A Reincarnated Demon’s Life of Wonder
[Arc 5] Chapter 3-3: Treasures Among Us

"Well, what can I say? Welcome to Old Bervaudan, I guess?" - Alf

Old is the right word for it. This place is the dumps! Think about a classic ghost town from a Wild West story, add some harbor-related stuff to replace the "West"-parts, and voila. You have the Old Bervaudan town in a nutshell. 

"I've seen better places in my nightmares! And I'm a fan of Lovecraft!" - Ciara

Now I'm starting to wish I could stay with Polaris back at the town's entrance. 

"Lovecraft? Why, I didn't know you favored such good reading!" - Alf

"Huh? When did you get into cosmic horrors, Alf?" - Ciara

"Th-that's not what-, I mean, let's go and find that cat already!" - Alf

What's up with him? Whatever. We need to find this..."Pollo"? Or was it "Pollen"? Whatever his name was, we need to find this old friend from Velantas ASAP. 

"Tell me, Alf," I started as we walked past the torn buildings, "why did this Pollo-guy decide to visit Bervaudan?"

"How should I know? All I've heard is that he has hired a group of adventurers to help him look for something here in the old town and went missing the last few days." - Alf

"Hmm~. Who were the adventurers?" - Ciara

"That's a good question. They were a colorful group, supposedly. They had humans, elves, a goblin, and even a crow walking on two feet. No idea about their identities. Then again, who cares?" - Alf

"Eh? Aren't they-, WHAT THE-?!" - Ciara

Suddenly, when we turned a corner, we were greeted by a large river in the middle of the town. It looked like a giant worm had started digging out the city, taking houses and roads with it, and afterward, some Water God with a nasty sense of humor decided to fill out the canal with... Hold on, this..., this isn't water!!

"Is this gold?! All of this!?" - Ciara

This shine, it has to be gold! A river's worth of gold coins, right in the middle of no-man's land! Ya-hoo!

"Ciara, do NOT touch that gold!" - Alf

"Eh? Why not?" - Ciara

Alf didn't answer me and instead opted to pick up a piece of rotten plank from the ground and throw it towards the golden river. The moment it flew above the glittering cash, the gold started to pulsate as if it was alive before shooting up like tentacles, enveloping the piece of wood in no time flat, then dragging the junk into itself before turning calm again. 

"........." - Ciara

"As you can see, this is not real gold. It is a subspecies of a Gold Slime. Probably related to the Giant Slime, if 'Giant' is big enough to describe it." - Alf

"A 'Giant Coin Slime'? That's a new one..." - Ciara

Is it related to mimics? In any case, what a jerky ****ing ***hole of a monster...

"Who had the idea to create such an atrocity?" - Ciara

"*Cough*, the rumors say it was the brilli-, I mean, the mad minds of the Chaos Church who once had a branch open here in this city." - Alf

The Chaos Church? Did they live here before? If the Tower of the Demon King's Chaos lord is here, it wouldn't be surprising to see...? 

...Suspicious. Why was he about to say something along the lines of "brilliant"? And before, didn't he fail to remember the Cheerful Hunters? That party who is escorting that birdy named Gust? Garami is good friends with them, so even I've heard stories about them. They're even pen pals. There's no way a guy as responsible as Alf would forget that. 

Then again, he did say he had to visit the Chaos Tower. Maybe something there messed with his head a little. Just to be sure...

"Hey, Alf? After we're done here, mind if you help me with another artwork?" - Ciara

"Artwork?" - Alf

"Yeah. Like the one you helped me with before. The ones I paint now and then to gift to Baron Oshun." - Ciara

One that causes people to go crazy just by looking at it. Alf spearheaded the scolding group after I showed it to everyone the day before the team split up to our respective war zones. If this is the same "Alf" as the guy back then, he should blow a fuse right about...

"B-B-B-B-BARON OSHUN!?" - Alf

This reaction... Did my suspicion turn out to be for nothing?

"Why, you shouldn't need to ask! Assisting with a gift to one of the greater deities-! *Cough*, I mean, sure. Why not? One must always do one's uttermost to please the gods." - Alf...?

GUILTY! Er, I mean-.

"Ohohoho~. Alf, you jokster~. I'm so glad you're as willing as always~." - Ciara

"Helping one's guildmates is always a pleasure, maestro Ciara." - NOT Alf!!

