West side of Scarecrow Abyss. The clouds of war had not yet reached here.
Two adventurers were fiercely arguing over a Puchi.
“Two gold coins? Why not just rob me?! It’s just a normal Puchi!”
“You buying a Puchi for its combat power right now? Unless I’m blind, your team doesn’t even have a Puchi master. What are you talking about ‘breed’?”
The seller was dressed as a wanderer and showed no worry the deal would fall through.
In this place, people bought Puchis for one reason: the “no-fall” trait.
As long as you carried a variant Puchi from the Puchi Dungeon, you wouldn’t fall inside Scarecrow Abyss.
This let people do what was once unthinkable: cross the abyss horizontally.
In the past, that meant dropping all the way to the bottom and fighting back up.
Even diamond-tier parties risked heavy losses.
Now it was different.
The surface layer of Scarecrow Abyss had environmental corrosion and strawman monsters, but they were limited. For Silver-tier and above, the most important part of the journey was protecting the Puchi and never letting it stray more than fifty meters.
If the Puchi died or you got separated and triggered fall, the result was obvious.
The wanderer thought the first person to discover this must have been loaded.
After all, before anyone knew about the no-fall trait, and with the fungal mat still far from Scarecrow Abyss, only a rich low-level Puchi master would bother carrying one all the way here.
And since the mat was still far, Puchis were scarce commodities here.
Every minute a Puchi stayed meant mana potion consumption.
The wanderer’s own team had just used this Puchi to cross from the dwarven mountains to United Kingdom territory.
Continuing with the Puchi would be a money-losing proposition. Selling on the spot to teams wanting to cross was the smartest move.
Unable to haggle down the price, the buyer could only grit his teeth and pull out his coin pouch.
Just then, one of his teammates came over. “Captain, that guy over there has several Puchis, only one gold each!”
“Really!” The captain’s face lit up.
After confirmation, he decisively put away his pouch.
Seeing them about to leave, the wanderer chuckled. “To save one gold coin and doom your team… quite the captain.”
Naturally the captain heard. “What do you mean?”
“Only variant Puchis from the Puchi Dungeon have the no-fall trait.” The wanderer pinched his Puchi’s tentacle for emphasis.
The captain looked over. Sure enough, the other seller’s Puchis were all the stereotypical ordinary kind; impossible to tell if they were dungeon-born.
Though he couldn’t prove they were fake; some dungeon Puchis did look normal.
But with the whole team’s lives on the line, the captain didn’t risk saving the coin. He obediently pulled out two gold.
After getting the Puchi, he didn’t head straight into Scarecrow Abyss. Before entering, they had to coat it with corrosion-resistance potion.
The wanderer, now with gold in hand, whistled and headed back to his camp.
There, his two companions were packing tents. On a nearby rock sat a white-furred foxkin.
The wanderer called from afar. “I’m back! Lord Kiro, how did it go on your end?”
The foxkin, who had been sitting with eyes closed, gently clapping, opened slightly weary eyes. “Just call me Kiro. ‘Lord’ sounds weird. I’m no noble.”
The wanderer laughed. “No can do. You saved my life. By our customs, I have to call you ‘Lord’! In the abyss, if Lord Kiro hadn’t pulled me back, I’d have rolled past fifty meters and triggered fall. Honestly, without running into Lord Kiro this time, every one of us would’ve died in the abyss!”
Kiro only smiled at the lavish praise and said no more.
After all, the wanderer wasn’t wrong. Without Kiro joining, the three-man team would have been trapped forever in Scarecrow Abyss.
After a while, camp was fully packed, but Kiro still sat on the rock, clapping in a fixed rhythm.
The three adventurers didn’t disturb him and sat chatting to pass time.
They chatted all the way until dusk.
Wasting a whole day, they exchanged looks and pulled out the tents they had just packed…
At that moment, Kiro finally stood.
“Lord Kiro, you… alright?” Seeing the bloodshot, even more exhausted eyes, the wanderer asked with concern. “Wait a bit. We’ll set up camp.”
But Kiro waved him off. “No need. I’m afraid I can’t travel with you further. I just remembered something else I have to do. Sorry for delaying you so long.”
The three adventurers hurriedly waved. “No delay, no delay! Lord Kiro, rest first. You look…”
Kiro downed a stamina potion. His eyes regained focus.
This extravagant sight made the three Silver adventurers swallow enviously.
“I’ve delayed too long. I must set off now.” He didn’t say where or what for; the adventurers didn’t ask.
They had been strangers meeting by chance. Kiro had no Puchi; the adventurers shared theirs, leading to everything after.
Before leaving, Kiro approached the wanderer and whispered, “After you get home, stay away from casinos. Use the money to buy delicious mushrooms for your kid.”
“Ah… right, right…” The wanderer seemed a bit dazed, watching Kiro’s back with confusion. Had he mentioned having a child to Lord Kiro?
Thinking about it, he talked a lot; probably had…
Meanwhile, after parting with the adventurers, Kiro looked up at the three moons and sighed deeply. “All three together were much prettier…”
Cycle 436. Continue west. No matter what he did, it inevitably led to that final outcome.
Over there, an invisible hand strangled every possibility.
The variable wasn’t west, wasn’t in the United Kingdom.
The variable… was in demon territory!
“Tanaka… Hidehichi…”
Muttering the strange name, Kiro headed north.
(End of Chapter)
