37 – The Dwarf’s Dream Girl Just Pulled Me… Is This Romance?
Still hanging near the window, Crow stared back and interrupted him. “Is this where the party’s at?”
The assassin, wrapped in a dark gray cloak, wore a look of utter confusion as he tried to process the situation. He quickly reached under his cloak, but as he took out a dagger, Crow grabbed him by the collar and pulled him. The guy tried to resist, smashing his forehead straight into the left side of the window frame. The glass exploded into pieces, and a stray shard flew into Crow’s face, barely missing his eyes. The man tumbled backward into the foul-smelling room.
Man, lucky for me most Rogues are squishy, and this one was way too slow, to boot.
Crow pulled himself up and stepped inside. “Cough...” He covered his nose immediately.
Man, it smells like rotting fish in here. How was this guy even conscious? Ah, now it makes sense why his reaction time was so slow; his brain was probably starved of oxygen.
He checked his surroundings to make sure no one was around, then bent down to grab the fallen man's cloak. But as his hand drew near, he pulled back.
No way. This thing is way too filthy; I'm getting out of this room.
Crow slipped quickly through the open door and looked at the hallway. It was empty. The walls seemed to be made of painted brick, and the furniture was well-kept wood. He moved ahead until the air finally began to clear.
Alright, what was I here to do again? Right, right... lack of oxygen really messes with your head. If I were hiding someone in this guild, where would I put them? Hmm... beats me. I'm no kidnapper. Better just interrogate someone. I'll wait at the bottom of the stairs; that way I can watch the area without being seen and grab the first person who gets isolated near me.
"She's pretty cute, isn't she? Her face... ah, she's gorgeous. I really want her..." a dwarf in a black cloak said with a mournful tone.
"Pretty, very pretty... shame she bites," an average-sized man replied. "Honestly, I feel like the guy didn't pay us enough to keep her in our special room."
The dwarf grunted, looking uneasy. "Yeah, I think so too. A vampire would never come to this city alone. Imagine if her allies find out."
The other man shrugged it off. "Nah, you weren't there, so you wouldn't know what he told us, but it's not a problem. Relax. Besides, who'd be crazy enough to break into our guild? Even the paladins stay away."
Their voices stopped when they parted ways.
Special room... The dwarf is coming this way. I'll wait behind this curtain.
The dwarf's voice was getting closer. "Tony? I can see your foot, man. Why do you always do that? Wait, that foot's too big—"
The dwarf was caught off guard as Crow grabbed him by the throat with one hand and lifted him up. Clamping his other hand over the dwarf’s mouth, Crow whispered, "Shh... You're pretty light. What are you, eighty pounds? Ah, right, you can't talk."
The dwarf thrashed, punching Crow's arm; sadly for him, it didn’t do much. He then tried to swing at his face, but couldn't reach it either.
Crow glanced around the hallway to see if anyone was watching, then tightened his grip and whispered, "Point toward the special room. Better do it fast before you pass out from lack of air."
The dwarf's arms dropped limp, his right hand weakly pointing down the hall.
"Make a sound and I'll break your neck instantly. You'll just nod to confirm if I'm heading the right way. Make one wrong move and... well, you know the rest." Crow let go, dropping the dwarf onto his back. The dwarf hit the ground, gasping greedily for air.
Crow gestured with his head. "Lead the way. If you run, you die. Take me to that special room. If anyone shows up and gets suspicious, you die as well."
The dwarf didn't flinch. Instead, he started making strange head movements, a series of frantic nods, twisting left and right between each one... Creepy.
Right, this guy just glitched out of fear, probably, but that doesn't matter. They think the paladins don't invade this place out of fear, but the truth is they don't even know about this guild's real activities at this point in the story. There are countless conflicts happening simultaneously that are infinitely worse than this place. The rogues here are all weak; there are what, maybe five at most who are problematic? Since in the lore they train a lot before reaching the specific quest, I can assume they must have about ten times the strength of this dwarf, so it's fine.
They walked a bit, and two men in gray cloaks appeared, getting close to the dwarf and Crow. One of them passed close by, looked at him, and said, "I can't believe we have to put up with this every single day. What an unbearable fart stench, man, get away from me, this is crazy..."
Crow just walked straight past and kept following the dwarf. The guys didn't even suspect a thing for some reason.
