Faelanan felt something under his foot. It must be a treasure, he thought. He crouched and dug the ground with his hand, and surprisingly he really found a magic weapon. It was a sword carved with golden line in the shape of a coiling dragon. The dragon roared at the tip of the swords. It was such a finely crafted blade.

"Faelanan, you found a magic weapon?"

"Yeah, look!"

"Wow, that is a fine weapon."

Faelanan imbued the sword with his spiritual energy and attacked a nearby tree. A raging flame blazed on the blade. The moment it touched the tree, the flame engulfed its entire body. Not even a second passed, yet the tree already turned into charcoal and dust.

"Impressive."

"This is the best weapon that I ever have," Faelanan said.

"Let's look for more treasure. There has to be something around this forest."

They looked around the forest again. As they urged their dog to sniff for treasure, all of a sudden, a projectile shot towards them with great speed. And then dozens of them came.

Faelanan reacted quickly. With his new sword, he cut down every projectile that came towards him. But he was shocked to find out that these small metal objects were very powerful. Every time he cut one of them, it shook his arms so strongly that he could feel the strain. Normally, only a magic bow could achieve this power. But he felt no spiritual energy within this metal object.

He tried to dodge the projectiles, but there were too many of them and they seemed to come from every direction. After a while, the shooting ended and Faelanan breathed with difficulty. His chest went up and down as sweat fell of his face.

"Surrender yourself!" Someone shouted.

Faelanan gritted his teeth and brandished his sword towards the voice. "I'm one of the Royal Guards. The soldier of his Majesty, the King. Show yourself or the Royal Palace will hunt you!"

"I think you don't understand your situation. Look behind you."

Faelanan was still wary but he did look behind his back. The sight he saw was shocking. All of his comrades fell with holes in their bodies. Fortunately, the holes were mostly in non-vital spots. The swords near them were deformed so badly, and most of them snapped to pieces. How could such a thing happen?

Then he recalled how the metal projectile strained his arms. It must be that thing. The projectile was too strong it destroyed the sword.

Faelanan looked at his new swords. But it didn't destroy this sword because it was much stronger.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Faelanan shouted.

"Drop your weapon and we will not kill you. As you can see your friends is not death."

That was true. Faelanan could hear them breathing on the ground. Their legs were terribly wounded so it was impossible for them to stand. But he didn't want to drop his weapon. Who knew what they would do to him.

"Don't be stubborn my friend."

Faelanan focused on his hearings, trying to find the source of the voice. He tried to look beyond the leaves and twigs but there didn't seem to be anything.

"This is my last warning. Surrender now!"

Faelanan closed his eyes.

"Hey! I'm talking to you."

There!

He rushed towards the thicket then suddenly threw his sword upward. The sword flew straight to a branch, cutting it. A man was hugging the tree and the sword hit the spot above his head. Faelanan almost got him.

Just as he was about to jump and caught the man, a barrage of metal struck him from the side. Was he a magician? Faelanan thought. The man didn't seem to conjure any spell so this attack was probably coming from another source.

As a squad of men came out of the thickets, he knew his speculation was correct, but there was nothing he could do about it. His arms and legs were crippled. It was astonishing how precise their attacks were. None of the projectiles hit his vital spot.

Nesterin climbed down from the tree. "You almost got me there. Thankfully, I have the wolf sense."

Jharteel rolled his eyes from that.

"You." His mouth fell open. "You're a norm? All of you are norms?"

"Surprise!"

"Ah, I heard about you. You must be the rebel army."

"That's correct. And everyone here would kill you if I wasn't here to stop them."

"What do you want from me?"

Nesterin smiled. He ordered his men to bring the other cultivator to other places where someone would interrogate them separately. This was to prevent the enemy from making lies.

"Where are you taking them?"

"That's not important. Tell me. What do you know about the Dark Reckoning?"

The cultivator flinched and trembled when he heard the name. "How do you know about that?"

"Just tell me what you know."

"You don't want to know. It doesn't matter to you norms."

"Just tell me or I'm going to destroy your heart!"

The cultivator took a deep breath. "The Dark Reckoning is a great war in the Zaechora Continent. I don't know much about it. But people had been telling me some stories about this war. They say it was the darkest of age. So dark in fact that it seemed no one knew the detail of this war. Everything I know is merely hearsay."

