A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 213 The Gangster Adventurer and His Young Boyfriend (2)

Sacred artifacts.

Items that can be given this title are not necessarily ancient divine weapons, nor are they necessarily "0" level containment objects sealed at the bottom of the Central Doctrine. As long as an item has been used by a hero and meets certain conditions for killing it, it can be remembered in human history as a "sacred artifact".

His record is verifiable—he single-handedly defeated the Demon King.

Of the six generations of heroes throughout the 1400-year history of the Divine Calendar, three sacred artifacts have been left behind and are known to the world:
The Holy Sword of the First Hero Link is currently stuck in the ruins of the old British capital.

The Elder Wand of Merlin, the second hero, is said to have been enshrined by Grindelwald in the mysterious tomb of Merlin.

The 'Spirit Orb' of the Fourth Hero, Amamiya Tetsuya, is a family heirloom of the current Eastern Kingdom's royal family.

The whereabouts of the sacred artifacts of the third, fifth, and sixth heroes are unknown. Many historians believe that their weapons were damaged in the final battle with the Demon King, or that they never had weapons at all.

The lost sacred artifact remains a mystery. Countless scams have been developed around the artifact in Temuran, following the same pattern as those in Earth's antique markets, where any stall owner claims their stall is full of treasures used by heroes, and who knows, one of them might have even slain a demon king.
If someone else claimed to be able to obtain the Fifth Hero's artifact, Quinn would simply say that it would open the door to the world in an instant.

But Ike.
His eyes flickered slightly, revealing a perfectly measured hint of interest: "The Fifth Hero's Sacred Artifact?"

Ike smiled mysteriously.

"Isn't there any record of Grindelwald?"

Although he didn't receive any official title like "red flower," Quinn was now a member of the Golden Wind. He certainly didn't think Ike could just "ask anyone he wanted to know." Ike was willing to risk being beheaded by the Academy to help the Yangen government-in-exile, so he definitely had some extremely ulterior motive.

Since Ike has revealed such a secret, he is speaking frankly and openly. Quinn can no longer pretend to be so aloof and must respond.

For example, exchanging some secrets of the academy.

"No. In the academy's investigation, only the Third Hero's artifact among the 'lost artifacts' has evidence of existence; it is in the hands of the Emperor of the Philip Empire."

"As for the sacred artifacts of the fifth and sixth heroes, they are not recorded at all."

Hearing Quinn share the Academy's secrets with his "boss," Ike's smile became even more genuine.

"Heh, do you know what the extraordinary destinies of these heroes are?"

Quinn was startled. Did Ike know about the existence of the [Hero's] destiny?

This is a secret about transmigrators that the demons obtained in exchange for the fall of six generations of demon kings. It is a seventh destiny beyond the six major battle professions. Even the descendants of heroes do not know this secret. Will Ike know it?

"What else could it be?" Quinn feigned ignorance and said, "There are only a few combat classes. Apart from Merlin, who is not a superhuman, Link is a warrior, and Amamiya Tetsuya is a ninja. I'm not too sure about the rest."

The extraordinary class of heroes has always been a popular topic of debate in the mystical world. Besides Link, who is known as the first hero because he loves writing diaries and can be clearly deduced to be a "warrior" from his experience of collecting potion recipes, Amemiya Tetsu, who left behind a large number of ninja tools for the royal family, is also speculated to be a "ninja". However, it is hard to say about the others.

Whether shrouded in mystery or concealed in their life stories, the final battle between the heroes and the demon king has been recorded. However, judging from their fighting styles, there isn't much difference between the heroes, nor are there any particularly distinctive combat class characteristics—this may be related to the terrifying power they possess upon reaching higher ranks.

What do you think is the fate of Jiangnan?

"The Fifth Hero is generally speculated to be a warrior?" Quinn shrugged. "According to records, the Fifth Calamity Demon King, Kadiuros, had his head smashed by the hero Jiangnan's fist in the End Dungeon of the Western Continent—he should be a warrior, right?"

Ike chuckled coldly: "A fist? That's him. Tsk, let's just call it a fist. Quill, Shelby, let me tell you a secret about the fate of heroes."

"what?"

Quinn pricked up his ears. Did Ike really know about the existence of the [Hero's] destiny?

Unfortunately, contrary to Quinn's expectations, what the black man said next did not increase his suspicion too much.

"Heroes do not choose battle classes used by previous heroes. In other words, their extraordinary destinies are all different. Apart from Merlin, who is not an extraordinary being, the seven heroes recorded in the Genesis Codex happen to be divided into six different battle classes."

