episode_0135

The skeleton mage’s dark magic delivered to me through the connecting passage trembled strongly and immediately turned into sound.

“Master… … . There has been an intruder in the blacksmith shop… … .”

“… … What?”

The story delivered through the Skeleton Mage was quite shocking. It was said that an intruder had suddenly appeared in the blacksmith shop.

And that is in the blacksmith shop, one of the most important facilities in our territory.

“There are four intruders who broke in and destroyed the wall of the blacksmith shop… … . I’m trying to suppress it as you commanded, but it’s not possible… … .”

“Crazy… … !”

Hearing that they had not yet been able to subdue the intruder, he urgently connected his consciousness with the surveillance skeleton that had been placed in the blacksmith shop.

What I then saw was dozens of skeletons and intruders running around the blacksmith shop as if they were playing tag. They were all covered in black cloth, which seemed to be an attempt to hide their identity.

I don’t know how the intruder broke in, but it seemed true that there was an intruder in the blacksmith shop and that the intruder had not yet been subdued. And, after realizing that fact, I immediately ordered the killing of the intruders.

The basic response was to suppress, but in the current situation, it was necessary to kill, not suppress. From anyone’s perspective, it wasn’t a good purpose, so it wouldn’t be a problem even if they killed him.

Even if that wasn’t the case, there were warning signs posted here and there warning that anyone trespassing into the blacksmith shop could be killed, so there wasn’t a problem from the beginning. Since I had received confirmation from Father Thomas that there was no problem, I had no hesitation in giving the kill order.

However, even though the order to kill the intruders was issued, I could not feel at ease. This is because the blacksmith shop was an important facility in many ways.

To be honest, the forge being destroyed wasn’t really a big problem. The building had to be rebuilt anyway, and it was very easy to build using skeletons. There were already enough blueprints and some kind of know-how gained from building a blacksmith shop.

But the most important thing was the researchers. Since the research and development headquarters was located adjacent to the blacksmith shop, I was worried that the blacksmith shop might be attacked and cause problems for the researchers.

This is because the R&D headquarters not only develops new products, but also conducts research and development of all kinds of technologies. Simply put, the press processing method that maximized production at once was also invented by researchers at the R&D headquarters. In addition, the R&D headquarters was full of technologies waiting to see the light of day.

Since the researchers were that important, I felt a great sense of urgency. Although there has been no news of harm to researchers yet, it was dangerous as it was at a very close range. If the blacksmith shop was destroyed, it was enough to build a new one, but if the researchers had a problem, it was impossible to solve it in a short period of time.

In the end, he couldn’t hold back his urgency, so he took out the skeletal horse, mounted it, and started running away.

“Oh! Andrew! What, where are you going!”

I heard Amy yelling in a panicked voice from behind me as I suddenly ran away. But there was no time to calmly explain.

Instead, he connected the consciousness through the brand, gave a light explanation of the current situation, and left the Minotaur and Death Knight to be taken care of. After asking him to take it back to the mansion, he ran like crazy towards the blacksmith shop.

The skeleton horse invested so much black magic that it creaked, and moved so urgently that it chose to jump over the iron wooden fence rather than go through the door in the iron wooden fence.

Thanks to this, by the time we arrived at the blacksmith shop, the skeleton horse’s bones were broken in various places due to the excessive black magic. However, the skeletal horse decided to recover later and immediately jumped off the skeletal horse.

And, at the same time, dozens of skeletons stepped on the ground with me. This is because as soon as he jumped off the skeletal horse, he threw dozens of bone fragments that had been reduced to the size of a finger.

“Did he go in there…? … .”

When I looked straight at the blacksmith shop along with the skeletons, what I could see was that the wall was slightly collapsed. The door to the blacksmith shop was firmly guarded by a skeleton knight, so it seemed like the next best option was to break through the wall.

Thinking that someone might escape again through the route they entered, they led the way with skeletons and entered the blacksmith shop through the wall that the intruders had destroyed.

But fortunately, the commotion inside the blacksmith shop seemed to have already ended. There was no noise made during the chasing and chasing process, only the roaring sound of the furnace burning fiercely. Along with the sound of bones clashing as some skeletons move.

Anyway, as I entered the blacksmith shop, the skeleton mage in charge of the blacksmith shop approached me.

“Sir, I am sorry… … . An intruder is on the run… … . I’m doing my best to catch up now, but it’s not easy… … .”

The Skeleton Mage who came closer said that she had somehow missed one of the intruders. Moreover, it was said that the pursuit was fruitless.

It was troubling to hear that Hana was running away without knowing the reason for attacking the blacksmith shop. But I couldn’t just ignore the news that they were running away, so I immediately started responding.

The Skeleton Mage must have responded properly, as there was a Skeleton Knight chasing the escaped intruder. The guy chased the fleeing intruder and had already moved beyond the iron fence.

