathering the remaining gold, Hastings discovered that what had been ten thousand coins was now barely over six thousand. Their smuggling fee was out of reach once more.
Enraged, Hastings seized Harvey by the collar, hoisting the young man clean into the air. "You're looking to die, aren't you!"
Harvey mimicked Hastings's earlier tone. "Excuse me, friend, what are you talking about? I'm just standing off to the side, doing nothing at all."
He had expected his retort to leave Hastings speechless, giving him a taste of his own medicine. What Harvey had never anticipated was the giant's response:
"Trying to play that game with me? You think I need evidence?"
With that, Hastings slammed a fist straight into Harvey's eye socket, swelling it shut instantly.
And that was with Hastings pulling his punch; otherwise, he could have easily smashed Harvey's skull to bits.
Harvey was dazed by the blow. How could a swindler's moral compass be this flexible? Cheating people whenever he could, yet throwing punches the moment he was crossed?!
Seething with rage, Harvey hurled another Dice of Fate at Hastings. Instantly, Hastings's body erupted in a series of grinding clicks, and several bolts rattled down from beneath his cloak.
The power of the Dice of Fate: wherever a malfunction was possible, it was guaranteed to occur.
Hastings's right arm seized up, jammed tight.
Yet as Harvey stared at the scattered bolts, he realized he wasn't facing a living human at all, but a golem puppet.
"Wait... you... couldn't have been sent by my master, could you?" Harvey asked.
Harvey had seen the aberrant skeletons Anbaixiu created and had glimpsed all manner of golem puppet materials in his workshop. He knew his teacher loved tinkering with such bizarre contrivances, though none of that was definitive proof.
It was Harvey's sheer intuition telling him this golem puppet had to be linked to his master.
Hastings lowered Harvey back to the ground and asked, "Master? Who's your master?"
Harvey blurted out, "The Lord of Elden!"
*Wham!*
Hastings's other fist was his only reply.
Grabbing Harvey by the shirt, both of whose eyes were now swollen purple, Hastings growled, "I don't know any damn Lord of Elden! You little brat, if you don't cough up for my losses today, don't even dream of walking away!"
Chapter 230