Apostle of the Void

Chapter 41: In the Red Mountain Range (5)

Arzen decided to use Tunnel No. 82, which he had explored the previous day, as his base of operations.

The earlier a tunnel was discovered, the lower its number. As time passed, progress had been made to the point where rough maps of the tunnels were now available.

Having so much information was an advantage, but the downside was far greater.

It attracted all sorts of riffraff.

"This spot is ours."

"This is our spot, you bastard!"

"*Tch*... What are you four planning to do with this huge space? Damn idiots."

While fighting Kobolds, adventurers often shouted such things whenever others tried to interfere.

In groups of eight or more, auxiliary members would sometimes block the common entrance entirely.

In the adventurer community, claiming a "spot" was of utmost importance.

"If you don’t understand this well, your life as an adventurer could become quite miserable due to \'contribution terrorism\'!"

Adventurers were often seen as tough and rugged by outsiders, but in truth, they were some of the pettiest people around.

Proof of this could be seen in how they loved to stalk those who didn’t respect the “spot” culture and tarnish their reputation using \'contribution reports.\'

What is \'spot\' culture?

Unless it’s a straightforward raid, battles tend to break out in various \'hot spots.\'

Imagine a monster appears, and a bunch of adventurers rush in to fight it. Winning may be easy, but when it comes time to divide the spoils, the payout might not even amount to a single coin. It’s a waste of time and energy.

"That’s why the party that arrives first and occupies the space can claim the right to the \'spot\'!"

The \'spot\' refers to the right to engage the monsters first and claim the rewards.

There’s no time limit for holding a \'spot.\' The \'spot\' is only relinquished when the adventurer moves away from that location.

But what if the party that claimed the \'spot\' encounters a monster that’s too powerful, or the number of monsters becomes overwhelming?

There are two options:

One is to give up the \'spot\' and run away.

The other is to recruit passing adventurers into their party.

"Hey, kid! I see you’re using light magic. You must be part of the support crew, right? Why don’t you join our party?"

The party that called out to Arzen, who was descending the sloped tunnel with the Lamp of Prayer, fell into the latter category.

“Ugh! Two more are coming from the front!”

“Why are these Kobolds so damn strong?”

"Kid! It’s a goldmine in here! There are over a dozen Kobolds! We\'re a four-member bronze-ranked party! It’ll be worth your while!"

Arzen peeked inside and, in an indifferent tone, asked:

“How’s the reward distribution?”

"Of course, we’ll split it evenly!"

"Evenly, my ass! You useless trash! I’ll take 60%, and you guys can split the remaining 40%. Obviously, I get the 60.”

"W-What?"

“If you don’t like it, go ahead and get wiped out.”

Arzen sat cross-legged in front of the common entrance.

“Help us out! What are you doing, damn it?”

“I’m waiting in line.”

Arzen’s actions didn’t fall under the category of \'contribution terrorism.\'

Just the act of lining up subtly honored the \'spot\' culture, making his stance clear.

In this case, if the party inside decided to retaliate through \'contribution terrorism,\' they’d likely be the ones to face ridicule.

The adventurer society was twisted from the very foundation.

“Oh, when will they get wiped out? When will they flee? Ah~ The vanguard’s shield just broke against a pickaxe, didn’t it? Dangerous, huh?”

Arzen began to relay the situation inside while shaking his hips.

“Oh dear~ The front line is in trouble, and now the archer is at risk too? One hit from a kobold\'s pickaxe really brings you back to your senses, huh?”

“Someone shut that bastard up! I can’t concentrate!”

“Oh~ Just now, while yelling at me, they got hit by a kobold. That’s gotta be at least two broken bones, right? They better wipe out fast so I can sneak in and grab all the rewards.”

Arzen was so entertainingly sarcastic that adventurers descending into the tunnel began to settle in one by one, chuckling to themselves.

Watching a disaster unfold is always the most entertaining thing in the world.

The adventurer community is ruthless.

“Leader! This is getting dangerous! I’m serious! These kobolds in the Red Mountains aren’t the G+ rank weaklings we used to know!”

“Ugh! Fine! Kid! 60-40! Hurry and help!”

“Geez~ What do I do? The settlement ratio just went up to 70-30 exactly three seconds ago.”

“70, 70, 70-30? That’s ridiculous! This is too much!”

“It’s scheduled to go up to 80-20 in 10 seconds... tick-tock.”

Arzen had a knack for twisting the urgent ones around like this, a specialty of the Divine Guillotine.

“9 seconds.”

And this Arzen was the boy who had been watching all this ridiculousness from the front row.

“6 seconds.”

If the boy set his mind to mischief, he could rival the Divine Guillotine.

“3 seconds.”

“Leader!”

“Ugh, c’mon! Yes! 70-30! 70-30! Help me!”

Arzen clapped his hands together excitedly as he stood up.

He let the four adventurers watching know that the show was over.

“Wow, this guy is really funny as hell.”

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“Let’s form a party later. Just being together seems like it would be fun.”

Arzen shouted his name loudly for all the adventurers currently exploring the tunnel to hear.

“My name is Arzen! I’m going to be a Gold-ranked man!”

This was also a part of his perfect plan.

Humans always act differently when entering and exiting a restroom.

This was to ensure that the party struggling down below wouldn’t bury Arzen deep underground out of possible revenge.

‘Of course, if I unleash the Void division, the massacre would be on our side, but this place is smaller than it seems, so it’s better to avoid such unfortunate accidents!’

As the adventurers giggled and continued on their way, Arzen opened the holy scripture and prepared to showcase a miracle.