"Continue."

"Have you ever heard of the Death land?"

Nesterin nodded. "It's the wasteland in the north, right?"

"I never went there in my travel, but I heard people never return when they entered the land. Of course, there were people that said they did, but most of the time they couldn't prove it. They said that the saw monster that hunts the living. These monsters hungered for our souls and will stop at nothing to get it."

"How is this connected to the Dark Reckoning?"

"The Dark Reckoning is said to be the event where the monster in the Death Land came out and hunt. I never saw them. But every person I asked would describe them as the living nightmares itself. Only something that came straight out of the deepest and darkest hell would resemble their appearance."

"Is this true?"

"I don't know. If you truly want to know the truth then go to the Death Land. Just remember that you might not return… alive."

"Is the Royal Palace know about this?"

"They probably do. I'm merely an escort guard. I am not talented or important enough to know the inside information."

"Why do they make it a secret?"

"I also don't know why."

"I heard the second Dark Reckoning will come. What do you know about this?"

The cultivator shook his head. "It's probably nothing."

"Stop lying."

"I'm just an escort guard. I know nothing."

"Then I will shoot you."

"Wait, I know something. The Royal Palace is holding a banquet that every sect in the kingdom would attend. I heard that they will be discussing attacking the Auchidian. We have had bad blood with them for years."

"Those alcoholic men?"

"Yes. Our kingdom has a spices farm that they need to make specific alcohol. They really liked this drink and now they want to take the entire farm."

Nesterin clicked his tongue. Things just got a lot more complicated. He wasn't sure which one was correct. Was the Dark Reckoning true? Or was it the Auchidian that was truly attacking the kingdom? This stressed him out so much that he wanted to shoot the cultivator to calm down.

He felt that weeks of operation for this was a waste. He didn't receive any information that he could be assured of. The way ahead was full of fog filled with vague information.

Nesterin pointed his BC-75 at the cultivator's face. "I have enough. Any last word you want to say?"

"Wait, you can't kill me. I'm a stage-2 swordsman and a Royal Guard. Most people would ransom captured enemy."

So that was why this guy seemed so calm. The Royal Army that he eliminated before didn't surrender and asked to be ransomed. So why was this one different?

Nesterin could only shake his head. Cultivators were really weird.

"I think I prefer to kill you instead."

"Wait!"

Bang!

After he fired his weapon, Nesterin heard a few more gunshots before his men returned to him. He asked them what the enemy said and the information was mostly matched. And that was bad because they still didn't know if the Dark Reckoning was real for sure. But he confirmed that the kingdom was preparing for something.

Hax was right. It was shocking that the man could discern the situation just by reading a single letter. He worked his ass being a server, trapped a cultivator and he still stood in one place.

"We need to do more investigation," Nesterin said. "We should kidnap someone more important. Should we kidnap one of the Royal Family members?"

Jharteel shook his head. "That wouldn't be necessary. We know that every sect in the kingdom will come here right. We can just capture one of them."

"Those that come to the Royal Palace would be stage-3 at minimum," Nesterin said. "We never fought someone that strong before. And we only bring a fraction of our men."

"I don't think we need thirty thousand troops to capture a stage-3. Our men is enough. We have big guns now," Jharteel said.

Nesterin nodded. "Hundreds of our men are currently disguising as a servant but I don't think we can't pull them out yet. But I believe that's fine. Put some men around the Royal Palace. I want to be informed if any cultivators are going to the palace."

"Yes, sir."

The Black Wolves send some members to various places. They went to the plains, hills, forests, rivers, and even the cliffs. Disguising as a merchant or explorer, these men kept their eyes open for any cultivator that may pass.

Nesterin and Jharteel returned to the Palace. The disguised members had so much information to share with him, but none of them seemed relevant. There was one that interest him though. The location of the weapon and pill storage. He had never seen someone bring a magic pill before.

He had heard that these pills could increase strength, cultivation, or even turn a mortal into a cultivator. Now that he had big guns, who cared if he didn't become a cultivator.

"What about giving it to Hax?" Jharteel asked.

"Why would we turn Hax into a cultivator?"

"So he can have a long life and makes it harder to kill him. If he survives long enough, I am sure the norm would receive the treatment they deserve."

Nesterin moved his fingers to his chin. "Interesting."