Chapter 116
SCREECH!
The train heading to Argos let out a long stream of steam.
Zeke entered his private compartment, settled in, and examined the materials sent by Kei.
It was a report from the Syndicate investigating Golin’s disappearance case.
While reading the report, Zeke had a dumbfounded expression.
‘He went up to the Giant Mountains to create a new work, and the last place where contact was lost was near the Barbarian territory?’
Barbarians live only among themselves due to their closed culture and kill any outsiders who approach their territory.
If Golin was mistakenly killed by the Barbarians, this would become a big problem.
“Hmm, since the mission goal is search rather than rescue. Maybe finding his body would be enough.”
Just as he was clicking his tongue at Golin’s reckless foolishness.
Suddenly, the door to Zeke’s compartment opened.
Zeke cautiously pulled out a dagger from his chest immediately.
“W-Wait! Hold on! It’s, it’s me!”
The one who opened the door and entered was none other than Kei.
Zeke put the dagger back in his chest and asked Kei, who was breaking out in cold sweat.
“Kei, what brings you here?”
When Kei took off her coat, her usual low-cut dress was revealed.
She sat across from Zeke, crossed her legs, and put a cigarette in her mouth.
“Do you know what materials were in the security box you gave me?”
Zeke shook his head while looking at Kei.
“No, if I could have known, I wouldn’t have sent it to you.”
At Zeke’s answer, Kei grumbled while pulling out a report.
“Take a look.”
While flipping through the materials Kei handed over, Zeke frowned.
“This is… serious.”
The materials didn’t just contain experiments of injecting monster blood into humans.
‘A chimera experiment combining humans and monsters.’
Human transformation magic was taboo among black magic.
The Empire was violating taboos and conducting experiments to turn humans into chimeras to make weapons of war.
Not only that, but it was written that they had kidnapped and experimented on various beast races as well as the Join race from the ghetto.
“Completely insane.”
Kei also nodded at Zeke’s words.
“So what are you going to do with this? If this gets out, the Empire will be in chaos.”
To those words, Zeke shook his head.
“The Empire will deny it. All the ruins where experiments were conducted have collapsed, so there’s no evidence.”
“They’ll deny it even though documents remain?”
“You don’t know the Rom Empire well. They’re the type to deny anything unfavorable to them no matter what. Even if undeniable evidence emerges, they’ll escape by cutting off the tail. They’ll probably pin it on individual mages going rogue.”
Zeke had clearly seen what atrocities the Empire committed in his previous life.
Even when they destroyed Atlas, the Empire claimed they were deploying peacekeeping forces to capture rebels threatening citizens.
But in reality, those so-called peacekeeping forces massacred more than half of Atlas’s citizens.
And Abel Draker and Morgan Buffon were involved in that massacre.
When one brave journalist presented evidence of the massacre of Atlas citizens, Morgan shamelessly announced it was the rebels’ atrocity before the peacekeeping forces arrived.
The journalist continuously exposed the Empire’s atrocities, but it was useless.
Then one day, the journalist passed away in an unfortunate accident.
Rumors that the Empire assassinated the journalist were rampant, but no one spoke of it openly.
Zeke was lost in thought while flipping through the documents.
He focused on the content about the Empire using beast people as test subjects.
Sending this material to Song of the Crouching Flame, who was raising the Western Revolutionary Army for the beast kin’s freedom, would give them justification more quickly.
‘I should meet Song of the Crouching Flame soon.’
Zeke handed the materials back to Kei and said.
“Well, I can see clearly enough that the Empire is gradually going mad. And do you have any findings about the place called ‘The Abyss’?”
Kei shook her head.
“I searched all dark magic clans but couldn’t find any place called The Abyss that has the Book of Death.”
“So they’re people even the Syndicate’s information network can’t reach…”
“I’ll keep looking into that. What are you planning to do with the Empire’s experiment data?”
“Let’s hold onto it for now. We shouldn’t leak it carelessly. We need to dig a trap that will completely corner them to strike accurately.”
Kei gathered the materials and stood up.
“Since you’re our boss, I’ll follow orders. But remember this one thing. You might think you’re acting alone, but your risk is never yours alone.”
Zeke grinned at Kei’s words.
“Hearing you say that reminds me of the old days.”
“Old days? What?”
Zeke realized he had just recalled Kei from his previous life.
“No, it’s nothing.”
“How bland. Complete your first mission well. When you return to Atlas, I’ll prepare a welcome back party with Senior Feinan.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Shortly after Kei left the compartment, the train departed.
Zeke closed his eyes gently, then opened them and took out a watch from his inner pocket.
Looking at the Chronos watch, his mother’s only heirloom, Zeke was lost in thought.
* * *
As soon as Zeke arrived in Argos, he put Draker’s uniform in his inventory and dressed like a typical mercenary would.
Then he headed to the Adventurer’s Guild with Zeke Murray’s ID that he had made before.
Usually the guild building would be packed with adventurers trying to get dungeon entry permits, but strangely it was quiet.
Zeke went inside and asked an employee who was doing a crossword puzzle.
“Why are there so few people?”
The employee looked up at Zeke and clicked their tongue.
“Haven’t you heard the news? Monster Alert Level 3 has been issued.”
Alert Level 3 meant high-risk monsters were appearing in the mountains.
Zeke asked the employee with a puzzled face.
“Alert Level 3? Are ogres roaming around?”
“Not just ogres. There are orcs of course, and they say even cyclops have appeared over there.”
Cyclops were fiercer and stronger monsters than ogres, but they were actually harder to find unless you went deep into dungeons.
Zeke realized something was wrong in the Giant Mountains.
