"Sir. M-My apologies, both High Elf and that Intruder escaped." Says a guard, trembling in salute.
"Tch. Fuck!"
Carlos immediately decapitates that guard.
!!!!
The other guards watch in fear.
"Wait... High elf? Lorraine? That bitch!! She was working with him?!" Carlos exclaims.
...
"No no... I have to calm down."
Carlos takes out a circular device and places it on the table.
*bzzt* *bzzt*
After a while, a hologram popped out of the device and a man with blue hair and eyes wearing a huge blue robe can be vaguely seen.
"That's rare. For the hero to call me. What's wrong?" Says that man.
"Shut up... Answer my question. Is it possible for the dead to rise?" Asks Carlos.
"Possible? What kind of question even is that? Why are you asking that all of a sudden?"
...
"Ken. Do you remember that guy?"
The man thinks for a while. "Oh, that meat shield? Yeah, I recalled. What about him?"
"Ken gave me a visit."
!!!!????
"W-What? Are you sure-"
"YES, I AM SURE!" Carlos shouts. "I can guarantee you that I did not drink anything weird in the past 24 hours. Ken, completely fine, came to me, saying that he will give me despair and whatnot."
"... You are serious?"
....
"It's not possible. From my years of study, the only possible solution is necromancy. But zombies do not have emotions nor the ability to rationalise and are only slaves to their master." Says the man.
...
"I...yeah. I must be overthinking things. That 'ken' must be an imposter." Says Carlos.
-------------
...
I place the body of my sister down.
I'm back at the ruin of my home.
...
Her body has gone cold. The thought of reviving her as a zombie occurs but I know better than anyone because of Keldon's experience.
...
In the end, I dug a hole near the house and buried her there.
As the moonlight gaze down on this site, I stack a few rocks above one another.
...
The breeze blew past. The sound of the calm waves. I'm left with nothing in this world.
Ha...
How pathetic. I don't know what to feel.
...
The man that Carlos was talking to must be Siet. He is the magician of my party which specialized in the studies of destruction spells. Since when did he know about Necromancy?
That does not matter, since he gives Carlos troublesome information, he will be my next target.
When I confronted Carlos, I planted a transmission spell on him. Such that any information he knows will be known to me too.
Keldon... He said something about training me...
-------------
"Oh? You are back... And you look terrible." Says Keldon.
...
Keldon sighs.
"You...are in no state for any training. For now, take it easy and recover-"
"No. Let's start."
...
Keldon smirks. "Nice eyes."
-----------
I open my eyes. The glaring sunlight burns my skin.
Looking at the sword leaning against me, I grab it and get into a stance.
I bring the sword up and swing it down.
!!!!
The sword sliced through the air, creating two waves of wind from both sides.
The...
Keldon started with the most basic training he could think of, swinging the sword 1 million times each day with two bags of sand on both arms.
Since time moves 20 times slower in the "dream" world, training is a lot more effective.
...my arm.
With just one slash, my arms are starting to sore. I can accumulate experience in the dream world but my physical body is still the same as yesterday.
...
Lorraine pops into my view. Looks like she has been standing behind me for the entire night.
From Lorraine's memory... Siet should be in Poik, the city of magicians at about north of here.
I wear my robe and set off quickly.
-------------
"Have you heard? That a terrorist attacked Carlos when he was at Judger."
"What? Which fool would do that? He is seeking death. Hey, you! Come over here!" Shouts a man leaning against a rock.
"Yes?" I say, running up to him.
"Take you and your woman with the stash. We are moving."
"Yes, right already."
Lorraine and I disguised as a mercenary to enter Poik. We are guarding a group of traders called "Golden Heart."
They are notorious for their ability to negotiate and can rarely be tricked, making them gain the maximum profit. Despite this, people still trade with them as the Golden Heart have priceless treasures and antiques from an unknown location.
I grab the box by the side and lift it. Lorraine does the same. We walk to the truck and load the boxes on the cargo bed.
A man whistled and the both of us quickly step onto the back of another truck with the other mercenaries.
*vroooooooom...*
The truck at the front moves and this truck followed.
...
One mercenary sighed and look around.
His eyes caught mine before I quickly look away.
"Hey boy. What's your name?" Says that mercenary.
"...Nel."
"And your girlfriend?"
...
Lorraine did nothing but stare.
"She's a mute, Jenice."
"A-Ah... My bad. I'm Mern. Since all of us are working together, we should at least get to know more about one another."
Everyone gave Mern sceptical looks.
"Uh...hehe...okay fine. I will be honest, I'm bored okay. I want to talk about something." Says Mern.
..!
"Then, I'm new to Poik, what do you know about that city."
Mern, together with other mercenaries looks at me. Figured, considering how popular Poik is but because when Poik was established, I was still stuck in that dungeon.
"Well... Let's see. Firstly, it's full of magicians from around tier 4 to tier 8. The president of Poik is Siet, the legendary sage who subdued the demon lord with Carlos! I even heard that the glorious buildings in Poik are all constructed using magic, that's how Poik is also highly admired by builders, architectures, etc." Says Mern.
That explains Poik being established within a year.
"I advise you not to do anything suspicious." Says another mercenary beside Mern. He has a bandage wrapped around his left eye and has a good body build with rusty gears you see everywhere. "Every citizen at Poik is highly trained to respond to threats. That's why Poik does not have an army as everyone inside Poik is the army."
