One of the rulers of the Northern Mountain Range had fallen!
Monsters had no choice but to feel that fact instinctively. It was only natural. The fall of a single ruler was synonymous with a complete shift in the order of the mountains.
The lower-level monsters, sensing the change in territory through their instincts, cowered.
*Screeech…*
They feared the rulers even more than the starvation of winter. Instead of moving in large groups to target humans, they engaged in territorial disputes among themselves. They chose to prey on one another.
This was the change that occurred in the North, which had been shaken by the expectation of a large-scale monster uprising. Meanwhile, Rayrn, the one who caused that change, was occupied with the aftermath.
“Let’s clean up.”
“How… should we proceed, sir?”
“Secretly.”
Unlike the Ogre corpses that had been staked around the fortress, the remains of the Hell Spider were disposed of quietly. Everyone who had gone out on the suppression mission kept their mouths shut. Since Rayrn, who had displayed overwhelming majesty, ordered them to be quiet, they simply followed.
For all intents and purposes, Rayrn was now the ruler of this fortress.
Afterward, the situation was progressing well. Originally, a ruler would not easily move from the mountain range they dominated. They would simply settle down and gather power. While the Hell Spider had fallen, it would still take a long time before another ruler-class monster began to move.
The problem was the lower-level monsters. However, the majority of them either cowered or fell into the traps Rayrn had laid out. Some wandered through the paths of the Illusion Labyrinth Formation only to encounter Lizardmen.
“Screech!?”
“They’re here. Get ready. Thrust!”
*Stab! Stab!*
As soon as they escaped the labyrinth formation, they met their deaths under a barrage of spears from waiting soldiers. Of course, there were many monsters that resisted. Unlike weak monsters like Goblins or Letmen, an Orc could withstand a spear strike from an ordinary soldier. Monsters were born fighters who would battle until they died.
Rayrn blocked such monsters by utilizing others. Those were the mercenaries.
The mercenaries, who were less formal than Knights, knew how to take advantage of the current situation. They were also satisfied. Mercenaries usually had to risk their lives for every request, but the current mission of defending the fortress often resulted in not even a scratch, let alone a fatality.
Without the monsters even forming groups…
“There are three of them!”
“That’s perfect! Get them!”
*Boom!*
The monsters arrived after wandering through the labyrinth. Exhausted from the formation and harassed by the soldiers’ spears, they were in no state of mind to fight back. Monsters in such a depleted state were no match for the mercenaries.
*Crunch!*
“Gwaaaaark!”
They were easy prey for mercenaries who far surpassed the level of ordinary soldiers.
“Skin them!”
Rayrn didn’t just leave the mercenaries to handle the cleanup. The fortress wasn’t the only active site for the Suppression Force. The entire mountain range, including the fortress, was the domain of Rayrn and his troops.
Some expressed concern, but all those worries were easily dispelled by a few words from Rayrn.
“I said I would turn monster corpses into local specialties, but it’s useless if the scale is too small.”
“Wouldn’t it be somewhat dangerous?”
“It is our job to minimize that danger as much as possible. Don’t worry.”
In this suppression area, Rayrn’s word had been absolute even before he took down a ruler. Even with just his reputation as the Ogre Slayer before the Hell Spider incident, he had already proven himself a powerhouse.
Rayrn kept his word faithfully. He brought out things he had prepared personally.
“Maren.”
“You’re finally looking for me.”
He called for Maren, the leader of the Hellhound Mercenary Group. Maren, who had been moving to hunt, responded to Rayrn’s call without delay.
“You have to earn your keep. Go. I trust you remember how to use these.”
“Of course. I’ll be back.”
***
After receiving three bundles from Rayrn, Maren turned to his men.
“Let’s go, you idiots.”
“Look who’s calling who an idiot…”
“You! Pakl! You’re in the vanguard!”
“He has sharp ears, damn it.”
Leading the free-spirited mercenary group, Maren headed outside the fortress.
“Will this work?”
“If he said it works, it works.”
A mercenary must never be overconfident. They also had to do their best even when facing weaklings. Only then could they survive for a long time. Maren moved according to those mercenary rules.
‘Let’s start with the Kobold dens first.’
He led the mercenaries to one of the weakest monsters he knew: a Kobold den. With the 200 mercenaries he led, he could handle two Kobold villages a day. However, he didn’t insist on a head-on confrontation. He only blocked the entrance to the Kobold den. And then…
“He said this was the best thing for guys who dig burrows.”
He rustled through one of the bundles Rayrn had given him and opened it. Inside were beads overflowing with black Mana.
‘To think he knows such Magic. He’s not just some naive Young Master of a Noble Family.’
Maren picked up a few beads.
“I’m throwing them now! Be careful! Don’t breathe! Block the entrance!”
“Understood.”
After one warning, he threw the beads into the burrow without delay.
*Sssssssssss—*
As if waiting, a burning sound echoed, and chaos began to erupt from inside the burrow.
“Skweeeeee!”
“Kieeeek!”
The moment the beads shattered, a cloud of poison spread through the burrow. It was a poisonous cloud that would infect and kill anything! Magic had been embedded within the beads.
Death Cloud!
A forbidden spell for mass destruction. Rayrn had contained Death Cloud—a spell not even a War Mage would learn easily—inside those beads.
“How did he make this? It’s not even a scroll.”