"Link is a [Warrior], Amamiya Toru is a [Ninja], and Jiangnan is a [Secret Envoy]."

Quinn was surprised; he really didn't know that.

Don't heroes use the same class repeatedly? There are clearly strong and weak classes; since we're facing the Demon King, wouldn't it be safer to choose either Warrior or Knight for all of them?
So, if we know the fates of the first six heroes, wouldn't we be able to deduce the fate of the seventh hero?
Logically, the demons should be the ones who know the heroes best, but for some reason, Ankua doesn't fully know the battle roles of the heroes of each generation either. There's no reason for him to deliberately hide it from me. Could it be that once a hero's destiny reaches a high sequence, they become so powerful that they no longer need a second destiny to play a role?

Quinn didn't know if Ike was telling the truth or not. If they deduced by process of elimination, Amamiya Tetsuya had already taken the position of [Ninja], and Ike was also a [Ninja]. Under the premise that the combat positions were not overlapping, Ike's suspicion was cleared.

Only the knight, the archer, and the thief remained outside.
"How did you know?" Quinn looked at him with suspicion. "No offense intended, but the fate of the hero is a subject of study that even Grindelwald hasn't fully resolved."

“Rule number two in the underworld,” Ike smiled slightly, “is: never question the boss under any circumstances.”

"."

"Just kidding. We at Golden Wind believe in science, not the flashy stuff from the underworld. We don't boast; we're all about facts."

Rex's booming voice rang out from the other end: "One day? You only have one fucking day! Don't try to pull any tricks. You know what the Golden Wind does. Even if you make a scene at the academy, it won't do you any good. Hey, don't be scared, our boss and Principal Grindelwald are sworn brothers—"

"Where is Qiu?" Quinn asked, his voice strained.

"Ahem," Ike felt a little embarrassed and quickly changed the subject: "The final battle between the Fifth Hero and the Demon King took place on the Western Continent, but few people know that Jiangnan had a failed romance there."

Ike's expression suddenly stiffened, and he grabbed his right hand with his left, the two hands locked in a stalemate, as if the left and right hemispheres of his brain were fighting each other.

"Are you alright?" Quinn instinctively took a step back. Had he lost control?
"It's nothing." Ike seemed to be enduring something, but even so, he still forced himself to say, "He fell in love with a woman and did everything he could to pursue her. This secret of 'different fates for heroes' was also told as an interesting anecdote, which is why it spread in a small circle."

"Um, is it reliable?"

Quinn felt this was like a newspaper rumor.

"Alright, alright, I'm not going to say anymore—" Ike's expression suddenly relaxed, and Quinn didn't understand why he was suddenly so agitated.

"Uh, you're not going to talk about it anymore?"

"In short—" Ike's voice turned mysterious again, "Jiangnan's sacred artifact was left in the dungeon where the Demon King Kadiuros was killed."

"At that time, the Kingdom of Yangen was still the leading power in the Western Continent. For some reason, Jiang Nan failed to retrieve the Sacred Artifact. After his death, the Yangen royal family, having learned this secret, decided to excavate the Sacred Artifact." "If you've read the history of the Western Continent, you should remember the Yangen Expedition of 1195. The King of Yangen claimed that the sealed End City was extremely dangerous, and thus launched a seven-year-long campaign to conquer the dungeon."

Quinn frowned.

The so-called 'underground city' is an underground secret realm or civilization remnant left over from ancient times. Most of the relatively safe ones have been explored by human adventurers. The few remaining ones are extremely dangerous places that can swallow high-sequence superhumans. The End City is the largest, oldest, and most dangerous of them all.

"I don't know what King Yangen was thinking, but he ultimately obtained the Hero's Artifact at the cost of 200,000 soldiers' lives and nearly half of the national treasury's reserves. For thousands of years, almost all the extraordinary individuals Yangen cultivated perished in the End City, which was one of the reasons for Yangen's downfall two hundred years later. No one could protect the royal family in the chaos of war anymore."

Ike sneered, "The sacred artifact that you obtained at such a high price has now been reduced to being used by your descendants to seek help from a gang. Of course, I'll gladly accept it."

"What is that?" Quinn asked, his words sounding quite detailed.

"We'll know once we get our hands on it."

One of his men walked in from outside the basement door and shook his head at Ike.

"Didn't find it?"

The subordinate replied, "I asked around the neighborhood, and Little Hunter hasn't been home since yesterday. He's probably hiding."

The illegal clinic seemed to have been thoroughly searched by Golden Wind, but they couldn't find the missing goods.

