I ended up hunting warlocks with the marksmen by accident.
But I didn't think it was a bad thing.
I was curious as to what Lanox had come to the Krateth Mountains for in the first place, so it wasn't a bad coincidence.
'It would be best if we could get a clue as to his guilt.
The ten marksmen didn't have as developed a sense of smell as the towmen, but they had enough sense to follow the trail.
Moving with their help, I made it a good distance before I came to a sudden halt.
"What's going on?"
"The trail is broken. As if it had gone out into the sky or the earth."
They were still wary of me, but at least they weren't hostile.
I decided to try mana detection from here on out.
'Mana Detect is catching it too....'
Then I realized something was off.
I sensed a trail of mana coming from one of the trees, a trail that I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the mana talent that allowed me to see mana in a blur.
As he approached the tree and took a closer look, he realized that the trail led to another tree behind it.
'This form is....'
A connection?
' I thought to myself as I saw the twisted trail of mana leading from tree to tree, and then to another tree behind it.
I drew my sword, channeled the mana into the blade, and swung.
Kwagakak!
The sword bounced back with a tremendous amount of force.
The result was quite a shock.
'I thought I was getting pretty strong.
Not so fast.
As they watched me do my deed, the marksmen rushed over and stared in wonder at the tree I'd cut down.
"What the hell is this?"
"I think it's a connection. Perhaps the one who handled the insects is hiding here."
After saying that, I felt a little puzzled.
Judging by the quality of the tree, it was not made in a day or two.
"The Marked Village and this covenant. There must have been quite a few things in the past that aren't in the game.
I'd beaten a lot of the game, but I didn't know everything that happened.
Especially if it's from a time before the start of the game.
"Are the missing people recent?"
"Yes, just a few days."
That's when something poked through the grid.
It looked like an insect's forepaw, and I barely dodged it with a split-second reflex.
"Enemy!"
The marksmen looked at the seemingly normal forest as they prepared for battle.
The forest was apparently uneventful, but then, as if out of thin air, something walked out.
"That's him.
But it wasn't just one.
There were two of them.
They were followed by a horde of sizzling insects.
"Maybe I was wrong.
I had assumed Lanox had come to the Krateth Mountains with some sort of agenda, but the sheer number of his troops made me wonder if this might have been his home base in the first place.
Later, when I saw that there was nothing here, it seemed more likely that Lanox had wiped out the Marksmen's village and changed his residence.
"We are outnumbered, Jadvihorn, return to the village at once and inform them of this and order an evacuation!"
One of the marksmen shouted, looking ready to die.
Given the number of enemies, his words made sense.
This was more than a village could handle.
And his cries were soon drowned out by the noise of the insects.
Parrr.
Whirring.
"We die here to protect our village!"
One of the marksmen roared and charged the insects, and the others followed suit.
"You talk like you're going to die...."
You think you're going to lose.
Well, maybe I will.
I drew my Galakshur and started smashing the insects.
"I'm going to show you what you're really made of.
I summoned Nickel and sent him straight to the marksman, who was just now being attacked by the insects.
I'd be wearing a mask anyway, so it wouldn't matter if they realized I was a necromancer.
Whiz-bang!
"Ugh!"
Startled by Nickel's sudden appearance, the tableaux let out a gasp and stepped back.
He watched as Nickel began to swat at the insects, and before he could think about the situation, he was swept away by the wave of insects.
At this point, I summoned Timur.
I left Timur to deal with the unwanted insects and ran to the remaining scorpions.
"Let's test their mettle.
It's said that a group of them can take on an Auror Master, so let's see what I'm made of.
I ran straight at the low-flying one and swung my sword.
But he dodged the blow in an instant and threw four punches at me.
His flight was fast, but his fists were slow, so I blocked and dodged, then stepped back.
"Those wings are a problem.
The high-speed flight caused by the wings was faster than I expected.
But judging by his inability to keep moving as fast, it seemed he had limitations too.
Crash.
The next moment, my opponent threw a body blow at me with incredible speed.
He seemed to realize that it was more efficient to slam into his torso than to swing his fists, so he came at me quite menacingly, but he wasn't foolish enough to be hit by an attack that came straight and honestly.
'It's definitely strong, but....'
Something was lacking.
How many of them could band together to take down an Auror Master at this level?
As far as I could tell, they had come while Lanox's skills were still low.
And my guess was correct, for in the distance, the creature that had been fighting Nickel was now rolling on the ground, its limbs dismembered and its wings torn off.
"Nickel."
I called out to Nickel and handed him the one I was fighting.
They weren't of a high enough level that I didn't feel the need to take them on, so I decided to help out with the tableaux.
That's when it happened.
KUAANG!
There was a loud crash and Timur was knocked backwards.
As if in a wrestling match, the enemy Timur was holding onto was the same insect I had fought, but its color was subtly different.
"When did that thing pop out again?
Before I could finish my sentence, Timur's opponent threw a series of punches at me.
I thought it was the same creature, just a different color, and Timur was pushed back.
BANG!
One punch later, Timur was slammed into a tree.
Is that real?
Nickel, who had just finished dealing with the insect I was fighting, flung his robes over his shoulders like a cloak and approached the guy who threw Timur.
The creature felt intimidated by Nickel and flapped its wings, making a strange noise.
"I apologize for suddenly intruding on the atmosphere between you two, but...."
