The Ruined Death Knight-Novel

"We are here, it´s this place." Serran pointed at a building with the sign saying [Nercana Land Management].

Although the name was more on the boring side, it did get the point across.

Going inside the building, the trio glanced around only to see not a single soul in sight.

"Are you sure we are in the right place?" Hannes said with doubt written on his face.

And he wasn´t the only one with such doubts.

Without even glaring at those two, he walked towards the receptionist's table.

"Hey, Jeyckop! Where have you gone his time!" Serran said while lining over the table.

"Ugh... you half-a*s brat, why have you come this time around." a man grumbled annoyed.

With heavy footsteps, a giant of a man looked down on the half-elve.

He had a height of 3 meters tall with a body wide enough to cover two Serran´s standing by side together and arms as big of a full-grown adult head.

Upon the appearance of the man, both Hannes and Danzel were surprised.

One had to say that both of them were quite tall and bulgy on their own way. Hannes has the muscles while Danzel wearing heavy plate armor.

But compared to the giant in front of them, they could even be seen as brats dressed up for Halloween.

While Hannes felt like he lost a battle, Danzel question how that guy was capable to move all that flesh of his.

And Serran who by far was the shortest among us was more like an 8-year old child in Jeyckop´s eyes.

"Hey, Jeyckop! Look what I brought here for you." Serran said as he pointed at Danzel.

Turning his head, Jeyckop stared at Danzel with a frown on his face.

"Kid, I ain´t sure what happend through your journeys as a self-proclaimed mercenary, but I didn´t think that you would go so far to introduce your husband to me..." The man, Jeyckop shook his head in dissaprovedment.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Silence befell the room.

While Danzel stared coldly at Jeyckop with no hint of emotion, Hannes looked at those two as if he learned the greatest secret of the world.

Shaking his head like a fish fighting for his life outside the water, Serran started explaining the situation.

"Jeyckop... that ice statue over there isn´t my husband by a long shot. Neither that blockhead beside him."

"What I came here for is to show you a customer of yours!" Serran said with a smug smile on his face.

"Customer?" Jeyckop asked confused.

Stepping forward, Danzel pointed at himself.

"That would be me..." 

"..." Jeychop stared in silence before turning his head at Serran.

"You ungrateful child! Is that how you want to repay an old man! I have already enough work on my plate! But you want to put more work on those shoulders!? I am disappointed in you, Serran!" Jeychop said.

Serran rolled his eyes at Jeychop´s statement.

"If you mean the none existed souls inside this deserted place, then you indeed have lots of work to take care of."

Glaring grandly at Serran for a moment, he turned his head and faced Danzel.

"So? What business does a knight have to do at this place?"

Taking a peek at Serran, he looked at Jeychop.

"I am here to buy a place to stay..."

"A place to stay you say? Isn´t an inn enough for you?"

"...I prefer having a private place for myself." Danzel said somewhat speechless.

"Tch, isn´t he a mercenary like you? Can he even effort that?" Jeychop asked Serran.

Serran in turned just shrugged his shoulders.

He too wasn´t sure if Danzel had the money to buy his own place.

With his brows furrowed, he stared at Serran.

"Did you seriously bring me a penniless man as a customer? At least if you are going to waste my time, at least make it wort-"

*Ting!

Placing a bag with 500 gold coin´s on the table, Danzel cut Jeyckop short.

"I repeat... I am here to buy a place."

His tone was cold and absolute as if there were no further negotiations to be made.

"..."

Once again, silence came in the room.

Only the sound of Jeyckop grabbing the small bag with coins in it could be heard.

*Ting

Jeyckop stayed silent through the whole process of observing the coins.

`They are real...` Sighing internally, he put the bag down the table and this time looked seriously at Danzel.

"What do you want?"

`Is he deaf?´ That was Danzel's first thought upon hearing that.

"...I would like to find a place with a big storage room that is further away from the populated areas."

"...Wait here." Taking the bag of gold with him, Jeyckop walked somewhere inside the staff area.

A short while later, Jeychop came again with three pieces of paper in his hand.

"Here, pick and choose..."

Serran who briefly took a look at what places those papers contained frowned slightly.

"Jeychop, this is-"

"Be quiet, Serran." Jeyckop said with a stern voice.

Though Serran would usually get angry if he were to hear that from him, this time he didn´t.

`For the old man to use such a voice...´

Compared to Serran who looked quite conflicted, Hannes was still flabbergasted by seeing 500 gold coins being spent in front of him.

"Hey, Danzel! Are you seriously spending 500 gold coins just for a place to stay!? If you were to go to the best inn of Nercana instead, you will be able to live well of for...many years! You could even get yourself an even better armor and sword that you currently have now"

His attempt to speak some sense at Danzel sadly fell into deaf ears.

Though Hammes was mostly right at what he said, the points he mentioned weren't that appealing.

First off, the inn would be no different than a prison to Danzel.

Not only could he not eat, but he would also be unable to train as it would probably disrupt people around him.

His training had to be intense for him to get XP out of it.

The room space would also be of problem.

Sometimes he would go and use some of his skills mid-training to get more familiar with mana and the skills themselves.

Such training was far too dangerous to use in an enclosed room.

Just imaging shooting out accidentally an air blade sounded terrible enough.

The other rather the reason why he disliked the idea of going to the inn was the food.

Since according to Serran, most of the inns charge for food and the room together.

And as a skeletor undead, he obviously hadn't the word eat on his vocabulary.

Which meant he would be buying food that he couldn't even eat in the first place.

And spending money/XP without reason was one of the things that Danzel considered taboo.

Looking at that perspective, the inn offered him nothing more than a prison cell that he had to pay off.

Buying his own place instead sounded much more appealing to him.

Though expensive, yes.

The benefit that it would provide would cover the cost. 

He would gain privacy that would allow him to train as much as he want.

A place to learn about magic and runes generally out of prying eyes and at last he would gain an inventory for the runed equipment that he had to somehow sell.

[The Ring of Spatial Storage] had his limits.

As for the armor, he mention he did indeed plan to buy a new one or at least the arm part where it was damaged by that damned wolf.

Though the other parts of the armor had a few scratches here and there, they weren't that serious.

Though some might consider him stingy, which they would be right by fair say.

He actually thought that moving money is better than lying somewhere to be forgotten.

In Danzel's ethereal eyes, money was a reusable tool that could help him grow stronger faster, be it from skills or equipment.

His stingy side of his came from his want to use his resources in hand to the maximum efficiency.

Although he wouldn't call himself a perfectionist, he was indeed closing in that rank.

Removing all of the useless thoughts of his mind, he grabbed and read through the papers.

'Hmm, an abandoned mana crystal factory, huh? The space that it held is massive but other than this it didn't have much to offer.

Although the area around the factory wasn't as populated as here, it still had a decent amount of people living there.'

"How about this one..."

Reading through the paper, Danzel would even have a frown on his face if he could.

Though it met the required space and area, this place was way too far from Nercana.

With the place being almost out of the city, he quickly put the paper down until reading the last one of the.

"This is..." Reading through the paper, Danzel nodded to himself before showing Jeyckop the last paper.

" I want this place..."

"Hmm..." Showing a confused look, Jeyckop stared at danzel.

Or rather his chest plate in the middle part where it looked similar to a cross.

Looking at the paper at the cross again, Jetchop couldn't help but ask.

"Are you by chance a Paladin?"