World Keeper

Chapter 521: First Blood

I continued to monitor both Kiana and the rest of her five man group for several more days, pushing my world sight until it was exhausted before allowing it to recover. Roughly three days after I began to observe them, however… the couple pretending to be a newly married pair vanished.

They hadn’t died, that much was sure. So far, only one person from the thousand invaders had died, and I suspected that to have been from a monster attack. No, these two had simply vanished, no longer living in the hotel room that they had settled on. Furthermore, Kiana contacted them much more rarely.

When she did contact them, I attempted to trace their location once again, only for their conversation to end before I reached the other side. While I couldn’t tell exactly where they were, they had moved at least a thousand kilometers away to the north. This was by no means a short distance, as they had to cross through at least two large kingdoms to reach the new location.

It was possible that they had chosen to abandon their former identities for some reason, or that they had been sent to a new area to perform a special mission. Since I did not have the energy in my world sight to monitor them twenty-four hours a day, and I couldn’t interpret their private messages, I had no way of knowing what the reason was behind their disappearance.

At least, that was the case at first. The following day, I received a report from Tsubaki. There were a number of suspicious individuals that had been monitored by the ninjas scattered throughout the world. In total, this number had risen to over eighty. Of that number, roughly sixty of them had vanished all at once. After some questioning, it seemed that the two who I was previously observing had been on their list as well.

A small, stocky dwarven figure walked into his home, letting out a groan as he stretched his back. “Oi, never gonna get used ta that.” He muttered, before giving a slight grimace at his own words.

“Tough day at work, dear?” A female voice drifted out of the other room, a muscular ursa woman walking out to greet him with a smile.

“Aye. A whole stack of new orders came in.” The dwarf nodded his head, before sending a message privately. Seriously, why’d I have to take the dwarf?

Would you rather have ended up with the tits? The woman asked back, an amused smile on her face.

No, but I mean, couldn’t we have just grabbed a different couple? There’s no shortage of humans or elves around here!

Noting the protesting tone in his message, the woman’s smile grew softer as she went to sit at the side of the table. You needed a blacksmith, Blaque. This was just the only married, male blacksmith in the city.

Fine, fine… Blaque relented at that. Their techniques are pretty good, though. Probably about on par with back home. It’s taking me a bit to get the hang of ki molding instead of solid scripting, but I think I should be able to take over the business in another few weeks.

The other woman, Serin, simply reached over to stroke a hand through his messy brown hair. There was a loving look in her eyes as she gazed at the dwarf. Just be careful. We slipped up before, but let’s not do that again.

Blaque’s eyes softened, and he reached up to grab her hand. I know, and I’m sorry about that, again. This time, I made sure to learn the racial languages for both dwarves and ursa. It shouldn’t be so easy for us to get spotted this time.

Serin nodded her head, gripping his hand in hers. Have you unlocked the crafting tree, yet?

Hearing her question, Blaque simply shook his head. Not yet. I need to come into contact with more advanced techniques, but the boss at the shop is always the one handling those orders. How about you?

Serin let out a low sigh, her brows creased together. I unlocked the basic level today. The alchemy information available to the public is pretty low. If I could just come out and say I was good at mixing potions, we could solve our problems. But I can’t, since bear-babe wasn’t an alchemist before we got here. I just have to learn what I can from the library.

Hopefully, some of the others will have better luck. Blaque spoke in an effort to comfort her. I heard Jink managed to relocate as a bigshot alchemist over at the furry kingdom, right?

Serin smirked a bit at that. Accal, not ‘furry kingdom’. Don’t forget, your woman’s in an ursa body at the moment, too.

Yeah, but I love you anyways. He responded playfully, squeezing her hand and eliciting a light laugh from Serin.

“Come on, Baron, let’s get dinner going. You’ve got to be hungry, right?” Serin spoke out loud, standing up and moving towards the kitchen.

‘Baron’, the former name of the dwarf who had owned Blaque’s current body, let out a raucous laugh. “Famished, lass.”

Days passed, turning into weeks. In time, it became harder to find traces of the invaders through social mishaps. The ninjas also learned that they seemed to have some ability to detect hostility in the gaze of others, so only sent those trained at concealing such intent to follow the remaining suspects.

Finally, a full month passed since the invasion began. Only at this point did Blank have a full group of five targets living in close proximity to one another. With a surge of divine power, he severed their minds from their bodies while they were all logged into their respective games.

