Chapter 212 – Dark ritual.

“#$%#$% @$3$ ”:>@$#”

A man recited something in an incomprehensive manner while looking towards a large double spiral tower. It was giving out a strange buzzing noise that was hard to make out and the glowing red runes pulsated whenever the noise was released. Perhaps if the person was paying more attention he would have noticed that someone was approaching from behind.

Soon within a fraction of a second two armored gauntlets appeared from behind him. One of them went for his mouth while the other started twisting. The robed figure’s neck was being twisted causing his spine to be broken in quite the violent way.

But with the weapon in his hand, he could retaliate. Even though he couldn’t turn around to see who was behind him, in a last-ditch effort he went for the stab. Yet instead of flesh being torn a scraping sound was heard instead. The dagger just slid off this armored assailant without being able to penetrate through the harder alloy.

‘This seemed easier in movies…’

Roland’s bad attempt at recreating a stealth kill from popular media went unnoticed thanks to his sound-canceling spell. Even though he was wearing heavy armor he had runic spells to shroud himself in the darkness. The man that he murdered continued to flail around even after he managed to snap his neck thanks to his enhanced strength.

‘I got them both, but what now?’

After awakening from his slumber, he detected only two guards near his location. Everyone else was on the other side of this large monument. Even now it was releasing the illusory spell that kept everyone trapped and unable to fight back. There were a lot of questions on his mind as he was confused about what these cultists were doing.

First of all, some time had passed since the illusory trap had been activated. This time around it took him longer to get out of it than before. Time seemed to work differently in these illusory traps, perhaps due to the size of this relic, it was harder to awaken even when getting out through destroying the core rune.

His willpower stat that should aid him against attacks going for the mind didn’t seem to work that well when this strange runic object was involved. It belonged to a cult of some kind of evil god, so he could only speculate that there was something besides regular magic involved here.

Due to him being out cold for so long the cultists had enough time to pull him out of the wagon along with all the other people. Yet when he was looking at the radar everyone seemed to be still alive.

‘For some reason, they took everyone to that one location…’

While thinking Roland sneaked back towards the wagon he was stationed at. Strangely enough, his backpack was still there along with Grisalde’s axe and his weapons. The way to the inside of the wagon was open but it didn’t seem that these people were interested in their possessions.

‘They didn’t take anything?’

These cultists weren’t acting like bandits, the people were alive and nothing seemed to have been moved. All the weapons the soldiers had were still there, it even seemed that these people purposely avoided moving anything. Which was very confusing to Roland as he didn’t know what they were trying to achieve. Were they just going to come back later to take it all?

‘What’s going on here? These guys’ aim doesn’t seem to be to rob this caravan. Do they need living people for some kind of ritual?’

After his run-in with the Abyssal cult all those years ago he started doing research. There was not much that he could dig up as this cult was mostly shrouded in mystery. Besides the name and sightings of robed figures, there was not that much known about them.

They seemed to work similarly to other evil god worshipers but were somehow able to erase most of their tracks. This relic that caused immediate hallucinations was probably the reason for it. Even tier 3 class holders were affected by them and easy prey.

One thing was clear, this village had been in their grasp for a while now. This relic didn’t just appear in the middle of it out of the blue. The buildings looked unkept and the vegetation was overgrown. Yet there were magics in this world that could cause hastened plant growth, which made it hard to put a number on the amount of time they spent here.

‘How were these guys able to remain unnoticed for this long? Isn’t this village supposed to be a waypoint for many merchant caravans?’

This was the biggest question, if merchants started disappearing along with their wares then this cult would have been quickly discovered. Even this illusory relic needed to have a limit if too many people showed up it would probably be unable to affect everyone. It was probably made for smaller merchant groups in mind instead.

Roland could only imagine a few scenarios in which they were able to evade discovery. One of these scenarios would have someone in power helping them erase their presence. Another one was more far-fetched that involved mass hypnosis but one seemed the most plausible as it involved the merchants leaving this place alive.

‘This would explain why they didn’t touch the wagons at all but why would they go through all of this just to release the captives in the end?’

He had no idea what these people were thinking and this was not the problem now. A decision needed to be made, when the cultists were busy with the others he could just leave. These people were certainly assured that their relic’s effect could not be broken. They didn’t even bother to place any sentries to watch him besides two low level acolytes that weren’t even looking his way.

While leaving was the obvious choice if he considered his own safety there was a problem with that. The cultists would certainly track him down all the way to Albrook even if he reported it. He had no idea of knowing who was in cahoots with these people and if anyone would believe him. If his theory was true and these people actually turned up alive later, his statements would be questioned.

‘Shit…’

The biggest problem was this guild quest that he was taking. He was noted down as a Runic Mage that was taking a test. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that it was him that escaped from here. So even when he returned home in a few months he could receive a visit from his old tier 3 acquaintances.

Thus if he wanted to get rid of any future cult shenanigans he would have to free the other adventurers from the spell. Only if they confirmed his story would anyone believe him. Then if they managed to kill all of them, his involvement could be downplayed. Would the cultist try getting to the bottom of what transpired? Certainly, they would but with so many involved he would be given more time to decide about his next step.

Roland gave out a sigh while taking out the two spider drones from his spatial backpack. Along with them he also pulled out two pouches with what looked to be large colored marbles. These were promptly inserted into the golem’s compartments where previously was his radar range enhancer.

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While he had decided to see what was going on here it didn’t mean that he would be hasty. Perhaps fleeing would still be the only option left as he did not truly know the fighting capabilities of his enemies. Yet there was one certainty, there were no tier 3 class holders here.

One of the most important features of his radar was danger assessment. Within the vicinity of this village, he only detected high-level tier 2 enemies. It was possible that a tier 3 could be hiding somewhere but it was not probably. Back in Albrook, he had tested his scanning system out on the guild master and some platinum adventurers.

Tier 3 people had a certain mana fingerprint that was above the rest which made them easy to detect. It was not a measure of strength, just a way to make sure who he was facing. The strongest combatants seemed to be gathered in that one location behind the large spire.