Chapter 55: Bug Hunting

While Sion and Olivia were asleep.

The night grew deeper.

And especially in the slums where darkness lay thicker, those who had turned their backs on the world were moving around silently.

“Ugh…. My head..”

A man soaked in alcohol was walking through an alley in the slum’s shantytown.

He was scum who enjoyed making vagrant children beg and using the money they collected to buy alcohol.

From his perspective, the dregs of the slums were no different from bugs.

Bugs that were fun to play with. They had no value beyond that.

A man with such a dirty personality that it wouldn’t be strange if he was stabbed to death by vagrant children at any time.

Four men with covered faces approached him.

“What the hell. You bastards. Are you trying to jump me now?”

The man shouted in his drunken state.

He had adapted to mana quite well and was confident in his fist-fighting skills.

Although he had lost the courage to enter the labyrinth after losing two fingers.

He was scum well-versed in exploiting those with lives as low as his own.

Known as a notorious ruffian even in the slums, he thought he could easily take down these men who came to find him at this hour.

“You crazy bastards who’ve lost your minds? You think I’d be scared just because you come at night! You must think four people can take down one person. Not a chance. You maggots. Alright, come and die today.”

The man’s fist tensed.

He used to be an adventurer back in the day.

He had about two abilities, and he was confident he could take down any number of cripples from the slums, whether four or five jumped him.

He had done it several times already.

There had been plenty who tried to kill a drunk man in the dead of night.

Experience-based arrogance gave him courage.

Not realizing it was recklessness, the man rushed towards the four men who were silently staring at him.

“Huh?”

His chest feels hot.

The man blankly looked down at his chest, feeling pain as if burned by fire.

“W-what’s this.”

Somehow a knife was stuck in his chest.

A dagger with a pitch-black blade.

It seemed the blade was deliberately dyed black to prevent it from reflecting moonlight.

He didn’t even see the knife being stabbed. There was such a huge gap that he couldn’t even feel the movement.

“Cough….”

Before he could stop them, the men rushed in and stabbed knives into the man’s body.

They stabbed daggers indiscriminately before he could even resist.

Judging by their lack of hesitation, they were men well-versed in killing people.

He flailed and swung his fists, but they didn’t touch the men’s bodies.

Only then did the man realize.

That these masked men were several levels above him.

They were at least silver badge level strong ones.

After realizing this fact, he wondered.

Why would silver badge level strong ones, and four of them at that, come all the way to the slums at such a late hour to kill him?

There was no good reason.

Although he had exploited some vagrant children and dregs of the slums, he had never once caused trouble in the open.

He had lived quietly oppressing the weak in the shadows.

Why would four silver badge level strong ones come to swing knives at him?

It didn’t make economic sense.

With enough money to hire four silver badge level strong ones, it would be better to leave the slums.

The man couldn’t understand at all.

He hadn’t done anything noticeable enough to deserve being killed so brutally.

“Gah..!”

Finally, a pitch-black dagger pierced the man’s heart.

The man wanted to scream belatedly, but.

Now he couldn’t even make a proper breathing sound.

Because another dagger pierced through his back.

Blood fills his lungs.

His scream sank, drowned in the muffled blood.

“Guhk.”

Bright red blood filled his chest and burst out through his mouth.

His sense of smell was paralyzed by the scent of blood strong enough to erase the smell of alcohol.

The man had to collapse, retching at the smell of his own blood.

Despite hearing his voice, the slum dwellers in the shacks didn’t come out.

The man was usually a nuisance who enjoyed making a ruckus while drunk.

There was no need or loyalty to come out and check the situation.

Everyone in the alley wished for the man’s death.

Stab.

Stab.

Stab.

Only the noise of clothes tearing and skin being ripped spread through the alley dyed in darkness.

Only the unpleasant sound of muscles being cut and bones breaking soothed the silence.

The mutilation of the fallen man continued for a while.

It was a kind of ritual.

An offering beyond murder.

Perhaps it was a game.

Like catching a bug and tearing off its limbs.

The heretics also mutilated the dead man’s body with joy.

As if crushing and tearing apart a bug to kill it.

“Haa.. Haa..”

“Take the head. Dissolve the body.”

“Yes..”

The men pulled off the bright red head of the slum dweller.

Then they sprayed acid solution on the remaining body to dissolve it.

The corpse of the dead slum dweller melted completely and seeped into the ground, disappearing.

Only bloodstains remained at the entrance of the alley.

They were deeply satisfied that they had prevented the slum dweller’s resurrection.

Since the body was gone, he could never be revived.

Even that head would be taken to the labyrinth.

The nameless slum dweller would face permanent death.

“This makes five.”

“Still not enough.”

The man wearing a veil spread his fingers to count the sacrifices.

The man wearing a mask made of goblin skin shook his head.

Five wasn’t enough.

They needed to take two more.

More sacrifices were needed to open the door.

More abilities were needed.

-Crash.

While the men were choosing their next target, the sound of a glass bottle breaking was heard.

Someone had walked into this darkness.

The men all turned their heads to stare in the direction the sound came from.

They sensed a presence. One person.

“It’s an ability holder. Catch them.”

At the words of the man wearing a goat mask, they hid in the darkness again.

If they just catch two more ability holders, they can return to the cozy labyrinth.

They had to meet their quota even if it meant pushing themselves.

