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Translator: similarTIGER

Editor: Sotheno

Knock Knock

“It’s me, Carten.”

At the call, footsteps came from behind the door, and Ross opened the door.

Checking Carten’s condition, Ross said,

“Welcome back. Come in and tell me your report.”

Glad that Carten was back unhurt, Ross walked backed in the room.

“What did you learn?” asked Ross after he sat down in his seat.

There were many things to report. Carten was deciding what information to report first.

Order the information in the order of importance, Carten began his report.

“First, I’ve found Kelta’s secret cave.”

“What? You’ve found the cave?” said Ross surprised.

“Didn’t I send you to investigate what happened to the red wolves?”

Ross was confused about the current situation. He sent Carten to check what happened, but all of a sudden, he reported that he found Kelta’s secret cave.

Ross was expecting information on Garrett and the group he was associated with.

“What’s going on?”

Unable to understand the situation, Ross asked Carten to explain.

“When I arrived at the mansion…”

***

‘They’re all dead.’

There were no survivors. All of the red wolves were murdered.

‘By one spell.’

The strange thing was the red wolves were annihilated by one spell.

‘A magic spell at this degree…’

Frowning, Carten scanned his surroundings. There was dense mana left from a spell within the area. Despite the time passing, the mana left from the spell was still very dense. That meant the spell would have been destructive, and the annihilation of the red wolves was not a surprise.

‘Let’s go back and report.’

Carten thought he had to hurry and report that the enemy had a magician that could use a spell strong enough to annihilate the red wolves.

Carten returned to the mansion.

“…?”

Arriving at the mansion, Carten saw the path to the underground prison was opened.

‘Did he go downstairs?’

Thinking that Ross was downstairs, Carten walked down the staircase and was lost for words at the sight of the dead bodies and the missing prisoner.

‘This mana!’

The mana within the cell was very dense as the mana that annihilated the red wolves.

Turning around, Carten rushed to the third floor and went to Ross’s room but saw no one inside.

‘Damn it.’

Carten cursed in his thought and searched throughout the mansion for Ross.

‘He’s not here.’

Carten looked throughout the whole mansion, but could not find Ross’s corpse.

‘If there’s no corpse…,’

The absence of Ross’s corpse could mean many things.

‘Was he kidnapped?’

First of all, He could have been kidnapped. The other remaining red wolves were murdered, so that was a possibility.

‘Or did he run away?’

The second possibility was that he ran away. Ross was an important member of the Parville Merchants’ Corps, so he should have a warp scroll.

He might have used the scroll while the remaining members kept the intruder busy.

Wondering what happened to Ross, Carten walked back to the entrance. He came to check for traces.

The intruder that saved Haccid and Haccid himself must have left some traces behind, and Carten could track traces.

He found traces of two people walking out of the mansion.

‘These should belong to Haccid and the magician that saved him.’

‘Ross seemed to have warped away.’

There were only traces of Haccid and the magician. Ross had no traces anywhere inside the mansion nor outside, so he should have warped out.

‘Then…, let’s go after them first.’

Deciding his next step, Carten followed the traces.

***

“That’s how I found it.”

Carten explained everything from the deaths of the red wolf members and how he found the cave.

Ross was lost for words. Not because Carten found the cave but because of the strength of the magician.

‘With one spell…? That’s how strong Garrett was?’

Ross expected Garrett to have demolished the red wolves with a group, but according to Carten’s report, Garrett did that alone.

Ross didn’t expect Garrett to be that strong. He defeated the red wolves alone with one spell.

‘That’s absurd!’

Unable to believe in the situation, Ross jumped out of his seat.

“…?”

Carten was startled at Ross’s behavior and looked at Ross with a puzzled gaze.

“I need to go see brother.”

He needed to meet with Raiden and report the magician’s strength and the information on the cave.

‘There should be information on him if he’s that strong.’

There was no way the Corps didn’t have information on someone that powerful.

“Do you mean boss?”

“Yes.”

Nodding to Carten’s question, Ross rushed towards Raiden’s room with Carten following.

Unlike normally, Carten did not hide his presence. There was no need to hide from the boss of the Parvile Merchants’ Corps. Even if he did, he’d get exposed in seconds.

Arriving at Raiden’s room, Ross knocked on the door.

“Brother! It’s me, Ross!”

“Come in.”

Hearing the response, Ross entered.

Raiden was looking at a few documents, but seeing Carten behind Ross, he mumbled.

“It seems like your back.”

Raiden stood up from his desk and walked towards the table seat. Ross then sat across from Raiden and began to speak.

“There’s a good, bad, and in between, scratch that, the worst news.”

“Tell it to me in the order of bad, good and worst.”

“The bad news is…”

Grinding his teeth, Ross reported,

“The red wolves were annihilated.”

To be precise, the new recruits were annihilated. The red wolves were still fine.

“Hmm, I see.”

Raiden nodded to confirm. He expected this from Ross’s attitude from before.

“And the good news is that we’ve found Kelta’s secret cave.”

“Oh-ho!”

Hearing that, Raiden let out a surprised sound and sent a smile towards Carten as if he was saying, “Good Job!”

“Then what’s the worst?”

Raiden was now interested in what the final news, the worst news, was.

“The worst news is about the magician Garrett that I told you earlier.”

Raiden tilted his head. He knew about the magician already. A powerful magician. But why is that a problem now?

Just what did Carten report to make Ross say that he was the worst news?

“He didn’t have a group.”

Frowning and surprised at the same time, Raiden asked,

“That means he did that by himself? He defeated all the red wolves by himself, is that what you are saying?”

Even though Ross took the new recruits that lacked experience, the red wolves don’t recruit anybody. They are all capable recruits, but demolishing a group alone was not normal.

“Yes, and it was by a single spell.”

Raiden was more surprised at this news. Making a stiff face, Raiden said to Ross,

“It seems like I’ll need to investigate him.”

***

[Level Up!]

Soo Hyuk opened his character window.

Class: Archmage’s Descendant

Level: 204  Experience: 0%

Health: 111600  Mana: 75600

Satiation: 63%

Strength ： 40 (+10)

Agility ： 35 (+16)

Stamina ： 1108 [554 (+10)]

Wisdom： 3780 (+10)

Bonus Stat : 5

Soo Hyuk was not satisfied with the previous monsters he encountered because of the low exp they gave.

‘It was a good decision to come to this path.’

But starting from the ogres, the difficulty arose, and Soo Hyuk was happy to have chosen this path.

‘But…’

Allocating his bonus stats to Wisdom, Soo Hyuk closed the window.

Soo Hyuk checked the time and frowned.

’10 o’clock.’

It was already 10 o’clock,

How much longer do I need to go?

‘It’s been seven hours already.’

It has been seven hours since Soo Hyuk entered the monster path. He walked for seven hours nonstop.

‘Let’s end it for today.’

Soo Hyuk was not happy with the current situation. Although he was gaining proficiency in his skills and raising levels, all he did was walk, and now he was sick of it.

It was earlier than usual, but Soo Hyuk wanted to log out and read a book.

‘I’m alone, anyway.’

He was doing this quest with somebody, nor did the quest have a time limit. There was no problem with procrastinating a bit.

‘No, wait… This is the sixth group.’

Checking the time once again, Soo Hyuk decided to go a little bit more. The next group could be the last.

Walking forwards, Soo Hyuk met the sixth group. Well, it can’t be called a group, because there were only two monsters.