It was possible to understand the situation because there was a surveillance skeleton nearby.

“… … crazy. Is that the speed at which humans run?”

And, when I saw that scene, I could not help but be astonished. This was because the fleeing intruder was riding a skeleton horse and running at such incredible speed that he was able to outrun the moving Skeleton Knight.

Of course, it is not impossible if you squeeze out as much mana as Viscount Tar’s son did before when he ran away, but now it was far beyond that level. The speed was so fast that it was surprising that he somehow managed to chase him until he crossed the iron fence.

“Oh, it shouldn’t be like this.”

I was surprised for a moment because it was moving at such an incredible speed, but I immediately came to my senses and started using skeletons to catch the guy. It was about moving the skeletons that had been buried evenly throughout the city.

However, it was not an easy task due to its incredible speed. Even the attack of a skeleton rising from the floor without any warning was smoothly avoided, and even when the skeleton exploded as if the floor was bursting open, it did no damage. As it moved away at such a fast speed and rolled around on the ground, there was no time for the bone fragments to do any damage.

“… … Ha.”

It was absurd to see him running away using only his overwhelming speed, even though he tried many different methods.

The literally insane speed was not enough to avoid all attacks, and it quickly went out of my attack range. Since we had left the area where the skeletons were buried, there was no longer any way to attack.

I wanted to quickly turn the Minotaur into an undead, catch the skeletons, throw them, and explode them, but it was obvious that he would run further away in the meantime.

All I could do right now was look at the back of the guy who was already moving so far away that he seemed small.

“Ha… … . done. I can’t chase that one.”

In the end, I had no choice but to give up tracking him. It was moving away at an incredible speed and there was no way to chase it. There might have been a possibility if there were undead made from monsters like wyverns, but there was no such thing. The reality was that there were no undead made from sparrows, let alone undead wyverns.

However, at the same time, I was curious. Because I couldn’t understand what on earth he was doing and why he was moving so fast. Even if mana was used, the speed made no sense.

Still, that curiosity seemed like something that could be quenched right away, so I immediately turned my attention elsewhere. I roughly rubbed the skull of the still sullen skeleton mage.

“The guy who ran away was someone I couldn’t catch in the first place. Don’t worry about it.”

“Still, I’m sorry… … .”

“That’s it. You missed one, but you probably caught the rest, right?”

“Yes,” answered the Skeleton Mage, pointing toward the center of the forge. There were monsters lying among dozens of skeletons.

To be exact, there were two corpses that were monsters, and one monster that looked like it had been cursed.

“Paralysis curse and petrification curse? It’s definitely perfect for suppression.”

I approached the stranger who had been suppressed by a curse and immediately assessed his condition. He was suppressed by a curse, which can be said to be the standard for suppressing an opponent.

However, if left like this, he was on the verge of death from the effects of the curse, whether it was a paralysis curse or a petrification curse. This is because it was not a paralyzing curse that was sometimes used to reduce pain, but rather a strong paralyzing curse used for the purpose of subduing, and the petrification curse was not that weak.

The paralysis curse was on the verge of paralyzing his heart, and the petrification curse was so severe that it even slowed down the movement of his blood, so it was only natural.

Since I was literally on the verge of death, I decided to lift the curse on the intruder. Unlike the other guys who were already dead, I thought I’d see a reaction since they were still alive.

Since he might run away, I took action before inflicting the curses on him. A slight modification of the paralysis curse completely paralyzed the limbs. My limbs were completely paralyzed, to the point where I could only wiggle on my own.

I cast a paralyzing curse and a petrification curse and squatted down next to the assailant who was still breathing. I picked up one of the ribs of the skeletons that had fallen nearby and had been disassembled by the intruders.

If we were to number it, it was number 11, and it was an elongated rib located at the bottom that was only connected to the spine. He picked up the rib and poked the assailant’s cheek. And, at the same time, I asked a question to resolve the curiosity that suddenly arose.

“Let me ask you something, is Minotaur also your work?”

No matter how I thought about it, the timing of the Minotaur’s attack and the blacksmith’s attack was so perfect that I had no choice but to ask about the Minotaur first. I was curious about the incredible speed of the one who ran away, but right now I was more curious about the Minotaur.

However, contrary to what I thought would answer anything, the gunman showed an unexpected reaction.

To be honest, I expected reactions such as ‘Kill him!’, ‘I’m not spitting out any information!’, or even just remaining silent. But the gunman showed behavior that far exceeded my expectations.

“Kruk… … !”

I don’t know if it was hiding poison in its mouth, but it foamed up and died. He didn’t say a word or even give me a second look before he died.

As soon as he realized that his body was moving differently than before, he committed suicide.

“Should I call this stupid… … .”

Of course, when I saw that, I felt more pitiful than absurd. I think I committed suicide not to reveal important information, but in front of a warlock who manipulates souls, it was a useless action.