Man En walked toward the guild, his mind calculating his plans for the future.
Up until now, there was still no news of the Heretic God Sect’s actions.
Although he didn’t know what those madmen were after, one thing was certain: they were still preparing something.
‘Time left for me is running out…’
Even though the situation wasn’t optimistic, this was exactly the time when he couldn’t act blindly.
He still needed to set up more informants. The civilian district alone was far from enough.
For now, he would follow the original plan: first familiarize himself with the city by tagging along with other parties before considering taking on his own quests.
“The guy the guild said would help—Lei Guang, right? That’s you, isn’t it?”
Hearing someone call out to him, Man En looked up. It was a young man with brown hair.
Behind him stood a burly warrior, a priest responsible for healing, and a somewhat slender female archer. From the looks of it, this was the party that had requested assistance.
Although the leader’s gaze toward him held a hint of disdain, it wasn’t surprising. After all, he was a newcomer who had just joined the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Yes.”
The young man seemed about to say something but stopped himself.
“Let’s go, you… don’t hold us back.”
It was clear that this leader seemed somewhat dissatisfied with him, though Man En had no idea why.
But that didn’t matter. As long as he didn’t get in the way, everything would be fine.
Fortunately, only the leader of this party was a bit obsessive. The others were fairly normal.
The archer Kanna was quite cheerful, chatting with him off and on.
Because of that, this mission wouldn’t be too dull.
In simple terms, this mission was to investigate the monster stampede happening on the outskirts of Darquez. Since the party was only Red Iron rank, they didn’t need to take risks—just gather some information.
Generally speaking, high-ranking adventurers would issue such commissions before taking action.
Safe and easy to complete, which meant the pay wasn’t high.
The adventurer who issued the quest would also get the intelligence, making it a win-win.
Unfortunately, in most cases, the guild would directly hide the issuer’s information.
Unless it was a face-to-face meeting or an officially issued quest, the issuer’s identity was always concealed. It was a form of protection for them.
Although he was somewhat curious, it wasn’t anything unusual.
Under everyone’s questioning, Man En lightly described how he had joined the guild.
But their exaggerated reactions caught him off guard.
“Mr. Lei Guang passed the Red Iron test right from the start?”
“Oh? Not bad, newbie!”
“Hey, Zuo Erte, stop frowning. Who knows, this newbie might even be stronger than you? Hahaha.”
Duo Si joked with Zuo Erte without holding back, clearly a straightforward person.
“Annoying…”
Zuo Erte turned around and looked seriously at Man En.
“Listen up, newbie. Adventuring isn’t child’s play. Don’t let arrogance control you. And let me repeat—your job this time is scout.”
“Our objective for this operation is just to gather intelligence. Follow orders. Don’t do anything unnecessary. If you cause trouble, we won’t risk saving you!”
“I understand.”
Man En nodded, acknowledging the orders.
“Don’t mind him. Zuo Erte’s just a bit awkward, but he doesn’t mean any harm.”
“Hey! I’m not deaf!”
Seeing Zuo Erte’s serious expression, everyone started laughing.
Man En smiled along. Although his impression of the leader Zuo Erte wasn’t great, at least he wasn’t a bad person.
Before long, the group arrived near the mission location.
Zuo Erte looked at Man En and gave a slight nod.
Man En immediately climbed a giant tree and observed the distant monster herd’s state.
Although this party wasn’t large, their class composition was the mainstream warrior-mage-priest-scout combination.
The core was naturally Zuo Erte, the mage. Duo Si handled aggro, Kanna provided rear support, and the priest healed everyone in time.
As the scout, he was responsible for scouting the route and observing enemy movements.
Basically, no combat was needed, especially for an intelligence-gathering commission like this.
And with his sensitivity to mana, he was fully capable of this job… or so it should have been.
But just as Man En looked down, he saw a group of monsters charging rapidly in their direction.
Strangely, they weren’t all the same type of monster. It seemed more like they were being driven this way by something.
Either way, he had to inform the others first so they could at least prepare.
“Due north! A group of monsters is coming! Evacuate now!”
As the ground trembled more violently, the dense sound of trampling reached their ears.
“Climb the trees! Now!”
Zuo Erte reacted almost instantly.
After climbing up, everyone looked at the approaching monster herd and couldn’t help but gasp.
“What the…? I’ve been an adventurer for years and this is the first time…”
“They’re… fleeing?”
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a simple intelligence-gathering mission? What the hell are those guild folks doing?!”
But Man En ignored them. He stared at the distant destination—a huge cave—and felt something was off.
Even rocks should have some mana. But that cave had no mana signature at all. It was as if it existed in a different space.
‘Wait… space?’
The Divine Emissary of the Heretic God Sect—wasn’t his ability to control space?
If so, did this monster anomaly also involve the Heretic God Sect?
If that was really the case…
Man En shifted his gaze to the others.
He had to make them leave first, then notify Sophien to come.
“Hey, something’s wrong here! You need to—”
But before he could finish, the sound of a heartbeat exploded like a thunderclap.
Immediately after, the space covering the cave began to expand outward rapidly.
It only stopped after enveloping all five of them.
‘This is bad…’
Man En tried to sense the outside mana, but found it impossible.
Even the Communication Artifact couldn’t be used.
This space had been completely sealed off from the outside.
At the same time, from inside the cave, a fluctuation of mana mixed with dozens of different types spread out, growing stronger and stronger.
A terrifying suspicion arose in his heart.
‘Could it be… I’ve been targeted from the start? But when? After that guy saw through my identity?’
‘I clearly disguised myself afterward…’
“Hey! Newbie! What are you spacing out for!”
Zuo Erte’s anxious voice came from the ground.
“Hurry up and help us break this invisible wall!”
At the same time, a massive figure was flying rapidly toward them.
“Get out of the way!”
As soon as Man En finished speaking, the demon-like stitched beast was already in front of them.
Almost without giving them any time to escape, accompanied by a sharp roar, its enormous claw came down mercilessly on the group.