Crap, too close! I almost blew my cover there to this poser! But that settles it! Somehow, Alf's also lost to the Tower Trials like the others! At least he's not available at the moment for some damn reason!! Or maybe nobody ever bit the dust and this guy(?) decided to trick me with nonsense? Even the Damavand could be alright for all I know. 

"Please~, you don't have to embarrass me~. But keep on with the praises. More, give me more!" - Ciara

All I can do now is maintain my poker face and try to score some more info from this guy. By the way...

"Ahahaha! Let's do that later. We have to find Mr. Pollen now." - Faker Alf

What is this guy's objective? Trap this Pollen character? Or do they want my Treasure?

"Do you have any clue where to look?" - Ciara

"Other than 'somewhere in this forgotten city'? Nope, nothing at all." - Poser Alf

If they wanted the Treasure, all they needed to do was put me on ice alongside the mafia group back at their hideout. Why do all the extra work of bringing me here? 

"Daaaamn it aaaaall. I hate looking for missing persons." - Ciara

"Oh? Can I assume that means you have experience in such quests?" - Counterfeit Alf

They even prepared that detailed operation plan for... Now that I think about it, 3 days to clear 3 Treasure Towers is sort of impossible, even if we manage to pick up allies on the way. 

"There were lots of such posted on the Adventurers' Union's quest board back in the port town in the east where I used to operate before joining the Voyagers." - Ciara

"Ah, makes sense. So, how well did they go?" - Knockoff Alf

We'd be too exhausted, both in stamina and equipment. We'd be killed if we tried to follow it. Therefore, the reason they brought me here would be...

"Not well. Over 80% of people missing in that town end up as drowned corpses." - Ciara

"That... My condolence, I guess?" - Bogus Alf

One idea would be that they really need help looking for this Pollen guy. As for why, I have no idea. He doesn't sound like such an important character. This leaves the most reasonable theory to be...

"Eh, no worries. Hey, should we check out that mansion? If we could get up to the roof, maybe we could scout for that Pollen fellow?" - Ciara

"That large one? It seems to be the former mayor's office. Good call, let's go with that." - Pretender Alf

Me. Or rather, my Treasure. They didn't try to attack me until now because of some reason, but their goal has to be me and this item. As for why they haven't done anything yet, the best bet is that they have an ambush ready somewhere...

"Just one problem. My poor weak wings can't get me up to the roof." - Ciara

"Damn, that's unfortunate." - Fraud Alf

"Not really. There could be an entrance to the roof somewhere on the top floor. Or just open up a window for me up there. I can reach it if I start from higher ground. Therefore, go and do some scouting for us." - Ciara

In that case, my best bet would be...

"Fine, fine. All for the ladies, I guess-." - Dummy Alf

"'Removal Cascade'!!" - Ciara

My best bet would be to strike with my ambush-, scratch that, sneak attack! The magic painting scroll that I'd been hiding behind my back released a deluge of glowing water toward the Alf lookalike, pushing them into the mayor's office before they could react. 

Of course, even I wouldn't "test the waters" with an OHKO move. What if it was Alf after all~? Therefore, I settled on "Removal Cascade", a magic spell that uses both Water and Ocean attributes. It has low attack power for the amount of H2O it produces, but its true value lies in how it can rip off any enhancements, debuffs, or whatever that is currently helping and/or tormenting the drowning target. Now, will a vampire appear from the mansion, or will something else...

"*Cough, cough, COUGH*-!!" - ???

Aaaaaand..., that's a woman's suffocating voice. I'd recognize that anywhere, especially after my many part-time gigs at the brothels. More importantly, it's not Alf's. 

"Time to fly!" - Ciara

I didn't even take the time to investigate who this deceiver was. The magic flood is sure to catch the attention of the faker's allies, the ones that should be lying in the ambush, so let's get the heck out of here!

As for where it is safe to run to, the answer is: nowhere!! The mansion is placed so it faces the river of death coins, with the path back to the town entrance being on its left, somewhere at the town's southeast side. If we had continued onward, we would have walked to the mansion's right, which is east-northeast. 

The common adventurer would think the way south would be the best option, as the ambush is more than likely located in the north. HOWEVER!! At the entrance is the wagon with Polaris, or should I say Fakaris? If the Alf here's a phony, then the bear's got to be of the same cloth. 

Then where should I go then? The answer is simple: west. Across the river. 

"*COUGH', g-GET HER!" - ???

Uh-oh. No more time to strategize. The female shouted out an order with her hoarse voice, so the ambushers should be coming soon. I took a running start and headed straight toward the river of deadly gold. A loud noise came from the northeastern path, but I couldn't turn to watch just yet. My speed would drop. 

