Volume 5 Chapter 4: Centaur

“Coming!” With crisp clip-clop sounds, Michelle walked from the office area to the police station front desk.

“Sirs, please follow me!” Michelle’s voice was a bit high-pitched. Her youthful face still bore some soft down, her horse hooves strong and powerful, her hindquarters rounded and pert. She was a very young female centaur.

Michelle led the group to the parking lot behind the station and they boarded a large Jeep. This was a special Jeep designed for centaur officers, with spacious seats wide enough to accommodate their lower bodies. For humanoids, however, it wasn’t very comfortable. There were no backrests, and the support for the centaur body made the seat seem “too long.”

“My apologies, sirs!” Michelle turned her head with a sweet smile and started the vehicle.

“Don’t worry, Officer Michelle!” A heart-stopping smile spread across Qin Lun’s handsome face.

“Qin Lun, can I ask you something?” As soon as they’d settled in, Cora’s inquiry came over the team channel.

“Sure!”

“Why insist you handle communication with the station?” Cora asked cautiously.

After arriving at the station, Qin Lun had suddenly insisted he take the lead, with Cora instructing him what to say over the team channel. Maybe it was because Qin Lun’s group revealed something about their background, or maybe getting the Dark Gold Staff had put Cora in a good mood. Unlike her hot-tempered husband, the calmer Cora agreed to the suggestion.

“Mrs. Cora, you saw the situation at Crystal Lake City police department just now, right?” Qin Lun gave a slight smile. “The officers there were mostly centaurs!”

“Of course. Most of Crystal Lake is mountains, forests, and swamps, and it’s a tourist area. If something happens, centaur officers are better suited for rescue operations!” Cora sounded confused. “What does that have to do with my question?”

Qin Lun exchanged a glance with Hill. Both men saw a trace of resignation in the other’s eyes. They’d hinted this much, and yet this Esmira woman still couldn’t figure it out herself. It was hard to believe she’d once been a police officer.

“Qin Lun currently appears as an elf to plot characters,” Hill reminded her softly over the channel.

“Oh!” The realization dawned on Cora.

State police departments in this country operated independently. Combined with the numerous races of Nals World, a Mansay State detective coming to Louis State to inquire about case progress—even if the victims were Mansay citizens—might not get cooperation.

Although Cora had once been an officer, in the eyes of the Louis police department’s centaur officers, she was just a Dreinei woman. But Qin Lun was different. Elves held a higher status among all forest-affiliated races. Him dealing with the centaur officers made them subconsciously feel psychological pressure, less likely to dare brush them off.

“Mrs. Cora, I have a question for you too!” Seeing Cora’s understanding, Qin Lun chose his moment. “Why didn’t we wait for Chief Marov to return? After all, some files require access within the precinct.”

“Hmph! That old officer earlier was stalling. Chief Marov might be on duty at Crystal Lake Campground right now, perhaps already running into clues about the Johns.” Cora lifted her chin, speaking with a hint of pride. “When officers from another jurisdiction don’t want outsiders interfering in their case, this is the kind of trick they pull. It’s nothing new!”

Qin Lun and Hill fell silent. This wasn’t something they could have deduced on observation alone. Bringing this woman along proved useful.

“Heh, whether that’s true or not, asking Miss Michelle here will settle it!” Qin Lun teased over the team channel.

“Wait, she won’t tell you—(don’t alert the enemy)!” Cora and Hill both spoke up simultaneously in the channel to stop him.

Too late. Qin Lun had already asked, “Officer Michelle, is Chief Marov on duty at Crystal Lake Campground?”

“Ah! Well…” A flicker of caution appeared in Michelle’s eyes. She turned and saw Qin Lun’s exquisitely handsome elf features. Her gaze softened slightly. “There was a murder in a villa on the campground’s edge, quite far from the previous crime scene. But… everyone thinks it’s the same killer!”

“X!” Watching the centaur maiden’s cheeks flush pink, Hill cursed inwardly and averted his eyes with mild embarrassment.

“This works too?” Cora stared blankly for a moment, heat rising to her own cheeks—though hers was from anger. She muttered disapprovingly, “Hmph! Deceiving a young girl’s feelings. Father Hill, you’re truly an unfit priest!”

“What’s that got to do with me?” The Shepherd responded, genuinely baffled.

The muddy forest road to Crystal Lake Campground was bumpy, keeping the Jeep’s speed low. With time to spare, the team of three shared their experiences from quest worlds.

Of the two serial killers, Qin Lun had only experienced three quest worlds, while Hill had also only completed three. Cora, having finished five, only had marginally more experience. Their collective adventure expertise was relatively thin, making their discussion genuinely earnest.

Though their conversation was broad, it quickly centered on three main aspects: quest difficulty classification, equipment grading, and the relative strengths of skills and techniques.