‘There are three methods to perform a miracle.’

The first is a shortened chant.

This is how you use it when the prayer is perfectly memorized in your mind.

Those with memory and divine power that fall into the genius category can use miracles most quickly, but the power is diminished.

‘The second is to recite the miracle’s verses slowly.’

This method doesn’t require opening the scripture, but the power is halved, and it’s almost similar to the first.

The third method is to unfold the verses of the miracle and read them with a sincere heart.

Though this is the slowest method, unlike memorization, you can concentrate entirely on the words, allowing the miracle’s full power to be unleashed.

“The light of the Holy Spirit shall bestow a baptism of hope upon you, and that baptism shall spread like waves across the whole earth. Fruits of Baptism.”

The miracle cast using the third method, Fruits of Baptism, was a space-designated miracle.

It creates a cubic barrier in that space, from which waves of light cascade down, providing a baptism of healing.

It was a healing light that breathes life into weary and fatigued souls.

‘Just as you’d expect from the explanation… it’s a high-level miracle that performs both defense and healing.’

It was a miracle that seemed to occupy the celestial realm of miracles.

It’s no wonder the faces of the adventurers experiencing this miracle for the first time turned to confusion.

Of course, it was also crucial to utilize this situation well to survive in this industry.

“Ugh! My pancreas! My pancreas! It hurts! I didn’t want to use this miracle… but since everyone’s in danger…”

The lighting was dim, and the musty smell of the underground was overwhelming.

They couldn’t really see if blood was being vomited, so they could just pretend.

“Ah! It hurts! Ugh! It’s painful! Argh! Blood keeps coming!”

At that, the adventurers started to tear up.

“Is that guy… actually on borrowed time?”

“I’ve heard of that! A person with genius-level talent for miracles but suffers immense pain as a backlash when using them!”

“No way! So that’s why he was so calculating? At that age? What kind of life has he lived!”

“What an idiot! If that’s the case, he should have said something from the beginning!”

Humans are all trash, but they still possess a sense of humanity.

This sense of humanity amplifies when someone helps them, regardless of their background, and they cleverly exploit that.

Most importantly, the light of miracles is warm and touching, giving it the power to manipulate people’s emotions… Arzen had learned this well.

‘Perfect… Hahaha!’

The party, rejuvenated by the light of miracles, quickly swept away the remaining kobolds.

Still, considering they were a bronze rank party, regaining their strength against the kobolds shouldn’t have been a problem… or so they thought.

However, the time it took this incompetent party to deal with a dozen kobolds was nearly three times longer compared to when operating the Void Squad.

‘Why are they so weak, these guys?’

He had expected strength on par with Jerome or Kitan… Were those guys particularly strong among the bronze ranks?

‘Speaking of which, Sia was also incredibly strong for just being silver rank.’

As he pondered, a silence settled over the pit.

“Phew… we won.”

“Yeah, we won.”

“Leader, your command was great again this time!”

Typically, incompetent adventurers are the loudest.

‘Real masters give each other feedback even at this moment, tsk.’

The adventurers began to carelessly gather their gear.

The archer picked up some arrows.

In the meantime, the party leader approached Arzen.

“Thanks to you, we survived, little priest.”

“Just a makeshift priest.”

“I’m the leader of this party. Anyway, we just went through an intense battle, right?”

Puhuh!

An intense battle against kobolds!

They’re pathetic, not even worth a bug! For reference, this bug refers to the Voidlings.

“So we can’t afford to dig out that large nail.”

“Uh?”

“We agreed to a profit distribution of 70:30, right? If we dig out more, won’t you end up with the 70? So we just took our pickaxes and left with a clear conscience. Well then, goodbye. Good luck!”

While the leader blocked Arzen’s view, the party members were already sneaking away from the pit and quickly climbing up the slope as if they were fleeing.

“What? Wait a second, you piece of trash! Pulling that thing out is harder than catching a kobold, so why are you acting all generous? Aren’t you going to move?”

The fool who is deceived is the real idiot!

That place is worse than this beast kingdom—the world of adventurers!

“Hey, hey! You damn con artists───────!”

And it was a place that even struck the back of Arzen’s head, who prided himself on having mastered this crazy world.

Ah, the world of adventurers.

In this world, worse than beasts—or rather, a world of long-haired beasts—one must always be humble.

Arzen learned a lot that day.

* * *

“I’m doing my best to heal, but there are no signs of awakening at all,” said Whitney, the Red Pilgrim.

She was looking down at the bed next to the flame, where Kirke lay fast asleep.

“I never thought she would faint just from hearing her name….”

Akirea shook her head.

“Don’t rush; wait for her condition to improve. She’s sleeping so peacefully; how can you want to wake her so urgently?”

“But, my lord, that power back then was definitely… a dragon-warding barrier. I’ve never heard of embedding such a barrier into a human. I can’t even imagine how malicious the sorcerer must be.”

“No….”

In Akirea’s childhood, during her days traveling with the Dragon Sage, the sorcerer who created that spell had been a formidable enemy.

‘…It’s not that I’ve never heard of it.’

That ancient dark mage had managed to operate outside the surveillance of the dragon kin by inscribing a dragon-warding barrier onto his own soul.

‘Zernix, could it be that he’s back?’

No… that possibility is impossible.

My father surely destroyed him completely in their final battle.

‘So, there’s something of unknown identity… but… that ominous echo is creeping up through my peripheral nerves, sending chills throughout my entire body… something is happening in the world.’

Ah, Mir…

If only you had consciousness…

You would have pinpointed the source of this chilling evil right away…