Chapter 166: Chapter 166: Wow! The Iona Bus! (4)

Ding!

A familiar notification sound followed by a system window floated in mid-air.

It was lengthy but it could be summarized simply.

-Your skills will slightly increase.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

-Your magic power will increase.

Oh. It seems like he’s dead.

In other words, it meant that Iona’s interrogation had ended.

First, I needed to check.

As I put down the documents I was holding, I muttered to myself.

‘Status Window’

Name: Yandel

Title: Ghost Buster

Basic Abilities

Strength: 14

Durability: 14

Agility: 14

Skill: 16

Magic Power: 21

Traits

Endless Mana (A)

Element Affinity (B)

Excellent Memory (B)

Ordinary Weapon Skills (D+)

Lintblum Mana Core (C+)

Junior Magician (C) -> (C+)

Sun God's Blessing (B)

Cultist Hatred (C)

Weak Constitution (C)

Element Combination (A)

Sea's Blessing (B+)

Unfortunately, my stats did not increase. Well, the conventional limit for stats was 30.

Naturally, the higher the stats, the harder it was to increase them.

Only the skills had slightly increased, and given that my current magic power was 21, a single medium increase was far from enough.

However, it wasn’t that there were no changes at all.

Though not as dramatic as when a stat would increase, I could feel that my magic power had grown slightly.

Perhaps recognizing my skillful use of enhancing certain elemental magics through sympathetic resonance during combat, a plus was added to my magician traits.

Now, just one more step, and I could overcome one wall as a magician.

Which meant that the realm of becoming an intermediate magician was just within reach.

…Honestly, it didn’t feel real.

If I were to become an intermediate magician, would it be due to my own abilities awakening? Or because the system boosted me?

Well… it didn’t matter which.

What was important was that I could become a bit stronger. That was all there was to it.

With a satisfied smile at this good start, I headed towards where Iona was.

“Professor? Did you finally find out something this time?”

“Uhm. There are some results, but they’re a bit different from what I expected… I’ll tell you when we go up!”

Iona, who had been tilting her head in thought, lightly snapped her fingers.

Then, the thorn vines made of blood that surrounded us gently grabbed us and lifted us to the ground.

Iona set us down from a distance. As soon as our feet touched the ground, the area around the mountain lodge collapsed.

It must be because Iona’s thorn vines, which were holding the soil, disappeared.

Rumble.

For a moment, we blankly watched a few trees and the isolated lodge disappear into the ground.

Iona, who had since pulled out a blood transfusion pack, started sucking on it and spoke.

“Thanks to Yandel revealing the powers of the Boiling Silence recently, spies have been expelled from all over, haven’t they?”

“That’s right.”

With a grimace as if she had eaten something bitter, Iona, having drunk every last drop of the blood pack, put it back into her subspace and continued.

“Because of that, the high-ranking cultists are gathering regularly for meetings! Even across different orders!”

“Oh…”

The cultists, who had been acting completely pathetic and at odds with other orders, were gathering?

The elimination of the Boiling Silence spies must have been a big hit. Now that they had been exposed, they probably saw no need to hide anything.

Although I was a bit anxious about the unexpected results of catching the bugs hidden all over the Eurelia continent…

This was quite valuable information.

I had brought the Boiling Silence to the surface, yet they were still having meetings?

It meant the evil god orders haven’t unified their opinions yet, and they might even be in conflict.

Conversely, it could also mean they had already decided to join forces openly and were now planning how to fight.

The important thing was that they were going to take some action soon.

Knowing that, we could somehow prepare.

“Do you happen to know where the meetings are taking place?”

“Unfortunately, it seems only up to the level of bishops are aware of the meetings’ existence!”

“Tch… That’s really unfortunate. But it’s still good to know they’re moving together.”

“Right! Once we get back, we’ll have to inform the other countries through the chairman.”

Iona nodded solemnly.

I tentatively brought it up, but fortunately, it seemed Iona was fully aware of the threat of the evil god cult alliance.

“So, are we going back now?”

“No? No? The sun is still up!”

“Uh… but we just destroyed a branch. And we have to report to the chairman…”

“We can report using a magic device!”

Saying that, Iona pulled out a sizable card-like object from her possession.

