chapter_0062

Chapter 61 : Underworld, Underground City (2)

“…Nothing. There’s no reaction here either.”

“Damn… That leaves only one place, right?”

Contrary to our desperate hope of finding the Necromancer, we had unfortunately found no trace of him in any of the five places we had already searched.

What we did pick up, however, were watchful eyes occasionally glancing our way.

Asili, noticing those gazes, came over and whispered quietly to me.

“If we don’t find anything at the next place either, I think we need to get out of here fast. We’ve already been to five spots in such a short time. If we poke around even a couple more, the soldiers might show up.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

There were fourteen zones in total known as the “Underworld.”

And out of those fourteen, only two or three were areas where Underworld criminals typically operated.

Yet, we had already spent four hours searching five different zones in our pursuit of the Necromancer, and that had raised suspicion, prompting the Underworld to put us under watch.

According to Asili, we had only visited places that were somewhat relevant, which is likely why soldiers hadn’t been dispatched yet.

But if we stirred up even a couple more areas, they’d probably come straight away.

And besides that, I also had to start thinking about how much mana Nella had left.

So, I could only nod in agreement with Asili’s words.

One more place. If he’s not there either, then as much as it pains me, we’ll have to put this fury on hold for now.

“Nella, you’ve got enough mana for teleport, right?”

“Hmm… Yes, if it’s just one more zone, I’ve still got enough left to search comfortably.”

Thankfully, it seemed Nella wouldn’t run out of mana first.

Relieved, I followed Asili and pushed myself into the teleport gate leading to the next zone.

If it hadn’t been for Asili, who knew this area well, we probably wouldn’t even have known where the teleport gate led—and would’ve gotten caught immediately.

With the renewed thought that bringing Asili was a good call, I closed and reopened my eyes to find myself in a space quite unlike the dome-shaped ones we’d seen so far—this one looked like a pitch-black auction house.

Dim crimson torches dotted the space, casting a gloomy light, and figures who were clearly mages wandered through it.

“What is this place?”

“The Underworld’s top black market—Hukes. It’s the number one black market where the Underworld’s mages come to find rare materials they can’t get in other zones. I haven’t been here often myself… but anyone you couldn’t find in the other areas is probably here.”

The largest black market in the Underworld.

Asili began leading the way, and I glanced at Nella, who once again spread out her detection wave.

But once again, nothing came up. Nella looked back at me and shook her head slightly.

“Still nothing.”

“Sigh… He should be here.”

There was still plenty of the zone left to check, so there was hope.

But having not even picked up a single trace of the Necromancer so far, unease crept in more than hope did.

I turned away from that growing anxiety and began walking deeper into the black market.

And the deeper we went, the more I noticed the items laid out all around the market.

Unlike the underground city beneath Rehman earlier, the items here weren’t quite as grotesque. I couldn’t help but widen my eyes a little at the difference.

“This place feels different from Rehman’s zone.”

“Right? There are a lot of low-grade items… but I’m also seeing some top-tier materials that are almost impossible to find elsewhere.”

While the Rehman zone mostly sold cheap, disgusting, and brutal goods, Hukes was different.

Most items were low- or mid-tier, but occasionally you’d spot premium goods that were hard to come by even outside the Underworld.

As Asili said, this really might be the largest black market in the Underworld.

While I followed her, I glanced at Nella, who was still using detection magic with a focused glint in her eyes.

Step, step.

Eventually, we arrived at the central auction house of the black market.

Before we threw ourselves into the crowd of mages, Asili leaned in close and whispered quietly.

“This is the place in Hukes with the highest concentration of mages. Let’s try one more detection spell here and then head toward the outskirts.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

She said we’d circle around the outer area, but I could tell there was more behind those words than she let on.

The place in Hukes where the most wizards gather.

In other words, if I couldn’t find the necromancer I was looking for here, it would essentially mean they didn’t exist in the current underworld.

That thought made me hesitate briefly, but soon I nodded in agreement and followed Asili, stepping between the tightly packed wizards at the auction house.