“I don’t know. It must be some special secret.”
It was created using a completely new method that didn’t exist in this world. In reality, it was an application of the method used to create Neidans, but very few people knew that. They simply gauged the power of the poisonous cloud while listening to the piercing screams from inside.
“Kieeeeeeeeeek!”
The burrow that had been their home became a slaughterhouse. Even Kobolds, who cherished their burrows, had no choice but to rush outside.
“They’re coming! It’s their final struggle! Prepare for battle!”
“I’ll stab them as soon as they show up!”
*Thwack. Thwack.*
However, the only thing waiting for the Kobolds who managed to escape was a shower of weapons from the waiting mercenaries.
“Number of injured, zero. No damage.”
“This is insane.”
Even if they were Kobolds, they were still monsters. No matter how strong the mercenaries were, it was difficult to finish them off without a single scratch. But a single Kobold village had been completely wiped out by just a few beads Rayrn had provided.
1 hour later, after the Mana had been exhausted and the poisonous cloud had completely vanished, they entered the burrow.
“There are so many…”
“Is it because they’re mountain range monsters? There are quite a lot of valuable things.”
It was the legacy left behind by the Kobolds, who loved shiny things. Thanks to their habit of collecting glinting objects, Kobolds provided good rewards despite being low-level.
“Pack it all up. Don’t skim anything off the top; we have to bring it to him.”
“Are you offering him your loyalty now?”
“I’d rather do that, but… these are the terms.”
“Then it can’t be helped.”
Fifty percent of the profits earned during combat. Exactly half belonged to Rayrn. That was the contract between Rayrn and Maren.
‘I have to keep it.’
Maren, leading the mercenary group, didn’t dare think about ignoring the contract with Rayrn. It wasn’t just because of the contract itself, but because he remembered the martial prowess Rayrn had shown during the suppression battle. The power Rayrn had displayed then was something that Maren, who had some measure of skill himself, didn’t dare oppose.
‘That power… did he call it the Iron Fist? Do they have that kind of power too?’
Rather than jealousy, he felt something closer to longing for that power. He had come to the land of Opern, which had overturned the Royal Capital, thinking it was a land of opportunity. But this was more than just a land of opportunity. it was a new world entirely different from others.
‘I have to stay here. That’s the only way I can gain something.’
Without Rayrn’s knowledge, Maren was strengthening his resolve to stay by his side no matter what. Many of the mercenaries felt the same. There were those who worked as mercenaries because they liked money, but there were also many who desired freedom and power. To such people, Rayrn’s strength was inevitably charming.
And for those who wanted money…
“If we hunt this way, the profits won’t be something we can ignore.”
“It’ll be quite a lot even if I just survive the contract period. Three years…”
Rayrn had promised rewards befitting their service. That was the reason the mercenaries were acting as Rayrn’s hands and feet.
***
Everything inside and outside the fortress was proceeding according to plan. For the Suppression Force, it was more than just a great success; they were writing unprecedented history.
One would think Rayrn, who had carried out such a task, would be satisfied. However, as he sat in his seat within the fortress…
“Still…”
He was searching for clues to an unresolved problem, far from being satisfied.
“The root cause hasn’t been revealed yet. The reason why the monsters are trying to come down from the North to the South.”
The reason he had taken charge of the Suppression Force was all because of the information Arne had given him. It was because of the information that monsters, which should have been guarding their respective territories, were preparing to move south. And that information was very close to the truth.
‘They were all slightly further south than their original territories.’
The monsters the Suppression Force had observed while moving had all shifted downward. Only the Lizardmen, who could not leave the swamps, had kept their place. There is only one case where monsters change their territory.
‘Only when there’s another monster they can’t handle.’
Rayrn had thought that killing the Hell Spider would slow down the momentum of the monsters’ southward migration to some extent. That was why he took it down. It actually did decrease. However, it was less than he had expected. As time passed, he could see groups of monsters slowly beginning to move south again.
“It’s not a ruler, but some other reason.”
There was a reason, but he couldn’t figure it out yet.
“If it’s not a ruler, is it a Black Mage? Hmm… but there was no Demonic Mana.”
There was no Demonic Mana. If it were a Black Mage, Rayrn, who read Mana through Gigan, wouldn’t have missed it. If so, it wasn’t a Black Mage.
“There must be another reason… what could it be?”
Sitting on the throne of the fortress, Rayrn constantly thought and observed. During that time, someone appeared before the throne, using a Stealth Technique.
“Young Master!”
The only ones in the fortress who called him Young Master were the Black Crows. Rayrn had given them a suitable mission. He had tasked the Crows with searching the mountain range to uncover the reason behind the monsters’ migration.
Originally a ranger, the Crow who had even mastered the Stealth Technique was perfect for such a task.
“It’s been a while, Kimoa. Was there any progress?”
“It doesn’t seem to be for nothing. You should come and see for yourself.”
“That’s a relief. Where should I go?”
“It’s quite far north.”
Whether the mission of scouring the mountains had been harsh or not, Kimoa had gained another scar. Kimoa, whom Rayrn had personally instructed several times, was one of the strongest among the Crows. There weren’t many who could leave a scar on him.
‘There’s something else.’
Rayrn sensed something through his intuition.
“I’ll go immediately.”
“I will lead the way!”
He rose from the throne where he had been sitting.
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