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An hour later.
"We got a young and healthy one this time, so we'll get less flak."
"That's why I said we should just leave that old man alone back then."
"What could we do? We didn't meet the quota. There's no guarantee anyone would pass by if we waited all night."
"Here I am, Alex, elite mercenary, kidnapping kids and old men. Unbelievable."
"The pay's good, though."
Elite mercenary Alex smirked at his companion.
"True. Heh heh heh."
Thud.
Alex lowered Davian, who he had been carrying on his shoulder, to the ground.
In front of Alex and his companion, a dimensional portal was shimmering.
"Where the heck does this lead to, anyway?"
"Who knows? They don't let us mercenaries go inside. Let's just hurry up and go. As long as we get paid, it's fine. Don't you know that if you want to last long in the mercenary business, you shouldn't be too curious?"
"That's right. Okay, let's push this kid in and go get paid."
Just then.
"Where do you get paid?"
"Why, at the request office in Peco City...!"
Alex, who had absentmindedly answered, recoiled in surprise.
His companion did the same.
"W-What! When did you wake up!"
His companion even drew two hand axes from his waist.
Thud, thud.
Davian, brushing off bits of grass from his clothes, stood up.
"Peco City? That's not a city far from here. But if you're going to a mercenary request office to get paid... then neither of you know who ordered this job?"
Swoosh!
Elite mercenary Alex also drew his sword.
"I asked you when you woke up!"
"Are we asking and answering questions one at a time? Fine. From when you hoisted me onto your shoulder an hour ago."
"H-How? You should have been out for at least a day from that poison dart?"
"Weren't we supposed to ask questions one at a time? Now it's my turn. You really don't know who ordered you to do this, do you?"
"......"
Davian shook his head.
"Complete small fries, aren't you."
Alex glanced at his companion.
"Haaap!"
"Taat!"
The two mercenaries charged simultaneously.
But their opponent was a 4-star swordsman.
Whack! Thwack!
Davian, easily evading the coordinated attack, landed punches on their faces and abdomens in turn.
"Ugh...! He wasn't just an ordinary hunter!"
Alex readjusted his grip on his weapon and glared at Davian.
'Damn it!'
Silently capturing hunters or woodcutters alone in the forest without anyone knowing.
That was the request he had received this time.
A request that was too easy and insignificant for Alex, who had frequently been on battlefields.
But the reward was not small.
A higher success fee than when he participated in the territorial war between two marquis families a few years ago.
And Alex knew better than anyone.
'There's always a reason why the request fee is so high.'
The client who paid a large sum for such an easy request would never let this incident pass easily.
That meant he had to get rid of that kid who was looking at him mockingly.
Otherwise, Alex's mercenary career would end here.
"I don't know why the poison dart didn't work, but you'll have to die here, kid."
Ha.
Davian let out a dumbfounded laugh.
"I was going to let you go since you were such small fries after listening to your conversation. But you don't want that, I guess?"
This was frustrating.
Hadn't they grasped the difference in skill with just one exchange earlier?
"You seem to have learned some martial arts, but we were just caught off guard! Let's go!"
The same thing.
Just like before, they exchanged glances and then moved their bodies.
It was as if they were telling their opponent, "Okay, now we're both going to attack you from both sides at the same time."
He had heard them talking while being carried here on their shoulders, and it seemed that both of them had quite a bit of experience in the mercenary business.
But this was the best they could do.
Whirr.
An ice club appeared in Davian's hand.
Whack! Thwack!
A merciless clubbing began.
An hour ago.
Phew!
Davian was hit in the neck by a poison dart.
A poison dart created for the purpose of capturing ordinary people like hunters or woodcutters.
He felt it coming, but he didn't bother to avoid it.
The poison dart stuck in his neck, and the poison applied to the tip of the dart began to be absorbed into his body.
Thanks to the increased internal and external strength, he could vividly feel the poison spreading through his blood vessels.
A sensation he wouldn't have felt in the previous regression.
That damn mage was vulnerable to even these kinds of poison dart attacks.
But such a weak poison couldn't possibly work on Davian, who had already reached the level of a 4-star swordsman.
The moment he tried to release the internal energy gathered in his dantian at once to push the poison out of his body.
'Hmm...'
He felt the poison being purified on its own.
It was the influence of the regeneration skill, 'Blessing of Hydra'.
A skill that had risen to level 14 thanks to the potion given by Nurse Medeium.
Davian decided to wait a little longer.
He could use his internal energy to expel all the poison from his body right away, but then the person who shot the poison dart would see it.
'Should I just leave it alone instead of pushing the poison out?'
Even as he was thinking this, Davian's body was purifying the poison on its own.
'Okay. Let's just get dragged along like this.'
Thud.
Davian's body collapsed helplessly to the ground.
'...Was that natural?'
Back to the present.
"Ugh..."
Alex, groaning, was sprawled on the ground.
The other one was unconscious without even moaning.
His body was broken and mangled in places, making it difficult to look at.
"If you're lucky, someone will find you and treat you, and you won't die. Well, if you're unlucky... nothing I can do."
Davian turned his head indifferently.
The shimmering dimensional portal came into Davian's view.
