Chapter 34: The Light Magic Cloak
“You…” The two brothers wanted to argue, but Ye Mu’s words left them speechless.
They had no choice but to admit that they had tracked Ye Mu precisely because they were confident they could kill her.
Ye Mu, unhurried, continued to ask, “Of course, I could take a step back—let’s not talk about whether you’ve killed any nobles. Can you tell me, before I came along, have you ever attacked any noble?”
“Did you try to attack them on their way out but couldn’t overpower them? Did you infiltrate their estates or castles in an attempt to assassinate them, but were forced to give up because you were discovered? Or… even if you only threw a bunch of rotten cabbage leaves at them in the street, that counts too,” she said, ending with a teasing tone, causing laughter to ripple through the crowd.
The Anderson brothers wanted to lie for a moment, but under the pressure, they couldn’t come up with a good story.
Ye Mu quickly reminded them, “Oh, don’t lie to me. These things would’ve surely alerted the police station, right? There should be police records.”
The Anderson brothers both fell into silence, and this silence was answer enough.
“Then, you never really intended to take revenge! You do harbor hatred, but you’ve been muddling through life, unwilling to take even the slightest risk for it. Until today, you met me—a person who is publicly recognized as a noble but looks easy to bully—and suddenly, your hatred flared up, and your sense of justice appeared out of nowhere.”
She sighed, shook her head, then stood up: “I think, if you really succeeded with me, you probably wouldn’t target any more nobles after that, would you? My death would give you a sense of satisfaction, convincing you that you’ve killed a wicked noble and avenged your family. Your soul would find peace, and you could live your life without guilt.”
“But in fact, what you’re doing to me seems not that different from what the noble who killed your entire family did, does it?”
—Ye Mu’s brief words weren’t enough to reveal the full details of the massacre, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that, at its core, it was an act of ruthless oppression by the strong against the weak.
After finishing her speech, Ye Mu turned to Isaac and politely nodded: “Mr. Agent, please submit a request to the Lord—As a legitimate resident of this town, I feel very unsafe living with these two who have so easily turned against fellow townspeople based on hearsay. I also have reason to believe that, in the future, any resident with a slightly better economic status might be falsely assumed to be ‘noble’ and become a target for assassination.”
“Therefore, for the safety of everyone, I request their expulsion.”
“Expulsion?!” The Anderson brothers exclaimed in unison.
They had thought they would be executed, tortured, and left unrecognizable.
Ye Mu nodded earnestly: “Yes, expulsion.”
She spoke while looking at the Anderson brothers again: “From my personal perspective, of course, I wish you were dead. But from the perspective of justice…” She paused and clicked her tongue. “The ones who truly deserve to die are someone else.”
The ones who truly deserved death were the nobles who killed the Anderson brothers’ entire family and the countless nobles who treated people as if they were nothing.
As for the two brothers before her, while they were foolish, numb, and repellent in this matter, at their core, it was a tragedy.
Besides, she hadn’t died. Thanks to the existence of the 【Light Magic Cloak】, she hadn’t even been injured!
Under most legal systems, these two brothers wouldn’t be sentenced to death, and it would be difficult for her to send them to their deaths.
More importantly, she didn’t want to cause a lapse in power because of this incident.
The abuse of power was terrifying. Once it started, it would only grow. She didn’t want to gradually become that kind of detestable noble, so she wouldn’t even take one step toward that path.
So, expulsion it was.
Expulsion was a compromise. It wouldn’t be an unjust execution, and it would guarantee her safety from further threats.
Isaac thought for a moment. “Can I apply to detain them for a while and make them work as laborers? In the lumberyard and the mines. Their work hours would be much longer than the others, and they would only receive the most basic food and living conditions. After their detention ends, they would be immediately expelled.”
Ye Mu thought it over and decided it wasn’t a bad idea.
Compared to outright expulsion, this approach seemed more intimidating, so she nodded. “If the Lord doesn’t object, then I don’t either.”
Isaac smiled. “Good.”
Good, my Lord.
He then exchanged a glance with Chase and Jenna, and the two of them immediately grabbed the Anderson brothers and took them away to be detained.
After Ye Mu’s series of questions, the two brothers hadn’t spoken a single word. Even now, as they were dragged away, they remained silent.
Ye Mu watched them leave, gradually feeling more relaxed. Her mind started to wander to more lighthearted thoughts—perfect, the police station, although it had yet to recruit proper officers, had its building ready with a fully equipped dungeon!
The dungeon had been empty until now, but now there was finally some occupancy!
The onlookers saw that the farce had ended and began to disperse. After a moment, Ye Mu snapped back to reality and coughed, then asked Isaac, “How did you know I was in trouble?”
“I placed an 【Associated Spell】 on the cloak. When you’re in danger, I can sense it and see a marker on the map.”