Regarding quest difficulty, Qin Lun also harbored doubts. His first trial world used classifications like “Satellite,” “Planetary,” and “Stellar.” Yet, in the Phantom Demon World—his second—difficulty ranked as Class A, B, or C.

Obviously, he assumed the Phantom Demon World’s overlap with Superstring Space caused some jumbling between the two major cosmic structures’ difficulty scales, and hadn’t paid much attention. But then came the World War II World and now Nals World, where difficulty classifications began mirroring the Earth Federation military rank system. He felt genuine confusion then.

Hill shared this question. Cora, having undergone two more quest world cycles, offered a plausible explanation. Perhaps it was because Apostles came from vastly different cultural backgrounds and levels of understanding. The Shattered Starry Sky was also adapting to them, refining how it presented quest descriptions based on an Apostle’s performance and using terms they could better comprehend.

Qin Lun and Hill accepted this. Soon, their focus shifted to equipment grading. Apostle equipment was diverse, far more complex than quest difficulty classifications.

Here, despite Cora’s extra experience, she actually knew less than Qin Lun and Hill. She’d handled far fewer pieces of gear than the two serial killers. Pooling information from the equipment they’d personally seen or acquired, they noted most items at Devil’s Horn’s Auction House were of Blue, Purple, or Dark Gold quality.

These three qualities each had roughly three sub-grades. Blue had Light Blue, Regular, and Deep Blue. Purple had Pale Purple, Regular, and Reddish Purple. Dark Gold had Shiny Gold, Dark Gold, and Purple Gold. Above these came Sub-Legendary and Legendary equipment.

From rumors they’d heard, Sub-Legendary and Legendary were similar in material quality. The primary distinction seemed to lie in whether the item possessed an Artifact Spirit. Legendary equipment itself likely had sub-classifications. They hadn’t seen anything beyond Legendary tier themselves.

During the discussion, Qin Lun and Hill realized Life-Taking Relics, like Legendary items, almost never appeared at auction houses. Cora hadn’t even heard of this special type of weapon—items that could absorb a being’s soul power to continuously improve in quality.

Among the five serial killers, Qin Lun’s Dagger of Sin had been retrieved for him by Lin Feng. The others acquired theirs as part of their deals with the Federation base.

Hill’s Life-Taking Relic was a small cross with an unknown function. Clown Grant had his Human Skin Mask, housing the powerful skill “Joker’s Gift.” The Life-Taking Relics of Disciple Hansen and Firecracker Rand were unknown; they might have been damaged during the base transportation.

Their gear talk was relatively dry; their pooled knowledge yielded little new detail. But the conversation about skills and techniques grew much more animated. Cora, in particular, contributed significantly. Esmira Star had a highly developed magical civilization, and her profession as an Arcane Support Enforcer required training in numerous magic control techniques.

Upon entering the Shattered Starry Sky, several of Cora’s own magical skills received direct recognition from its laws, instantly becoming Apostle Skills. These had served her well in her initial quest worlds.

However, the proudly chatting policewoman completely failed to notice the meaningful smiles exchanged by Hill and Qin Lun. The more she divulged about her magical arsenal, the greater the disdain hidden in the two killers’ polite grins grew.

The serial killers weren’t probing Cora’s capabilities. They couldn’t harm fellow team members anyway, and in a crisis, teaming up with the Sas couple seemed unlikely. They didn’t really care what skills Cora possessed.

Their disdain stemmed from her humble bragging. Possessing so many potent magical skills and still struggling like this? Qin Lun and Hill had entered the Shattered Starry Sky virtually as normal humans, save for their single, low-level Life-Taking Relics.

“Sir Castro, the crime scene is ahead. I’m afraid we’ll have to park here!” Michelle, who was driving, suddenly turned to alert them. Engrossed in their discussion, they hadn’t noticed arriving at the edge of Crystal Lake Campground.

The three ended their talk and looked out. Before them stood a uniquely styled leisure villa. Police cordon tape was pulled taut around its perimeter, with numerous officers collecting samples inside. Clearly, authorities hadn’t been on-site long.

“Sirs, please follow me. Chief Marov should be inside.” Michelle led them past the cordon towards the villa.

“Michelle! What are you doing here?” As soon as the quartet entered the villa, a burly centaur officer emerged from within.

He was significantly larger than Michelle, almost a full head taller, with a thick beard. A scar like a centipede ran down his left eye, and a golden sheriff’s badge hung around his neck.

“Chief! I was ordered to bring Detective Castro of Mansay State and Detective Rowling to see you.” Young Michelle saluted Marov and stepped aside.

“Got here fast!” Marov muttered under his breath, his lips curling slightly as he looked up to observe Qin Lun’s group.

“Castro. Nice to meet you, Chief Marov.” Qin Lun stepped forward with a friendly smile and extended his hand towards the centaur.