‘A clean hit?’

[+22 EXP]

Esdras didn’t know if this guy was joking or not. That was clearly a messy death.

Moreover importantly, this guy may have overheard some things. His hands grip tightened on the mace.

“Oh, are you going to kill me to eliminate witnesses? Ooof, that’s scary~” the young man said shaking his head, he was not doing a good job of looking frightened at all.

“Why would I kill you for just that?” Esdras shrugged, “I simply executed a deserter, I have nothing to hide.”

Esdras wasn’t a cold blooded murderer, in any case he was in the right this time. There was no need to take things too far.

“That’s nice of you, I guess I will get to live another day. You have my gratitude.” The young man bowed, but his attitude was insincere.

“Oh, yeah? Well, not so fast. First of all, tell who you are and what are you doing in this forest?”

Esdras probed. No matter how you looked at it, it was very strange for a some nobody to be wandering around here now of all times when the world was in chaos.

Naturally he didn’t wait for an answer, he directly used his eyes.

[Name: Ishtar]

Class:—

Physique: 1

Agility: 1

Intelligence: 1

Spirituality: 2

Esdras frowned, he was just a normal person. Except for his slightly higher spirituality there was nothing special about him. He didn’t exude any energy either.

“Ah, you can call me Ishtar, I am a lowly wanderer, just having a look here and there. I hope I didn’t take too much of your time, you just looked interesting so I stopped by.”

“Well, there’s nothing worth your time here, good day.” Esdras turned around intending to cut this encounter short.

“Now, that’s wrong. Aren’t you an interesting person? I haven’t seen this level of achievement for Vigor knights before, and one so young too.”

Esdras turned back at once, he reevaluated his stance one this guy. No one was able to know such a thing by coincidence.

“You must be joking, I am a little talented but my abilities are average.” He replied warily.

“Ah, I spoke too much.” Ishtar looked apologetic as if it was a slip of the tongue just now, “I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s been a while since I’ve engaged in conversation.”

Esdras was unable to tell if he was truthful or not but he chose not to start a conflict. Mainly because ever since he laid eyes on this guy he had a creepy and eerie feeling about him.

“Ah, you’re such mild manner person, as a token of my gratitude I will give you a piece of advice; get out of here immediately.”

“Here…?”

“This forest, get out of it. That’s all, I hope to see you again soon, see you later, Esdras.” Ishtar waved his and back and forth like a kid with that broad smile and walked away.

Esdras already knew that his current assignment was very dangerous but he couldn’t just leave even if he wanted to.

Not only would that make the Octarine tower his enemies, he would also lose out on clearing the dungeon.

But actually Esdras had no reason to leave the tower, they didn’t do anything bad to him so far.

Also they were an established and well connected organization with access to great resources and spells, with his talent he could rise in the ranks easily. He had the most to gain by staying.

Esdras walked back to the trap-site, it was only halfway there that he realized he never gave Ishtar his name.

With a sudden chill all over his body he felt an irrational feeling that he shouldn’t turn around and he didn’t. It was only after he returned to camp that he breathed out in relief.

All in all, it seems like Tara survived because the soldiers intervened as soon as he left. He managed to kill two of them but the same trick isn’t likely to work twice.

Actually it might work, but he had no way to justify it to the higher ups. After all, he lost two outstanding apprentice mages already, if he lost the last one in the same time frame he would look very bad.

At this point he could chug it up to a an accident that was unavoidable, after all many others were suffering similar casualties but any more than this and he could get in trouble.

Naturally, this did not mean that he was going to let Tara go. In fact it might be good that she made it, after all she was an important clue as to why some people wanted him dead.

Of course Esdras suspected his dear uncle in this matter, but there were several inconsistencies that bothered him.

****

At night, within the dark and cold forest the wind blew on several figures, each were wearing soft luxurious fabrics and adorned with beautiful patterns.

These figures were sitting in a huge well decorated tent, on cushioned sofas and drank tantalizing wine. The tent was illuminated with a crystal orb.

No monsters dared to get close to this area, the figures within the tent each released terrifying mana wildly causing the atmosphere to fluctuate.

“Anyone want to tell me what’s this party all about?” A lanky man with no facial hair asked lazily.

“Does it matter? We’re here for the usual stuff, killing! Heheh this time we’ll get some payback out of the Octarine tower.”

A chubby woman who looked like a housewife answered in a kind and soothing voice contradicting her words.

“I guess you joined to save face, huh.” One of them snickered at the woman.

“I only lost because of their greater numbers!” The woman shot back in anger.

“No matter this time we will feast on some young meat hehe.”

A man with a scar under his eye joined in with a creepy laugh, his mana suddenly flared and something was shot out of his hand to impale a butterfly stuck in spider’s web on a nearby tree.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep