episode_0014

A few days have passed since then.

I rested well at the inn and maintained my physical condition so that I could respond to the call at any time. Meanwhile, I heard that the branch manager had been called to Yeongju Castle, and it was also said that the knights were headed to the slums.

Everyone seemed busy, but I spent some time meeting Karen. She was still lovely. The progress has only gone as far as kissing, but it will gradually improve.

And today.

We gathered at the entrance to the sewer.

Here, we are two gold-level adventurers and eight silver-level adventurers, including myself. Ten well-armed knights and two wizards in red robes. And then there are four people wearing shabby robes.

‘Priest and Paladin… ‘

Although he was hiding his armament by wearing a robe, it was not a meticulous camouflage. It seemed as if they hid the religious attire because they thought it might cause unnecessary conflict if they openly showed off their religious attire.

3 paladins and 1 priest.

If you add the rest of the personnel to these, it was a considerable force. Although only silver-level adventurers came with considerable skill, they were the weakest among them.

“What on earth is going on?”

A beautiful woman with impressive dark red hair spoke from the side.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?”

“I had to listen. But I didn’t listen closely. All I know is catching the culprit who created the abnormal pig.”

Katrin looked at the other party members with tired eyes. A gold-level adventurer who is evaluated as having skills beyond that of most knights. And real knights, wizards, and even priests.

It was not common for them to gather in one place.

“I never thought so many would come.”

“You heard about the wolf, right?”

She turned her gaze to me.

“I had to listen. They say you are no match for a silver level adventurer.”

I said in a dumbfounded tone.

“Did you come after hearing that?”

Catherine shrugged her shoulders.

“I came because I heard there was a lot of support. After all, we are assistants, right? From the looks of it, it seems like I just need to deal with the little kids in moderation.”

“Ha… .”

I sighed. I don’t know why all adventurers are like this.

An immature married woman in her early 30s narrowed her eyes, as if she knew how I felt or not.

“And they give you a lot of money, right? It’s risky, but it’s worth it.”

The compensation was certainly sufficient. When you look at the luxurious aspects of the group, you wonder if it might be too much.

However, you must not let your guard down. There was a reason why so many people gathered in one place.

The wolves I faced right now are formidable, but I don’t know how many monsters there will be in the criminal’s home base.

Moreover, as the opponent was presumed to be in a slum, there was also the risk of an unexpected battle.

‘But if it’s definitely like this… .’

Basically, it was rare for large organizations in the slums to touch knights, even adventurers or soldiers.

It’s not that they lack strength, but the knights have a strong support in the form of a lord. Since the organization’s goal is not to swallow up the city, there is no need to cause unnecessary friction.

As long as the opponent didn’t mess around a lot, the chances of killing the knight were low.

‘It’s not just one or two knights, and they’re going on orders from the lord, so there’s a chance that it will end rather dullly.’

Of course, it was just a wishful thinking.

Jump and jump.

A woman who appeared to be leading the knights came to the front of the group. It seemed like he was planning to explain this operation.

“I am Seina Ren, who has been ordered by the lord to lead the punitive force. As you may have heard, we are going to take down the strange shape maker who is believed to be in the slums. It would be best if we could capture them alive, but since it is not our top priority, we will aim to kill every single one of them. Do you have any questions?”

The large gold-level adventurer raised his hand.

“You clearly said you were going to punish the creators of abnormal forms, but isn’t it a bit strange to say that you won’t leave a single person behind?”

It was rude to say something to a knight, but at gold level, such language was tolerated. Anyway, I have skills.

And above all, her question was reasonable. This was something that puzzled me too.

The subjugation leader nodded without any sign of offense.

“Our target was said to be the creator of the abnormal body, but there is information that he is a member of a new slum religion called the Old Order. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this operation is the complete subjugation of the Old Moon Monastery.”

The adventurer asked the question again.

“I don’t know if they committed adultery or not, but what is the number of people and their level of military power?”

“As far as I can tell, it’s around fifteen. It is said that the level of force is not that great, except for the abnormal form creators and their leaders who call themselves apostles.”