However, he did not leave them in their games as initially planned. Rather, he brought them to a pure white room, one he specially designed to seal any connection with the outside. It was here that he personally engaged the five individuals in battle, testing their ability. And while he did win… he did not come out unscathed.

I read over the report that Tsubaki printed off from Blank, and grit my teeth. I wasn’t angry with him, not at all. I was upset due to the realization that five of these invaders were able to almost fight on even terms with a god in the middle of his own domain.

His report indicated that they were capable of creating soulbound items that would even appear with their digital avatars. These items were clearly designed to battle energy-based beings, and even able to seriously wound Blank himself. More importantly, I was able to learn about their native magic, which he forced them to use in an effort to defend themselves.

“Tsubaki, what do you make of this ‘Scripting Magic’?” I asked, turning to look at the nine-tailed kitsune who presented me the papers.

“If I had to guess, it would be a variant on runic magic, my Keeper.” She spoke sincerely, her eyes on the paper in my hands. “Similar to the magic that Blank himself designed for his own game, they are able to create various scripts through the use of mana ‘commands’. They can then save these scripts, though whether they do so mentally or imbue their spell library into an item is uncertain.”

I gave a small nod, agreeing with her assessment. This was not a basic magic option, so it was likely only available to a civilization that had reached a certain age in technology. That, or it was simply too expensive to classify as a basic option, much like Aurivy’s Element Seed system.

Given Sanction’s age as a Keeper, and the fact that they had apparently reset recently, I was inclined towards the latter. After resetting, he would have had more than enough points to purchase a more expensive magic system to begin his world with. If I ever had to reset, I would likely do something similar.

For the extent of Blank’s damage… according to his report, he would be unable to act in that manner again for two weeks as he recovered. Thankfully, his identity as the God of Games gave him a substantial amount of followers, or else he might not have even been able to defeat this group of five.

“Was the incident covered up properly?” I asked, looking over to Tsubaki once again.

She nodded her head, offering me a small bow. “Blank informed me before he made his move. As soon as their bodies were ‘vacant’, I dispatched a group of hidden ninja that delivered a powerful poison directly into their spines. Although their wards had activated upon entry, and three of the ninjas were slain, they completed their mission. Even if they had defeated Blank, they would not have had a body to return to.”

“After the event, their bodies were taken out of town and left in the nest of a rainbow python, the serpent whose venom was the primary ingredient of the poison they were given. If anyone investigates, it will appear as though they were lured away from the road by the snake and slain before they had the chance to react.”

“And the damage caused by their wards activating?” I raised an eyebrow at that. If there was something that would be suspicious, that would be it. However, Tsubaki simply gave me her usual smile.

“Several valuable items were removed from their property, while the corpse of one of the dead ninjas was left behind after his energy had been purged and any incriminating items removed from his person. In the eyes of the public, that event was a robbery gone wrong, while the rest of the ninjas involved in it are dispersing to deter investigation.”

Alright, everyone, report in. Any news? The guild leader asked over the private chat, sitting in ‘his’ house. He had assumed the identity of a lesser noble with connections in both the human and elven kingdoms. This particular noble was the last of his blood, without the ability to sire an heir. After he died, his assets would be given to another noble house.

Team thirty-four was wiped out. One voice spoke up solemnly, causing the man’s eyes to focus.

Details. The word was a simple command, and showed his anger at having lost five of his friends. Though they came into this dungeon knowing that death was a possibility, that did not make it any less personal to them.

According to the police reports, their bodies were found in a nest of poisonous snakes, covered in bite marks. None of their items were equipped, and there were signs of the bodies having been dragged there. They assume that the group was ambushed on the road and dragged back to the nest.

While they were missing, someone also robbed their place. They stole… the contents of a safe, and items hidden in a desk drawer. One of the robbers was killed by the wards and left behind, but they won’t disclose the identity of the robber.

The leader let out a heavy sigh at that. It was common for natives of this world to prepare home security wards for when they left their property, so he had encouraged his people to do the same once they acquired the magic skill level to do so. The timing there’s a bit odd… what are the chances that they were killed by bandits on the road, and those bandits looted their house after?

After his question, there was a pause, the other party clearly having to look through the reports again. Their combat items weren’t equipped, so it would have had to have been an instant kill. No immediate signs of foul play, but… the snakes did a lot of damage to the bodies, so it would be hard to identify certain weapon types. It’s not impossible, at least.

The guild leader nodded his head, staring at a map laid out on the table before him. Alright. Everyone, make sure you’re careful when traveling the roads. I don’t want to lose anyone else in this dungeon.