Chapter 66 – Desert (5)

Sun-woo nearly had his <Illusion Arts> broken thanks to the suddenly appearing contaminated summoned. He managed to barely keep it together so he wasn’t caught, but cold sweat covered the back of his hand pressed against the floor.

Sun-woo felt he understood how the Divine Cult’s branch leader could betray the Cult after hearing the two people’s conversation.

The superpower user who could brainwash people that he had seen before had definitely brainwashed him. Probably the people lying here were also people he had kidnapped to brainwash.

‘Surely this can’t be the only one?’

The Blood Cult’s branch wouldn’t be only here, and if superpower users from other dimensions had come here, other branches definitely would have superpower users too.

‘Things are getting more tangled than expected.’

Sun-woo, lying still while turning his head, began gradually sending Earth Spirits around him.

The entire underground plaza was made by carving rock, so it wasn’t easy for sorcery to be effective, but Sun-woo tried his best to gather information.

Slither.

The Earth Spirits spread in all directions along the rock grain. They climbed walls to examine the underground plaza’s ceiling and examined stairs and floors.

Unfortunately, the rocks were so solid without even small gaps that they had endured countless years.

‘Collapsing this place is impossible.’

Sun-woo ultimately gave up on collapsing this underground plaza with sorcery.

Instead, he expanded his senses following the dried-up waterway. Sun-woo’s senses traveling down the waterway immediately met cold liquid. It was water.

The water was pooled right below this plaza.

But the pooled water was in a strange state. The water above was properly applying pressure to its surroundings, but the water below was not. It felt like it had been forcibly pulled up by some unknown force.

‘Could what the mage said about pulling up water be like this?’

When Sun-woo strengthened his sorcery to examine the strange water more closely, the Spirit’s senses began feeling the energy wrapping around the water. It was the energy called mana.

That was the moment. The mana rippled in response to the sorcery. And the mage who had been talking closed his mouth and glared in the direction where Sun-woo was.

‘Caught!’

He hurriedly recalled the spirits, but the opponent was a proper mage. The probability of being caught was high.

“Suspicious. Need confirmation.”

The mage raised his staff and pointed toward the direction where Sun-woo was lying.

At his words, the others made puzzled expressions, but the bandit boss called the guard protecting the plaza to check.

At the sudden instruction, the bandit carefully went in the direction the staff pointed.

The direction the staff pointed was the most corner spot where people were lying, and there lay one ordinary youth who appeared to be from this region and one middle-aged man who appeared to be from Central Plains.

“What the hell am I supposed to check? These crazy bastards.”

The bandit in charge of guarding grumbled quietly and pressed the lying people firmly with his sword. Naturally, the sleeping people showed no reaction. But it seemed this much wasn’t enough to satisfy them.

The bandit eventually knelt down and examined the middle-aged man and youth respectively.

He fumbled briefly midway, but shortly after, the bandit stood up and shouted toward where the boss and others were.

“Nothing abnormal.”

At the bandit’s words, the branch leader and others all turned to look at the silver-haired mage.

“Could you have felt wrong?”

The mage frowned at the superpower user’s words.

The place where the energy that touched his mana originated was definitely that corner no matter how he looked at it. He was confident in tracking magic as well as water system magic.

As someone who used water for magic, he had no choice but to be proficient in tracking magic to find places with water.

But he didn’t feel like going directly to check either.

The mage glared at the two lying people, then raised his staff.

The mage muttered quietly. Following his words, moisture in the air began gathering above the two lying people, and dew forming on walls and floors rushed toward the two.

Shortly after, a mass of water created in the air fell down and covered the middle-aged man’s head, and a stream of water flowing on the floor climbed up the youth’s head and wrapped around it.

Both men’s heads ended up inside masses of water, and after a certain time passed, both men trembled then stopped moving. Both their hearts had stopped.

“If you were going to kill them, why did you have them check?”

“For safety. I can’t become a target first by attacking carelessly.”

The superpower user nodded at the mage’s words, but others who couldn’t hear their conversation were just dumbfounded. They ultimately decided another eccentricity from other-world people had appeared.

Then the bandit standing in front of the corpses with a dumbfounded expression opened his mouth.

“What should I do with these corpses?”

At his words, the boss turned to look at the blonde superpower user, who waved his hand outward.

“Throw them outside.”

“Yes.”

Fortunately, the bandit appeared to have fairly high martial arts. He tucked both corpses under his arms and climbed up the stairs.

“Not finished yet, but shall we try waking them first?”

The superpower user began concentrating while raising his hand, and the silver-haired mage beside him planted his staff on the ground and chanted a spell.

A dim light spread from the staff, and people who had been sleeping under sleep magic gradually began waking from their dreams.

The bandit guarding the stairs entrance made a puzzled expression seeing the bandit appear on the stairs with corpses tucked under both arms.

