Chapter 26. Preparation (4)
The Troll’s roar echoed through the forest as thick, dark blue blood streamed from wounds all across its body.
Aneis dragged her exhausted body onward as she continued her final confrontation with the Troll.
Its hide had long since been reduced to tatters after being slashed and pierced dozens of times.
Even then, its innate regenerative ability had allowed it to recover its strength several times over.
But perhaps it had regenerated too often and for too long.
Exhausted both physically and mentally, the Troll could no longer heal its wounds.
At last, it dropped to its knees.
Aneis was hardly in good condition either.
The signs of having rolled across the ground several times were obvious, and the Troll’s final struggles had been extraordinarily violent.
In particular, she had failed to properly deflect the club it swung as though burning away the last of its life, and she appeared to have suffered internal injuries.
But—
Even so, there was a smile on Aneis’s face.
A life-and-death battle.
It might have been only a monster, but confronting a Troll with nothing beyond ordinary human strength aside from Body Reinforcement had made it feel like an enormous wall.
And having finally broken through that wall, even the pain felt gratifying to Aneis.
Just as Shane had instructed her to swing her sword without even a single second of hesitation, Aneis had not stopped moving even once throughout the battle.
And she had done so against a monster like that for nearly an hour.
The Troll’s final attack, in particular, had granted Aneis a small realization.
The attack it unleashed by burning away the last of its life had slightly disrupted Aneis’s ‘precognition.’
For now, she had barely grasped the first thread of understanding.
But if she remembered this sensation and continued reflecting upon it, she would undoubtedly achieve something meaningful.
“……Thank you.”
If not for Shane, when would she ever have experienced something like this?
Accepting that she had obtained this small realization because of him, Aneis offered her sincere gratitude.
“You accomplished it yourself. Rather than thanking me, take pride in your own achievement.”
“……Are you embarrassed?”
“Nonsense.”
“Heh.”
At Aneis’s smile, Shane turned his head toward the remaining members of the team.
As a fellow Swordsman, Klein sincerely congratulated Aneis on her realization.
Delilah, meanwhile, seemed somewhat intimidated as she looked at Aneis smiling despite bleeding from the many times she had been sent rolling across the ground.
But soon, Delilah broke into a bright smile as well.
The Troll they had just defeated had been the final opponent in the dungeon.
“Ugh, it’s finally over.”
The group sat down where they were and took some time to rest.
Delilah and Klein had also fought Goblins and Kobolds earlier, and they had exhausted themselves further while subjugating a herd of boar-like monsters known as War Boars, whose muscles were as hard as stone.
After they had rested for some time—
Shane approached the fallen Troll and tore away the leaf necklace hanging around its neck.
‘As planned, I obtained this as well.’
There had been another reason Shane entered this dungeon.
Refining the strength of his teammates was one objective, but Shane’s ultimate goal had been the leaf hanging around the Troll’s neck.
At first glance, it looked completely ordinary.
There was no noticeable Mana coming from it either.
But Shane knew its true purpose.
In the first place, this entire forest—and the Troll itself—had been trying so desperately to protect this leaf.
‘A Leaf of the World Tree. This will be the second time I’ve eaten one.’
Having obtained the only means through which he could communicate with Elves, Shane avoided the others’ gazes and chewed the leaf before swallowing it.
—
“Ugh! I seriously thought I was going to die.”
After finishing the dungeon and returning to the Academy, the group decided to separate first and return to their respective lodgings.
Since they had successfully completed their first dungeon subjugation as a team, one might have expected them to hold some kind of celebration.
But none of them had enough energy left for that.
Completing the dungeon while suppressing their use of Mana as much as possible had been extraordinarily exhausting, both physically and mentally.
Shane, however, still had more work to do.
He needed to submit their return documents separately to the Adventurer Association and the Academy, convert the spoils they had obtained inside the dungeon into money, and distribute everyone’s shares.
“Brother. Let me help you. You are already busy enough as it is.”
On top of that, Shane still had paperwork to organize regarding his collaboration with Raviata.
It looked as though the coming days would be extremely busy.
But Shane shook his head.
“No. It is fine. I am not particularly tired. More importantly, go back and review your battles from this subjugation.”
“Hmm…… Even so.”
“I said it is fine. Go.”
“……Then I will see you again later.”
“Very well.”
After Klein finally left, Shane finished all the remaining work alone.
Then he entered a nearby alley and concealed himself within the shadows.
“This certainly will be a somewhat busy day.”
The real hunt began now.
—
“Wh-What are you? What the hell are you?! Say something, you fucking bastard……!”
Shane had once seen a Slime that had grown old and decrepit.
Unlike a healthy Slime, its unstable Core had been unable to maintain the shape of its mucus-like body, leaving it to sag and quiver helplessly.
“D-Do you want something? J-Just tell me! Huh? I’ll give you all my money, everything I own! So please, please just say something……!”
Looking at the nameless nobleman before him, who resembled little more than a lump of flesh, Shane suddenly remembered that scene.
There was only one difference.
Unlike that old Slime, the lump of flesh before him talked far too much.
“Please…… Please…… Spare my life…….”
The nobleman desperately begged for his life, the space between his legs already wet from overwhelming fear.
There was something different about the being before him.
Wrapped in black mist that contrasted sharply with its pure-white mask, he could not understand what this creature wanted.
From the moment it infiltrated his villa, it had killed his Guardian Knights without uttering a single word.
And they had not died ordinary deaths.
Some went mad without even fighting, swinging their swords wildly at empty air.
Others were devoured by mysterious teeth that emerged from the walls and floor.
And through it all, the masked figure had not spoken a single word.
The terror created by that silence was steadily consuming the nobleman’s sanity.