Otherwise, they would have to face the morning outside the labyrinth.

The children of Hawa drew daggers from the shadows.

They silently welcomed the one who had come into the alley dyed in darkness on their own feet.

It was a beggar.

An unsightly beggar wearing only a ragged straw mat.

A faint energy was felt.

A faint energy that suggested he had adapted to mana about 2 or 3 times.

Moreover, from the smell of alcohol emanating from the beggar, they could easily tell that this one was also soaked in alcohol.

Like the man they had just killed, he was probably a slum dweller living a lowlife after giving up on being an adventurer.

There were plenty of such people in the slums.

Those who live recklessly, intoxicated by old nostalgia, with the vague abilities they obtained when they were active as adventurers.

They were like cracked blades, weak enough to break at any moment.

Lowlifes that the silver badge level strong men didn’t need to fear, who could be crushed at any time.

The children of Hawa, as before, drew their knives to gather sacrifices and rushed towards the beggar.

Melting into the darkness, they charged like arrows.

He would lose his life without even being able to resist.

That nameless beggar was no different from the sixth offering.

BANG-!!

“!?”

The head of the man wearing a veil was smashed into the ground.

He flailed at the impact that shattered his face.

He couldn’t even react to the beggar’s movement.

An impossible speed, and furthermore, a terrifyingly strong force.

Gold badge? No. Above that.

“…!!!”

The beggar left the fallen heretic and crushed the jaw of the heretic trying to stab his back with his elbow.

Only then did the children of Hawa realize that their opponent was no ordinary beggar.

That beggar-like appearance was a trap.

The faint energy was also a disguise to lure them in.

They noticed too late.

The guild’s hound had caught their scent.

It was too late to run away.

Spider webs had already spread throughout the entire alley.

“You there. Fox mask. Stop right there.”

At the beggar’s voice, the heretic trying to escape stopped in his tracks.

To inform others of their existence, at least one person needed to escape alive.

But they were already moths caught in a spider’s web.

A thread hung around the neck of the fox mask.

Silver thread so thin it was invisible to the eye.

It was hanging everywhere like a spider’s web.

Move and your head will fly off.

It was a trap set by the guild’s spider.

“I came because the smell of blood was so strong. How many have you eaten?”

No one answered the spider’s question.

They weren’t the type to spill information even if they died.

The spider knew this too.

The heretics were notorious for keeping their mouths shut.

They would never open their mouths through ordinary methods.

So they had to be captured and subjected to extraordinary methods.

“I declare. You will eventually open your mouths.”

The spider smiles.

Kill and resurrect.

Wound and heal.

There’s no problem if they’re fed drugs to make them spill the truth.

It’s something he’s done countless times.

There hasn’t been anyone who threatened the city and was caught by the spider’s hands who didn’t spill information.

“Ugh….”

The heretics thought.

The worst situation would be dying, being resurrected, and being dragged to the torture chamber.

Being tortured isn’t a problem.

Pain is also part of the path of enlightenment.

However, what they truly feared was leaking information about their comrades during that process of pain.

They were going to die anyway.

If they die, they’ll be resurrected and dragged away.

Then not being resurrected would be the best option.

Death was the expected course.

The heretics all finished their thoughts at once.

Their bodies must not remain intact to die by this person’s hands.

Their flesh had to be destroyed and annihilated.

Because they wouldn’t be able to withstand leaking information in the torture chamber.

The heretics activated magic without chanting.

The marks engraved on the back of their heads glowed slightly.

Their heads and upper bodies will fly off simultaneously.

The body will be destroyed to the point where it can’t be resurrected.

The spider realized they were trying to self-destruct.

If they self-destruct and the corpse is damaged, he won’t be able to revive them, so he has to kill them before they die.

“Oh no.”

As the spider twitched his left hand, the fox mask’s head flew off.

He couldn’t kill the others.

The heretics’ blood and flesh that burst out in all directions created a blood mist.

The alley instantly became a mess with fragments of the exploded heretics.

“Nasty bastards. Alchemy, huh.”

The spider picked up the fox mask’s corpse, which remained relatively intact.

He managed to kill one in time.

Even this was quite a harvest.

“I wonder why they were trying to take only the heads.”

The spider took out the 5 heads that were in the men’s sacks.

There was no commonality in age, gender, or race.

However, the fact that they were all former adventurers would be revealed later.

The fact that they were specifically hunting those with abilities would also be revealed.

Heretics who were subjugated long ago and resurrected in the labyrinth in that era are now sneaking into the streets.

The four entrances connected to the labyrinth are under strict surveillance.

They must be under 24-hour surveillance to respond immediately if anything crawls out.

Nevertheless, heretics crawled up. Like cockroaches.

They must clearly have some means that the guild hasn’t figured out yet.

Either sending up souls to possess people’s bodies, or a new entrance has appeared.

Or there might be a helper in the city assisting them.

The possibility of a helper is very high.

Or the spider couldn’t ignore the possibility that besides the labyrinth entrances that exist one each in the east, west, north, and south of the city,

another entrance might have appeared.

“I’ll find out if I revive him.”

He was confident in extracting information.

If he revives the fox mask, he might be able to get some clues.

The spider melted into the darkness, carrying the corpse.

The platinum badge monster headed towards the church carrying the heretic’s corpse.