Chapter 445: Chapter 443: Delivery

Since Yi Chen had already agreed to the trade, he naturally would not go back on his word.

The inn room.

Thirteen stood silently outside the door, not uttering a word.

Strange noises kept coming from inside the room, similar to the panting sounds of an old man.

Stephen Bone touched his ears with his white bone fingers, his death aura would become disorderly with too much excitement, and he needed to vent regularly to stabilize his condition, sounding like an old man gasping for air.

Although he appeared incredibly sleazy, one could see his obsession and heartfelt affection for his ears.

His sleaziness was confined to the touching of ears, which Yi Chen didn’t mind at all, after all, he had experienced much worse in the orphanage.

After waiting for two hours and rather bored, Yi Chen tried to make conversation.

“Mr. Stephen must be a rare perceptual knight, right? After all, most of the Death Plague Knights probably have a bias towards slaughter, bringing death to others. There should be more knights like Bernard.”

“That’s right, there are indeed few like me, but I’m also good at killing~ Especially against humanoids like you, just need to silently slip a dagger into your body, and death will spread.

This ‘silence’ will be integrated as well, often the stabbed individual will die without even realizing it.”

“Well, I don’t deny your killing skills, your mastery in hearing is indeed godlike.”

This sudden praise pleased Stephen, who even reminisced about the past.

“My ears are very special, my mom and dad always praised my hearing~ My friends did too, until I cut off their ears, and then no one praised me anymore, it got much quieter!”

“Ha, that’s quite interesting.”

Yi Chen responded with a polite smile,

He could tell at first glance that Stephen was someone with psychological disorders, but Yi Chen did not reject such people; in fact, he admired and respected Stephen’s ‘hearing’.

In the vast underground crypt, he could immediately pinpoint the direction of death echoes if he listened carefully.

Just then,

Stephen brought his shriveled old face, covered with ears, closer, whispering:

“What are you thinking about, William? Do you want to cut off my head and wear it as a living accessory at your waist?

If you need it, you can take out my head to listen in advance, gaining a first-hand understanding of the battlefield situation, securing an informational advantage.”

Yi Chen was startled by this sudden madness, “Huh? Certainly not…”

But Stephen shook his finger, continuing, “Don’t be in a hurry to deny~ My ears can hear a lot of information, both appearance and inner thoughts, very clearly.

Even those perfectly concealed things make ‘noise’ as long as they exist.

The noise inside you is very faint, but it’s mixed with an extreme discordance, even murkier than any evildoer I’ve ever heard.

I can’t tell if you’ve already controlled this extreme negative emotion, or if you’re pretending to be good… but the existence of such feelings is evidence enough that you’re no simple man; surely you must have undergone unimaginably painful experiences, and that’s one of the reasons I like your ears.

Such a person like you must have great ambition. I suspect your trip to the Original Tomb isn’t just for the wedge-shaped stone, and you’re casting nets elsewhere to reap greater benefits, am I right?”

“If seeking knowledge is also a kind of ambition, then I guess so,” Yi Chen smiled in response.

“Alright then~ When your strength is sufficient, if you’re still interested in my head, come back to the Original Tomb and issue a death challenge to me, and if you win, you can take everything from me.

Having my head stay by your side actually doesn’t sound bad, at least I can keep watching your ears, which is much more interesting than these boring dead.”

Yi Chen stopped replying, feeling that the conversation was going off on a tangent; naturally, he didn’t take Stephen’s gibberish to heart.

However, upon further thought, cutting off Stephen’s head and turning it into a perception accessory seemed like a rather intriguing idea.

If he were to actually do such a thing, he would need to undertake a process of education, but at the current stage, it wasn’t feasible to educate Mr. Stephen, who had already completed his path.

Two hours quickly passed,

Stephen was extremely reluctant to leave, even trying to stay overnight in the guest room, which, of course, was mercilessly rejected by Yi Chen.

Just as he was about to walk out the door, he popped his head back in, “I’ll come to notify you once the weapon is ready…”

Days went by, and the waiting time far surpassed any estimates until a week had passed.

One morning,

when Yi Chen opened his eyes in bed, a skull with ears was actually lying beside him.

“You’re awake!”

“Mr. Stephen? Is the weapon finally ready?”

“Yes, but there’s a bit of trouble… Your wedge-shaped stone was too perfect, which released a strong ‘Death Echo’ during the forging process. Now, knights who have come to watch are crowding around the craftsman’s shop, and among them, there must be those with ill intentions, even overwhelming greed.

What do you say? How about hiring me as your bodyguard? Just ‘one hour of ear touching’ as a stake, and I will protect you all the way out of the Bonfire Mountain Range.”

“That won’t be necessary… Thank you for your kind offer, Mr. Stephen.”

“Ah, let’s go, let’s go~”

When the mule carried the two to the familiar forge, although it wasn’t as exaggerated as Stephen described, there were indeed three Death Plague Knights standing at the door, having come to join in the excitement.

“Make way~ It’s not your stuff, so what’s there to look at.”

With a shout from Stephen, the knights at the door shifted slightly, and one of the women wearing a black rabbit mask asked, “Stephen, this intense, murderous Death Echo shouldn’t be a weapon you can wield… The one behind you, isn’t he the human boy from the last video livestream? Could it be his? I’m really curious.”

“If you want to buy information, pay first, Miss Rabbit. If you don’t have money, then don’t ask me any more questions.”

Stephen directly pulled Yi Chen into the shop,

Mr. Alpaki, as large as a stitched giant, had already completed the forging and was sitting silently on a stool waiting, with a ‘finished product’ wrapped in shroud cloths lying on the stone table in front of him.

Due to the precise wrapping, the object was bloated and swollen, and it was only possible to guess that it was an axe; the specific shape couldn’t be confirmed, and not even the slightest hint of Death Aura was seeping out.

Before Yi Chen could pose a question, Mr. Alpaki suddenly moved his huge stitched body closer, his large face scrutinising Yi Chen closely, his tongue constantly flapping as he spoke:

“It’s really not apparent, I wouldn’t have thought someone with a young and friendly countenance could harbor such intense negative feelings like killing intent, death, pain, and so on.

I even doubted myself several times when examining the arm you left behind, wondering if I made some error, but now it seems… Hmm~ you seem to have intentionally coated yourself with a ‘friendly’ veneer specifically designed to suppress your nature.

Therefore, the main direction I took in modifying and upgrading the weapon was biased towards the ‘Negative Feeling’ hidden within you, which ultimately made the finished product slightly volatile; the weapon has to taste the flesh of the strong the first time it is used, or it will self-destruct.

Keep it bound before facing a formidable enemy.

After you have successfully used it, if you feel this weapon isn’t suited to you, you can always come back for me to rework it, and the material costs will be waived.”

“Thank you, Mr. Alpaki.”

“No need to thank me… Your arm is imbued with an alternative type of death that has piqued my interest, and this forging has also been an unusual and novel journey. You are a very complex, interesting, and dangerous young man. No wonder the boss is so interested in you, not even pursuing the matter of you killing the dead. Well, go do what you need to do, I hope you’ll come back and visit often.”