[Cast Lesser Command: Summon Ghoul].
[163 corpses detected].
[Caster's power is insufficient; 82 corpses react].
[Lesser Command: Summon Ghoul succeeds]
[82 Worm-type Ghouls (Common) have been summoned].
"I specialize in multiples."
The insect corpses that had risen around him soon attacked their former comrades.
Nearly half of them flocked to the differently-colored scarab.
With a burst of air, he shook off the worm-like ghouls that were charging at him, only to be decapitated by a single blade from Nickel, who had used his fluidization to reach him.
'Cowardly if I do say so myself.'
Still, the opponent was outnumbered, so maybe he wasn't that cowardly?
He thought to himself as he crushed the remaining insects.
Lanox was very affectionate with his bugs, and he was probably coughing up blood right now.
"Da, what the hell are you...."
The marksmen watched, dumbfounded, as I and my undead neatly pulverized their enemies.
Time to kill at least one more, right? There's still quite a bit left.
* * *
The mana recovery boost from Original Sin was quite helpful.
After about five rounds of killing, re-summoning, killing, and re-summoning, the crawling worms finally settled down.
Thanks to Nickel's handling of the insects early on, none of the Marksmen died.
A few wounds here and there, but it was fresh blood compared to all those bugs.
"You mean we stopped that many?"
"I'm tired of this, and I want to get cleaned up."
"If we knew we could stop them, we wouldn't have sent Jadvihorn to the village."
They didn't seem to mind that I was now summoning the undead.
I suppose I shouldn't blame them for saving my life.
"By the way, I don't see any sign of Rannox.
Is he crying inside?
It was time to finish the job, so I pounded my fingers on the nailed wood.
It bounced back as it had the first time, as if I'd spent too much mana, and Nickel shook his head, stepped to my side, and swung his sword.
A spatula.
I marveled at the simple, clean cuts in the wood.
It doesn't look like much, so what's the problem?
The grain cracked, revealing a hidden landscape.
A giant, unseen tree, with a cave-like opening at its base, emanated an eerie aura.
"That must be the home base."
I'd like to keep the marksmen away from here.
"It could be dangerous in there, so I'll go in alone."
"What do you mean, we can't send our village benefactor off on a limb alone."
Now there's respect.
I thanked him but politely declined.
"You want to waste the life I barely saved? No way. If you're nervous, don't follow me, wait here."
I gestured to Nickel and Timur, who stood beside me, and assured them that it was no problem, and they backed off.
I left them alone and went into the hollow of the tree, which was covered in some sort of sticky fluid, and bug monsters that looked like babies were scurrying around.
"So this is Lanox's dungeon after all.
I don't know when they moved in, but judging by the state of the place, they've been here for quite some time.
I wonder why they've been so quiet, and why they're suddenly attacking the marksmen.
Nickel and Timur fended off the insect attacks and went deeper into the dungeon.
There they saw the corpses of all sorts of monsters and beasts, as well as the corpses of humans and other races.
A cursory examination revealed that the corpses were being used to breed worms.
"Maybe they were running out of prey and attacking the people?
It didn't matter why.
It had nothing to do with me.
I just wanted to get rid of Lanox early, as he would be a problem later.
"Hey. Where are you hiding?"
The trunk of the tree was a maze.
I was trusting Timur's sense of smell to keep me going, but I was worried that he might be running away.
After walking for a while, using Mana Detect in between, I finally caught a glimpse of him.
I ran over, not bothering to hide my grin.
Lanox, like all summoners, has a zero attack power, so there was no danger as long as I killed most of the insects.
"There you are!"
"Who the hell are you and why are you attacking me, a fellow warlock!"
The scrawny-looking Lanox shouted, looking at me in frustration.
I approached him with my sword raised, my face hidden by my mask.
"Are you a member of the Covenant, and have you come to retaliate against me for not joining?"
"What. Aren't you a member of the Covenant?"
Of course I thought Lanox was a member, but maybe he hadn't joined yet.
And my question surprised him.
"You're not from the Covenant?"
At that moment, I felt an unknown energy in my body and a message popped up.
[The 'pure original sin' feels the power of 'charitable greed'].
Greed?
Out of nowhere?
Must be because I have original sin.
Instinctively, I recognized the objects in Lanox's possession as being related to the pages of Greed.
I asked him one last question before killing him.
"Who authorized you to join the coven?"
"What the hell are you talking about, if you're not the Coven, what are you?"
"Answer the question. Before I kill you."
"I think I heard you say, Hegel. Please don't kill me."
Hagel had come all this way.
I'm glad I didn't run into him.
At my current skill level, I would have lost to him.
"He wasn't at the last meeting, but he's a top-notch warlock.
I got the answer I wanted and pointed my sword at him.
"Give me everything you have, right here, right now."
"Ah, I see."
He began to rummage through his robes, tossing things to the floor.
I looked through them to see if any of them had anything to do with the Page of Greed, but the aura of greed still flowed from Rannox.
"That's it, there's no more."
"You're lying."
Bam!
"Ack!"
I jabbed him in the shoulder with my sword.
Then Lanox screamed and struggled.
"Okay! Wait! Please don't kill me!"
I could have just killed him and taken it, but I wanted to find out where he'd gotten the thing.
Finally, Lanox pulled a blood-red jewel from his bosom.
"That's it.
[Shard of Charitable Greed].