Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 166 The Guard's Robbery

"Su Ming, the security team is almost here," came Zi Jin's reminder through the earpiece. She had been monitoring the battlefield using the drone's camera.

Su Ming dispelled the bone spheres from the warrior's body, leaving only a layer of bone armor. He then formed hand seals and channeled all his remaining magic power into the archer's corpse through a magic circle.

After finishing, having lost his magic, his knees buckled, and he nearly collapsed. The unicorn, transformed into a young girl, caught him in time, allowing him to slowly sit down on the ground.

"You're amazing! A normal mage would faint if they did that," Qi Luo exclaimed.

"Thank you for the compliment." Su Ming steadied himself and gestured for her to let go. "Quickly put away the array materials and cover up the traces." he said.

The unicorn nodded, erasing any unwanted marks from the scene and tidying up various props. Su Ming put on the forbidden magic cloak and tattered outer robe, filled the shotgun with three-inch buckshot, put on a cloth cover, and slung it on his back along with the dwarf musket.

He struggled to his feet. In the coming period, with his magic power completely depleted, his necromancy would be extremely low, and with the concealment of the magic-banning cloak, he would be even more undetectable.

****
When Rupert heard the commotion coming from Old Luo's place, he guessed it was caused by the outsider gunman. He quickly gathered his men, donned their armor, grabbed their weapons, and rushed over.

He had never drunk two glasses of such strong liquor in a row, which made the usually heavy-drinking security captain a little unsteady on his feet. As he approached Old Luo's house, he glanced around and stared in astonishment, instantly sobering up considerably.

Five corpses lay around the house, and worse, there were broken bone fragments everywhere, with a strong aura of the dead permeating the air.

There's a necromancer here!
"Captain Rupert, it's me." Su Ming leaned against a section of the remaining courtyard wall and waved to the sheriff of Shafur Town.

Robert gestured for everyone to slowly back away. It was impossible; judging from the extent of the damage, their group wouldn't even be enough to satisfy this mysterious outsider's whims.

Fortunately, the clerk of Whittaker territory happened to be visiting Shafern town tonight, accompanied by a large number of powerful guards. Given the commotion just now, these men should be on their way.

Rupert felt a little relieved and replied to Su Ming, "Hello, adventurer."

Su Ming raised his hands to indicate that he meant no harm. "Captain Rupert, would you like to hear my explanation?"

“You said it!” Rupert said with a wry smile.

“I came here looking for someone, but Joseph isn’t here at all,” Su Ming said.

Rupert nodded immediately, "Then I'm really sorry for the drinks you bought me; I gave you the wrong directions."

"The person who opened the door was very rude, and we started arguing. During the argument, I suddenly discovered that a necromancer was hiding here." Su Ming kicked the archer's corpse at his feet. "They immediately attacked, intending to kill me to silence me, and I was forced to fight back in self-defense."

Rupert carefully examined the scene and noticed that the strongest undead energy emanating from the corpse at Su Ming's feet was the dark energy. Even someone like him, who only knew a smattering of magic, could sense the dark power overflowing from it.

The corpse was tall with long arms, making it a good candidate for an archer, but it was also possible it was a less common class like a curse hunter. Rupert pondered.

On the other side was a corpse crushed by a wooden stick; judging from the leather armor and weapon, it belonged to a thief, likely a member of a small group on night watch. Behind Su Ming lay a burly, warrior-like dead man. The signs of a struggle were most intense around these three.

"And what about this young lady?" Rupert pointed to the green-haired girl beside him. The girl was dressed lightly, and her clothes were somewhat tattered, but she possessed an unapproachable air in the cold wind.

In her mature, elegant form, Qiluo nodded slightly in greeting. The aura of a unicorn was released, and even the moonlight seemed to dim in that instant.

"Ah, my apologies, Moon People, Miss Holy Beast!" Rupert hurriedly bowed, and the security guards behind him immediately followed suit. However, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief; with the Pure White Holy Beast here, the one in front of them was definitely not an evil enemy.

“I came from Rick Village, looking for the girl who recently went missing,” Kira explained. “I encountered this group of people on the way, so I pretended to be arrested and they took me back and locked me in the cellar. After this gentleman made his move, I seized the opportunity to escape.”

Clearly, it wasn't just a matter of fleeing; the unicorn had also joined the battle, and she was wounded. Rupert deduced, glancing at the warrior with shattered bones and the thief impaled by a club—that made sense.

