Lee Tae-seong was very tense because he didn’t know how fierce the battle would be.
He had rarely died in the Dream World, but today could be the day of his death.
With that resolve, he finally arrived at the basin where the Nameless Blood Cult branch was located.
‘Why is there nothing here?’
He felt deflated.
All his determination seemed wasted; the air went out of him.
He would have preferred to fight to the death and be done with it.
“Tch. Was it false information?”
Lee Tae-seong surveyed the inside of the basin.
The natural environment had been left unattended for a long time.
It looked beautiful, but it didn’t seem like there had been a branch here.
-BOOM!
Lee Tae-seong used the Heavenly Net Flame Hand to shoot a flame into the sky.
It was a prearranged signal flare.
Soon after, Juel, who had been scouting the area, descended.
“Oh dear. It seems the information was false.”
“Yes. It looks like the Blood Hand tricked us before he died.”
“The coalition leadership, including our commander, will be quite disappointed.”
Juel clicked her tongue.
As a member of the Blue Dragon Knights, she knew well how stalled the coalition was in finding the Nameless Blood Cult.
That was why she had high hopes for this mission—she never imagined even this would be false.
It was clear the coalition leadership would fall into worry.
“Hm?”
But at that moment, Lee Tae-seong sensed something strange.
Nothing specific was visible, but his senses were subtly disturbed.
He couldn’t ignore this feeling.
After all, the senses of a Peak Realm master were a kind of sixth sense close to precognition.
“True Sight.”
He muttered softly, and a search magic of the fifth circle unfolded.
Even so, nothing appeared.
But Lee Tae-seong heightened his senses in that state.
His Peak Realm intuition activated, and his eyes searched for traces left by magic.
When the two combined, something was caught.
A subtle trace of movement.
‘Someone was here!’
And it wasn’t long ago.
Lee Tae-seong followed the traces for a while.
Worried that moving too hastily might erase the traces, he moved very slowly and carefully, examining every direction, and reached a conclusion.
“Miss Juel, can you contact headquarters?”
“Yes, I brought a communication crystal ball.”
It was an expensive and fragile item issued only to Juel.
“Then please use it to send a message. Tell them this branch seems fake, but I found some traces.”
“…! Really?”
Juel looked around in surprise.
As a Blue Dragon Knight, she was trained in search and reconnaissance, but she saw nothing special.
However, Lee Tae-seong spoke with certainty.
“Someone was here just a moment ago and withdrew recently. Let’s follow this trail.”
*
When the withdrawal order came from Blood Hand Luban, the Nameless Blood Cult members moved diligently according to the order.
It was a bothersome task to retrieve all the traps they had carefully prepared, but as fanatics, they completed the work perfectly without a single complaint.
If all of them had been outstanding martial artists, they would have retreated without a trace.
But because there were magic traps, there were also mages and sorcerers among them, and no matter how well they erased traces, some would inevitably remain.
That was exactly the kind of trace Lee Tae-seong had discovered through his intuition and True Sight.
“This is… a mine entrance.”
The place where Lee Tae-seong stopped after following the traces from the basin into the mountain foot.
It was in front of an old tunnel entrance.
“Was there a mine to the north?”
“I hear there was one a long time ago.”
Juel answered.
Hundreds of years ago, the northern part of the continent was also splendidly developed.
The Nameless Blood Cult used Secret Arts to drain all the earth’s energy, making the land barren and uninhabitable, but before that, there were cities and advanced civilization.
The same applied to this basin.
Hundreds of years ago, it was a mine.
Now only the entrance of the old tunnel remained, and traces of people moving led into the abandoned mine.
“I’ll go inside. Miss Juel, please stay here.”
“I’ll go with you to help.”
“Your mission isn’t to investigate, is it?”
Juel’s role was to carry Lee Tae-seong here and take him back.
And in between, she was to handle communications with headquarters and scout the area.
Of course, she could follow and help, but the risks outweighed the benefits.
Going inside would be too dangerous.
‘In a narrow tunnel, I can’t even summon a dragon.’
Since Dragon Knights’ combat power largely depends on dragon strength, Juel’s individual skill was far inferior.
In that case, it was better for Lee Tae-seong to move alone.
Besides, even if he died, he could be revived.
“Understood. Please contact me if anything happens. I’ll send a message to headquarters and keep watch.”
“Yes. I’ll leave it to you.”
With that, Lee Tae-seong entered the tunnel.
*
Not long after Lee Tae-seong set out to verify the authenticity of the information about the Nameless Blood Cult, the coalition leadership gathered.
This meeting of major factions was a regularly scheduled conference.
The temporary representative and meeting host was Blue Dragon Knight Commander Samuel.
Around the round table, representatives of various factions sat on either side of him.
Red Magic Tower, Green Magic Tower, Golden Altar of Alchemy, Mortu Nocturn, Shadow Chivalric Order…
The Unorthodox Factions sat on one side, and the Orthodox Factions on the other.
Originally, they should have started with simple agenda items and moved to serious discussions, but the meeting was momentarily delayed.
“A communication from Knight Juel. She says they have arrived at the mission area.”
At the report of the mage holding the crystal ball, everyone’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh ho. It begins.”