'They hired mercenaries to kidnap people and push them into this dimensional portal. Those mercenaries don't seem to know what's on the other side.'
In all likelihood, the other side was the Demon Realm.
As Glasier said, Davian didn't have the ability to roam the Demon Realm alone.
No, there wasn't even a human who possessed that level of skill in the first place.
'What on earth are they doing in the Demon Realm with the people they've captured?'
The only way to find out was to go inside.
It would be even better if he could save Bellus's grandfather.
'Let's go.'
He had some worries, but once he made a decision, he didn't hesitate to act.
Davian immediately stepped into the dimensional portal.
Ripple.
Beyond the dimensional portal.
A dark space with blocked sides.
Davian's eyes quickly grew accustomed to the darkness.
An artificial wall.
It was inside a warehouse that wasn't very big.
There was a window.
The starlight from outside could be seen through a small window high up.
A thick iron door that was tightly closed.
A small window hung high.
Even a cursory glance revealed that it was a space designed to confine people.
'If I was knocked out by the poison dart and lying here, would someone come to pick me up?'
Slowly walking over, he pushed the iron door.
There was no handle on the inside, and as expected, it was locked from the outside.
Davian went to a corner and began to draw a magic circle on the floor, large enough for a few people to stand on.
After drawing the magic circle, he took out a blank scroll from his pocket and linked it to the magic circle drawn on the floor.
Hold the scroll in one hand, touch the magic circle with the other hand, and slowly operate the mana.
Since he accurately memorized the coordinates of the magic circle he just drew, he could teleport back here even without the scroll.
He could just draw a new magic circle connected to this one.
But this was the Demon Realm.
You never knew when something might happen.
If something happened, there might not be time to draw a magic circle.
In that case, he would have to tear the scroll and teleport back immediately.
After finishing the preparations, Davian stood in front of the iron door.
Davian put both hands on the iron door and applied force as it was.
Crack! Squeak.
The lock warped, and the iron door opened outward.
Davian's eyes widened as he came out.
In front of Davian was a high cliff whose height was hard to know.
And here and there on the cliff were caves that had been artificially dug.
Roughly made ladders and stairs were haphazardly placed between the caves and the floor here to carry things.
After briefly looking around, Davian soon realized what this place was doing.
'Are they mining Demonic Stone...?'
Demonic Stone.
Like Mana Stones that can be found in the Human Realm, it is a mineral that contains mana inside.
However, its efficiency and properties are not at all similar.
The Demonic Stones of the Demon Realm contain much more mana, and have much harsher properties due to being mixed with the Demonic Energy unique to the Demon Realm.
Not only is it not easy to obtain, but it is also difficult to utilize in the Human Realm.
The whole story of all the incidents that occurred in this area began to be organized in Davian's mind.
'They were using Demonic Stones to create and maintain dimensional portals.'
In order to create more dimensional portals or maintain them stably for a longer period of time, a lot of that Demonic Stone would have been needed.
'So that's why they kept kidnapping people.'
Then, when the Imperial Family dispatched an investigation team to investigate the missing persons cases, they must have worried about getting caught and fled, abandoning the experiments.
'They went around the outskirts of the continent like this, conducting experiments here and there and collecting Demonic Stones. Until that incident happened...'
The question was also resolved.
The Demons will begin to invade the Pax Continent in earnest in 5 and a half years.
There is a mastermind that is sufficiently expected, but it is still something that can be slowly revealed.
In any case, even if he stirs around alone now, there is not much he can do within Davian's current capabilities.
Right now, rescuing the captured people is the priority.
Including Bellus's grandfather.
'I need to make that genius spirit mage completely mine this time.'
Davian silenced his footsteps and hid in the darkness.
Finding the missing people did not seem difficult.
There were a total of five buildings nearby.
They were roughly built for temporary use, but they were sturdy-looking buildings that had been taken care of a bit.
One of them was the warehouse Davian had just come out of, and the missing people would be gathered in one of the other four.
'Find them as quietly as possible and take them out.'
It seemed to be a secluded place under a big mountain range, but it was still the Demon Realm.
There was a high probability that a skilled person was included among the humans guarding this place.
He could probably get his own body out, but he might not be able to save the people if he was careless.
'Is it that one?'
The widest but lowest and most dilapidated building.
And the watchtower built on top of a high pillar next to it, as if to monitor it.
Davian silenced his footsteps and approached the building.
Just like the warehouse he saw first, a small window was pierced high on the wall.
Davian, using his inner strength to lightly jump up, hung on the window and looked inside.
Inside, about forty people were seen lying haphazardly on piles of straw that had been roughly laid out.
They were all men, and their ages varied greatly.
Coming down from the window and heading to the front of the building, he saw two people dressed in light armor standing guard.
Whee-eck.
A sharply honed streak of wind elemental magic flew and cut off the heads of the two guards before passing through.
Thud.
The two guards, their heads and torsos separated, fell to the ground as they were.
The situation was different from when he handled the mercenaries with a club earlier.
Instead of being lenient, it was a priority to eliminate them quickly and silently.
Squeak.
Davian, approaching the door, carefully pushed the iron door.
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