Chapter 113 (1/2)
Knock Knock
“It’s me, Carten.”
At the call, footsteps came from behind the door, and Ross opened the door.
Checking Carten’s condition, Ross said,
“Welcome back. Come in and tell me your report.”
Glad that Carten was back unhurt, Ross walked backed in the room.
“What did you learn?” asked Ross after he sat down in his seat.
There were many things to report. Carten was deciding what information to report first.
Order the information in the order of importance, Carten began his report.
“First, I’ve found Kelta’s secret cave.”
“What? You’ve found the cave?” said Ross surprised.
“Didn’t I send you to investigate what happened to the red wolves?”
Ross was confused about the current situation. He sent Carten to check what happened, but all of a sudden, he reported that he found Kelta’s secret cave.
Ross was expecting information on Garrett and the group he was associated with.
“What’s going on?”
Unable to understand the situation, Ross asked Carten to explain.
“When I arrived at the mansion…”
***
‘They’re all dead.’
There were no survivors. All of the red wolves were murdered.
‘By one spell.’
The strange thing was the red wolves were annihilated by one spell.
‘A magic spell at this degree…’
Frowning, Carten scanned his surroundings. There was dense mana left from a spell within the area. Despite the time passing, the mana left from the spell was still very dense. That meant the spell would have been destructive, and the annihilation of the red wolves was not a surprise.
‘Let’s go back and report.’
Carten thought he had to hurry and report that the enemy had a magician that could use a spell strong enough to annihilate the red wolves.
Carten returned to the mansion.
“…?”
Arriving at the mansion, Carten saw the path to the underground prison was opened.
‘Did he go downstairs?’
Thinking that Ross was downstairs, Carten walked down the staircase and was lost for words at the sight of the dead bodies and the missing prisoner.
‘This mana!’
The mana within the cell was very dense as the mana that annihilated the red wolves.
Turning around, Carten rushed to the third floor and went to Ross’s room but saw no one inside.
‘Damn it.’
Carten cursed in his thought and searched throughout the mansion for Ross.
‘He’s not here.’
Carten looked throughout the whole mansion, but could not find Ross’s corpse.
‘If there’s no corpse…,’
The absence of Ross’s corpse could mean many things.
‘Was he kidnapped?’
First of all, He could have been kidnapped. The other remaining red wolves were murdered, so that was a possibility.
‘Or did he run away?’
The second possibility was that he ran away. Ross was an important member of the Parville Merchants’ Corps, so he should have a warp scroll.
He might have used the scroll while the remaining members kept the intruder busy.
Wondering what happened to Ross, Carten walked back to the entrance. He came to check for traces.
The intruder that saved Haccid and Haccid himself must have left some traces behind, and Carten could track traces.
He found traces of two people walking out of the mansion.
‘These should belong to Haccid and the magician that saved him.’
‘Ross seemed to have warped away.’
There were only traces of Haccid and the magician. Ross had no traces anywhere inside the mansion nor outside, so he should have warped out.
‘Then…, let’s go after them first.’
Deciding his next step, Carten followed the traces.
***
“That’s how I found it.”
Carten explained everything from the deaths of the red wolf members and how he found the cave.
Ross was lost for words. Not because Carten found the cave but because of the strength of the magician.
‘With one spell…? That’s how strong Garrett was?’
Ross expected Garrett to have demolished the red wolves with a group, but according to Carten’s report, Garrett did that alone.
Ross didn’t expect Garrett to be that strong. He defeated the red wolves alone with one spell.
‘That’s absurd!’
Unable to believe in the situation, Ross jumped out of his seat.
“…?”
Carten was startled at Ross’s behavior and looked at Ross with a puzzled gaze.
“I need to go see brother.”
He needed to meet with Raiden and report the magician’s strength and the information on the cave.