Chapter 52 52. A Demon’s Trap. [1]
"Ha..." Jin sighed while leaning back on his seat inside his carriage as his grandfather's words echoed in his mind.
'Although I am thankful to Thomas for saving your life, we cannot use the Kingdom's army to save his sister from that demon's clutches.'
When Jin tried to counter his argument,
'Besides, after this much time, I highly doubt that she is even alive. It would be better if you console your friend.
"Also, the Demon Hunter Association has promised to look into this matter, so our interference might catch unwanted attention. There are already too many foxes ready to tear us apart at any given time, I am sorry, but I cannot do anything.'
His grandfather spoke the facts.
"Haa..." Jin closed his eyes and deeply thought about the situation with another sigh.
'If only there was any other way to help Thomas.' Jin reminded himself of Thomas's desperate look and couldn't help but smile helplessly.
'I still have a day to reach the academy. Let's hope I found a way till then.' With this thought, slowly Jin drowned in a deep slumber.
...
[Selva Village]
On the simple streets of Selva village, the hustle and bustle continued as usual. The markets were half-filled with adventurers from various places in the Kingdom Fluger. Although the alliance between all races was common knowledge, not many races visited the dungeon near Selva. The racial variety was limited to humans, half-humans, and half-beasts.
Various potion shops, weapon shops, food stalls, and armories were selling their products by the roadside.
After the news of the massacre of the students, many adventurers ventured into the wilderness near the village to collect the remnants of the dead before the arrival of the Demon Hunter Association. As the students were from the Royal Academy, it was natural for them to expect high-grade material from their bodies.
"Hey, you heard it? Someone found a <D> rank sword inside the dungeon!! It is rumored, that it can even pierce through Iron horn Hyenas! Those monsters with high defense!" An adventurer spoke while chugging his beer inside a tavern.
"I also heard that the dungeon has got upgraded and there is loot more than enough to feed my whole lineage!" Another man added his rumor.
"Mah! These are just rumors! Gulp* Gulp* Gulp* Haaa! I bet those are just to attract the newcomers." A barbaric man spoke.
"But it's true! I mean, the missions inside the guild have also increased near the dungeon!"
"Ha?! So that proves my point! They are just attracting the newbies. I've been to that dungeon before and there was nothing else than six-legged boars and some underdeveloped goblins." The barbaric man crossed his hands over his chest and said proudly.
"Then why don't you visit there again, if you don't trust the rumors." A man with thin body stature jumped into the conversation with a sly smile.
"Hm? And who are you?" The barbaric man scoffed.
"I am the man who found that sword inside the dungeon." The thin man took out the sword from his sheath and everyone looked at him with awe.
"T-this is?!" The sword was made of Myril, a metal second only to Mythril. The sword was beautiful. There was a thin blue strip of a different metal at the edge of the sword.
The sword was capable to sharpen with the input of mana because of that thin blue metal strip.
"HAHA! You fools took so much time to grasp!" The man laughed and the adventurers in the tavern got angry.
"I challenge you all sitting here! If you dare call yourself a man then go and fight the dungeon boss otherwise you all are pussies! And even if you pussies don't fight, I will be clearing the dungeon anyway, HAHAHAHA~" Although his comment offended some female adventurers, for the men, it was damage to their pride.
"Huh? You boy have a sharp tongue and I would like you to lick my boots with that tongue!" The barbaric man took his words to the heart and left the tavern in rage.
"Let's go, and show this guy our strength!"
" "Yay!" "
The remaining adventurers also left the tavern and the thin man's wicked smile widened.
'Kekeke! I wonder what you will show me, kekekeke!'
...
After the thin man's mocking, every one of the adventurers got angry and went to conquer the dungeon, as well as to loot the dead bodies.
An adventurer's party was the first to make their move
"Whoa! Look over there!"
"No way! Is it gold? Or diamonds?"
People were left bewildered at the sight, just as they neared the dungeon, they found small treasures.
"Whoa! Is this a spear?"
"Give that to me, I am the spearman in the group!"
Their eyes started blinding in greed as time passed.
It was too late for them to realize it.
...
[Before the rumor.]
My dickhead status has long been apparent to me.
And in addition, rubbing salt in my wound was the system shop.
There were two things.
Under the section of [Artifacts] inside the system shop,
[Mirage: Illusion Creation for 24 hours. (Re-useable)
Cool down: 12 hours
Requirement: 50 mana crystals peruse.
Rank: <C> Grade: Epic
Description: An artifact used to create illusions for any mortal below the Fourth circle. For the Fourth circle and above, the artifact can be used to flash blinding lights and stop the moment of enemy for 2 seconds.
Range: 1 km square.
Cost: 35,000 Evil Points.]
