Bro, I’m not an Undead!

One day later.

A few events had happened within Inhone following the conclusion of Tulnas’ mission.

Or rather missions.

An observation was made which concluded that surely, there was no longer the constant appearance of many Clusters in wide range as compared to before!

After a full day of work, with mercenaries dealing with the last of the numerous Clusters, it turned out that Tulnas had truly resolved the issue with his little excursion, something that was publicly announced by the City Lord to the residents of Inhone City.

His hypothesis had been right.

Those left with doubt could only believe it as another badge of credit also had to be handed to the rest of the Harem Guild for its service to all the areas in the region that required assistance.

Many came to the city to give thanks for the timely response of the ladies that came to save them from the emerged Clusters, giving them peace of mind.

Of course, this caused some Guilds to turn sour towards the Harem Guild, as while the result was overall favourable for everyone, much of the work had had stolen which meant most Guilds barely got to do anything at all.

The other two large Guilds, the EdgeKings and Ravenclad Guild couldn’t help but complain that they could have deployed their human resources too but the Harem Guild greedily took much of the requests.

This was supported even more by the other smaller Guilds which asserted that this was simply unfair.

As for Tulnas’ response to these qualms, the Tamer had it all planned out with the remuneration his Guild was supposed to receive from clearing the Clusters.

He calculated all total of the reward coin his Guild had accumulated with all the cleared Clusters which he had chosen not to take and asked the Guilds Association to share it among all the smaller Guilds!

The sum was quite bountiful and it covered for all these entities as this also included the higher level Clusters that had been cleared in the process and the portion of Enriching gems that the Harem Guild would have collected, most of which they wouldn’t need.

As a result, Tulnas cooled off some of the heat and left the larger Guilds as they were because from his perspective, they simply had no real reason to complain.

Another event which took place was contacting the Purity through the Temple in Inhone City to inform them that a member of the Evenfall had been captured, along with sharing detailed information about the possible collusion between said group and the Green Neolists.

Such information was met with an instant response as several Purity Knights were dispatched and said to arrive today to collect Guissepo so as to send him back to a higher branch of the Purity for interrogation.

This earned Inhone and the Harem Guild better repute with the Purity, which worked well for both parties, especially Tulnas who knew he had opened up a window to ask for more stuff in the future.

That said, Tulnas consistently reminded the City Lord of the large Cluster which could potentially appear within the region.

It was possible that it had already appeared for a while given that they didn’t know the exact time that the Evenfall had begun their activities.

Search parties were sent out by the Capital service and the Guilds Association gave out requests to search for the Cluster which was presumed to at least be blue.

So far, no notable results had been dug up and over the course of yesterday and today, the anxiety from this had begun to die down.

Perhaps this had had a baseless worry.

In spite of these good instances of fortune over the past day however, a problem still remained.

For Tulnas and Silrat at least.

Festos was still missing.

He hadn’t returned still.

Silrat had confirmed that the Mage was still alive but since his Tie of Exchange with the young man had no further traits, it was impossible to tell where he was.

Tulnas grew anxious as this meant that it was possible for him to lose his assets and authority of the area under his Guild as he couldn’t be exempted from aiding a murderer who was yet to redeem himself even with his achievements.

Rather it was possible for him to benefit from the Guilds Association headquarters but he didn’t want to lose what he had here.

For Silrat, it was possible that instead of gaining a portion of the great reputation that came with identifying as being part of the operation that ultimately solved the national crisis, he could be charged with supporting a criminal instead.

If only the damned Discount Human would return.

***

Deep below the ground, in a rocky area away from most settlements, the stoney crust above suddenly ruptured as a bluish purple glow erupted and rose into the sky in the form of a distorted flame!

It carried with it a massively terrifying pressured effect that blew out the surface and made room for itself and by room, this referred to a space of over to twelve meters in width!

Dark fumes rose as the bluish purple glow then went on to vanish, the crackling of burnt rock and dirt around the extensive hole that had been created noisily announcing the destruction that had unfolded.

It was dark within the hole that led to deep underground, yet something could vaguely be detected at the very bottom from the surface.

A crack in space that danced with a blue hue, tainted by a swirl of purple which forever marked this Cluster as one beyond the scales of normal mercenaries or combatants.

There was hardly any space within this hole to accommodate the structure as it grew in a cone shaped figure to the surface but the rising glow had been caused by a single creature that popped out of the Cluster that seemed to be uncomfortable with this.

It had been three days since this Cluster had appeared and without anyone being able to see it, there was no longer anything to hold back the Cluster beasts that had been nurtured within from escaping.

The beast that appeared from the Cluster was annoyed by the cramped space.

It looked up, the harsh afternoon light that spilled from upwards illuminating its figure.

It was a tall, grey creature, its body covered by what looked like white boils over its slimy skin.

It had upward slanted yellow eyes that had purple lateral slits which acted as its pupils, its head like an blown bubble, inflating and deflating with a bubbling quality as if that was where its lungs resided, much like a squid.

It lacked a nose and below its eyes, very long tentacles protruded and draping over beyond where its thick human-like legs were as they acted like robes which covered its entirety!

The creature bent its legs as it then went on to exert an incredible force on the ground and leap up into the air!

It soared at immense speed, the air releasing a tumultuous shudder with its flight and exited the hole it had made, comfortably setting its feet on the surface where a runner grass pervaded.

The creature turned this way and that, its narrow eyes seeing way beyond the horizons on all sides.

It emitted a sound like wheezing as it took in a massive amount of air, so much so that the area looked staved of it, small grasses and rocks being puller along with the suction!

It was one mere breathe however, as after the creature was done, there was a notable difference to the atmosphere.

Something was lacking and everything remained still.

The beast revealed something that hadn’t been visible on its person before.

A long staff.

It was reddish brown with a shiny sheen and smooth texture that revealed it to be made of something akin to amethyst in an unrefined shape.

It had a sharp end, and over its other end, rings of another type of stone which had a dark hue could be seen, barely visible arcs of energy sifting over it as atop this, a diamond shaped white gem settled, fitted over the staff.

Unlike the rings of dark stone around the edge of the staff, this white stone which had a rough texture like granite had apparent waves of overwhelming energy, its surface looking like it was made of designs of fire in the same white hue.

The creature pointed its staff below, within the hole, a streak of bright white light darting within as it promptly reached the Cluster below and penetrated it!

The Cluster began to quiver as the stream of energy continuously pulsed within with a sound akin to an earthquake resounding!

The stream of energy then retreated from the Cluster and shot back to the staff!

Surprisingly, what followed was a phenomenon that only appeared when a Cluster lost its General.

The crack in space collapsed as the Cluster vanished entirely, the ground where the construct had been, trembling from the phenomenon.

The creature above grunted as it continued to wheeze.

Over the diamond-like gem upon its staff, the design of white fire was replaced with the blurry image of a vast and expansive world that held a myriad of living and non-livings.

This was a singular ability of this natural treasure that easily scaled up to the Legendary level.