050: A New Discovery, and You Can Fool Anyone Else, But Not Me!

(1/3) Currently —
[Name: Richard]
[Profession: None]
[Level: 13 (9%)]
[Attack Power: 143]
[Assets: 19 gold, 26 silver, 18 copper coins]
[Junior Adventurer, MI6 Private Second Class, Basic Swordsmanship LV0 (32/100), Sword Weapon Mastery LV0 (40/100), Riding Mastery LV0 (17/100)]
......

Richard stretched, feeling refreshed and invigorated.
His three objectives for going out were: getting a promotion and a raise, reaping massive benefits, and incidentally resolving a minor grudge.
As for the first, whether it was bringing back the [Saint's Relic] or unmasking Harding the Bearded, Richard had played a significant role.
If that wasn't enough to boost his military rank by a level or half a level, someone must have stolen his graduation thesis and claimed it as their own.
Reaping benefits—
Richard had farmed the Saint's Relic until it literally cracked.
That wooden carving had originally been an inanimate object, but after it cracked, Richard felt the distorted pupils carved upon it looking at him with a hint of fear.
Upholding the traditional virtue of stopping while ahead, Richard let it off. While the level 13 gains weren't the absolute best, saying he wasted Doctor Richard's precious time would be completely false.
Finally, the minor grudge.
Harding was dead.
Killed by Richard's own hands.
And MI6 even had to reward him for it, which was deeply gratifying.
Not only that, Richard estimated that after Harding, there should be a few more pleasant surprises.
As for when those surprises would arrive—perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps the day after tomorrow. Whenever they came, they would surely bring joy.

"Oh right, and regarding the trial card."
During the battle with Harding, Richard had activated [Mary's Time].
The whole ordeal hadn't taken much effort.
However, comparing the gains from the end of both trial cards, the second one was clearly superior to the first.
"Trial cards, trial cards... you only reap greater rewards when you truly and personally experience them..."
This was Richard's new discovery, which definitely deserved a mental bookmark and highlighting.
He needed to remember that during this period, he had stockpiled quite a few time slots, such as [Freya's Time], in large quantities.
If he could comprehend some advanced sword techniques from Freya, Richard would be confident walking sideways against anyone below level 20.
However, "I wasn't riding anything, nor do I want to be any kind of knight, so why on earth did it add to my riding proficiency?"
Note to self: the drop mechanics of the trial cards required further exploration.
(1/3)

(2/3) Though having more skills never hurt, it wouldn't do Richard any good to grind jump-rope mastery to LV10.
Just then,
the bedroom door was pushed open, and Mary the tavern owner strode grandly inside.
By this time, Richard had finished washing up, but he was stark naked except for a pair of shorts.
Yet he felt no embarrassment, and neither did Mary.
Pulling up a chair, Mary sat right down, looked Richard up and down, and nodded. "It seems you've recovered pretty well."
Richard: "Heh."
Mary said, "You don't need to harbor any resentment. We're no different from you; we only got released after going through layers of interrogation and screening."
Richard shrugged.
He had submitted intelligence to MI6, risked his life to help secure the [Saint's Relic], been the first to face a traitorous assassination, saved everyone, and in the end, he got treated just like a criminal?
Mary said, "Falken has been suspended."
Hearing this, Richard put on his shirt while looking astonished. "What, was he a traitor too?"
Mary snapped irritably, "Having forty percent of a squad turn out to be problematic is already bad enough. Do you want us all to be traitors and get wiped out in one sweep?"
Richard: "Don't go slandering me, Madam Boss. No matter what, I'm still your savior."
Mary: "Precisely because you saved us, I didn't report you!"
"???"
Richard's head was full of question marks.
"Richard, you can fool others, but you can't fool me. Back then, it was Harding and Falken who dragged you back!"
Mary said word for word, "You cleansed all of us of the corruption, yet somehow Falken was the only one left with residual contamination. Are you going to tell me you didn't do that on purpose?"
Richard wore a question mark, another question mark, and a... gradually his expression returned to calm.
He said, "Yes."
Yes, of course he did.
Old Shock, Mary, and the others had taught Richard lessons on how to fight cults.
In a single sentence: Be careful, be careful, you must always be careful.
The will of an evil god was terrifying; even a tiny trace of contamination could trigger catastrophic consequences.
Therefore, when MI6 inspectors, investigators, knights, and others encountered contamination and tested positive for residue, the best-case scenario was suspension or retirement, and the worst-case scenario was lifelong imprisonment or simply "mysterious disappearance."
Out of the five members of the squad that secured the Saint's Relic, Harding was dead, leaving four survivors, all of whom had gazed directly at that statue.
So the first thing MI6 did upon bringing them back was: contamination testing.
As a result, Richard, Old Shock, and Mary turned out fine, but the dwarf Falken's test report wasn't quite so pristine.
Mary grabbed Richard by the collar. "It really was you! You're that petty? Falken was just doing his duty. If we're talking about grudges, mine with you is much bigger, so why did you still save me?!"
Richard: "Because you let me eat tofu."
"..."
(2/3)

(3/3) Mary threw a punch!
Easily dodged by Richard, who had been prepared in advance.
Mary was level 18, and Richard was level 13. Judging purely by level, the gap between them wasn't particularly huge.
Of course, that was only true for the level gap.
Richard had once asked Mary a question: among the MI6 inspection squad, who was the strongest?
Mary's answer was herself.
Even though Richard didn't understand why a level 18 Mary dared to claim she could steamroll beings 10 levels higher than her,
since the straightforward Mary had said so, it was at least seventy or eighty percent credible.
He immediately widened the distance between them. "You woman are completely unreasonable."
Mary: "How am I unreasonable?"
Richard ticked off reasons on his fingers for her. "Harding defecting to the Black Fog Church had nothing to do with me at all, right?"
Mary said, "That's true. He was the one who didn't want to remain human and wanted to drag us down with him. Harding deserved to die."
Richard: "And then you said Falken was just doing his duty when he targeted me. So, when I had the chance to let him die, I didn't do it—I just let him disappear from my sight."
Mary's face grew furious again: "You call that reasonable?"
"Well, what else?
Madam Boss, you surely don't think my prayer technique came without a price, do you?
Before solving the contamination issue, I had only used healing three times.
The first time was for the venom of the Shadow Serpent.
The second time was to heal Harding.
I suspect that time Harding did it on purpose, wanting to test my healing arts.
The last time was on myself.
If I hadn't used it then, I would have died."
What Richard described was his actual experience, which was also Mary's experience, without a single ounce of exaggeration.
"As for solving the Black Fog contamination,"
Richard continued, "There were four of us, in a specific order.
I put myself first, because I didn't want to die.
Mary, I put you second, because you... you treated me well.
Old Shock went third. Even though this guy is a show-off and loves to brag, I have to admit he takes good care of me.
So... is there really a problem with putting Falken last?"
(3/3)