Ch.425425 – The Senior’s Terms of Trade

<425 – Senior’s Deal Condition>

Grimreaper’s workshop revealed the owner’s taste right from the entrance.

━━━

[Door of Life Plunder]

Those who cannot open this door shall become wandering souls.

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While the workshop district tests qualifications with artifact-grade relics, Grimreaper’s workshop only grants visitor status to those who can cross the Door of Life Plunder.

A test of pride declaring that the workshop district’s standards alone aren’t enough to recognize visitors!

“Senior, which way do you want to enter? If you put your palm in the hole in the door, it will drain a large amount of life force but you’ll definitely get in. If you grab the doorknob, you’ll have to overcome the suction magic to remove your hand!”

The Plant Club senior made a kicking gesture with a grumpy face.

As expected of a junior year student, his rebellious nature of disliking predetermined paths is quite apparent.

Yet his clumsiness in immediately stepping on landmines reveals why he’s not a senior year student.

“If you kick it, the door will charge back at you even faster. Can you handle that?”

What kind of door attacks people?

In response to my incredulous look, I picked up a nearby stone and threw it at the door to demonstrate.

BANG!!

The part of the door hit by the stone shot out like a rocket, striking the empty space where the stone had been thrown from.

Even though I had activated <Swift Movement> immediately after throwing the stone, the speed was frighteningly fast!

“Well, your approach isn’t wrong. But to let a person through, you’d need to hit it really hard, and the larger the impact area, the more ferocious the door’s counterattack. Could you manage both evasion and breakthrough in that split second?”

The senior shook his head, face turning pale.

In the end, he obediently inserted his palm into the hole, his face growing gaunt as the door drained his life force.

Perhaps because he usually eats well, he paid the large amount of life force the Door of Life Plunder demanded all at once.

As the senior trudged through the open door, I saw my chance!

<Swift Movement>

<Forward Leap>

<Stealth>

<Boldness>

Just before the Door of Life Plunder closed itself after the senior passed through, I charged forward like a bullet.

Back when I was <All-Strength One-Hit Character I Love Marine>, I would forcibly kidnap party members, make them put their palms in the hole, throw them through, and then rush in together with a crash!

But now with my smaller build, I can slip through the gap between the door and the senior without having to body-slam him.

“Free ride success!”

The trembling senior threw punches at me.

As I easily dodged them with quick movements, laughter erupted from inside.

“This customer has good sense. That viciousness of exploiting your companion, I quite like it.”

[Grimreaper’s favorability has increased by 5.]

The hammering sound of weapon crafting ceased in the workshop.

Grimreaper senior, who had been contemplating with arms crossed over an unfinished scythe, welcomed us.

“Are you worried about crafting materials?”

“I’ve gathered almost everything, but I’m a bit short.”

“What are you missing?”

“Winter Eye Flower, Sun Jewel, Honey Watermelon Seeds.”

“Wow, you’ve gathered almost everything!”

“15-strength Farmer’s Scythe, Squirrel’s Sigh, New Moon’s Membrane, Nasher’s Claw, Giant Golem’s Saw Blade, Permafrost Essence, Fallen Angel’s Feather, High Blue Metal, World Tree Branch, Kraken’s Tentacle.”

“…Wow, you’ve barely gathered anything!”

Why is this senior just sitting here when he should be out gathering materials?

It seems this senior isn’t following the regular story progression but is caught in an NPC growth-blocking event, commonly known as <Sim-ma>.

“Assassination. Slaughter. Crafting. What request have you come with?”

“I’m here to sell profitable crafting materials!”

“What materials?”

“Ttoontoon herbs and Spider herbs! I have over twenty stems!”

“Impressive that they’ve grown so much.”

Ttoontoon herbs and Spider herbs that grow individually would normally wither and die in a natural ecosystem before maturing.

All surrounding plants instinctively sense that a natural predator has appeared and steal nutrients, block water, and deny sunlight.

There’s a reason these are classified as ultra-rare plant mobs.

“Distance?”

“I brought them to the Academy to sell!”

“Show me the goods.”

“Hey now. You’re a senior year student, how could I just show you right away? Instead, I brought one stem of each.”

I showed him the stems I had broken off right after planting the seeds, intending to use them as crafting materials.

After confirming the authenticity, Grimreaper senior nodded.

“Ttoontoon herbs and Spider herbs are excellent crafting materials that can be exchanged for several other ingredients. The price?”

“One thousand points per stem, forty stems total!”

“I’ll pay one-tenth as a deposit. Guide me there. If the information proves true, I’ll pay the rest.”

Though the senior only paid 4,000 of the 40,000 points, neither Grimreaper senior nor I were desperate enough to scam each other over such an amount.

Since he didn’t try to haggle by finding flaws, the deal was completed more quickly than expected.

“But senior, why are you staying in your workshop when you’re missing so many materials?”

“The subordinates I sent to break branches from the World Tree have gone silent.”

“Oh no!”

“Those who went to get the Kraken’s tentacles are also out of contact.

For some reason, it feels like the whole world is conspiring against me, preventing me from gathering materials.”

Whoever’s responsible is truly a terrible person.