This doesn’t make sense and is suspicious... OH, I get it, they think I'm one of the guys who was in that room and I took off my cloak because of the smell. And it makes sense; I was going to grab the guy's cloak in the room, but it was unbearable so I didn't.
After passing through a gate, which had no one guarding it, they found a spiral staircase.
I recognize these stairs. In medieval war simulation games, I remember some of my castles having them; they were designed so that when the invaders drew their swords, they couldn't attack the person above them because the sword would hit the stone wall on the right—
The dwarf stopped climbing the stairs, turned around quickly, and thrust a dagger at Crow's stomach while shouting, "DO YOU THINK I'M DUMB!?"
Soundlessly, Crow simply grabbed the dwarf's hand, stopping the piercing attack. Upon realizing this, the dwarf gasped, “What?” then he twisted his wrist and tried to slash Crow's wrist, all while using the side of the staircase to prevent Crow from using his other hand against him, with only a little over half of his body exposed.
Crack.
Crow didn't need much effort. He crushed the hand holding the knife, and while still holding it, he slammed it hard into the face of the dwarf, who fell onto the stairs and passed out.
Right, I knew this could happen when I saw these stairs, but the question is, does this lead to the special room or not? Well, they did come from this direction earlier, so there's a chance it does... And since it's a different room, and they were also paid to hold the vampire, who I assume is Sharon, this staircase is undoubtedly a defense system—
"Did you like that? Did you think it was just him?" a voice behind Crow said, after stabbing him in the back with a dagger without making a sound.
[DANGER!]
[POISON DETECTED!]
Right... this time I admit, I slipped up. I should have kept looking back while climbing the stairs every few seconds.
He spun around, and as he did, the blade tore further into his body. It managed to cut into a small section of flesh just above his waist on the left side, where the sword wasn't covering his back.
Slash!
As Crow spun his body, he swung and delivered a heavy slap directly to the Rogue's face. The Rogue hit his head against the wall and grew dizzy, but in that split second, he managed to land another strike to Crow's stomach, trying to slice it open in one hit, which failed due to Crow's high CON stat. Immediately after, Crow grabbed the guy by the throat while his other hand pinned the Rogue’s dagger hand.
"Right, that wasn't cool... so here's the deal; I didn't want to kill anyone here so I wouldn't mess up the canonical event where you guys get in the Hero's way... but my patience has limits."
The man who had been lifted off the steps, with his dagger already on the floor and now using both hands to try to loosen the grip on his neck, whispered, "S-story? Hero? L-let me go... I, I..."
Crow loosened his grip a little so the guy could breathe and asked, "Is the special room up these stairs or not?"
"I-it is, if you go up you will find the special roo—"
Crack.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[New Passive Skill Acquired!]
[Poison Resistance Level 1]
Description: After being seriously poisoned for the 4th time in your life, your body began to develop a slight resistance to poison.
This is bad…
Crow fell to his knees on the stairs near the dwarf. He picked up the dagger on the floor, the one belonging to the man who had stabbed him, slid it through his belt, and then placed both hands around the dwarf's neck.
Where is my Strength?
Crack.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[New Passive Skill Acquired!]
[NeckBreaker Level 1]
Description: When trying to break a neck, somehow it is 10% easier.
I need… some antidote.
He ripped off the dwarf's cloak, stood up, and tried to improvise a bandage with it while he kept climbing the stairs.
[To think that after taking this much deadly poison you're still alive and kept climbing the stairs… In my time, we called a warrior who could do this an Aura Monster. You know, for using Aura… You can use it, right? Or are we cooked?]
Aura? What is that?
[We're cooked. I'll see what I can do about it, but the best way was to use Aura. Being a warrior without Aura is certain death; you can't rely on pure strength forever…]
Right, now the situation has worsened to an impossible level to deal with.
He looked at the dagger and focused on analyzing it while trying to stop the bleeding from his stomach.
[Status]
Magical Dagger.
Description: It has magical power imbued in it, and some poison from snakes, scorpions, and other unknown sources.
Great…
[Deadly Poison progressing to Stage 2]
[DANGER!]
[Deadly Poison stat check...]
[Target CON stat too high]
[Deadly Poison stat check failed]
At least it’s not getting worse; one way or another, going back injured is bad. My only way out of this now is to rescue her and maybe break a window and leave. Man, this is game over; I made the wrong decision. Maybe I should have... ah, I don't know, it's too late now; the only option is to just keep moving forward.