****
A rustling sound rang out, and four heavily armored warriors ran over, weapons in hand, and stood a short distance away. "Rupert, what's going on?" one of them shouted to the sheriff.

"Su Ming, these warriors are very strong," Zi Jin's voice came through the earpiece. "You have no magic right now, so be careful."

Su Ming gave a soft "hmm".

In front of the monitoring screen of the drone camera on the Youth Civilization Unit, Hanster also watched this scene. He found it strange, "A small town's security team shouldn't have such skilled personnel."

"Judging from their equipment, they seem to be professional bodyguards. Could there be some important figure here?" Zi Jin wondered as well.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Hanster said. “That’s four already. There must be other people with the person being protected. Why would a small town need so many—” He suddenly slammed his fist into his palm. “I remember now, it’s the tax collection team! It’s close to the winter solstice, and the lords collect taxes for the next six months around this time!”

The tax collection team passed through all the towns in the territory, collecting and transporting taxes along the way. The territory's annual income was considerable, and the combat strength of the guards was also substantial.

Zijin immediately called Su Ming and said, "There are a lot of people on the other side, get away as soon as possible!"

With the arrival of four strong reinforcements, Rupert felt much more confident. He gestured for the guards to wait a moment and stepped forward alone to examine the details.

The necromancer was neither wearing robes nor carrying a staff, nor adorned with any jewelry; clearly, the battle had come unexpectedly. Examining the corpse, he found the necromancer riddled with bullet holes, his body almost completely mangled. This outsider had not only struck with deadly force but had also added unnecessary damage.

The soldier on the other side was also only wearing pajamas, with a layer of bone armor remaining on his body. He peeled back the bone armor, and several horseshoe-shaped bruises were clearly visible.

The thief's death was the most gruesome, his body covered with marks from impactful magical attacks, and he retained the aura of necromancy, exactly like the necromancer.

The entire courtyard was covered in bone fragments, and several shattered skeletons lay near the back door. The merchant, Old Luo, and the last mercenary lay dead there, their bodies covered in skeletal claw marks. Particularly puzzling was the mercenary's naked body; he had no fatal wounds but was coughing up blood. As Rupert approached, he caught a whiff of a hallucinogenic drug, a common remedy used by certain unorthodox sects that indulged in self-hypnosis.

Rupert looked around, reconstructing the encounter in his mind: the night watch thieves were utterly incompetent, failing to buy enough time before being caught in the gunslingers' nets. The warrior was struck and wounded by the unicorn at the first encounter, and even the necromancer's bone armor couldn't reverse the tide.

This outsider gunslinger might also have a spellcasting skill—but it's also possible she's Miss Unicorn; in any case, they attacked the thief with magic. The necromancer cast a dark energy shield on the thief, but it was to no avail, and the unicorn took advantage of the chaos to stab the thief through the body with a wooden club.

The necromancer summoned skeletons in an attempt to buy time to escape, but was riddled with bullets by the gunmen. With the necromancer's death, his summoned skeletons went out of control and tore Old Luo to death. Finally, there was the mercenary of the hypnotic school; the cause of death was unimportant. Showing off his "evil god" possession in front of the unicorn, who was skilled in mental manipulation, showed no regard for his brain. As for why he wasn't wearing clothes, Rupert guessed that perhaps he had practiced some special martial art.

Rupert compared the evidence with the scene and found nothing amiss. The only point of contention was the outsider's claim that it was an ambush. However, the scene clearly showed that the victim's side did indeed engage in hasty combat, while the gunman's side appeared completely unprepared.

However, there's no need to take things so seriously. He waved his hand, signaling the security team members to come forward and collect the body, then walked up to Su Ming and the unicorn. "Thank you for your help, adventurer and sacred beast! Please come to the security office and have a seat; we'll entertain you."

"No need, I have other things to do," Su Ming replied.

"The girls they kidnapped are still locked up in the cellar," Qiluo interjected.

"Shut up!" Rupert's expression changed, and he sternly rebuked the unicorn, "The necromancer is a big deal, don't meddle in those trivial matters!"

Rupert's sudden change in attitude surprised Su Ming and Qi Luo, and the two exchanged a glance.

The security captain then turned to Su Ming, his tone softening considerably, "Adventurer, you know there's a bounty for killing a necromancer."

The four guards immediately focused their attention on this matter and all pricked up their ears.