“How strong is that anomaly creator and the bitch called Apostle?”

“There is no information on the Apostle’s side, but the creator of the strange form estimates that the strange form is more threatening than the actual force.”

“Hmm… .”

I organized the information that came out of Captain Tobal’s mouth. I, too, had never heard of a monastic order or an apostle.

“The information is sure, right?”

“Let’s just say I heard this information from someone who knows the slums well.”

She didn’t say who she got the information from, but we had a guess.

‘Cindy… .’

As the boss of an intelligence organization, Cindy was likely to know about the Old Order. It was safe to say that there was no possibility that she, who had a neutral personality among the slum tycoons, would have spread false information due to her involvement in this matter.

In the past, when investigations into heterogeneous pigs were conducted, investigators either did not contact Cindy, or she did not know much at the time.

‘Because we had already stopped hunting down the culprit even before I came to Quien.’

The gold-level adventurer crossed his arms and stepped away, as if he was somewhat satisfied with the answer.

The subjugation leader looked around the group and said.

“Does anyone have any other questions?”

“”… … .””

“Good. We now go to the slums through the sewers. The map handed out in advance will show the route from the entrance to the slum sewer where we will come out to the headquarters of the old monastery.”

I glanced at the map handed out by the knights earlier. Only the route we had to take was simply drawn.

Catherine whispered next to me.

“You won’t have to worry about getting lost.”

“Sure. You paid a lot of attention.”

It’s a simple map, so it’s not a very valuable item, but even from above, I could feel that they were paying a lot of attention to it.

“Once they arrive in the slums, they will quickly attack the main base. All four knights and paladins, including myself, will deal with the variant creator and apostle. For the rest, prioritize killing the remnants of the Old Moon Monastery. In particular, silver-level adventurers focus on protecting priests and wizards. If you follow the information, I don’t think there will be any major difficulties, but you must not let your guard down.”

Everyone nodded.

“Then, let’s enter the sewer from now on.”

Led by the subjugation leader, Seina Ren, we entered the sewer.

.

.

.

The sewer entrance to the slum was dirtier than the place we entered. Even the sewage manager didn’t seem to set foot here.

It was a sight that would raise eyebrows, but no one was shaken.

“Good. Let’s move quickly from now on.”

The punitive force moved to the headquarters of the old monastery as drawn on the map. It’s been smooth so far.

“Is this really the right place?”

“Be quiet, sister.”

“I just said something… .”

I ignored Katrin, who was grumbling next to me, wondering why she was so young, and looked ahead.

A shelter for drunkards.

A shabby bar with a sign that looks like it will fall off at any moment.

It did not look like the headquarters of a religious organization called the Old Order. Of course, that was aimed at it.

A few people inside saw us. They jumped up, but were unable to do anything and were left flustered. A look of confusion was evident.

The subjugation leader had no intention of giving the enemy any time. She shouted as she drew her sword.

“Charge!”

We rushed into the bar all at once.

The fight was bland. As mentioned before, a total of seven people, four knights and three paladins, went to deal with the executives, and the remaining people took charge of the minor roles.

Something was strange.

I told Catherine what I felt.

“Isn’t this a little strange?”

“That’s right. Strangely weak. It’s been three years since the strange pig appeared, but its power level is only this high?”

It is not unusual that the battle was not difficult because the city side also sent a solid force, but this was too much.

“Could it be that they gave me false information?”

I thought it was unlikely, but in the end, Cindy was also a member of the slums. Did they do this to screw up the punitive force?

“Well… I think we should first see what happened to the people who went inside.”

This situation ended quickly.

There was no need for a wizard’s magic or a priest’s healing. The article was put together in an instant.

From the looks of it, other people seemed confused as well.

“Are these guys really the old monastery?”

“No way, I was deceived… .”

“According to the information, this is clearly correct… .”

“Let’s go inside first.”

A middle-aged wizard wearing red robes said.

“If we go in the direction Sir Seina is facing, we will know whether we were really fooled.”

The group seemed to calm down at the sound of her calm voice.