To dishearten such a brave and patient senior who even attends Professor Sadaco’s lectures!

The Plant Club senior, who could speak again now that we’d left the workshop district, cautiously asked:

“If I compromise on materials, the achievement of Reaper Slaying will be further away, but I suppose I must compromise with reality…”

“Excuse me, but why do you want to slay a reaper? Aren’t they death messengers employed by the Death God, considered among the foremost of the 12 Evil Gods?”

“If by death messengers you mean those fools who collect lifespans to deliver to their master, then yes, we’re talking about the same beings.”

Grimreaper senior was a senior year student with lofty ambitions.

“Originally, the karma of life circulates through the food chain and ecosystem. The Thousand-Poison Frog eats the Hundred-Poison Snake, and the Ten-Thousand-Poison Insect eats the Thousand-Poison Frog. But if the Ten-Thousand-Poison Insect never dies and survives eternally, the accumulated poison would become a calamity that could devour the entire world.”

Such poison would transform the soil into a land of death just by existing.

Someone had to kill the Ten-Thousand-Poison Insect to save nature before it became sick and collapsed.

“The reapers employed by the Death God eliminate beings that could become Ten-Thousand-Poison Insects in the natural world. Unfortunately, that includes humans seeking transcendence.”

“If humans achieve transcendence and become gods, wouldn’t that be good since it adds one more principle to the world?”

“The Death God considers the birth of such transcendent beings as the calamity of the Ten-Thousand-Poison Insect that sickens the world. At the same time, I hold this thought:”

Moderately insane people are treated as mentally ill, but extremely insane people inspire only awe.

“If the birth of transcendent beings and divine beings is the calamity of the Ten-Thousand-Poison Insect, isn’t the Death God himself the greatest calamity? The 24 main gods are the oldest transcendent beings, so someone must kill him.”

“Goodness. Are you trying to become a god-slayer?”

“That is indeed my ultimate goal. As the first step toward god-slaying, I chose crafting a reaper’s scythe as my graduation project. After graduation, I planned to challenge Reaper Slaying before tackling the Death God.”

But even that first step was hindered by inexplicable obstacles, so it’s understandable that he’s fallen into despair.

“Have you considered asking Professor Sadaco for help? She’d be thrilled if you offered her the corpse of a slain reaper!”

“What ignorant words.”

Grimreaper senior’s dark-circled eyes looked down at me seriously.

“Professor Sadaco is more dangerous than the Death God’s messengers, the reapers. That woman achieved the Reaper Slaying achievement by cutting down the reaper who came to guide her to the afterlife and remaining in the middle realm.”

“If she hates reapers that much, wouldn’t she be helpful?”

“Do you… want to seek help from a professor who desires graduate students she can exploit forever without them dying?”

Ah! That’s a bit…

Grimreaper senior’s fear has now infected me too.

“Never take Professor Sadaco’s lectures. You seem to have considerable aptitude for dark mana, exactly the type she likes.”

“But I’m already taking them? I took them last semester and I’m taking them this semester too!”

The senior’s face showed compassion, as if looking at a tragic protagonist who had chosen a foolish fate.

“Whatever you do, don’t become her teaching assistant. Judging by your fate, once you become her assistant, you’ll be dragged around by Professor Sadaco for life and more. Why did you take that lecture in the first place?”

“Professor Sadaco has long bangs, right?”

“That’s right.”

“When a long-haired woman whose face can’t be seen turns out to be incredibly beautiful after pushing her hair aside, isn’t that a heart-pounding situation?”

“…”

“That’s why I took it!”

Grimreaper senior looked at me like I was a madman.

The Plant Club senior also kept his distance from me with a mixture of shock and horror.

Why are they acting like this?

“Let’s get to business.”

He hurried his steps as if he didn’t want to talk to me anymore, so we quickly arrived at the clearing.

“Are those the Ttoontoon herbs and Spider herbs you’re selling me?”

“Yes!”

“You want me to buy that?”

In the place Grimreaper senior pointed to were people who shouldn’t be there.

A hero was somehow trapped in one corner of the clearing, and familiar techniques were deployed around the rare plant colony.

<Holy Mirror>

<108 Directional Formation>

The hero Ishtar’s technique of absorbing power into mirrors and transmitting it to other mirrors for surprise attacks.

The rare plant colony was using this technique, pushing the saint Yufi and archer Skola to the brink of retirement as they struggled to protect Ishtar.

The Plant Club senior, holding a no-entry sign, suddenly emerged from the nearby bushes.

“I tried to stop this!”

“You should have tried harder!”

“But I thought it would work. He was confident as an active hero, how could I have known he’d be caught?”

The malicious rare plant colony had learned the hero’s magic.

“Would you like a half-price discount?”

“Not buying.”

“One-tenth of the price!”

“Not buying.”

“Hnnng. Please!”

Grimreaper senior looked at me with eyes as cold as rotten fish eyes.

“That’s such a troublesome mess that I’d refuse even if asked to exterminate it.”

“Hmph.”

“There is one condition. If you meet this condition, I might specially lend a hand for free for a junior’s sake.”

“What condition?”

“Drop Professor Sadaco’s lecture.”