Baron Morin's Treasure

Hand over the treasure?

Naturally, that was impossible.

If he handed it over, there was a 99% chance they would kill him to silence him. There was no doubt about that.

After a round of mutual acting, Rein and the old man agreed on the terms for stalling things out. Only then did Rein begin reciting the story he had prepared long ago. "Mr. Piscis, back then, I was in the sewers..."

But just as his fabricated tale was getting started, someone knocked on the iron door outside the medical room.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The iron door gave a dull thud, and someone outside shouted, "Mr. Piscis, Chief Quinn requests that you come over immediately. He has an important matter to discuss."

Piscis frowned when he heard that. "Understood."

With an outsider present, it was no longer appropriate to discuss such a secret.

Besides, the terms had already been settled. Baron Morin's secret would be his sooner or later, so there was no need to rush.

He glanced at Rein and said, "The toxins in your body haven't been completely cleared. You may still be in danger. Rest properly in the medical room. We'll talk when I return."

The toxins hadn't been cleared?

Yeah, right. As if I'd believe that.

Rein grumbled inwardly, but obediently replied, "All right, Mr. Piscis."

With that, the old man turned and left.

With a clanking sound, the medical room door was locked from the outside.

Rein looked at the sealed medical room. The excitement that had just been on his face slowly faded, and he muttered inwardly, The old man's afraid I'll run away.

This was a medical room reserved for the base's upper ranks. The steel plates around it could withstand artillery bombardment. As an ordinary person who had not even awakened as a Transcendent, escaping was simply impossible.

Now that he thought about it, it was no different from a prison cell.

Still, it was understandable. Rein pursed his lips and shrugged.

With nothing else to do, he began sorting through the spoils in his Folded Space.

One look left him overjoyed.

Only then did he finally understand why the higher-ups of the Weasel Bandit Group had taken such a huge risk to force their way into the city and assassinate Baron Morin.

It turned out Baron Morin had been hiding a world-shaking secret!

Baron Morin's real name was Sherwood Andre.

He had once been a scavenger from the enemy nation, the Xid Empire.

Rein found a diary among the relics and immediately understood the full story behind this assassination.

The origin of it all dated back to the scavenging expedition six years ago, when Baron Morin had obtained the "great secret."

The Warhammer Squad scavenging log read as follows:

"September 10, Steam Calendar 1123. The captain accepted a highly paid exploration mission from the Scavenger Guild. We are to investigate a canyon near the Dark Forest. It is said that traces of ancient ruins have been found nearby."

"14th. We encountered an extremely strange thick fog and lost our direction. Our gas masks have stopped working. One after another, the members began showing symptoms of poisoning. Everyone is terrified."

"15th. We have no idea where we are. Fog is everywhere. The members are falling one by one, poisoned to death. After analyzing blood samples from the corpses, I discovered that this fog contains more than one type of highly lethal unknown toxin."

"20th. Ninety percent of the members have already died from poisoning. If we cannot find a way out of the fog, I think we will all die here."

"26th. The Advanced Antidote Potions we brought have all been used up. Only the captain and I remain."

"..."

The first half of the diary was entirely normal.

It described a scavenger team exploring an unknown land, only to become lost in heavy fog.

This world of fog was already filled with countless dangers: magical beasts, wasteland behemoths, poisonous fog, scavengers. All of them were deadly threats.

Every day, countless scavenger gangs were wiped out in the wastelands.

For a group called the Warhammer Scavenger Gang to suffer such a fate was perfectly normal.

Morin had not died, and clearly there was more to his survival.

When Rein read the later entries, it was as though he had discovered a new continent. The more he read, the more astonished he became.

"27th. Before dying, we found a very strange wreckage of a steel Mechanical City in the valley. It had neither tracks nor wheels, and its equipment surpassed our understanding. Moreover, it seemed to have fallen from the sky, smashing a massive crater into the ground! Heavens, could there really be flying steam Mechanical Cities in this world? Unfortunately, the captain can no longer hold on."

"My consciousness is also beginning to blur. I seem to have found something in the wreckage that resembled an Antidote Potion. Instinctively, I injected it into my body. Perhaps... I am going to die too."

This world had no concept of flying machines whatsoever, but upon reading this, Rein roughly understood that they had encountered something like a Steam-powered Airship.

Yet he was also very surprised.

He had been transported to this other world for a year and had learned quite a lot.

Although this world's technological development had taken a strange path, producing miraculous steam-powered steel cities like these,

neither the Xid Empire nor the Oma Empire—the two great human empires within the fog—possessed any kind of flight technology.

Could there be unknown human nations with even more advanced civilizations elsewhere in this fog-shrouded world?