'It's too costly... but if I can use it properly then...' The thought of the execution of my plan made me laugh evilly.
[Evil Points: 61,459]
<Would you like to purchase [Mirage]?>
Although I was hesitant for some time, I decided to invest my points.
"Anything for the greater good." I shook my head and purchased the [Mirage] Artifact.
[Evil Points: 26,459]
And second,
[Corruption Seeds: A climber plant grown from corruption seeds can corrupt any being with weak willpower.
Rank: <C> Grade: Unique
Requirement: Demonic energy. (Required only once.)
Description: A climber plant with yellow leaves and red flowers can corrupt people weaker than its rank.
The seeds of demonic energy become embedded in the mana of the person when touched and it manifests in negative thoughts.
Once planted, the plant is self-sustainable and increases its rank increases with the increase in mana.
Quantity: 5 seeds.
Cost: 10,000 Evil Points]
<Would you like to purchase [Corruption Seeds]?>
"Yes."
[Evil Points: 16,459]
'Should I purchase something more?' My paranoia wanted to purchase something that can assure my safety, but I couldn't waste my points anymore.
'Let's get this started.'
With that, I called all of my servants and ordered them to lure adventurers with the carrot called 'loot'.
For this mission, I put Lisa and Anna to lead the servants.
Meanwhile, I prepared the ground for my ultimate plan. f𝔯ℯe𝓌ℯ𝐛𝒏𝐨ѵel.c𝚘𝐦
...
"Fufufu~" Anna chuckled as she saw the sixth party of adventurers enter the dungeon. ƒ𝒓e𝐞we𝚋𝙣o𝚟𝚎𝘭.co𝙢
They planned to simply lure the greedy adventurers inside the dungeon and by using the illusion of treasures inside the dungeon they made the adventurers touch the plant.
...
[Inside the dungeon]
There were in total 7 floors in the dungeon and the illusion started from the third floor.
Till the third floor, the adventurers fought the real and weak monsters inside the dungeon but still received hefty rewards. Which further infuriated their greed.
Logan had explicitly put real treasures in the vicinity of the dungeons just in case.
"What?!" Adventurers were left astonished as they saw the third floor, which was a jungle.
The clear blue sky above, the greenery in front of them, and the sound of water flowing nearby made them lower their guard.
"It's beautiful!" The female adventurers could not hold back as they saw the white and fluffy bunnies jumping around. All the bunnies had red eyes but only one had blue eyes, which made him stand out the most.
"Hehehe~" The healer of the party broke the formation and ran to catch that bunny.
"Stop! It must be a trap!" The leader of the party shouted but,
"What can happen? We already cleared the previous three floors within just two hours! Let me take a break." Her carefreeness enraged the leader.
Other party members also broke the formation and went to wander on the floor.
Some saw a herd of deer with one of the deer having golden fur while some saw a variety of flowers on the green field with one flower having a gem embedded, and everyone had the desire to touch that unique thing.
A pair of brown eyes watch this whole scene unfold and laughed wickedly.
The moment the healer touched blue eyed bunny,
"Ahn!~" A moan escaped from her mouth. She tilted her head and saw the bunny bite her and ran away. But the bite didn't hurt, instead, it felt pleasurable.
The same happened with other adventurers.
"That cute bunny bite me... Uwu~" The healer used a small spell to heal her wound, but to her surprise, the wound did not heal.
"Eh?" It was at this moment that she felt her emotions getting succumbed. It did not last long but she felt her negative thoughts disappearing.
'What?' she tilted her head but,
Roar! She and the adventurers heard a roar from distance.
'I think it's the boss!' She immediately called for her party!
"Let's regroup!!" And heeding her call everyone regrouped except for one.
"Where is the leader?!" She questioned but she got no response,
Roar! Roar! Roar!
They saw a giant tree with its branches spread wide dashing toward them.
"Looks like we have to fight that tree monster without the leader! Let's not waste our time!" Someone boosted the morale of the party.
"Let's go! Fight!"
"Fight!"
They cheered and attacked the giant tree that was spreading its roots toward them.
A barrage of attack was sent toward the tree, as the healer put some buffs on her team and increased their strength.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
The painful cries of the giant tree echoed throughout the dungeon as it fell to its knees.
The brown pair of eyes, laughed crazily as she saw this scene.
All of the members of the party were under the illusion that they were fighting a tree monster, but in reality, they were attacking none other than,
"Arrrgh! Stop! Why are you attacking- Arghhhhh!" Their party leader.
Their mana succumbed to the plants planted by Logan and their mind was now getting dominated by demonic energy.
During their quest for treasure, a lustful demon was waiting for his chance to claim his true treasure in the Selva village.
...
[A/N: Sorry, really sorry for this inconsistency.]