Show Me the Money

Chapter 109 – Returning to Black Tortoise City

The Phantasm Ghost Claw seemed to hold Fatty’s leg tightly no matter what Fatty said.

Fatty could only chuckle. This Phantasm Ghost Claw is oversimplifying everything way too much! It’s ignoring the fact of if I’m even capable of breaking open its seal. Even if I could, there’s no way it would trade its freedom for a single Holy Spirit Stone.

“Fine, I can help you, but only if you bring me a few hundred Holy Spirit Stones.” Fatty looked down at the Phantasm Ghost Claw

The claw shook its palm while clenching the end of Fatty’s trousers tightly.

“You can’t? Then never mind, I’ll go and get them myself. Go and look for someone else,” with that, Fatty ignored the Phantasm Ghost Claw and walked off. Honestly, if it wasn’t because the Phantasm Ghost Claw being way too strange and needing it to scatter the various monsters around him, Fatty definitely would have killed it off. The Phantasm Ghost King’s claw must drop at least a legendary item or something!

As Fatty walked out of the monster swarm, the Phantasm Ghost Claw continued to hang off his leg and refused to let go. No matter how Fatty tried to coax it off, it just wouldn’t let go!

The main thing I need to do right now is to get enough Holy Spirit Stones to turn in the mission. The monsters here are way too high level, it’s not a good idea to farm here. Vengeful Crypt Ghouls might be easy to kill, but they were dangerous. Just a bit of carelessness might send him back to town.

…

The Phantasm Ghost Claw stubbornly continued to hang off Fatty’s leg. However, Fatty ignored it and merely found a tombstone and started to dig.

Man, I really have to be thankful towards the Blacksmith in the Beginner’s Village. If it wasn’t for this Blacksmith’s Tool, I wouldn’t be able to dig all these things!

Like before, the moment he opened the tomb, he told Wheat to beat up the Vengeful Crypt Ghoul. However… it didn’t work this time. Moments after Fatty took a few steps back, the crypt ghoul shot out from the ground. It was holding a lance that easily pierced through Wheat, killing it.

Fatty gasped, then quickly retreated.

“This is a critically sealed location. All irrelevant personnel must leave, or they will be killed.”

The monster’s filthy stench of mud did not match with its awe-inspiring appearance. It donned a silvery white helmet and a heavy plate armor with delicate decorations. It also held two-meter long lance dripping with blood in its hand that was as thick as a lamppost.

That’s so not a Vengeful Crypt Ghoul. Fatty was surprised. He immediately used Appraisal. However, the one skill that had never failed him was unable to even reveal the monster’s name! Fortunately, Fatty did realize what he was facing. This must be a warrior of the dynasty who died in the battle and was buried here to watch over the sealed area.

“I am an adventurer from the Imperial Capital. I heard that the magical formation sealing the Phantasm Ghost King was damaged, so I came to investigate. Please forgive me for disturbing you,” Fatty answered loudly.

“So you’re an adventurer of the Imperial Capital. This one is Stalin, the general of the Tyrant Dragoon Cavalry Corps… Filthy spy, you dared to lie!?” The warrior took a glance at Fatty, then suddenly roared and charged.

Fatty looked down and felt furious. The forsaken Phantasm Ghost Claw was still clinging to his leg!

“It’s a misunderstanding!” Fatty danced around in a flustered manner. The warrior guarding the sealed place was incomparable to mob monsters like Vengeful Ghouls. Not only was it intelligent, but it also had high attack and high speed as well. Fatty could only jump up and down, side to side in order to dodge the incoming attacks. He tried to enter stealth several times, but it was seen through every single time.

“Misunderstand? Heh, you demon spy, you actually dared to call it a misunderstand when you have the damn claw along. Phantasm Ghost Claw, I let you get away last time, but let’s see where you’re going to run now!” Although Stalin said he was the general of a cavalry corps, he was still far faster than Fatty unmounted.

Not only did Fatty not have a chance to counterattack, he didn’t even have a chance to use a recall scroll. All that saved him from being turned into a beehive was Stalin was his agility.

“Misunderstand! It really is a misunderstanding! This one was really sent here by the Imperial Capital to check up on the magical formation. I have my orders right here!” With that, Fatty reached into his inventory to take something out.

“You really have your orders here?” Stalin stopped in his tracks and waited.

“Here,” Fatty chucked something out, then rocketed back.

Stalin was furious. It was no orders. Fatty had thrown him a crappy pelt from a monster!

“Die!” Stalin slammed his spear into the ground, causing him to ignite with a fiery fire. He’s a magical warrior!

“Haha, so long!” Yet, by the time Stalin responded, Fatty was already enough of a safe distance from him to get out of combat. The latter immediately took out his recall scroll and shattered it.

Fatty’s body disappeared in a flash of white light just as Stalin threw his spear, narrowing missing Fatty before impaling itself at where Fatty stood and creating a huge crater on the ground.

