The battle didn't last long.
As the smoke slightly thinned out, the sounds of fighting stopped.
The Skeleton Warriors remained still, and the skeleton dogs, who were dragging the bodies of those who had tried to escape, came back.
After confirming that no one else was around, Wu Heng turned his gaze to the corpses on the ground.
He was curious about who these people were.
Why did they precisely enter the village from the other side, after the mad crowd had been distracted?
And what did they take away?
He ripped off the cloaks from several bodies, revealing their faces and armors beneath.
He had no recognition of them.
Moreover, the armor wasn't standardized, making it impossible to identify which power they belonged to.
He moved onto the last man, the one that the skeleton dog had dragged back, and continued to check by pulling off his cloak.
The moment his face was revealed, Wu Heng's brow furrowed.
It was him!
The butler from Achido, the owner of the mine.
Was this Achido's doing?
What benefit would this bring him?
As Curly Hair the investigator had said, the accident at the mine affected him the most.
He groped over the butler's corpse for a while.
Beyond weapons and leather armor, there was nothing else.
It seemed that their purpose was very clear, a quick in and out.
Seeing no other gains, Wu Heng continued: "Take these bodies away, don't touch the others."
The waiting Skeleton Warriors began to move.
Lifting the corpses from the ground, they returned into the boundary door.
...
On the road outside the village.
A figure cloaked in a cape was rushing away in long strides.
"Damn it, a Necromancer? Why was he in the investigation team?"
Cursing, he quickened his pace.
The situation in Mining Village was far beyond their original plan.
If the identities on the corpses were investigated, they would all be hunted down by the guards.
Damn it, why was there a Necromancer in the investigation team? When did the guards start accepting Necromancers?
It was fortunate that he had been on lookout from a distance and was not discovered by the Skeletons.
Otherwise, he would have ended up there, a lifeless corpse.
"Take what I deserve and leave this place."
Huh?
Murmuring, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Ahead on the road, a carriage was parked, blocking his path.
The sky had begun to lighten just enough to faintly make out the exquisite patterns on the carriage.
The man's eyes flickered and he backed away, ready to slip into the forest.
Just as he was about to move, a yellow cheetah darted out from the carriage like a bolt of lightning, springing at him.
The man's face turned white. He reached for the short blade at his waist and slashed at the cheetah.
Thud!
But the cheetah was faster.
It bit into his wrist, breaking bones and causing the short blade to fall to the ground.
The man was thrown back onto the ground, the cheetah standing on his chest. Its cold eyes stared down at him, its red tongue covered in barbs, licked his face. It left a bloody mark as if it had scraped past with scythe.
"I'm from the Wolf Head Mercenary Group, I have met. Lady Slyther. Let it go." The man shouted loudly.
"Kuro!" A lazy woman's voice came from inside the carriage.
The Cheetah jumped off the man's body, but did not leave, circling him with its eyes on him as if assessing its prey.
The man sat up, clutching his injured arm, his face filled with pain.
"What are you doing here?" The woman's voice rang out again.
The man quickly glanced at the cheetah beside him, then said, "I just finished a task and I'm on my way back."
"Kuro!"
Grr!
The cheetah pounced again, holding onto his arm and began to fiercely tear at it.
The man struggled and shrieked, "I'll speak, we took on a task from the Mining Village."
"What did Achido have you doing?"
The man's expression stalled, he hadn't expected the other to know about this.
After some thought, he lowered his head and counter questioned, "If I tell you, will you let me go?"
"Depends on whether or not you're being truthful."
The man glanced at the cheetah nearby and gritted his teeth to speak: "We helped..."
He continued grudgingly: "We assisted 'Achido' in retrieving something from the Mining Village. The journey had been smooth until we were blocked by a necromancer from the investigation team. He killed everyone else, I was the only one who managed to escape."
"What exactly were you supposed to retrieve?"
"I don't know, some small package that was brought out from deep within the mine, it was very well wrapped up."
The carriage fell into brief silence again.
The man's body swayed as he asked in a low voice, "Could I leave, please?"
"Yes, you may."
"Tha..thank you." The man stood up, clutching his drooping arm, and scurried towards the nearby woods.
Almost immediately, a voice reverberated from within the carriage, "Kuro, go kill him."
The cheetah dashed into the woods, followed by the man's anguished screams and curses.
Shortly after, the cheetah returned with a mouthful of fresh blood and leapt onto the carriage.
"Let's go, back home."
The carriage changed its course and disappeared into the night.
...
Dawn was breaking.
The guard team and the professionals regrouped.
An hour ago, the mobs of frenzied villagers suddenly ceased their attack and fell simultaneously like harvested wheat.
Seizing this opportunity, everyone escaped the village and regrouped together.
As they regained their strength, they felt relieved that the mad villagers had lost their fighting power, otherwise, they'd be unable to get out at all.
"Captain, we couldn't find Wu Heng." Cavina also emerged from the village, her face pale.
While there wasn't much affection for Wu Heng, the newest member of the team, they didn't dislike him either.
He died on his first mission as a teammate.
It couldn't be considered a good thing.
The guards also suffered serious casualties.
Only three out of the six-man team were left, all injured.
"Not finding him is also good news, let us wait a while longer," said Captain Autruck.
That being said, last night's situation was extremely dangerous.
Wu Heng was on his first mission, he got separated from the group, it was hard to imagine he would survive.
Despite Cavina's reluctance, she didn't have any feasible solution.
She sat down beside them, regaining her strength.
Right then, Pulamon, the leader, walked over.
"Captain Autruck, what's your take on this incident?"
The investigation of the Mining Village from start to finish was filled with doubts.
But there was never any convincing evidence that could give them the right direction.
If nobody had died, they would have just let it pass, leaving it to Black Stone Town to handle.
Now that people had died from two different teams, they couldn't let it go so easily.
Autruck said softly, "Present the situation to Black Stone Town, call for more people to inspect the Mining Village, and at the same time investigate the informer, we should be able to find some clues."
"Hm." The leader continued, "Achido is very suspicious but hard to track. We could never find a lead linking him to this event. Even if we use the intelligence, he will have ample reasons."
So long as Achido insists that he provided the intel based on the infomation he had at the time, it would be hard to fault him.
After all, no one could demand absolute accuracy from intelligence.
Especially with intelligence provided by the public, a certain margin of error is expected.
"Then we have no other choice but to investigate necromancy, something's off about those villagers," Autruck continued.
"Yes, there's no other choice but that, let's head back first."
Just as everyone got up, ready to leave.
Two figures walked out from the village.
Wu Heng!
And that skeleton.
He hadn't died and also didn't have any visible injuries.