Su Ming saw everything. He was well aware of the bounty, after all, his name, "Bone King," was second on the bounty list, with a reward of 30,000 gold coins.

In addition to the bounty list, there's a fallback clause: capturing any mid-level necromancer alive will earn you 1,000 gold coins, while killing one will halve that to 500.

"Shouldn't we get this money from the Church of Light?" Su Ming asked.

Rupert nodded. “Our town’s Church of Light’s little chapel can’t handle it. The nearest one is Dawn Territory. Look how far it is, and we have to cut off the corpse’s head to go through all that trouble to find them. There must be many inconveniences.”

"Please speak frankly." Su Ming frowned.

“We can collect the bounty on your behalf, but—” Rupert stretched out his hand and made a counting motion as if counting coins.

Behind Rupert, four guards gripped their weapons tightly, staring intently at Su Ming. Five hundred gold coins were a considerable sum, and their posture clearly indicated they wanted a share.

"Then tell me how much the fee is for someone to collect it on your behalf?" Su Ming's tone turned unfriendly.

“Twenty percent.” Rupert held up two fingers. Su Ming was about to say it was alright, but then he noticed Rupert pointing at him, “It’s yours!”

Su Ming laughed in anger, "I worked so hard to kill that person, and all I get is 20%?"

Four soldiers stepped forward in unison, demonstrating their stance. Rupert raised his hand to signal them to calm down. "I'm not just making this up. These brothers are the guards of Clerk Bennyfin Whittaker. There are so many tax collectors, plus the clerk himself. Everyone who sees this gets a share, so naturally—"

Su Ming suddenly realized that this person had been subtly reminding him all along. So when Rupert reached out to pat his shoulder, he didn't dodge.

“Alright, brother, if you trust me, I’ll try to talk to you again. You go to the tavern and rest, I’ll come find you,” Rupert continued, giving him a wink.

This was meant to give him an excuse to leave, but Su Ming refused, saying, "No need for such roundabout methods. I don't want the body; you can take it."

He stepped aside and gestured for them to proceed.

Seeing that he was so sensible, the four guards no longer showed hostility. The security team packed up the body, one of the guards picked it up with one hand, and the four of them left happily.

Rupert signaled to the security team to continue clearing the scene and collecting the bodies of the other people.

“Brother, you can take 30%,” he said to Su Ming. “It’s the rule in this business; you have to leave a way out. They’ll give you what you want.”

So, is the practice of leaving only feathers behind after a goose flies by the river a tacitly accepted "rule" here? Su Ming scoffed inwardly.

The guards had already gone far away, and the faint sound of their laughter could be heard in the wind; clearly, this unexpected windfall had made them very happy. Su Ming turned to Rupert, "Taking it all won't be enough."

"Not enough for what number?" Rupert asked, puzzled.

Su Ming was annoyed and didn't bother to reply. It wasn't because of the five hundred gold coins; both the Cold Mountain Kingdom and the Church of Light had their own methods for identifying genuine necromancers—this archer's corpse wouldn't qualify for the bounty.

His displeasure stemmed from the fact that such blatant robbery was commonplace, clearly indicating that the people here had extremely poor values ​​and understanding. Even Rupert, with his conscience, believed that letting him escape unscathed was the best outcome.

Qiluo walked over, pointed to the cellar, and questioned Rupert, "Hey, why didn't you save them?"

Rupert sighed, "Miss Holy Beast, the territory scribe Benny Finn is a notorious lecher, and his guards are all cut from the same cloth. My rescue is just throwing these girls into the lion's den; it might not be better than them being kidnapped!" He patted Su Ming's shoulder again, "While they're not paying attention and I can still keep them in check, you guys quickly take them and leave!"

He then led the security team to a sheltered corner, took out some tobacco, and rested.

"The North is truly a rotten place." Kira was clearly disgusted as well. Faced with this swamp-like mire, she felt a sense of powerlessness.

****
The cellar entrance was blocked by a lot of collapsed debris. Qiluo cleared a path and crawled inside, quickly leading out six panicked girls.

Under the soft moonlight, the unicorn soothed everyone's hearts with her divine magic. She told them that the thieves had been killed and that she would take them home. The girls wept with joy.

The temperature was very low at night and was still dropping. Su Ming noticed that the girls' clothes were not very thick, so he dug out Old Luo's wardrobe from the ruins and took out a large pile of clothes.

Each girl put on a few pieces of clothing, and then they left together.

(End of this chapter)