‘Is it because those hounds were poking around the mountains back then?’
The hounds he saw in Kaisir’s dungeon were all torn apart by barbarians.
Other hounds could have come and stirred up the mountains, but he had a strong feeling that wasn’t all there was to it.
With Alert Level 3 issued, the regular carriage going up to base camp wouldn’t be running either.
It seemed he would have to climb up to the barbarian territory alone.
‘Since it’s come to this, I have enough water and food in my inventory so I should head up right away.’
With lots of monsters around, he could fill up on energy through gluttony anyway, so it wasn’t a big problem.
Zeke made up his mind and headed straight for the Giant Mountains.
And before long, he understood why Alert Level 3 had been issued.
“What are gnolls doing at the mountain entrance?”
The gnolls bared their sharp fangs and rushed at Zeke.
Whoosh!
Zeke lightly dodged the gnolls’ attack and swung Bahamut.
SLASH!
The gnolls’ bodies were cut to pieces and scattered on the ground.
[You have killed a wild gnoll. You gain 5 Karma Points.]
Zeke noticed that the stronger he got, the fewer points he received for killing monsters.
‘Still, better than nothing.’
Remembering the saying about gathering dust to make a mountain, Zeke killed all the low-level monsters that rushed at him.
As Zeke was climbing the mountain while killing monsters, he sensed a presence ahead.
“AAARGH!”
Hearing the screams that followed, Zeke slowly approached where he sensed the presence while hiding himself with stealth.
Climbing a tree to survey the situation, he saw what appeared to be an adventurer party engaged in battle with a horde of monsters.
SWOOSH!
An archer shot arrows at the monsters while a mage created barriers with magic from behind to block the monsters’ approach.
A swordsman pushed back approaching monsters while stabbing their vital points with his sword.
Another mage was launching ranged spells at distant monsters to keep them from approaching.
They seemed to be high-rank adventurers experienced in combat.
But the problem was there were too many monsters.
Zeke tilted his head while watching the monsters rushing at the adventurers.
‘What’s this? Orcs, gnolls, and even minotaurs? Why are different monster species together?’
Especially orcs and gnolls weren’t species that got along well.
They often fought between species since they lived in similar areas and environments.
But now orcs and gnolls were cooperating, with minotaurs supporting them from behind – this was something new even for Zeke with all his experience.
Zeke used Dragon Eye to scan the surroundings.
Usually when strange things like this happened, black mages were usually involved.
Through Dragon Eye, Zeke could detect an unusual energy flowing from a cave in one corner.
He immediately darted to that cave.
WHOOSH!
As soon as Zeke entered the cave, gargoyles guarding it rushed at him.
RAAAWRR!
Gargoyles with skin as hard as stone were like nightmares for adventurers.
This was because neither swords nor magic worked well against them.
But this wasn’t much of an issue for Zeke.
SLASH!
Bahamut instantly blew off the gargoyle’s head.
Someone in a black robe watching from behind backed away in shock.
‘H-how could he so easily defeat the enhanced gargoyle…?’
Zeke sensed something strange about the black-robed figure.
“Doesn’t seem like a simple necromancer. A lich?”
A forbidden technique where high-ranking black mages turn themselves into undead to extend their lifespan.
Black mages who became liches could use more powerful black magic in exchange for becoming undead.
The lich pointed its bony finger at Zeke.
‘’Tiresome adventurers! Get out of here at once!’’
Suddenly, skeletons made of monster bones rose from the ground.
Screech!
The monster skeletons rushed at Zeke.
But they scattered into dust instantly upon meeting Zeke’s sword.
The lich was shocked to see Zeke easily destroy the monster skeletons that were several times stronger than normal skeletons.
‘’Y-you. You’re not an adventurer. A-are you a knight?!’’
“Do I need to tell you that much?”
Zeke clicked his tongue and rushed at the lich.
Slash!
Bahamut cut off the lich’s arm.
Black smoke billowed up from the severed area.
The black smoke gathered without dispersing and soon regenerated the lich’s bone-like arm.
The lich said while looking at Zeke.
‘’Arrogant knight. I’ll turn you into a death knight and make you serve me forever.’’
After speaking, black smoke enveloped the lich’s body.
Then the black smoke turned into sharp spears and flew toward Zeke.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Zeke, wearing dragon scale armor, wasn’t particularly damaged by the lich’s dark magic.
Then something occurred to Zeke.
‘Wonder if I can catch this one with purification too.’
Zeke took out Agamemnon’s mask, put it in his chest, and used the purification skill.
Woong!
Golden waves erupted from Zeke’s body.
Zeke concentrated those waves into his sword, then swung the power of purification at the lich.
Slash!
The golden aura collided with the black smoke enveloping the lich’s body.
SCREECH!
Arrrgh!
When touched by the purification energy, the smoke turned to ash and scattered.
The lich trembled, twisting its whole body as if in pain.
“Hoh, not bad.”
While he was at it, Zeke decided to try soul binding too.
WHOOSH!
Chains shot out from Zeke’s arm and wrapped around the lich.
“Ugh!”
Bound by the chains, the lich couldn’t move an inch.
As Zeke approached after confirming this, the lich shouted while trembling.
“P-please spare me!”
“Spare what? Aren’t you already dead as a lich?”
“Th-that’s subtly different.”
“Either way, I don’t see why I should spare you.”
Since a lich was an undead with high magical power, catching one could earn quite good points.
Zeke brought the golden aura close without hesitation.
“Arrrgh!”
Feeling the crisis that it might completely cease to exist, the lich urgently shouted.
“S-Sir! If you spare me! I-I’ll give you treasure!”
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