“Huh? What happened?”

The bandit gestured with his chin at the corpses tucked under his arms.

“The silver-hair killed them. I received orders to dispose of the corpses.”

“Shh, lower your voice. If you mess up, you might go crazy or fall asleep forever.”

The bandit guarding the entrance spoke in a frightened whisper.

“Or you might become a bit strange like the boss…”

The bandit standing guard together slipped in an additional comment.

Their boss apparently had been brainwashed too.

“Well, it’s easier for us to work now, so it doesn’t matter much. As long as we’re careful of those ghost things, it’s completely our world.”

“True, there’s never been a better time than now. Since the Divine Cult bastards don’t stop us…”

“How can they stop us when their branch leader is on our side?”

The two chatted excitedly in quiet voices.

“Can I pass through? My arms hurt.”

But the bandit holding corpses under both arms was just struggling.

“Ah, sorry. Go throw them away quickly. Anyway, you have to understand those ghosts’ dirty tempers.”

At the guarding bandit’s words, he nodded and walked down the corridor with corpses under both arms.

“But is this really okay? I feel uneasy somehow.”

“When the other guys return, our guarding duty will end too. Until then, they’ll hold out.”

The two guards stopped paying attention to the bandit leaving the building and began talking.

The bandit who left the building turned around the building side, passed through alleys between buildings, and stopped his feet in front of a small pit.

And he threw the corpse of the younger person among the corpses he was holding into the pit.

“So this pit was used for this purpose after all.”

The bandit spoke in a gloomy voice while looking inside the pit.

Inside the pit were several corpses covered in sand. A bit away from the corpses was the bandit’s corpse that had just fallen, stuck in the sand.

And the appearance of the bandit looking at the pit with a depressed expression gradually changed to Sun-woo’s appearance.

Sun-woo, having returned to his original appearance, let out a small sigh.

Just before, Sun-woo who had been disguised as an ordinary man with <Illusion Arts> was prepared to be caught and flee immediately the moment the mage pointed at him.

But fortunately, the guarding bandit approached to check, and Sun-woo did something close to gambling.

The moment the bandit checked him, he switched the appearances of himself and the bandit with <Illusion Arts>. At the same time, he knocked out the bandit and laid him in his place while pretending to be the bandit.

Fortunately, his action of switching to the bandit was an extremely good move.

To kill people even after finishing the check. It was something Sun-woo completely didn’t expect.

Sun-woo descended under the pit and laid down the middle-aged man he had tucked under his arm. Sun-woo felt quite guilty about the middle-aged man.

He was someone who might not have died if not for Sun-woo.

But Sun-woo firmly pushed down the rising guilt deep into his chest.

It was something he had to be prepared for from the moment of killing. There was no guarantee someone wouldn’t get hit by stray bullets during fights to kill or be killed. Moreover, the opponents were those who looked down on humans. It was something that would happen someday.

‘Dirty self-rationalization.’

Sun-woo poured mockery at himself and rose outside the pit.

He spread <Illusion Arts> and melted into the darkened night.

Shortly after, the party welcomed the returning Sun-woo warmly. But after hearing Sun-woo’s story, the party’s expressions hardened.

“This is no ordinary matter. Guys who fight with things other than martial arts are extremely troublesome.”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom apparently didn’t like fighting superpower users or mages.

“You have to smash them by clashing force with force to enjoy fighting. Those kinds of guys are all messy…”

It looked difficult to leave the contaminated summoned to Hwangbo Ja-gyeom.

“More than that, we need to check whether contaminated summoned exist at other Blood Cult branches too and whether brainwashing is happening there. If brainwashing has been happening earlier than expected, the situation could be quite bad.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the party’s expressions darkened further. Even the Divine Cult’s branch leader had been brainwashed and was loyal to them. There was no knowing where or who else had been brainwashed.

“Well, summoned attacking other branches or the main base will confirm it anyway. We’ll probably hear about it when we return.”

Experience didn’t go anywhere, it seemed. As Hwangbo Ja-gyeom said, Sun-woo’s party couldn’t be the only ones attacking branches.

“Come on, let’s stop those annoying thoughts and quickly get into a fight.”

No, it wasn’t experience but apparently he jumped to conclusions because he wanted to fight.

The difficulty level rose considerably compared to before scouting, but it wasn’t something they could give up. Moreover, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom and Nan-seol began preparing to fight right away, and even Yeon-hwa was staring intently at Sun-woo.

Sun-woo let out a small sigh and opened his mouth toward the party.

“Could you listen to me for a moment? I’ve made a bit of a plan with the scouted content.”

“Ho. A plan?”

At Sun-woo’s words, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s expression became interested, and Nan-seol looked at Sun-woo while listening deeply. Both were people who had experienced Sun-woo’s tactics.

“First…”

Dark night. Tactics flowed from Sun-woo’s mouth.