Ye Mu was stunned, and she quickly emphasized, “It only shows when you’re in danger, it doesn’t invade your privacy under normal circumstances.”
“Oh…” Ye Mu, realizing she had been seen through, responded somewhat grumpily, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Isaac smiled slightly.
Ye Mu then asked, “So, what was that whirlwind I conjured earlier? If you hadn’t appeared in time, what would’ve happened if I had cast it?”
“【Breath of the Wind God】, a high-level wind spell,” Isaac said with a laugh, “If you had actually cast it, they would have seen their deceased family members.”
—What the hell, seeing their deceased family members!!!
Ye Mu was caught off guard by the sudden hellish joke, her expression turning complicated. “So, you’ve got quite a sharp tongue.”
Who told them to lay a hand on you?
Isaac thought silently.
—
The next morning, as soon as Ye Mu opened her eyes, a series of golden notifications popped up in front of her:
【Level Up!】
【Level Up!】
【Level Up!】
【Level Up!】
【Level Up!】
Ye Mu was stunned.
This was a notification that only occurred when the main level increased, with each level up triggering a new notification. Now it had popped up five times… Did she really level up five times just from sleeping?!
Ye Mu suspected there was a bug in the system, but after looking at the number beneath her avatar in the top left corner of her view, she saw that she had indeed leveled up from level 15 to level 20.
She then checked her personal information panel, which also showed level 20.
This was strange.
Although, according to the world’s rules, doing anything could increase the main level’s experience, the fastest way to level up was by fighting monsters. For someone like her, who focused purely on life skills, the experience growth was very slow.
At the same time, this world, like most leveling games, required increasingly more experience to level up as one’s character level increased, making leveling slower.
Therefore, although Ye Mu leveled up from Level 0 to Level 1 on her first day just by making a dish of 【Sausage Fried Rice】, after nearly two months of opening and running a restaurant, she only leveled up from Level 1 to Level 15.
Even so, she was still leveling up relatively quickly, because she had maxed out her cooking skill. She couldn’t fail at cooking, and every dish she made earned her maximum experience. Other people wouldn’t get nearly as much experience from cooking.
…So, what happened that caused her to level up five times in one night?!
Ye Mu was completely taken aback. She started clicking around the panel in a flurry, trying to find the reason. After trying several buttons, she found a small, inconspicuous “Details” in a light gray color.
Upon opening the details, the system displayed a breakdown of all the experience she had earned. Ye Mu saw that at 12:00 AM, the system performed a large settlement, giving her two high-value experience gains: one of 42,663 and another of 41,735.
This included the 100% experience boost from 【Light Magic Cloak】.
The experience gain description read: Defeat an adventurer 30 levels higher than your own.
It was at this point that Ye Mu realized she had also unexpectedly earned an achievement, 【Betting Small to Win Big】, which came with a small bonus: an increase in her maximum health by 10%.
Ye Mu pouted, thinking that if the achievement had boosted her mana or stamina instead, it would have been more useful. Since she cooked daily, her mana and stamina were usually consumed in sync, and although her health also dropped, it decreased the slowest.
However, on second thought, having more health wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, if something unexpected happened, it might just save her life!
Her gaze returned to the phrase “Defeat an adventurer 30 levels higher than your own.”
30 levels higher, and it happened twice… It must have been the Anderson brothers!
At the time, she hadn’t cast her final high-level skill, so she hadn’t killed them, only knocking them back. Therefore, the system probably didn’t make its judgment until the 12:00 AM data settlement, and that was when it awarded her the experience.
Ye Mu thought about this system setup, her feelings complicated: no wonder the magic school that Jeff admired was so difficult for ordinary people to get into, while noble students could easily join! She had originally thought that the high tuition fees were the barrier, with only noble students able to afford them, while ordinary people had to compete for scholarships, making the difficulty much higher.
Now, it seemed that the unfairness started from the leveling system itself.
Kids like Jeff could only level up step by step, relying on hard work or talent, while nobles could hire high-level mages as tutors for their children. Winning would grant them a lot of experience.
To take it one step further, even if the system were smart enough to prevent experience from being gained through deliberate leniency, the nobles could still equip their children with high-level gear, significantly increasing their chances of success.
Poor children farm monsters, while noble children farm high-level mages… what a stark and tragic contrast!
Ye Mu sighed, frustrated yet helpless at this setup. But she quickly shifted her focus back to something within her control: with level 20 and a powerful piece of gear like the 【Light Magic Cloak】, could she start farming monsters herself?
Before, she had been cooped up in the house cooking. On one hand, managing the restaurant itself was busy, but on the other hand, there weren’t any suitable places nearby for a newbie like her to level up.
Whether it was the Dragon Mountain Range or the Qiana Mountains, the reason they were so popular with adventurers was because of the challenging monsters inside.
But now, at level 20, although not particularly high, it seemed like she might be able to handle some of them.