Clearly, the Steam Airship wreckage mentioned in the diary confirmed it.

This world was far larger than it appeared.

By this point in the diary, the handwriting had become incredibly messy.

It was as though the writer was gradually losing consciousness. The strokes were weak and crooked, and the final few lines had become completely distorted.

Had there been no further entries, this would likely have been his final testament.

Then, on the next page, the handwriting suddenly became vigorous and forceful again!

"I woke up. I'm alive! Heavens, blessed by the great Lord of Gray Fog, I actually broke through the second Gene Lock Chain! Oh, this feeling is so incredible. That potion was actually an advanced Gene Potion!"

"I can feel unprecedented power. I have never heard of a second-stage Gene Potion providing such an outrageous increase. Its effects are still fermenting, and I can feel terrifying boosts to my attributes. Heavens, what quality of Gene Potion is this?"

"Although I have never seen a Gold Quality Gene Potion, I am certain that the effects of the unknown potion I consumed far surpass those of a Golden Potion! Could it be the legendary Legendary Potion?"

"I heard terrifying sounds coming from within the wreckage, as if some monster was hidden inside. I did not dare go deeper to investigate. The poisonous fog around me suddenly became much denser as well. There may be a Fog Tide. I did not dare stay for long. After finding some treasures, I had no choice but to leave."

The adventure diary ended there.

Rein's gaze turned burning hot as he read this.

He suddenly felt that among the treasures in the Folded Space, there might be something truly extraordinary!

As for the assassination, that was the latter half of the story.

Baron Morin had a habit of keeping diaries.

After reading through several more journals, Rein easily pieced together what happened afterward.

Andre later escaped the fog alive and returned home with several relics of advanced civilization from the Airship Wreckage.

"Shandru was once my best friend."

The moment Rein saw those words, he could already predict the melodramatic sequel to come.

It turned out Andre had gone scavenging and spent years away from home. His beautiful wife had gotten together with his best friend.

After returning, he shared his secret with his wife, only to be betrayed by both her and his friend, who planned to murder him for his wealth.

Fortunately, he escaped.

Then, utterly disheartened, Andre came to the Oma Empire and changed his name to Morin.

He also donated a Gold Quality Gene Potion Recipe obtained from the airship in exchange for a baronial title.

"If you are reading my diary, it means I am already dead. The only people who know my secret are Sam and that bitch. They must have harmed me. If possible, I hope you can kill that adulterous pair for me. Of course, that is only because I have left you this treasure, one worth making the two great empires fight each other to the death over."

There was no more after that.

Rein closed the diary, his expression turning strange.

The assassination had been sudden, and there was no record of it in the diary. Yet Baron Morin had long anticipated that the only way his secret could have been exposed was through that adulterous pair.

"Perhaps that fellow named Shandru tracked down Andre's new identity, then hired the Weasel Bandit Group to murder him and seize the treasure?"

Rein considered it, then shook his head.

Judging by the diary, that adulterous pair definitely did not possess enough influence to find assassins across national borders, much less pay such a price to bribe a bandit group into infiltrating Blazing Steel Fortress and killing someone.

The most likely possibility was that they had sold the secret to some powerful and influential figure—or perhaps negotiated a partnership.

Then that powerful figure was the true mastermind who had hired the killers?!

After finishing the diary, the entire chain of events behind the assassination suddenly became clear.

"These treasures are a little too hot to handle. The person who hired those killers probably won't give up so easily."

Rein looked at the treasures in the space and suddenly felt that things had gone beyond his expectations.

A single unremarkable Gene Potion Recipe inside had been enough to earn a noble title. One could imagine how astonishing the value of Morin's trove truly was.

Moreover, it contained not only the treasures Baron Morin had brought out back then, but also a map leading to the Airship Wreckage!

According to the diary, the Airship Wreckage still contained countless undiscovered secrets.

Steam technology far beyond the Mechanist Guild's current cutting edge, advanced Transcendent knowledge, Cultivation Methods, and combat techniques.

If the diary was true, it was absolutely a world-shaking treasure that would make both great empires green with envy!

After carefully sorting through the labels and categories, Rein roughly understood what the bottles and jars among Morin's Relics contained.

Naturally, what he cared about most were the spoils that could immediately improve his combat strength!

For example, Gene Potions!

Only by breaking through the first Gene Lock and advancing into a Transcendent could he have a better chance of surviving in this cruel world.

Then Rein found what he wanted.

A Gene Potion for advancing into an Awakened.

Not only had he never seen it before—he had never even heard of it. It was an Excellent Gold Quality potion!

"This... is a real jackpot."

Rein looked at Morin's written description of the potion's effects as though he were holding a lottery ticket that had won the grand prize, his eyes trembling violently.

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