“H-Hih! Th-Then what about that?! An Elf! It’s an Elf! A Demi-Human I went through enormous trouble to obtain! Even most nobles would never get the chance to see merchandise like that!”
At the nobleman’s words, Shane turned his gaze toward a woman bound by her hands and feet nearby.
Even after watching people die before her eyes, her emerald eyes remained filled with hostility.
Her body, however, stood in stark contrast to that defiance.
She had already been battered nearly beyond recognition.
Most notable was her left hand, where her little finger and ring finger had been severed.
The injury did not appear to have been treated properly, and an unidentified froth covered the wound.
‘They must have given an Elf a Potion.’
But Potions were medicines created for humans.
They were not universally compatible with other races.
If anything, they could become poisonous substances with unpredictable side effects.
That was likely what had caused the condition of her wound.
When Shane turned his attention toward the Elf, hope brightened the nobleman’s face.
“I’ll give her to you! So please, just leave! I swear I’ll never order anyone to pursue you. I’ll spend the rest of my life quietly!”
“…….”
But Shane continued staring silently at the Elf.
Driven half-mad by terror, the nobleman finally surrendered to his survival instincts.
“I-I told you to fucking say something!!”
With a scream that was barely recognizable as human speech, the nobleman drew a dagger from inside his clothes and charged at Shane.
The Dark Spirit had no intention of allowing that.
The darkness surrounding Shane bound the nobleman’s arm and lifted his heavy body straight into the air.
[Grrr…… Master.]
The spirit asked respectfully.
Shane stared at the nobleman dangling in midair, thrashing like a fish caught on a line.
“Perhaps I became intoxicated by this brief period of peace.”
He turned his gaze toward the Elf again.
“Or perhaps I simply allowed myself too much leisure.”
Originally, Shane had intended to capture the man and interrogate him.
But suddenly, it all felt pointless.
It had been the same when he dealt with Salier.
Thinking back, Shane in his previous life had crushed his enemies far more viciously and thoroughly than he did now.
That had been especially true when facing noble souls willing to make any sacrifice for humanity.
But after losing Corruption, perhaps Shane had begun treating his enemies too gently.
Capturing someone and interrogating them?
What an extraordinarily human way of thinking.
“Whether his soul breaks or not is none of my concern.”
Shane slowly looked the fleshy nobleman up and down.
“Eat him.”
[Yes, Master.]
“Do not leave even a fragment of his soul.”
The Dark Spirit opened a maw rippling with darkness, only to hesitate.
[But with my current strength…….]
“I will lend you mine.”
[Ahh……!]
The amount of Origin flowing into the spirit changed drastically.
Until now, it had only possessed enough power to influence the physical world.
But what had once been a stream formed from collected rainwater now became a raging river.
Both the quality and quantity of the Origin flowing from Shane increased enormously.
[It is…… It is so delicious. I am in ecstasy, Master……!]
“Enough. Just eat this.”
[Yes!]
“Ghk…… G-Geeeegh!”
As the Dark Spirit’s form grew far clearer than before and its gleaming teeth slowly approached, the nobleman began trembling violently.
Then his body suddenly went limp.
His arms and legs sagged.
The excessive fear had caused him to lose consciousness.
But that did not matter.
The Dark Spirit opened its mouth and swallowed the nobleman whole.
Only then did silence descend over the room.
Shane closed his eyes and synchronized himself with the Dark Spirit.
It almost felt as though he could hear the screams of the nobleman the creature had devoured.
What Shane had just ordered was not simply for the spirit to consume his body.
Soul Consumption.
Even for a Dark Spirit, consuming a soul was not something that could be done casually.
That was why Shane had supplied it with his own Origin.
He had performed acts like this so many times in his previous life that doing so was as effortless as breathing.
And yet, until now, Shane had unconsciously refrained from using the method.
Back then, Corruption had left him with no reservations about committing acts like this.
Spiritual death, rather than mere physical death, was cruelty far beyond what was necessary.
However—
‘Why should I care when dealing with things like these?’
The enemies Shane faced now were not innocent people with noble souls like those from his previous life.
They were nothing more than leeches and ticks feeding upon humanity.
“I had become intoxicated by peace.”
Shane gathered the fragments of the nameless nobleman’s soul and extracted information from them.
The nobleman’s name was Liam Alchin.
A Viscount from the Kingdom of Hiel.
He had entered the Allied Nations six years ago.
He possessed a sexual fetish centered around feeling superior through the suffering of other races.
“Nothing particularly useful.”
Shane pulled a thick book from inside his clothes.
“Tracking all of these people down one by one will take time.”
The heavily worn book was a Transaction Ledger that Count Salier had compiled while he was still alive.
The records were extraordinarily detailed.
They included not only the names of those involved, the dates, and the merchandise exchanged, but even the locations, exact times, and intermediaries through whom each transaction had been carried out.
Did the people who had traded with Salier know that a ledger capable of putting a noose around every one of their necks existed?
Probably not.
They likely could not even imagine it.
Unfortunately, the ledger did not contain the information Shane wanted most.
That was why he had examined Liam Alchin’s soul, wondering whether the man’s memories might contain something related to it.
But all Shane found were useless, sordid memories.
“Continue examining his soul. Remember everything related to Demi-Human slaves.”
[Understood, Master……!]
Perhaps because it had enjoyed such a satisfying meal, the Dark Spirit’s answer carried more strength than ever before.
“Then now…… shall we attend to the real matter?”
[My body has already been defiled. Do not think of doing anything more to me. Just kill me!]
The Elf was clearly not in her right mind if she could only spit out words like that.
Even so, she was the person Shane needed most for his expedition into the Mezaia Great Forest.
