213. Protector Charm

The man all out of breath in the tall grass was Raol.

His huge body was the same as I had seen before, but the armor and the shield that protected his entire body, along with his weapon, were missing, making him look like a poor beggar.

It was almost as if a war had broken out while he was sleeping and he was forced to flee with only the cloth on his back.

As I have stated before, Dump’s residence was in the remote area of the suburbs.

Not only did the merchants avoid coming this way, but the soldiers of Larkenta did not patrol here.

Seeing Raol collapsed here all of a sudden was enough to make me suspicious.

“Huff… Huff…”

“…”

“Huh? Bro… Didn’t we meet before? Please help me.”

“What’s the matter? Didn’t you say you were going to become a slave in order to participate in the festival?”

“That’s right. Huff…”

I was still a bit suspicious, but decided to cast a healing spell on Raol.

There were small cuts on his body, but I did not see any critical injuries.

It seemed that he was severely out of stamina from running away nonstop as if being chased.

As the healing continued, Raol breathing steadied back to normal, and after his anxiety cleared, laid on the ground while looking up and the sky and spoke.

“It seems like I can finally take a breather. Thank you. I won’t forget this debt.”

“It seems like you’re being chased by someone, so what’s going on?”

“You’re correct. I just ran away out of the castle.”

“Is that someone someone of a slave status can do? The castle’s surveillance only amounts to that?”

“It was a late night, and the guards who kept watch in the underground training center were missing for reasons I do not know. It’s understandable to be suspicious of me, but meeting you here is but a coincidence. Please believe me.”

“I thought it wasn’t that long since you told me with such excitement that you were going to serve under Millions?”

“There are things going on in the castle that you would never believe. Even after seeing it for myself, I had a hard time believing it.”

“…”

“I am positive that Marquis Millions is up to something. 60 Protectors that were my pals vanished in a single day. No. They were cruelly murdered.”

“…”

“Their forms, any traces of them including weapons and artifacts, everything… The only thing left was a pool of red blood that came up to my ankles.”

Raol’s eyes were twitching severely.

It was as if he could not believe what he had experienced despite talking about it.

I had thought of Demon as Barub. This incident must’ve been caused by the owner of Demon, Marquis Millions.

My anxiety became far greater.

If Demon had murdered 60 Protectors, then they would’ve grown by a massive amount, and the storm that would follow in their wake would be insane.

“Do you not know who caused it? I guess it is to be expected of someone who barely got out with his life I guess…”

“Demon… Or this is Marquis Millions’ doing.”

“What? How would you know? It’s not as if you’ve witnessed it yourself.”

“If it isn’t from an unknown third party, then only those two can deal with that many Protectors by themselves. Only they are capable of using overwhelming force to crush their opponents without leaving a trace. Past the bloodied hallway on the way out to the exit. There was only a single pair of footprints!”

“So one of them murdered all the slaves by themselves and just left? And unlike the usual, the warden of the underground training center wasn’t present…”

“That could never happen without the marquis’ orders.”

“After I took two steps, you take three? It seems that I’m not allowed to relax even for a moment.”

“Please help me bro! I need to let the world know of this.”

“Why should I?”

“…”

I looked down at Raol with cold eyes.

As if to say my answer was something that he did not expect in the slightest, he looked at me blankly with wide eyes.

This was something they brought upon themselves due to their greed.

The result was a disaster, but I did not like how he omitted his own evils and cried victim.

I am a human. Though I held powers stronger than the gods, my origin was that of a human.

While I did at least hesitate due to my humaneness at times, I wasn’t generous enough to give aid to a cause this baseless.

“Didn’t you become a slave willingly in order to try becoming the king of that oh so great festival?”

“That’s…”

“You must’ve known that the life of a slave is in the hands of the owner, no? But you still sought after him despite knowing that. And only now you will let the world know of this injustice? You’ll reveal the hidden cruelty behind the Festival of Blood?”

“Bro. Why are you like this…”

“Don’t make me laugh. You and those who have died are slaves. Slaves that have died at the hands of their owner. Do you really think that this world will deem that illegal? Wake up. If you want pity, then go complain to someone else.”

“Please don’t do this. If you turn your back on me, then I’ll be hunted for the rest of my life bro! And if you really are human, then shouldn’t you feel some kind of sympathy towards such an unjust death!”

“Fame and political power.”

“What?”

“In the path you sought after, do you think the unjustified murder and wrongdoing can be validated?”

“…”

“If you can’t answer confidently, then live quietly with your head down low. Don’t self victimize yourself and stop complaining.”

The man was in tears.

Hiding my form, I turned around coldly.

I did not know what he’d do from now on, but it didn’t have anything to do with me.

Shifting my focus away from Raol, I focused only on the growth Demon achieved.

I just couldn’t understand what caused them to suddenly grow so greedy in their growth.

But it was something that already had happened.

I had grown stronger than Demon for a brief moment, but now I was behind them in terms of power again.

And if this type of massacre kept continuing, then those who wish to become slaves would come in droves without end.