Channeling magic power into her fingertip, she began writing letters on the card.

As soon as it touched, the card that absorbed mana suddenly vibrated and spat out a letter shortly after.

Pop!

“I see.”

“???”

No, it really spat out a letter.

Although I didn’t understand the principle, the letters that floated in the air for a moment quickly scattered into the air.

Perhaps enjoying my bewildered expression, Iona chuckled and spread her fingers into a V-sign.

“Report done! Now, let’s leave what just happened to the chairman and do our job! Where was the next branch?”

“Further… from here?”

“Yes! If we back off now, we’re just giving them time to prepare, right? So, we need to strike now!”

Listening to her, it sort of made sense…

“…You said that only bishops can know about the meeting’s existence, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then wouldn’t archbishops know more?”

“Do you know the location?”

“Yes. Among the lies told by that branch head earlier, there’s the undead storage warehouse at Kundal Harbor, right? The head of that place is the Archbishop of Intolerant Plunder.”

Sawtooth Sophia.

Known as the Archbishop of Intolerant Plunder, she earned the nickname “Sawtooth” due to her habit of biting her nails.

Of course, she didn’t bite her nails for no reason. Precisely, she had a habit of biting her nails when exercising her granted powers.

She was a high priest skilled in controlling the undead and adept at handling all sorts of curses, making her quite a troublesome opponent.

Even more, she was so diligent that there wasn’t a single day when her nails were intact.

That was Sawtooth Sophia.

By the way, in H&A, she appeared as a hidden boss that players could choose to confront or not.

She couldn’t be encountered through the story progression but must be tracked using clues from the surroundings.

As a result, many players miss her and reach the ending without encountering her during their first playthrough.

However, defeating her significantly would reduce the size of the undead legion that would appear in the grand invasion chapter.

That was why I planned to wipe her out with the help of the Church of Righteous Radiance once I got somewhat close to them.

After all, both the undead and curses melt away helplessly in the presence of divine power.

At least, that was the original plan.

However, Iona’s skills, which I witnessed firsthand, were far beyond imagination, enough to give it a try.

“How about it? Do you think you can do it?”

“……”

After hearing about Sophia and the undead warehouse, Iona closed her eyes in thought for a moment.

Then, swaying her upper body back and forth like a metronome, she suddenly opened her eyes wide and nodded her head.

“Good! Good! Let’s give it a try! But if we go straight there and fail, it’ll be hard to touch them for a while, so let’s destroy the other two places Yandel mentioned before attempting!”

“That sounds better. We probably don’t need to interrogate this time, right? After all, Archbishop Sophia would know more than the bishop-level branch head anyway.”

“Killing them and coming back will be much quicker. Less hassle, less effort!”

“Ah, but you haven’t forgotten that we still have to fight a bit, right? That was the condition.”

“Of course, of course. Whatever the goal may be, it’s important for Yandel, right? I’ll leave a few alive for you to finish off!”

The plans quickly fell into place.

This was the reason I liked talking with Iona.

Instead of pondering over stuff, if she felt like doing it, she would move to action right away.

It was the same when she said she would buy Elisha at the auction.

There might have been many issues upon closer thought, but as soon as Iona felt it was okay, she granted permission to go out.

“Right. Carla, Elisha. What do you think?”

“I will follow whatever Teacher wishes.”

“Hmm, I’m a bit worried it might be dangerous, but since we’re just adding spoons, it should be fine.”

As the discussion seemed to conclude, Iona, who was a bit away, peeked her head in.

“Now, now. Is all the talking done? Shall we teleport right away?”

“Uh, yes. Just a moment.”

Carla and I held hands, and Carla and Elisha held hands.

Thus connected as one, we reached out to Iona.

Iona, who had been blankly staring at us for a moment, smiled and took my hand.

“Then, shall we start with the nearest one?”

Iona chanted with a voice that seemed a bit excited.

A curtain of dark red magical light obscured our vision.

.

.

.

.

.

Thus, we were able to subdue a few more cult branches at a rapid pace.

Ding!

Name: Yandel

Title: Ghost Buster

Basic Abilities

Strength: 14 -> 15

Durability: 14

Agility: 14 -> 15

Skill: 16

Magic Power: 21 -> 22

Sweet.