“Tch, you got lucky,” Stalin retrieved his lance with a curse. Then, he leaped back into his grave.

The ground seemed to close itself once again and the slanted tombstone returned to its former position. Everything was back to normal.

…

Fatty let out a sigh of relief when he appeared at the teleportation portal outside of the Imperial Capital. Thank god I was able to run fast. Those dead warriors are so damn strong, just a random one nearly instakilled me!

Fatty looked down at his leg and saw that the Phantasm Ghost Claw actually managed to return with him. It was still clinging onto him as if its “life” depended on it.

Fatty shuddered. If one of the patrolling soldiers around here sees it, then I’m so dead!

Thus, Fatty grabbed the Phantasm Ghost Claw off his leg. The claw also acted strangely cooperatively as if it knew that it was no longer on its turf.

“Did you know that you nearly got me killed!?” Fatty hung the Phantasm Ghost Claw in front of him and roared.

The Phantasm Ghost Claw shriveled its fingers and did not move.

“Is there something wrong with you!? Why the heck did you bring me in there!? Look at what I’m capable of! Any random guard can kill me. You want me to break the seal? What the f*ck!?” Fatty continued to roar.

The Phantasm Ghost Claw did not do anything except shrink, then finally wrapped itself into a fist as if it was saying “do what you want, I’m not moving”.

After a while, Fatty finally cursed enough to vent his anger. He chucked the Phantasm Ghost Claw into the air, then sent it flying with a kick like a soccer ball. That thing was clearly trouble, Fatty felt like he was so going to end up dying if anyone saw him with it.

As the Phantasm Ghost Claw rolled away, Fatty completely disregarded it and sprinted towards where Gaia was waiting. Since I’m back, I should turn in the mission first.

…

“What? The magical formation sealing the Phantasm Ghost King is wearing away? You saved the patrol squad Hamlet led? Good. Very good. I wasn’t wrong about you,” Gaia was shocked when he heard Fatty’s words, but that feeling quickly turned into happiness. “Here’s your reward.”

Ding.

System Notification: Congratulations. You have completed the mission “Investigate the Ancient Battlefield”. +500000 EXP, +300 Reputation.

“Alright, I should head back and report in. You should work hard in strengthening yourself as well. The world is in chaos right now, we might have a chance to fight together in the future,” Gaia said before leaping away into the forest.

“Ahhh, Holy Spirit Stone!” Fatty took out the Holy Spirit Stone and fidgeted around with it. He already understood that it was almost impossible for him to get around the Ancient Battlefield right now. The only thing he could do was go back and complete his class enhancement mission first.

Just as Fatty was about to leave, a very familiar being appeared. It crawled in front of Fatty and dangled itself off a branch.

“You still dare to come? I’ll kill you!” Fatty threatened.

The Phantasm Ghost Claw clung onto the branch and ignored Fatty. Fatty disregarded it and took out his recall scroll. He was going to use it to teleport to the nearest city, the Imperial Capital, then teleport back to Black Tortoise City.

The instant Fatty was about to teleport, the Phantasm Ghost Claw let go of the branch and dove.

“Seriously, are you done? Do you really think that Lord Fatty has a good temper?” Fatty really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he saw the Phantasm Ghost Claw stick to him. But I suppose it’s a pretty fun creature.

The Phantasm Ghost Claw responded by grabbing Fatty’s clothes tightly and refusing to let go.

Normally speaking, recall scrolls would only affect the player. But for some reason, the Phantasm Ghost Claw actually teleported along with Fatty again!

When he noticed how determined it acted, Fatty ignored it. After all, it wasn’t actually strong and he could kill it whenever he wants.

When he got to the Imperial City’s teleportation portal, he activated the teleportation token and returned to Black Tortoise City in a flash of white light.

Being alone in the wilds really did not prepare him for the liveliness he saw when he returned to the Black Tortoise City. He had to shake his head a few times in order to clear his head.

Meanwhile, the Phantasm Ghost Claw dove into Fatty’s clothes the moment they teleported. Perhaps because it had been alone in the Ancient Battlefield for several thousand years, it was no longer used to a scene with so many people. Fatty could distinctively feel it tremble in fear.

He patted the claw then walked out of the teleportation portal. Since the teleportation portal to the Imperial City was unable to be used by the majority of the player base right now, a person walking out attracted a lot of attention.

“Who’s that? How did he teleport here from the Imperial Capital?”

“I’ve got no clue. Maybe he has some sort of treasure that lets him do so?”

As the crowd whispered amongst themselves, the eyes of the players who realized that Fatty must have had an item to let him teleport shone brightly and hoped that he would leave the city as quick as possible.

At that moment, the sound of horse hooves rang out. The crowd scattered revealing a squad of NPC cavalry who stopped in front of Fatty.

“Money Grubber, the City Lord wants to see you. Come with me,” the knight on the horse said expressionlessly.