Chapter 189

Chapter 189 Strongest Sage, Curse

The moment Ruli declared the activation, wave of mana spreading out of the magic tool around her .

It's spreading evenly with enough range to cover all of our foes .

Quite excellent for something that was made impromptu .

But there's one thing that bothers me .

That is . . . the fact that Ruli and Alma are included in the magic tool's range .

There shouldn't be any problem if they have another magic tool to protect them from the sleeping magic tool though– .

『It's on! Huh? I kinda feel sleepy . . . 』

『Oy, don't tell me . . . 』

『Zz . . . Zz . . . 』

. . . Looks like my fear was proven correct .

Ruli's voice turned to snoring midway through .

Apparently she forgot about their own protection in her quest to make a magic tool to drowse people in the surroundings .

It might not be a problem if the enemy fell asleep without fail, but if they were strong enough to withstand the sleep magic, it could spell disaster .

I've got to properly teach her how to use area-effect magic tools later on .

I approached the two while thinking that .

" . . . They're fast asleep . . . "

"Yeah . Glad that they didn't seem to hit their heads at least . "

Sleep magic is a relatively dangerous magic in spite of the name .

Since you fall asleep from a standing position, there's a lot of cases where your head hits something .

Although there's rarely a case where the practitioner died, many suffered injuries at least . . . But the two seem to be fortunate enough to avoid that, they're sleeping so peacefully .

Kind of makes it hard to wake them up . . . But unfortunately, we can't let them sleep here .

"Alright, let's wake them up . "

I used some simple rousing magic on the two .

And they quickly opened their eyes .

『Munyamunya . . . Huh? Where am I?』

『 . . . Why was I . . . Ah!』

Alma didn't seem to get what just happened, but Ruli quickly realized the reason why she fell asleep .

After looking at the magic tool she made herself, Ruli's expression turned awkward .

"You've gotta make sure to protect yourself the next time you're making area-effect magic tools, okay . "

"I made a mistake . . . I'll be careful . . . "

Ruli stared at the magic tool she created reproachfully as she said that .

I could teach her how to protect herself from magic tools right here and now . . . But right now we need to focus dealing with our sleeping assailants .

"Well, since you've successfully drowsed our enemy, this plan was a success . And they've got the things I wanted with them to boot . "

"Things you wanted?"

"Yeah . This . "

I took out a plate from one of the assailants' pocket .

The plate is written with 『Member's Badge』 .

"Member's Badge . . . of the bandit gang?"

"Yeah . A badge to prove you're a member of this bandit gang . . . or at least that's how it looks like . "

I then began to decipher the Member's Badge .

Deciphering it is easy . After all, the code used is completely the identical as the one used on the Pass .

『Special Pass . Back Gate 174532 . 』

Those words showed up on the Member's Badge afterward .

Alma speaks up when she sees that .

" . . . Isn't this basically the same thing as the Pass?"

"That's right . I figured that these fake bandits employed by the territorial lord should carry some with them, I was spot on . "

I transcribed the magic code on the plate to a paper, and returned the plate back to the assailant's pocket .

I did the same routine four times and extracted four magic codes from four Member's Badges .

Afterward, I handed over four small magic stones to Ruli .

"Carve these magic codes using magic . "

"Magic codes . . . I've never done it before, is it like this?"

Ruli carved the magic code into one of the magic stones .

It needs precisions since the magic stone is small, but it's not at a level problematic for Ruli .

She quickly finished carving all four magic stones .

"Excellent . Next you do this . . . "

As I said that, I created plates from some wood with magic, to be used as the magic stone's plates .

The size and appearance is the same as the Member's Badge .

"Good, it's done . "

I handed over the finished forged Member's Badges to Ruli .

There's four of them to make detection harder .

Having four completely identical Member's Badges would invite suspicion after all .

"Alright . Then let's head to the town . . . But before that, we should record all of these guys' mana reactions . "

"Mana reactions?"

"Yeah . Once the hubbub at Folkia is over, we'll need to hand these criminals over . Recording their mana reaction is for that occasion . "

I touched a nearby assailant, pretended to peer at his mana reaction–and then carved the spell 【Curse of Death】 on the assailant's heart .

【Curse of Death】 has two effects .

First, when the target is trying to kill someone, the spell will make the target move slower regardless of their will .

Second, it will kill the target 30 days after the Curse is set .

With this spell bound on these guys, whenever they try to attack other adventurers, they will slow themselves down and have the table turned on them instead .

And even if they're lucky enough to survive, they will die in 30 days for sure .

–Even if killing them now is disadvantageous to me, I'm not going to let anyone who attacked me run free .

"Were you able to record their mana, Mathi-kun?"

"Yeah . It's perfect . "

Looks like even Ruli didn't notice the 【Curse of Death】 .

It's only natural . On top of having simple effects, 【Curse of Death】 cannot be used unless the target is sleeping, but in exchange, it's a highly hidden spell .

And the fact that Ruli doesn't notice it means your average demons can't possibly do either .

I carved the 【Curse of Death】 on our assailants one after another while thinking that .

–My work was finished 10 minutes later .

"Alright, I'm done with all of them! Set the rousing magic tool to wake these guys in five minutes!"

"I got it!"

Then we ran out after Ruli had set the magic tool .

In five minutes, our assailants should wake up and try to conceal their huge failure of falling asleep in the middle of a pursuit .

Unless these guys are stupid, the battle this time should be [Nonexistent] at Folkia .

Thus, it'll be some time before they find out about us using the forged Member's Badges to enter the city .

As long as we get enough information in the meantime, planning our moves should be easier once the time comes .

We advanced toward Folkia while thinking that .

◇

Less than an hour later .

We've gotten close to Folkia . . . but I sensed some worrying presences there along the way .

It appears that Folkia is currently in the next most troublesome situation I could have guessed of .

『Umm . . . It feels like I could detect demons inside the town . . . 』

Ruli asked me anxiously when we were about two kilometers away from the town .

Looks like she's noticed too .

『Yeah . It is demons . A type that's specialized in concealment at that . If one is hiding inside a building or something similar, even I wouldn't be able to find it with just 【Passive Detection】 . 』

『It's really good at concealing . . . That's why I couldn't detect it until we're this close . . . Is that also why it's not possible to detect its location?』

『No, that's unrelated . Once you got one in your detection range, you could also pinpoint its location . 』

I looked at Ruli as I said that .

Ruli looked like she was concentrating on detecting for a little while . . . Then she shook her head .

『Uun . . . It's full of weird reactions!』

Strange .

The demons in this town are indeed of a specialized type, but they should not have a special ability to hide their location . . .

『By the way, what do you mean by weird reactions?』

『Umm . . . The reactions are all over the place! Just in the range I could detect, there's like 30 of them . . . 』

. . . Ah, I see .

I guess it's only natural for her to misunderstand .

I mean demons are ordinarily an organism that doesn't crowd together .

Unfortunately however– .

『You're not mistaken . 』

『 . . . Eh?』

Ruli and Alma were dumbfounded when they heard me .

That's right . Ruli has not made any mistake in her detection .

Folkia is presently choke full of demons .