“Hey, what the—?”

“Excuse us, just passing through.”

The layout of the auction house was like a theater.

Built in a stepped structure with long rows of seats.

As expected of a place where wizards gathered the most, the seats had long since been filled, and behind them stood small groups of three or four wizards watching from the back.

Enduring the complaints coming from all around us, we managed to find a relatively quiet corner where no wizards stood nearby.

[Now, this next item is something we barely managed to acquire! A half-vampire!! We happened to discover him while he was hiding in a human village and brought him here with great effort!! Starting bid begins at 1,000 gold!!!]

Ignoring the auctioneer’s voice, which I had no desire to hear, Asili and I looked at Nella, who was holding a glass vial.

Even if it was a secluded spot, unliken the wide-open streets outside, this was a closed space—a tightly packed auction house.

If we made even a small mistake, we risked being discovered, so we dared not speak. All we could do was quietly observe as Nella cast her detection magic.

“1,100 gold!”

[Ah, we have 1,100 gold!!]“1,300 gold!”

While the noisy bidding continued behind us, Nella’s detection pulse spread outward.
Vwoooom

The mana wave—formed of invisible magic—swept across the auction hall, even reaching the outer areas we hadn’t yet explored, and then dissipated.

And I watched Nella intently as she focused with her eyes closed, clinging to a desperate hope.

But in answer to that desperation… came the same disappointment as before.

“I’m sorry, Master…”

“…So it’s not here either.”

That chimera… it was almost certainly created by a necromancer operating in the underworld.

Because creating a chimera required deep knowledge of necromancy.

But Asili had bet even her name on it—she had identified six key locations.

If the detection magic didn’t find anything in any of them, then it could mean only one thing:

The person I was searching for wasn’t in the underworld—but somewhere out there on the continent.

And obviously, trying to find one individual on such a vast continent was a task hundreds, even thousands of times harder than finding a needle in the desert.

A sigh escaped me at the looming sense of defeat.

Still, I patted Nella’s shoulder as she apologized, even though it wasn’t her fault.

“It’s not your fault. Don’t apologize. You did well. Thanks to you, I feel at least a little bit at peace.”

I was disappointed that we couldn’t find the culprit, but I was also grateful.

Grateful that we had done everything we could, and that I had Asili and Nella with me to make that possible.

Even if it was frustrating, there was nothing more to do now but return, checking the outskirts one last time for a perfect conclusion.

Just as I was about to turn and leave, the auctioneer’s voice pierced my ears and stopped me in my tracks.

[Now then! Next up is an intermediate result of the experiments you’ve all been struggling with lately?!]

…Experiment?

By “you all,” the auctioneer was clearly referring to the wizards of the underworld present here.

And the intermediate result of the experiment these underworld criminals had been working so hard on recently…

Those words piqued my curiosity enough to stop me.

Following the auctioneer’s cue, a cage wrapped in cloth was dragged onto the stage.

When the auctioneer yanked the cloth off, what appeared inside were people whose skin was swollen in places with a strange purplish hue.

[Let me introduce them! Humans infected with the demon plague!! Of course, as many of you already know, the disease isn’t airborne, so there’s no need to worry!! Now then, we’ll start the bidding at 500 gold per specimen!!!]

“550 gold here!”

“I’ll go 600 gold!!”

Before the auctioneer had even finished speaking, wizards eagerly raised their paddles to bid.

But neither I, Asili, nor Nella could bring ourselves to speak or move a step.

Why?

Because the scene unfolding before us was so utterly shocking.

That purplish skin reminded me of the demons I had seen long ago, during the Human-Demon War.

And without a doubt, the auctioneer had said it—the demon plague.

The suspicion that had crossed my mind when I first saw those people had now solidified into a grim reality, like a nail driven into my foot.

We were frozen in place.

But then, one thing snapped us out of it—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“We found them!! They’re here!!!”

“You little rats!! Did you think we wouldn’t notice just because you disguised yourselves?!”

“What?! The guards?!”

The ones storming into the auction house were none other than the underworld guards—