One knight agreed with the wizard’s words.

“You are right. Nothing is certain yet-”

It was then.

Kwaang-!

Something erupted from the floor and hit the knight unknowingly.

I don’t know if it was a huge hand or a foot, but the knight was crushed to smithereens. Red and white things burst out between the crushed armor.

“Such a piece of shit-”

The two gold-level adventurers quickly retreated. The large, unidentifiable thing was shaking its body wildly. Two more knights and one silver-level adventurer were crushed to death. In an instant, only three knights remained.

“Everyone retreat!”

The voice of the subjugation leader was heard from below where the monster popped out.

“Retreat!”

“What the fuck is this!”

“For now, let’s fall back!”

The punitive force fled out of the bar. Seven, no, six people, led by the subjugation leader, escaped through the huge hole dug by the monster.

“What on earth is that!”

“That bitch called that union.”

“What is that… .”

The subjugation leader glared fiercely at the monster with a blood-stained face. It was not simply a look at the city’s enemies. It was as if I was seeing something more fundamental, something that I could not accept as a human being.

“It is literally a monster created by gathering the bodies of people in the slums. The totality of the terrible sins committed by the evil god’s followers is… That is it.”

Her words had a big impact.

‘No, it’s suddenly some kind of evil spirit.’

The unexpected thing is also oil fountain. For a job of this size, it’s right to use a warlock who can hit a bit, but why not a god of evil?

Other people seemed to have similar thoughts, talking with puzzled faces.

“Damn, they gave me a lot of money… .”

“This is an unexpected situation.”

“An evil spirit… I guess I can’t back down either.”

“What are you going to do, Captain?”

It was a paladin who answered one knight’s question.

“I will definitely defeat you.”

In response, a protest erupted from the silver-level adventurer.

“If we fight that thing, we’ll just die! Four people died in an instant!”

Catherine also spoke with a stern expression.

“When I die, tell my husband that I loved him.”

“Don’t be unlucky.”

Who dies?

‘Still, it’s not at a level that I can’t deal with.’

It’s true that he was strong, but he was completely unexpected from the attack earlier, so he was helpless. Even if the silver-level adventurers and rear-line personnel did not know, the rest could fight well as long as they knew that an attack was coming.

The subjugation leader seemed to have similar thoughts.

“That monster has a hideous appearance and is not as strong as it looks. And the variant creator and apostle have already taken care of it. Both of their weapons were poor. It seems that their original plan was for the apostle to merge with the monster and become a being with reason.”

She took a stance holding her sword.

“Adventurers should retreat. And the rest of the knights also stand down. There are weaker monsters left, so protect your party. That’s not a strong enemy that everyone should step up against.”

At those words, Catherine, the other gold and silver level adventurers, and the three knights who survived the monster stepped back.

“Ethan what are you doing!”

Catherine shouted when she saw me not backing down. I’m a little touched.

“I know it’s a stupid choice, but I’m not going to do this anyway. I have an oath of my own. To be honest, I’m doing this because I’m not confident I’ll die, so don’t worry too much.”

‘I somehow ended up retiring… ‘Is it possible to get past something like that?’

I’m an adventurer who prefers safe requests, but I’m not the kind of person who would be so concerned that I would just watch something like that right in front of me.

“If I live like this, I won’t be able to die by my name… .”

I sighed. This guy’s personality hasn’t changed at all.

still.

“There is no way I would die from something like that.”

A being that kills a knight in one fell swoop? It’s not the first time I’ve met him. The war taught me a lot.

Moreover, our allies had a brilliant appearance, so we couldn’t lose any further.

Three knights and three paladins, including subjugation leader Seina Ren. And even the wizards and priests who support from the rear.

If circumstances allow, even gold-level adventurers can join.

We resolutely faced the monster. Before we knew it, the corpses of the remnants we had killed were attached to our bodies.

“—!”

With a monster’s roar that seemed like a merger or something, strange and hideous animals crawled out of the hole.

“… Isn’t it a bit much?”

“Hit!”

We willingly drew our swords to break the will of the wicked.