146 A Hunting Game! (1/2)
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The group proceeds walking forward. And after a few moments, they finally arrived at the ambush site.
There some traces of battles. Claw and sword marks, stains of blood, explosion of some spells, and something similar. There are even some equipments of the paladins scattered on the ground. But no corpse was left behind.
The group starts scanning the place to study what have happened. Of course, they left Lawless with Stephanie to protect the later while keeping an eye at their suspected traitor.
”Maybe we should have brought an Archer Class. With their tracing skills, studying this place is just a piece of cake.” said Charlotte.
Faker chuckles a little after hearing that. He pointed at Shin and Morgan who are busy checking out the surroundings before saying. ”We don't need it. Those two are more than enough for the job.”
Charlotte knitted her brows while having some doubts at his words. Faker explain a little more for her to understand. ”Morgan is a student of Top Military School of the Soaring Continent so there is no question regarding his skills.”
”Meanwhile, brother Swordsman is from a Military Family so he should had received some training regarding this kind of situation. So, as long as this game is base on real life, those two are more than enough to study what have happened here.”
Shin is currently observing traces left on the ground and trees. He is even using his 'True Sight' observation skill to see any traces that can't be seen by the naked eye.
And after some observation, he tried to picture out what have happened. Then he knitted his brows after some time. No matter what kind of scenario he pictured out, what happened here is way too far from what the suspected traitor have reported. Then he walked towards Morgan to compare their findings.
”What you have discovered?” asked Shin.
Morgan knitted his brows before answering. ”It is odd. The traces here are obviously left by some monster attacks. And I don't find any kind of foreign footprints of other people. All of the footprints here are from paladins and priests.”
Shin nodded his head and said. ”My findings are pretty much the same. So it makes that our suspected traitor is lying to us. But that is odd part here. Why is lying to us when he knows that he is going to get discovered?”
”What's more, he is not doing anything strange. Not even a sign that he is planning to run away now that we know what happened here. It is as if he believes that what he had said were true.”
After some more time of discussion, Shin and Morgan regrouped with Faker and Charlotte, before sharing their findings.
”Is it possible that his memories altered, brainwashed or something?” said Charlotte.
Charlotte knitted her brows. ”Then what if he is innocent?”
Shin looked at her and said. ”He is still innocent. That is why he is just a suspected traitor and not a complete traitor. And that is also why the nature of this quest is an Investigative one.”
Charlotte wants to say something more, but Faker interrupted them and said. ”Alright, we should discuss it with our party leader now.”
Then Shin and the other two nodded their heads before planning to go back to regroup with Lawless and Stephanie. But that is also when they heard an explosion.
Boom!!!
The bodies of the four suddenly trembled because of the powerful explosion. And immediately after that, they rush towards where they left Lawless and Stephanie.
When they arrived at the scene, they saw Lawless and Stephanie staring cautiously at the rising smoke a few distances away from them.
”What happened?” asked Shin when they arrived beside the two.
”I don't know exactly. It's just the paladin suddenly started convulsing earlier. Then his body suddenly exploded few moments later. Good thing that we are fast enough to react.” answered Lawless without removing his eyes at the rising smoke.
Charlotte took a quick glance at the smoke before waving her left hand to send a powerful gust of wind at the direction of the rising smoke, making it to scatter.
Shin looked at it with awe. Why? Because he happened to see her movements, and he is quite sure that she didn't use any kind of skills in doing that.
He saw that she just controlled some wind elemental Mana and send it in the direction of the smoke.
'It is as if she controlled some mental energy and send it forward. It is not an offensive skill, but this kind of trick might become efficient on some occasions.' Shin put a mental note at this, and remind himself to do some experiments later.
When the smoke scattered and the specks of dust settled down, the group walk towards the crater created by the explosion. And what they below it is a piece of tiny paper.
The group knitted their brows after seeing that. Shin jumped down on the crater before picking up the piece of paper and reading what's written on it.
–”Enjoy being hunted”–
And after reading that, the entire group suddenly received a system notification simultaneously.
*Ding!*
System: An attempted assassination happened on the Church of the Sun and the Moon, and Archbishop Ronald was the victim and is currently in a coma.
System: As you are the last people that visited him, you become the major suspects.
System: You can only prove your innocence when the Archbishop regains his consciousness. So survive until then.
Then that notification was followed by another one, but this one is a quest update.
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Quest Name: Traitor of the Church
Quest Type: Hidden Main Quest
Quest Difficulty: Hell(SSS+)
Quest Details: You have been sent by Archbishop Ronald to investigate what really happened on the site where the paladins were ambushed.
But when you are away, the Archbishop was almost been assassinated. And since you are the last person sighted to visit him, you become the major suspect.
Quest Condition:
-Survive until Archbishop Ronald regains his consciousness.
Note 1: Dying for at least once will result in failure of the quest. (Applicable only to the quest main initiator.)
Note 2: Everyone involved in the quest is forbidden to logout of the game until the quest ended or until they died.
Note 3: The fallen players can't login in the game until the quest ended.
Quest Progress: (0%)
-Time until the Archbishop woke up:
•47:59:59↓
Quest Rewards:
+5 Levels
+200 Fame
+20 000 Reputation Points
+15 LP(Legacy Points)???
Quest Penalty:
• -10 Levels