Chapter 65 – Desert (4)

In the center of the ruined city, there was a large pond, a plaza surrounding it, and a large building to the north of the plaza.

Of course, like other waterways and ponds, this pond also had only sand piled up, but to Sun-woo’s eyes as he peered while keeping his body low on top of a building to the south, it felt quite magnificent.

The place where the branch leader and others were talking was in front of the large building located to the north. Fortunately, the branch leader was shouting loudly so his words were reaching Sun-woo’s ears enhanced with internal energy.

“We must mobilize all personnel immediately to kill the Holy Maiden and her party. If the Holy Maiden returns safely, the Cult’s warriors will come flooding in!”

The branch leader seemed to be loudly persuading the person in front of him.

But from the situation, his persuasion didn’t seem to be working very well. Sun-woo saw the other person listening to his story shake their head.

“It may be too late if we wait until all the comrades who went out return. We must wake those sleeping underground first to stop them.”

Sun-woo found it difficult to understand everything the branch leader said.

But among it, there was content he could understand.

First, it seemed many bandits were not here. Even to Sun-woo’s detection, the number of bandits wasn’t very many, and it appeared they had all gone outside.

And one more thing, the reason the branch leader had run here so earnestly wasn’t to flee but because he needed reinforcements to attack the party.

The smell of contamination spreading agents was flowing from the person listening to the branch leader’s story.

He was an ordinary-faced man dressed in black clothes, and his outfit and atmosphere were exactly that of a Blood Cult member.

‘Moreover, at least peak-level.’

Seeing the peak-level branch leader bow and scrape, he was probably at least no weaker than the branch leader.

The two people who had been talking in front of the building soon entered inside.

When the two entered the building, Sun-woo let out a small sigh of relief.

Because it wasn’t easy to hide his body from high-level martial artists or ability users. It would have been easy if there were people around or helpful objects, but in such an open place there was no guarantee he wouldn’t be caught.

‘The situation isn’t bad. Should I go back right away and prepare?’

There weren’t many people at the stronghold. And there were two peak-level martial artists, but that much could be handled by Sun-woo’s party. Objectively, attacking now seemed best.

Having decided that and trying to withdraw his body, Sun-woo soon looked at the building the branch leader entered with a puzzled expression.

“Why underground?”

Because Sun-woo’s sorcery could feel the party that had entered the building heading underground.

Sun-woo felt puzzled and continued expanding his senses, but ultimately lost track of their movements. The terrain composed of rock interfered with his sorcery and on top of that they had entered too deeply.

‘Sigh, I’ll have to enter deeper.’

It wasn’t easy to launch an attack without knowing why they went underground. Moreover, the story he heard earlier about “those sleeping underground” was sufficient reason for Sun-woo to go underground.

After struggling with conflict for a moment, Sun-woo ultimately jumped down under the building and quickly crossed the plaza.

Since the sunset had already receded and darkness was rolling in, no one saw Sun-woo cross the plaza and enter the building.

This building to the north of the plaza was different in size from other houses, but the materials were also completely different. Unlike other houses made of mud, this building was made of giant stones.

It was probably the house of this city’s ruler or possibly a religious building.

But Sun-woo was quite dissatisfied with the building’s materials. A building made of stone. If it were a house made of earth, it would have been quite convenient to use sorcery, but it became quite regrettable.

However, houses made of stone also had their uses in many cases.

Grind grind grind.

The two bandits guarding in front of the stairs leading underground at the very back of the building, at the end of the corridor, frowned at the sudden noise.

The sound was coming from above their heads. When they looked up in surprise, the stones of the ceiling connected with stone were gradually coming down.

The noise was from the stones being pushed down. And as time passed, the noise grew louder and even stone dust began pouring down.

“What’s going on with this?”

“Don’t tell me it’s finally going to collapse?”

“Stay here. I’ll go report first and come back.”

One of the bandits guarding in front of the stairs ran outside to make a report.

“Damn it, from the look of it you’re going out because you’re scared it’ll collapse.”

If he was going to report, he should have gone down and reported. There was no reason to go outside for no reason.

In the midst of all this, stone dust continued to be sprinkled and now stones were starting to come out noticeably to the eye. The remaining one also had no choice but to move eventually.

“Damn, I guess I should go report too.”

With a frightened expression, the last guard also ran outside. When he went outside the building, the stones of the ceiling that looked like they would fall right away stopped moving. It was all Sun-woo’s doing.

When the two left, Sun-woo who had been hiding in the corridor shadows entered through the entrance where the guards had been standing, heading toward the stairs going underground.

The stairs continued downward in a circular shape. And as he went down, damp moisture began rising from the walls.

When Sun-woo descended about 50 meters, finally people’s presence was caught by Sun-woo’s sorcery.

Sun-woo was surprised by the number of people detected by his sorcery.

‘At least over a hundred people.’

He could feel over a hundred people lying at regular intervals like a checkerboard, or rather like people lying in a cemetery. Only about ten people were moving.