Unlike that situation, there was a limit on how much growth I could obtain from the Swesi organization.

“Time is running out. Bring out Dan.”

“You’ve called for me, master.”

“It seems that we have to speed up the plan we had set up before.”

“Are you talking about the one about the hunters? But the day they gather is already set in stone.”

“I am aware. We can’t help that. However, the day that we strike the hunters… We attack the headquarters of Swesi as well.”

“Hm… We might be rushing things but it shouldn’t be impossible.”

“4 days from now, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“During that time, your role is important. Since you know the interior of the castle down to the last detail.”

“There’s no need to worry about that. I have lived there for many years.”

“Good. Starting with Swesi and going all the way to Larkenta castle. Assist me well so that the side you invested in reaches great heights.”

“Yes!”

****

Only a day remained before I planned to smash Swesi apart.

I didn’t like him, but the meeting with Raol allowed me to discipline myself a bit more.

It was acknowledging Demon’s growth.

That was why I continued hunting the unexplored territories with my remaining time.

It was to the point where I could almost feel myself growing stronger each day.

There were just that many monsters in the unexplored territories, and they were just as powerful.

Tearing apart a scroll, I traveled immediately to a hunting ground tier I had trouble with.

Since I could only obtain help with the monsters from the first 10 tiers using the encyclopedia, I couldn’t help but be unfamiliar with the monsters that appeared here.

But I had already plunged into the unknown many times back on Earth.

I was the first human to enter without fear the portals that hadn’t been explored by the rest of humanity.

What I learned back then was that if I did not have any information regarding the enemy’s special characteristics, attack methods, or information in general, it was best to crush them with overwhelming strength.

Nothing like brute force.

With a shield that doesn’t end due to my limitless mana and a body that does not tire due to entering the realm of gods…

Because I no longer needed to eat or sleep a long time ago, I was able to hunt nonstop.

I also did not need to worry about the durability of my equipment.

It was because there was no reason for me to get hit.

It happened as I continued this systematic hunting.

I was happily able to meet an elite monster.

Due to a chance of appearance lower than how it was in the dungeon of Earth, I couldn’t help but have high expectations.

However, the strength of the elite monster was random.

This meant that an elite monster with the strength of monsters from the unexplored territories could appear in 1st tier hunting grounds.

As expected, there was no way for me to know the strength of the elite monster that had appeared before me.

However, I could tell that this elite monster was from a hunting ground tier far higher than the one I was currently in.

Since I did not need to worry about others seeing me while hunting here, I went full force with my magic.

I was honestly a bit nervous due to the elite monster surviving three Meteors when a single one of them could wipe out the guards of Swesi.

“Naga?”

The monster’s appearance was similar to the Nagas I encountered back on Earth.

The lower half of its body was a snake while the upper half was humanoid.

As expected, each of its hands held a thin sword, and from its flickering snake tongue flowed out a clear liquid.

As the liquid fell, it easily melted through the floor and the corpses of the monsters I had hunted.

While releasing a white smoke, it had melted straight through.

My assumption was that it carried an incredibly potent toxin.

Using magic, the Naga approached me while weaving through the destroyed hunting ground.

“How did I defeat that monster… I think I just had complete faith in the Titan Boot’s abnormal status condition resistance and just beat the living shit out of it.”

Approaching me quickly by traversing the uneven ground like flowing water, the Naga swung at me with its sword.

Despite having my shield, I did not allow its attack to reach me.

No matter how similar it was to the Naga back on Earth, this was another dimension known as Hell.

And since it wasn’t a weak opponent, I quickly avoided its attack.

Following that, I poured out all of my attack skills nonstop.

The hunting ground was filled with the Piercing Sword’s sword aura covered in first and flames, and even a Mana Turret was constructed.

No matter how strong it was, since I was on another level of speed, it wasn’t able to land any attacks before collapsing.

As expected, the cores came pouring out like a dam bursting, and magical marbles and skill scrolls I had never seen before dropped.

On top of that, all sorts of miscellaneous artifacts were piled into a mound.

If this was before I had learned the Mobile Storage skill, I would have shook my head just thinking about organizing all this, but it was different now.

Getting near it, I opened the storage and moved it all in.

“Organize the cores, magical marbles, and scrolls by rank.”

“Master! What’s going on? Did you hunt down an elite monster?”

“Next, the artifacts will pour in. If you can use it, feel free to take it and do so.”

“Ah, thank you very much.”

After crouching in the dark corner of the storage for so long, Dan’s face brightened up.

Just like that, all the cores, marbles, and scrolls disappeared and even the artifacts disappeared into the storage in one go.

After that, there was a sculpture the size of my thumb glowing gold that was floating above the corpse of the Naga.

I remembered what Dump had said before.

This was a Protector Talisman that dropped from elite monsters at an incredibly low rate.

I pulled out the Indomitable Talisman Dump had made before.

Then I put the talisman that the elite monster dropped into the slot.

“That’s insane.”

“Master! What happened?”

“Dan. Do you know about Protector Talismans? No wait. I don’t think anyone would know about this one.”