He continued going up, but this time he would occasionally stop to check if anyone was climbing up behind him. After a short while, he reached the upper floor.
No guards... it's "too good" to be true.
"Cough..." He kept going straight toward the double doors. As he approached, he crouched down, keeping one hand on his stomach to hold back some of the bleeding; the wound on his back didn't bleed as much since it was just a puncture.
This cloak isn't enough; ah, how I wish I had a cleric. Apparently there's no one in the room. I can even see something in the back, but I can't tell what it is. I don't feel any presence, but rogues aren't easy to spot. Man, if I told someone what I'm doing, they'd call me an idiot, risking myself this much for a woman. I won't lie and say I'm not doing this because I want her to live, but even if I didn't want to, going back injured means death; it's all or nothing now.
He pushed open the hall doors and walked in, leaving them open. As he drew closer, he saw a silhouette at the far end.
[Deadly Poison progressing to Stage 2]
[DANGER!]
[Deadly Poison stat check...]
[Target CON stat too high]
[Target in a weakened state]
[Deadly Poison stat check succe—]
[Target has Poison Resist Magic Active]
[…]
[Kid, I am using my magic power to slow down the progression of this poison… but I'm getting sleepy, sorry… we’re… cooked. To think someone is going to kidnap me again after this… Ah right, I forgot to tell you… somehow, you are the only person who can hear me, I found this out at that Grandma's base, who somehow got roasted there, crazy… Anyway… this seems to be a farewell… but I will use the last of my mana to keep the Information Magic active, since you seem to like it so much… so I was also going to tell you—]
Going to tell?
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[New Passive Skill Acquired!]
[Iron Will]
Descripti—
Thud!
Crow collapsed to the ground, his vision starting to fade.
It seems the bleeding and the poison are about to finish me off... if I survive this... I'm going to find a way to become immune to poison.
"You came... I confess I thought you wouldn't." A young woman's voice.
He got up from the ground, still unable to see clearly, only spotting a silhouette ahead. "Yeah, I came, but I slipped up at the last second... and got stabbed in the back... anyway, rogues, you know how it is—cough..."
[Level Up!]
[Pain Resistance Level 1 > 2]
Getting closer to her, he was able to see that her eyes were already healed, or at least that's what it looked like since everything was too blurry to be sure. "Did you see any exit? Honestly, I can't even think; it must be the poison..." Still speaking, he drew his sword and used it to cut the ropes binding her.
This stuff is really tough, but still, this holding her back feels so forced.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking... it doesn't make sense, right? Well, they used lavender among other things to poison me, they had some kind of needle... well, it doesn't matter anymore... Crow, are you okay? Your heartbeat sounds strange."
“Good question…” He freed her legs, and now moved to her hands, starting with the right one. She was sitting in a chair similar to a prisoner strapped into an electric chair for execution. "Can you... fight, Sharon? Honestly... I think I'm going to pass out in a few minutes..."
"Probably not... I have the strength of… no, probably half the strength of Sophia."
To think she said almost the exact same thing as Alice.
Crow started to laugh softly as he heard that. He had finished untying her right hand and moved to the left hand. "Cough... sorry." He ended up coughing up blood onto her. "Are you hurt? Honestly, I'm seeing everything blurry..."
She looked into his eyes, then lowered her head a little, her hair veiling her gaze. “...”
“Sharon?” He saw two gleaming points in the area of her mouth. Since everything was blurry, he didn't see her licking her lips where his blood had splashed when he coughed. He was almost done cutting the last rope made of some strange material, certainly anti-vampire when the yank came.
Hm?
Author's note:
Hi guys, thank you for reading!
Quick warning: if you're reading this on a pirate site, it was stolen from me. I write and share this story for free, but these sites are monetizing my work without permission. If they had at least translated it into Chinese, I would have just ignored it...
To get the best reading experience and support me with views, please check out the official release on NovelPhoenix and HFY (and soon on Royal Road). The scraped version you're reading here (Chinese website) is an old draft with formatting glitches that I included to confirm where it was being scraped from (To be honest it is bad, very bad, so now I think maybe I did something wrong, people might think I write that bad for real LOL), while the official sites have the fully edited chapters. To my readers on the official platforms, thank you so much for the love! <3