Quinn asked curiously, "What did he steal that made such a big fuss?"

Ike said nonchalantly, "Selling drugs to a big shot, huh? Aphrodisiacs. He's keeping a mistress on the side. It's a small matter if he embezzles money and hides the drugs, but don't spill the beans. Newspapers are charging a lot for this kind of information these days. A while back, a member of the Razor Gang did that, and old Carl had three breweries shut down because of it."

"Then we need to find it quickly." Quinn found it a little strange, but he wasn't interested in asking any more questions.

“Let’s go.” Ike waved to Rex, who was still threatening the old doctor.

“Be friendly, we Golden Winds aren’t some terrorist organization. Trust him, he’ll bring Little Hunter and his things back within a day.”

"Of course! Of course!" The old doctor, disregarding the knife at his neck, patted his chest and assured him.

But then, he stammered, "Godfather, what do you intend to do with my son? Could there be some misunderstanding?"

“We will investigate,” Ike said politely, “but I can promise that even if he is wrong, as long as he returns with the goods within a day, he can go home alive.”

"...Just alive?" The old doctor's hand trembled.

He naturally trusted the Godfather's credibility.

However, he also understood the rules of the underworld: stealing gang goods and surviving was already a great mercy.

"Could you please spare his hand, so he can at least work for the rest of his life?"

“That depends on what he does,” Ike said, turning away and leaving with those words.

"Please invite Mr. Hunter’s daughter and wife to the company. Treat the two ladies with courtesy before the deadline."

Soon, the sounds of a woman crying and struggling came from behind.

Quinn glanced back and saw Old Hunter, who had tried to stop him, being kicked against the wall by Rex. He then stopped looking and followed Ike.

No matter how kind they are, they're still a gangster.

Will Ike be the hero?

Despite declining Ike's invitation to lunch, Quinn did not drop the pretense and, under the guise of "Shelby," exchanged three star flowers for 390 gold pounds, which he then deposited in the bank.

Clock Tower Bank did have branches in the city, but they didn't have any businesses related to the mysterious; outwardly, they were just ordinary commercial banks. Quinn opened a new account under the name "Shelby" to store the stolen money and mitigate risk. He could now not only disguise himself but also imitate different handwriting.

After signing the deposit slip, Quinn glanced at the balance.

—4,716 gold pounds.

Even the young lady at the counter spoke to this seemingly ordinary "Shelby" in a high-pitched voice, almost as if she had written "Want to come to my room to see the cat?" on the deposit slip.

The reason he suddenly had such a large sum of money was because the 10,000 gold pounds that Ike had promised had arrived.

He was very straightforward. The day after Ankua terminated its investigation into Golden Wind, twenty general commercial drafts from different banks and companies arrived in Quinn's hands. This was his "salary" for joining Golden Wind, paid annually.

Even Bonner couldn't possibly have obtained such a huge sum of money. This amount could buy a decent house in any city in the world, and is equivalent to five years' salary for Grindelwald's assistant coach.

Quinn didn't know if Ike was willing, but the fact that he could hand over this sum of money without batting an eye meant that the wealth Golden Wind had earned from smuggling probably far exceeded the boundaries of a typical gang.

Quinn first returned five thousand gold pounds to Amamiya Nene as payment for Rin's purchase of the three-tailed fox Huanhuan. The little witch didn't care where he got the five thousand gold pounds from, but simply asked, "Did you go sell hooks?" She probably thought five thousand gold pounds was easy money.

Then he spent another twelve hundred gold pounds to buy a second-hand property in Eastwell.

The apartment was a bit bigger than the one I lived in at Seawell. Although I still lived in the college dormitories most of the time, I still needed a place to stay off campus.

Ike gave Quinn a house in Seaville, but Quinn naturally couldn't live there; he needed complete privacy.

He bought a few loaves of bread from a roadside vendor to tide him over. Since advancing to Sequence Seven, Quinn's appetite had noticeably increased even without much physical activity; he felt like a giant stomach. He rode in a carriage to the city wall at the border of Westwell and Eastwell, where the dilapidated sign of "Garen's Tavern" was faintly visible in the misty rain.

He pushed open the door and entered. The doorbell rang, and the boss's loud, scolding voice reached his ears—

"Kid, I'm warning you, stealing a Level 0 containment item is one thing, but you absolutely mustn't get any funny ideas about Pepe—Damn it, Anquya, did you hear me! Answer me!!"

Quinn blinked, a knowing smile spreading across his face.

(End of this chapter)