‘Could these be the people who were kidnapped?’

He still couldn’t know for certain. Sun-woo decided to approach closer and check with his eyes.

Shortly after, when Sun-woo descended about 10 more meters more carefully, the stairs finally ended. And beyond that, a quite large underground plaza spread out.

It seemed the people who lived in this ruined city had considerable skills.

The underground plaza was made by breaking through solid rock walls, and judging by the waterway on one side, it probably appeared to be a kind of water tank that drew water from underground and stored it.

But this place that had been used as a water storage in the past now had people lying on the floor instead of water. Most of them were young men and some appeared to be middle-aged people.

Sun-woo carefully entered the underground plaza.

Fortunately, the branch leader and Blood Cult members who had gone down first weren’t here, only one guard doing something else was standing at the opposite door.

Sun-woo avoided the light of torches standing here and there and placed his hand on the arm of a young person lying in a corner.

‘He has internal energy.’

Sun-woo also checked other people nearby. Most were people who had learned martial arts. ‘Why kidnap people who learned martial arts? No, there are also people without martial arts, so what on earth is the reason…’

While Sun-woo was pondering, suddenly the opposite side of the plaza became noisy. It seemed the branch leader’s party that had been elsewhere was coming.

Sun-woo tried to withdraw his body right away, but had to stop his steps at the presence coming down from above the stairs.

Several people were coming down through the stairs. There were two exits from the plaza. It seemed he was surrounded.

Those who appeared from the opposite door were, as Sun-woo expected, the branch leader and the person presumed to be a Blood Cult member. And a person who appeared to be the bandit gang’s leader, and at the very end two people wearing cloaks walked out.

Whether there was some agreement between them during that time, the branch leader’s mouth was tightly closed.

“It has to be certain. Waking unfinished products could be dangerous.”

“I’ll take responsibility.”

The branch leader confirmed again at the Blood Cult member’s words, but he only snorted.

“What responsibility from a brainwashed guy.”

The Blood Cult member ignored the branch leader and as politely as possible guided the two people standing behind to the middle-aged people lying on one side.

But the two people wearing cloaks stopped walking midway and looked toward the door with stairs leading above ground on the opposite side.

In front of the door, several bandits stood with frightened expressions. They were the bandits who had hurriedly come down earlier.

After entering the underground plaza, they stopped walking right there.

Their boss whom they wanted to meet was on the opposite side, but there were also people wearing cloaks with him.

“What’s the matter!”

The bandit boss shouted at his hesitating subordinates.

At the boss’s shout, the bandits exchanged glances and eventually the oldest-looking bandit carefully approached the boss.

“The ceiling at the first floor stairway entrance was about to collapse so we came down to report.”

The bandits who came down from above were the two bandits guarding the entrance and a mid-level officer in charge of security. Surprised by the ceiling that seemed about to collapse and having rushed outside, they fortunately(?) met an officer patrolling nearby and were caught by the officer and brought down to report.

“What? The ceiling collapsed?”

“Ah, it didn’t collapse. The stones just came down quite a bit.”

Unlike the two bandits who guarded the entrance making a fuss, when the mid-level officer saw it, only a few stones protruding from the ceiling were visible.

At his words, the Blood Cult member immediately turned his head toward the cloaked person.

“Safe. Building. Stones no problem.”

When he looked, one of the cloaked people opened their mouth. It wasn’t certain because the face wasn’t visible due to the cloak, but his stuttering speech made him not look like a Central Plains person.

“Building is fine. Return.”

When the Blood Cult member listened to the cloaked person’s words and gave instructions, the bandits looked at their boss’s expression. Soon the boss nodded and the bandits went up the stairs with their tails between their legs.

‘Stones moved? Could it be?’

At the words that the ceiling stones moved, the branch leader thought of what happened at the village not long ago, but soon shook his head.

He did see the miraculous sight of the ground sinking and rising, but that was definitely a trap. No one in the Cult had ever seen such magic used.

The only ones who could do such things were those who came from another world.

The cloaked people pulled back their cloaks. Then faces of colored people (whites) with blonde hair and silver hair appeared.

“I really don’t know how you handle work. If we wake them now they won’t be in a completely brainwashed state, so how are you going to deal with the aftermath.”

“Well, it’ll just take more time. We can finish the job and continue after.”

At the blonde’s grumbling, the silver-haired man holding a staff answered.

“You’re just talking carelessly because it’s not your job.”

“Well, I’ve done all I need to do by drilling water here.”

The two spoke in not-small voices, but no one beside them could understand their conversation. Moreover, the words they exchanged with each other were also completely different languages.

Only Sun-woo lying in a corner pretending to be a kidnapped person with <Illusion Arts> understood their words.

‘Contaminated summoned!’

It was as Sun-woo expected.

The blonde man was formerly ‘The Pied Piper’, a summoned with animal control-type superpower, and the other person was a mage summoned. Both were contaminated people.