Job Quest: Perfect Doll

Chapter 9: Job Quest: Perfect Doll

When Linton walked into Linton Manor, he felt something was off.

It wasn't just that the surroundings were unnervingly quiet, but rather a premonition from his Necromancer instincts.

"Someone died here, not too long ago."

As Linton's murmured words were carried away by the wind, he suddenly sensed that in this area, there was one more undead he could summon.

"I can't possibly have the Conan constitution, can I?"

Walking into the manor with a troubled expression, Linton politely knocked on the door three times, his gaze sweeping over the main hall.

It looked like a brutal fight had taken place here. Broken plates were scattered everywhere, candlesticks lay on the ground, still stained with dark, brownish marks.

There were two people, a man and a woman.

The woman sat on the soiled carpet, covering her face and sobbing uncontrollably. The man was bent over behind a sofa, and upon seeing Linton, he shot up as if startled.

Sensing something was amiss, Linton frowned but had no intention of meddling.

He calmly asked, "Excuse me, is Mr. Linton here?"

Covai's heart pounded. He almost pointed to the corpse hidden behind the sofa on the floor and blurted out, "He is, he's right here."

Fortunately, a sudden movement aggravated his wound, and the pain yanked at his mouth, preventing him from actually speaking.

"Who are you? What do you need from Hom?"

Covai tried to regain control of the conversation to buy time and figure out Linton's identity. However, Linton clearly didn't want to engage in extensive conversation.

"Who I am is not important. I'm only here to retrieve something Mr. Linton was supposed to give us."

"But..."

"Waaaaah—"

Covai wanted to ask more questions, but Hailan beside him, for some reason, was crying more hysterically.

"My daughter, Iris. Iris..."

His interrupted words couldn't be reconnected, causing Covai to grow annoyed. "Hailan, stop crying!"

Hailan, however, acted as if she hadn't heard him, continuing to weep loudly. She even slapped herself a few times, muttering apologies.

"Hailan..."

Seeing Hailan saying more and more, even mentioning the deceased Hom and himself, Covai grew increasingly panicked, fearing exposure of the murder. He quickly stepped forward, trying to stop her from revealing more information.

"That's enough, sir," Linton said coldly. "I have no interest in your wicked deeds. Investigating you and arresting you is the Guard's job, not mine. My task is simply to obtain what I'm owed, nothing more."

"Now, please find it, and hand it over to me!"

His words, filled with icy pressure, sent a chill down Covai's spine.

He no longer cared about Hailan and hurriedly said in a fawning manner, "Understood, I understand. But... I don't know what exactly Hom was supposed to give you. Could you give me a little hint?"

"Offering Gold."

"Offering Gold? Are you from the church... Sorry, I'll go look right away!"

Faced with Linton's gaze, which seemed capable of extracting one's soul, Covai dared not speak further and hurried upstairs with staggering steps.

"Hom usually spent most of his time in his study on the top floor. He must be there. Damn it."

As he was thinking, he forgot that he had just been dragging a corpse. He turned to walk and tripped, nearly falling to the ground.

"Can't I even have peace in death?!"

Covai steadied himself and kicked the now-cold Hom fiercely, trying to vent all the frustration he felt from Linton.

He kicked Iris again. The girl's fair skin immediately became smudged.

"And you, why did you come back from the Knights instead of staying put! You punched my face like this, it hurts so much..."

Suddenly, Covai felt his foot lose control. He tried to pull it back, but he couldn't.

The next moment, his heart constricted violently, as if gripped by an invisible hand. His blood circulation went haywire, almost making him dizzy.

The bizarre scene lasted only a moment before Covai felt his soul, which had been about to fly out, being pulled back into his body, regaining control.

"What's going on?"

Glancing furtively at the black-clothed man who now stood at the doorway, seemingly inactive, Covai put aside his confusion for the moment and walked upstairs.

"Why did I get angry?"

Beneath his hood, Linton's expression was calm. No one could tell that he had been almost contorted with rage just moments ago.

After a moment of thought, he reached a conclusion.

The Necromancer's will was at play.

The Necromancer's soul had indeed long since dissipated, but just as a fish's body twitches after its innards are removed, even though he was dead, some of his instincts and obsessions remained.

And what were the Necromancer's obsessions?

In the memories Linton inherited, his fervor for perfect corpses was no less than that of the most devout members of the Truth Society. That was why he had suddenly appeared when Covai desecrated the remains of Hom and Iris.

"Foolish mortals who profane death must, must be punished with something more terrifying than the abyss of hell!!"

After this thought popped into his head and immediately vanished, Linton suddenly felt his body lighten considerably.

The Necromancer was, for all intents and purposes, truly dead.

"While I'm no saint, I truly can't comprehend your fanaticism, so forgive me for not punishing someone unrelated to me for such a reason," Linton muttered to himself. "But I can find another reason, or rather, leave this matter to someone more qualified and with better reason than I."

Linton slowly closed his eyes, located the most radiant soul in the manor, and then opened his hands, chanting softly.

[Secret Art: Necromancer Summoning]

Opening his eyes, he watched as specks of faint light coalesced from nothingness into a graceful figure resembling a young girl. Linton spoke, instructing, "Remember to wait until he finds the item before you act. I still need to report back."

The girl glanced at him without replying and floated upwards with the breeze that swept in from outside the door.

With the girl's departure, the hall became much quieter. The lady who had been crying had, at some point, collapsed onto the carpet, seemingly having fainted from crying too long and causing oxygen deprivation to her brain.

Shaking his head, Linton walked around the woman lying on the floor and went behind the sofa.

He wanted to see whose remains they were, capable of provoking an undetectable consciousness to ascend to the heavens.

Linton walked behind the sofa and saw the father and daughter lying lifelessly on the ground.

The father's body was somewhat mangled, while the daughter, aside from an indentation on the back of her head, had no other injuries.

As Linton's gaze fell upon Iris, a line of virtual text suddenly appeared before his eyes.

[For humans, birth is the establishment of emotional connection, and death is the severance of emotional connection. Humans, at the beginning of their birth, are the most flawless creations. The most perfect death is to return as one was at the beginning of birth, without thought or desire.]

[Now, a perfect creation, like the beginning of the origin, appears before you. Can you create a forbidden miracle?]

[Job Quest: Perfect Doll] has been activated.]

[Quest Objective: Create a doll with a rating of Legendary.]

[Quest Rewards: [Skill: Dirge of the End] unlocked, 5 Free Attribute Points, 1 Job Skill Upgrade Point]