...
The silence came back. Even Mern gave up lightening the mood.
After a while, the trucks came to an abrupt stop.
?
"...?"
The mercenaries looked at one another in confusion.
"Hey! What happened?" Shouts the one beside Mern.
There's no reply from the driver's seat.
Somethings off...
...
Suddenly, it has become harder to breathe. Clouds of fog fill the air.
...
"Wait... Everyone get off this truck!" Mern shouts.
By instinct, everyone, including me, followed his command.
Just after the last mercenary step out, a black tentacle immediately pierces through the truck from above.
?!!!
Lorraine and I immediately duck. From the tentacle, sharp black matter extended out and pierced some mercenaries.
"ARGHH!!"
Red pulses can suddenly be seen from the tentacle. The pierced mercenary starts to dry up and become scrawny.
Mern immediately steps in to slice the mysterious matter but it was too late. The unlucky mercenaries were already sucked dry and died miserably.
"What the fuck! Those bastards tricked us!" Says a female mercenary.
I look around. We are in the middle of a forest, the fog is thick but I have a visual range of about 10 metres.
"It's magic... Those bastards trapped us in a magic array!!" Shouts Mern.
What's going on? To think Golden Heart would collaborate with Poik? They are a greedy bunch but they still have pride, do they?
I went ahead and inspect the corpse. They are dead. So this is not an illusion.
Firstly, that black tentacle, blood-sucking matter, red pulsing. No doubt. It's a Cthulhu that feeds on humans.
Secondly, the remaining alive numbers up to 18. Even if I use them as a distraction, it will not be enough.
I take out my compass, it's not working. The north and south point is constantly spinning like drunkards. Electronics don't work too.
Tch.
So confronting the monster and escaping is out.
Then if this is a magic array. I need to find the magic circuit that fuels this array and break it. Usually, it should be in the middle of the array.
Since we didn't go far after the fog appeared, we must be at the circumference of the array so...
Lorraine and I start running into the forest.
"Hey hey! Where are you going!"
The road that the truck was travelling is at a perpendicular angle from the middle, so if I go this way...
Bingo.
Under a bush, there's a red light emitting from it.
I plunge my sword into the dirt and something exploded under.
A growl can be heard from afar as the fog slowly dissipate.
"You! You did it!" Says Mern as he runs to me, panting. The other mercenaries followed him. They seemed to be tailing me.
"But how did you figure it out?"
"Magic array will have a magic circuit." Says the female mercenary beside Mern.
She sighed. "I forgot about such a piece of important information at that crucial moment."
She walks to me and extends a hand. "Anyways, you are good. I'm Jane."
...
I take her hand and shake it.
"But that monster disappeared too. Is it an illusion?"
...
Mern sighs. "Anyways, the one who set this array must be a magician. A good one too. I suspect that it's from Poik so there's no reason for us to go to Poik anymore. We can only spread this rumour to encourage travellers to Poik."
The mercenaries nod in agreement. They start to leave but I continue at the path to Poik.
"Wait, both of you! Why are you going in that direction?" Says Jane, stopping me.
"I have something I need to do at Poik. Even if it cost my life."
...
"Okay. Be safe." Jane says.
...
Without looking back, I proceeded.
-------------
The sound of waves can be heard.
I step over a patch of bush and the scenery came into sight.
A gigantic island floating above a blue sea. Surrounding the island is a transparent ring, presumably a protection barrier.
Poik, the city of magicians, or the floating city.
I throw a glance towards the patch of land on my left. Beside the cliff is a vegetation plot, managed by an ordinary village nearby.
I guess that in exchange for protection, the village must provide food supplies for the magicians.
...
This is a gamble...
-------------
Siet sighs.
He sulks on his big chair, tapping the brown table beside intermittently.
"What's wrong, young master?" Says a woman beside him dressed as a secretary. Her hair has a shade of red but has traces of blue in it.
"Food. We are running low on them. Because of the current season, there is low rainfall and the village nearby is suffering from a low crop yield. Tch, those useless fuck." Says Siet.
"Why don't we help them then-"
Siet slams on the table. "Do you have no pride as a magician!?"
"I-I'm sorry..."
...
Siet calms himself down. "Magicians are gifted talents. Not everybody can circulate Mana and create things that oppose common sense. The others would agree with me too, there's no way we are helping those useless commoners. Looks like we need to find another source of food..."
As he was speaking, a magician came barging into the room.
?!
"Sir! We found an intruder loitering at the 'farm' nearby." He says.
?
That magician in red robe snaps and two magicians in blue ropes pulls me in.
I am chained from the body to the leg.
"Who is this kid... What were you doing? Trying to poison us? Are you a descendent of that 'pigs'?" Siet says with a smirk.
"We have checked the crops and found no trace of poison yet." Says the magician in red robes.
"Oh... Hm... First of all take of his mask." Says Siet.
"Uh... About that..."
?
"We can't. The mask is enchanted with an ancient scroll, even the most profound scroll master in Poik cannot decipher this weird thing."
Siet throws me a glance of suspicion. His smirk disappears.
"... Send him to the dungeon. We will investigate more about him soon."
"Yes sir!"
They pull me out of the room.
As the door closed, I had eye contact with Siet and behind the mask, I smirk.
--------------
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