The edge before the river was getting closer and closer. One step too much and I'd be swimming with the dollar bills. I was lying about my flying capabilities before. It's super easy for me to reach the top of the mansion, let alone get to the other side of the river. However, those coin tentacles would snatch me up before that happened. 

Therefore, time to start operation "High and Away"!

"'Water Geysie'!" - Ciara

Another magic scroll was taken out of my library and used on the spot. This one is an alternative to the Water Pillar spell, which generates a, well, pillar of water magic energy that constantly hurts you if you stay within the magic's area of effect. This spell, however, creates a blast of real water from underneath the spot, sending the target high into the air. Like me, right now.

THIS THING FREAKING HURTS!! However, my high RES and skills to resist Water damage saved my skin! I'm no Iron, but I'm confident in my defense if I have to face any Water-based magic attacks! 

And just as I planned (read: hoped), the momentum from my spring + the uplift from the geyser sent me flying high above the river of doom and toward the other side. Time to take to my wings for the last bit-!?

Here come the tentacles! Why couldn't it have been the naughty ones and not these hard, jaggy coin versions? No, that's not it. Even the naughty ones would be bad here. I need to get away from the fakers! 

Grr, I was hoping that the coins wouldn't care to extend for something this high in the air, but my anticipations were too naive. I dodged the first tentacle before starting a dogfight with the other ten-to-twenty ones using my Water Shot scrolls. Argh, I'm burning out too many scrolls here! At least the Shot scrolls are easy to replace, but still! 

To my luck, a few of the tentacles got blasted out of nowhere. Is that an ally? ...NOPE! It's my worst nightmare! A giant dragon made entirely of wiggling, tentacle-like flesh! It could easily be classified as an Outer One. Had I not been so used to those, my SAN points would have dropped to the negatives just by looking at it! 

The gross (even in my eyes) beast wasn't alone. Another strange, draconic being was alongside it. It looks like a weird mix of a dragon with additional horse traits. You could also call it a draconic pegasus. Whatever the case, it was made entirely out of rocks and dirt. Maybe it's some weird Golem? 

The energy blast from before had come out from a set of tentacles that had replicated a dragon's jaw, probably its idea of a Dragon Breath attack. Revi would be furious over this bad replica of a dragon's iconic move, but the attack power behind it was nothing to sneeze at.

I mean, those monsters? They're a little different, but their aura is close, if not the same, to the Treasure Guardian that the Irritation Lord defeated in the Darkness Tower. 

In other words... TWO TREASURE GUARDIANS ARE AFTER ME!! Luckily, they and the Golden River don't seem to be friends. The breath just now seemed to have been aimed at me originally, but the tentacle dragon had gotten too close to the coins, so they had attacked it, causing the beam to fall short of hitting me...? Wait, doesn't that mean I was this close to being evaporated? SCRAY!!

The tentacles seem to favor defeating the dragons rather than me at the moment. I mean, the beasts are closer to the river, not to mention stronger than little old me, so I would have favored them if I had been in the river's..., shoes? Whatever. Time to flee! 

After safely getting across the river, I dive-bombed to the ground and started fleeing into the streets, making sure I wasn't in clear sight of the dragons. I could hear a few buildings getting decimated behind me, but no looking back! Looking back = death! And I still haven't fulfilled my many erotic dreams yet! I'm not gonna die here! I swear it on Baron Oshun's name!!

...Speaking of which, why did that faker get so interested in the Baron? Hmm???

---

"Don! She got away from the Chaos jerks!" 

"Hmm... To trick one of the Chaos Church's Top 5, Ren Hoyoutei. So that is the 'femme fatale' of the Nightmare Voyagers... Not bad *grin*."

---

"...Ma'am, I have located a Voyager." 

"So sweet~. Should I prepare a cup of hot cocoa for them?"

"...I think they might like champagne more."

---

"Grumble! Can you see anything?!" 

"It's too far! But I think someone managed to get away from those Chaos Church dudes!"

"Friendlies?"

"No idea! But didn't Lester say-."

"I did, and yes, there is no doubt. The 7th Myth's Tower Treasure has been included in this city. I have triple-checked the sensor Artifacts."

"Sheesh. Doesn't that mean all 7 Myths have gathered in this Ghost Town?"

"You could say that again."

"No sour faces, boys! We got a lot of work to do if we wish to survive this heck of a 'Bervaudan Myths Battle Royal'!" 

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