“I wonder if the information is real…”
Information obtained by capturing a Blood Hand-level member of the Nameless Blood Cult.
If it were true and they found the cult’s branch, it would be a tremendous achievement.
That was why everyone put the meeting aside and focused on the mage’s words.
‘Heh heh. Riding a dragon was fast, but still one step too late.’
And Luban, who was attending as the Vice Branch Manager of Mortu Nocturn, smirked inwardly.
He had given the withdrawal order at the right time, so they must have all retreated by now.
Unless Lee Tae-seong had arrived a little faster, the bastard would return empty-handed.
‘Fools. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Tch tch.’
Luban inwardly mocked the other attendees who were full of anticipation.
He wanted to see their disappointed faces soon.
“Now, now. Let’s proceed with other agenda items until further contact.”
Samuel changed the subject and started handling simple matters.
With everyone’s minds elsewhere, it was hard to deal with important issues.
Time passed like that.
“Additional report!”
“!”
“Something!?”
The crystal ball flashed, and at the mage’s following words, the meeting came to a halt.
“He says there was nothing inside the branch.”
“Oh…”
“Ah…!”
Sighs of disappointment arose here and there, and Luban had to suppress his urge to laugh.
To see those arrogant continental elites from major powers so dejected.
‘A shame to see it alone.’
He wanted to show this scene to his fellow cultists.
However, the mage’s words were not over yet.
“However, he says they found traces of a withdrawal. They followed the traces to a nearby abandoned mine, and now Sir Taeseong has entered alone to track them, while Miss Juel is standing guard outside.”
“!!!”
This time, Luban was so shocked his eyes went wide.
If the other attendees hadn’t also been surprised, his reaction would have been suspicious.
‘What, how?!’
“Oh, so there was something after all!”
“It wasn’t the branch, but it means it’s too early to give up.”
In an instant, the meeting room filled with a hopeful atmosphere.
Since the report ended there, everyone made a few speculative remarks, and after listening for a bit, Samuel resumed the meeting.
“Alright, let’s restart from where we left off.”
However, including Samuel, no one was fully focused on the meeting.
They all kept glancing at the mage, wondering when the next contact would come.
“Gasp!”
“What is it!”
As the mage holding the crystal ball gasped, Samuel shot to his feet.
The others also looked at the mage, tense.
“Sir Taeseong found cult members in the tunnel! He captured some enemies after a battle!”
“Oh!!”
“Did we finally get a real lead on them?”
“They had planted spies in our coalition. That’s why they fled upon hearing of Sir Taeseong’s sortie and got caught!”
“!!!”
Some people realized the truth and frowned.
And Luban, unable to hold back, stood up abruptly.
“Vice Branch Manager Luban, what’s wrong?”
“…Ah, I’m just surprised. To think we’ve finally found a proper trace of the Nameless Blood Cult…”
“Everyone must feel the same. We haven’t been able to find these guys since before the coalition was formed. But hmm… Haha. Now I see hope. I am also very happy.”
“Ah… yes…”
Luban sat back down.
Next to him, the Branch Manager of Mortu Nocturn grinned.
“Wahaha. That guy is an annoying fellow, but still, having him on our side is reassuring. Just as he bothered us, now he’s bothering the Nameless Blood Cult. Don’t you think so, Vice Branch Manager Luban?”
“…That’s right.”
At the Branch Manager’s words, Luban had to work hard to control his expression.
*
The closed tunnel interior was not a suitable terrain for fighting.
One wrong move could cause a collapse and bury them alive.
The same applied even to fanatics.
They might jump into a fire pit if ordered by their god, but they didn’t want to die buried in a mine while retreating.
“Damn it! Isn’t this bastard afraid of death!”
One of the cult members shouted.
Explosions, scorched walls and ceiling, an environment filling with smoke.
It was perfect for a burial, but the pursuer didn’t seem to care.
And that question about not fearing death was correct.
‘After all, I was thinking I could die once.’
Lee Tae-seong moved boldly.
-FWOOSH!
A flame large enough to cover the entire tunnel spread out.
The flame, moving like a tidal wave, filled every direction.
The cult members who tried to block it were engulfed in flames and collapsed.
But Lee Tae-seong didn’t kill them; he only inflicted critical wounds and dragged them outside.
Even if they were fanatics, capturing them might yield some information.
“You caught them again.”
“Please take care of them so they don’t die.”
“Yes. I’ve reported to headquarters, and the Dragon Knights will come for transport soon.”
“Good. I’ll go back in.”
Lee Tae-seong then re-entered the tunnel.
Watching his back, Juel inwardly admired him.
‘Even for an Outsider, death itself must be frightening… He’s amazing.’
The sight of Lee Tae-seong re-entering the tunnel without hesitation made a strong impression on her as a knight.
-thud thud
Lee Tae-seong, once again using True Sight, chased after the cult members.
He was in no hurry.
‘I need to slowly drive them and find out where they’re going.’
Chasing them down quickly and catching them all would be pointless.
These guys were fleeing somewhere, and there was a high chance their destination was the real branch.
Lee Tae-seong intended to follow them all the way there.