Chapter 139: Chapter 139 Existing to fight

Jay left the room, feeling strange. For some reason he felt like he was being taken advantage of, even though logically, on paper, he had won out.

“Weird old man… that seemed a little forced…” he thought as he began walking back to Margaret.

“I should definitely check my room for hidden magic moving-image recorders…”

“I’m not saying Viladore is that kinda man… but just in case.”

Jay could only guess at what Viladore’s strange over-enthusiasm was about.

From Jay’s perspective, Viladore didn’t even seem to care that he may not attend lessons, but was oddly passionate about him staying there.

It didn’t really make sense.

Margaret came out of the back room with a key for Jay.

“Here you go dear. You’re actually going to be in the room next to Naria.”

“Oh? Well… don’t tell her. We’ll let it be a surprise.” Jay smiled, though his thoughts were different.

“Damn… I don’t want some little girl distracting me… at least she doesn’t talk.” he thought, as he turned to the exit.

“Well, I’ll see you later Margaret. If there’s any trouble I’ll let you know.”

“Bye now.”.

Heading out of the association, Anya was now standing near some other ranged-base adventurers, giving tips and feedback to them as they attacked, while judging their weapons too.

As Jay stepped out of the building, Anyaa looked up, waving bye to the others and joining Jay’s side.

“Hey.” Jay nodded as he kept walking towards the floating mana-stone gate.

“Hi. So, you ‘defeated’ the third pyramid huh?”

“Yep.” Jay shrugged.

“Ok, we’ll see.” she nodded as if she knew something.

“You don’t believe me?”

“It’s not that, I just think you might be mistaken…”

“Oh?”

“Yep.” she shrugged, not giving away any more.

“Ok then, keep your secrets” he shrugged.

“She’s acting weird” Jay thought, but decided not to say anything.

As they passed through the mana stone gate, Jay continued walking down the normal path towards Losla.

“Hey, aren’t we going to the mist keep?”

“Yeah, I just have to stop off at another dungeon first.”

“Oh? You’ve been doing other dungeons? Which ones? Leaf cliff? Howling Stand? Verene’s Sisters?”

“No… I only do instanced dungeons… you know why. It’s the wolf quarry dungeon.”

“Oooh, that’s a bit risky alone – but I suppose someone like you would be fine.” she shrugged and glanced at Jay, hinting that he would never be alone because of all his skeletons.

Jay looked back with a serious gaze, not smiling, not showing any emotion at all.

“We’re alone on the path but she should probably keep her mouth shut.” he thought as he tried to stop the conversation continuing by being silent.

Thankfully, it seemed like she got the message as she quieted down.

Jay and Anya shortly arrived at the wolf quarry dungeon.

“Wait here a moment.” Jay said before diving into the black hole, the dungeon entrance.

As he floated to the ground in the dark pit, he nearly stumbled as he landed on a pile of bones.

“Looks like it has had no problems killing the wolves” he stepped off the pile of bones.

“Huh… it seems the helminth can extract bones too…” he looked around, noting the lack of flesh and viscera – this was until the helminth raised its skull from out of the ground, bits of the silt-wolf flesh lodged in its skull.

“Well hello there” Jay smiled, but not patting it.

*snap snap*

The helminth snapped its jaw twice, it seemed to be like its greeting.

“Did you do this?” Jay pointed at the bones.

*snap snap*

“Good job, aren’t you a good little parasite?” he smiled, praising the undead creature.

*snap snap*

It then happily dived back underground.

Using his necrotic sense, Jay felt it slithering away under the ground, heading back to collect more bones.

Looking around, Jay guessed there were about 20 corpses of the wolves.

It was hard to tell how many wolves were slain, as there were no skulls. They were simply too big for the little parasitic helminth to store inside itself, but the individual bones were fair game.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Jay slyly smiled, scooping all the bones into his ring with a single wave of his gauntlet.

– – –

~Eevulen City~

A small crowd began to gather at the central square of the city. Looks of fear, excitement and hope were across the faces of the people that had gathered.

None of them knew why such a large force of mage hunters was here, and it meant that both danger was coming while safety had arrived.

“What the hell are the mage hunters doing here?” a hide merchant whispered to Bertram.

“Hmmh..” Bertram gave nothing but a grunt, deciding not to say anything. He knew better than to trust an authority which promised safety in exchange for power – though he still had to keep up appearances.

With a bitter taste in his mouth, he took out tiny black signs and put them in front of the various stalls he owned.

[50% off to our valiant heroes]

“Hopefully they don’t see my signs” he thought as he strategically placed them around, nearly out of view – just not enough to raise suspicion.

To Bertrams delight, it seemed that the mage hunters were just passing through as none of them went to any inns or set up any shelters. They were simply resting here for a moment before moving on.

A sub-commander of the mage hunters was looking over a detailed map of the region.

“We’re getting closer to the wilds. Only a few more noteworthy villages left.” he looked over the map while another sub-commander watched.

“Send a platoon to Tolgard, then send one squad to Losla.”

The other commander nodded, accepting his orders with a salute before marching off to find one of his platoon leaders – lieutenant Marsh.

After spending a few hours resting, the mage hunters were already on the march again.

The large group of armour-clad troops broke off into smaller ones as they each left in different directions from the city, while only a few squads remained behind to protect Eevulen.

Lieutenant Marsh is known as ‘the inquisitor’ among division four. He is not just a competitive man, but has an over-scrupulous attention to detail; one that would put an archaeologist to shame – this quality would only be matched by his hunger for battle; he deserved his platoon-leader command position over the four squads under him – but it wasn’t enough for him, he desired to fight.

Each of his heavy steps was placed with purpose.

He may be marching quietly behind his troops, but on the inside he is like a hungry wolf.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

After idly training in the castle and its nearby dungeons for so long, he was finally being deployed again. His blood was quietly roiling under his skin as he looked forward to his next battle.

The dungeon monsters were not exciting enough for him, they didn’t satiate his desire for intense battle; most of them simply weren’t complex or cunning enough. After discovering a way to defeat them, the excitement of battle would be over, and sadly, the monsters would never adapt.

“Why can’t there be a peasant uprising” he sometimes sadistically thought.

Thanks to all the mana conduits, people rarely got powerful or dangerous classes anymore.

In recent decades, the ‘safety bearers’ were turning into a smaller force. It was getting rarer and rarer to see them in public anymore. They may have been like a shell of their former selves, but at the same time had become a more elite force.