adventurers in the sewers

"Louis, don't touch that corpse. It'll be troublesome if you trigger a trap."

Nora tugged at Louis from behind.

Louis withdrew his hand and carefully examined the corpse. It was a man who appeared to be around forty years old, but weighed well over three hundred pounds, which was seriously excessive.

He had a deep wound on his neck, cut open by a sharp weapon, with the flesh turned inside out. His throat was completely severed, and blood flowed all over his upper body, which had now dried.

Even after death, the person remained in the position of covering his neck with his hands, his eyes filled with terror and despair.

Apart from the fact that the body was relatively fresh and there was no sign of giants, it was a standard corpse.

But Louis still felt something was wrong.

"As a weapon shop merchant, even if this guy isn't the rumored professional, his forging skills shouldn't be bad. He should at least have some forging-related attributes."

"Could this guy be feigning death? Or is it simply decomposing slowly and has been dead for over seven days?"

As he pondered, Nora withdrew her eyeball from the chimney pipe and said:

"Since the person is already dead, let's investigate this ourselves."

"We can't leave a trace here. Even if we're not targeted by the murderer, it would be troublesome if the prosecutors or police were to target us."

Louis could only nod, keeping his doubts to himself, and walked out of the weapons shop.

Before leaving, he took one last careful look at the furnishings in the room, hoping to find some clues.

But apart from seeing a turtle living leisurely in a glass tank, we found nothing else.

As the door closed again, inside the dark room, the ordinary green-haired tortoise stretched its neck and looked outside, its eyes gleaming with an eerie light.

However, just a few seconds later, the door was pushed open again.

Nora pulled Louis back.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Now that that old swindler Griffin is dead, what's wrong with taking a few pieces of his equipment?"

"We still haven't settled the score with Hilen for almost strangling me back then, so we can use this equipment to pay off that debt."

"Besides, that old swindler Griffin didn't have many relatives. His adopted son was like a half-brother to me. Now that they're all dead, these inheritances should be mine."

bang-

The weapon shop door closed again. Nora's bright eyes scanned the dazzling array of equipment inside the shop, and she immediately spotted a mage robe with dark patterns.

"Louis, I want this."

Nora pointed to the mage's robe, which was hanging on the highest point in the shop, very conspicuous, but out of reach.

"Go find a clothes hanger around here and use it to hang that mage's robe down for me."

Louis was speechless.

What happened to necromancers being the group that most respects the dead?

Is this how much respect you show?

Seeing that Louis was still hesitating, Nora slowly said:

"I remember that the only decent piece of equipment Merry had was a staff she had taken from Remy, which made her very vulnerable to injury during her adventures in the wild."

"Louis, you wouldn't want Merry to get hurt just because you can't afford a robe, would you?"

Louis: "..."

Nora: "Even a cheap mage's robe costs several gold coins."

Louis immediately reached for a coat hook beside him and raised his hand, ready to snipe down all the wizards' robes in the shop.

Mr. Griffin, this is a necessary sacrifice to avenge you and Hillon one day...

However, just as the fork was about to touch the robe, a sharp "crack" suddenly came from the inner room, as if some porcelain or glass item had fallen to the ground.

The two men suddenly became alert. Louis drew the longsword he had obtained from Remy, while Nora pulled out a skeletal rifle from under her cloak and aimed it at the doorway leading to the inner room.

A few seconds later, a tortoise emerged from the inner room at breakneck speed, its face contorted with human-like rage.

"You two shameless robbers! How dare you steal from my shop! Pay up, both of you pay up!"

"The price of the amethyst robe is nine gold coins and fifteen silver coins, not a penny less! Not a penny less!"

The tortoise roared in fury.

Just by listening to the other person's words and tone, Louis quickly sketched in his mind the image of a greedy and mercenary arms dealer.

Without a doubt, this turtle is the Peter Griffin they are looking for.

It's unbelievable that he lives in the form of a tortoise.

Why do these superhumans have so many ways to save their lives?

Not only did Hillen escape near death, but he also transformed himself into an undead creature after death, while Griffin turned into a turtle. They were both incredibly long-lived.

That assassin named Lu An was really not professional enough.

I need to be more careful when I kill people in the future. After silencing them, I must finish them off with a blow, and make sure to shake the eggs in the enemy's house until they are rotten.

Nora glanced at the tortoise, her expression unchanged, and said:

"It's just a Griffin family tortoise. It's after me in the line of inheritance, Louis. You don't need to worry about it. Hurry up and take off your robes!"

The tortoise was nearly driven mad with rage and burst into a tirade:

"Nora, you little bastard! I am Griffin! I just transformed into a turtle using my druid shapeshifting ability!"

Nora calmly examined the tortoise and asked:

"Then why haven't you changed back?"

The turtle looked sullen.

"It takes seven days to undo the transformation, and I had to give up most of my fat to transform, which was very taxing. Otherwise, I wouldn't have only turned into a palm-sized turtle."

Louis raised an eyebrow. So that fat corpse was hollow?

What is this? A cicada shedding its shell? A partial transformation technique?

Nora was also somewhat surprised:

"You old shrewd businessman, you've got some skills. Just like the rumors say, you're a professional, and a rare druid at that."

Louis asked curiously:

"What was that glass tank used for before? Did you foresee this day coming?"

The tortoise seemed somewhat ashamed and turned its head away, saying:

"I used to have a goldfish named Klaus, but I got so hungry while waiting for my body to turn back that I ate it."

Well, even nature-loving druids need to make a living.

Louis silently grumbled to himself, then reached out and picked up the tortoise, placing it on the counter in the shop, and asked it:

"Mr. Griffin, let's get down to business first."

"Since you were assassinated, you must have guessed that Hillen is dead."

He recounted his and Nora's experiences in the sewers, revealing everything except for the fact that he had obtained the Hero's Codex.

"Would he choose to die as a human being at the last moment? That's certainly something he'd do."

"If he had grown up, he might have become a hero who would be remembered in history, but alas..."

The tortoise sighed and said:

"You're right, the person who tried to assassinate me was Lu An, and I know his identity very well."

Louis perked up; he had finally asked the right person, and he quickly listened attentively.

The tortoise slowly said:

"Luan is a name whose authenticity is unknown."

"Its owner is one of my major clients, a young and powerful assassin with at least a level one three-star skill."

"As far as I know, he is loyal to a nobleman in the kingdom and does dirty work for him, so he is not short of money and has been buying top-of-the-line assassination equipment from me."

"About a month ago, Shiren said he had become the fourth hero and needed to accomplish the great task of saving a thousand humans, so he went to Blackrock City to become an adventurer. After that, Ruan never visited my shop again."

"I originally thought Ruan was going to carry out the mission assigned to him by the nobles, but I never expected that his mission was to assassinate Hiren."

"It wasn't until six days ago, when Ruan suddenly appeared and interrogated me about whether I had seen Hiren, that I understood everything."

"I didn't say anything. After he slit my throat, I barely escaped using shapeshifting."