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It was unclear if they hadn't fallen into a deep sleep, but several people lying near the door raised their heads and looked at Davian.
"Shhh."
Davian raised a finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet.
"I've come to rescue you. Quietly wake the person next to you. Once everyone is up, we move immediately."
Just then.
An unexpected notification rang in Davian's ear.
Ding.
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[Hidden Quest: Rescue All Missing Persons]
—Rescue all the missing persons and escape the Demon Realm.
—Reward: 8,000 Mana Points (x2)
=====
'I was going to do it anyway.'
'They're giving me sixteen thousand points as a bonus.'
'I'm grateful, but… something feels uneasy.'
'If there's a reward attached, it means there's a difficulty level. Quietly escaping is out of the question.'
If the hidden quest had appeared before coming here, it would have been one thing, but the fact that it appeared now means it's impossible to quietly escape with everyone.
Before long, all the missing persons had risen and gathered near Davian.
"Who was captured first?"
A man of average build slowly raised his hand.
"How many troops are guarding this place?"
"Eight guys in armor. About six or so who aren't."
'Thankfully, not many.'
Not enough manpower to adequately defend this mine from external threats.
Assuming they work around three shifts, it's just the minimum number of people to barely control the missing persons.
Since they've set up a mine deep in the Demon Realm, far from the human world, they probably thought no one would invade.
If a demon were to find this place and send troops, they would decide to retreat rather than fight.
'The important thing is what kind of skilled person is in charge here.'
Davian looked around at the faces of the missing persons.
Among them, one old man stood out.
Davian looked directly at the old man and said, "I was sent by Velus."
"Oh!"
The surprised old man stepped forward and grabbed Davian by both shoulders.
"My granddaughter. Is she doing well? With her personality, she must have been making a fuss about finding this old man."
"Yes, she's doing well. She's waiting at home. Let's go back together."
"Ah… God Deus. Thank you. Thank you, young man. Even after being captured here, all I could think about was Velus. I was worried that she might try to find me and get into trouble…"
"She did try to find you, but nothing happened. You don't have to worry."
Tears welled up in the old man's wrinkled eyes.
'Maybe having a lot of tears runs in Velus's family.'
"Thank you, thank you. But who are you?"
"I'm Davian Nowane. Just think of me as someone who came to rescue you."
Davian looked around at the people and said, "Now, let's get out of here. You remember that warehouse where you were first captured, right? That's where we're going. Just run. No matter what happens, just run without looking back."
Some nodded their heads vigorously, while others took a step back with distrustful expressions.
"If… if we get caught in the middle, won't we be the only ones getting beaten?"
"That's right. They said they'd send us back if we mined enough of that demon stone or whatever it is, so it might be better to just stay put."
"Yeah. We all saw what happened to that young man who tried to escape last week."
Davian sighed deeply.
Davian quietly went out of the dormitory and then came back in.
"Did you hear any fighting outside?"
"Eek!"
"Hup!"
In Davian's hands were the heads of two dead guards.
Both of their necks were cleanly severed.
"Now, when I'm here to rescue you, is your only chance. The fact that they're mining demon stones is probably a secret that should never be known. But they're going to let you live?"
The men who had declared they wouldn't go seemed to hesitate.
Thud.
Davian casually tossed the two severed heads on the floor.
"Besides, can you mine all the demon stones on this cliff before you die?"
"Well… that's true."
"Is now the chance?"
Velus's grandfather stepped forward.
"Come on, everyone, let's go. We have to think about our families at home. Are you going to stay trapped here, just because you're afraid of getting beaten, and die mining cliffs?"
"Y-yes. Let's go!"
"Let's go!"
To run to the warehouse, people lined up in three rows in front of the door.
Davian pulled Velus's grandfather to the side and called him to the back.
Davian took out a scroll from his pocket.
He whispered into the old man's ear, "If anything happens, tear this. You'll be warped directly to the warehouse."
If the other people, who just had to run on their own, saw this, they would be furious about the discrimination.
But what could he do?
That's how connections work, that's the way of the world.
When a difficult enemy appears, Davian could somehow get out of the situation on his own, but this old man was different.
He was likely to get caught up in the fight or be recaptured.
The old man, holding the scroll, looked at Davian with an expression that asked, "Why me…?"
"Velus specifically asked me to save her grandfather."
"What's your relationship with our granddaughter?"
'Not much yet.'
'We just met for the first time yesterday in the Demon Realm's underground prison?'
"…Companions who will share countless adventures in the future."
"Ooh."
Whether he understood what that meant or not, the old man's face lit up.
He seemed to think of Davian as some kind of reliable supporter of his granddaughter.
Davian went to the front again and stood there.
"Move as quietly and quickly as possible. Okay, let's go!"
The people hunched over as much as possible and all left the dormitory.
Had they moved about 20 meters?
"Who's there!"
A patrolling guard discovered the people.
Another guard next to him took out a small whistle and blew it vigorously.
Peeeeee!
Davian prepared wind magic in both hands and shouted, "Run to the warehouse! At full speed!"
Whoosh, whoosh!
Several bright spotlights made of demon stone illuminated various parts of the mine in a chaotic manner.
The spotlights soon turned towards the people running towards the warehouse.
Swoosh!
Davian's wind magic cut through the cold night air, making a sharp sound.
One of the guards' heads flew off, and the other managed to block the wind magic with his sword.
"Tahat!"
The guard who blocked the wind magic rushed towards Davian quickly.
Fairly fast and organized movement.
He was a proper swordsman.
Whoosh.
The tip of the guard's sword vibrated and faintly emitted a blue aura.
Davian identified the direction from which the guard's sword was being swung and then deployed an ice wall.
Crash!
The guard's sword, imbued with aura, pierced into the ice wall.
"Kuhuk!"
The panicked guard tried to pull out the sword, but the deeply embedded sword did not come out easily.
If there hadn't been aura, it would have just bounced off the ice wall, but the situation had worsened.
A bright red flame appeared in the panicked guard's eyes.
Boom!
The guard, hit by a fireball in the waist, flew far away and slammed into a building.
The door of the building on the left burst open, and four guards, still not properly armored, ran out with their respective weapons.
From the next building, wizards wearing hoods hurriedly opened the door and came out.
Davian first shot a giant pillar of fire at the guards.
Kaaaah.
The pillar of fire, spewing out hot air, covered the guards as it poured out.
Only one of the four guards barely dodged to the side.
Swoosh.
At the same time as he dodged, Davian's wind blade was fired at the guard.
Twaak.
The guard's body split in two.
Two hooded wizards fired their respective magic.
One was a fireball, the other was wind magic.
Davian erected an ice wall behind himself.
The wizard's eyes widened.
'Behind, not in front?'
To block the incoming magic, it was common sense, even almost so obvious it didn't need saying, to create an ice wall in front of oneself.
But now, that wizard had erected an ice wall behind himself.
'What on earth…?'
Then.
Davian suddenly disappeared from the wizard's sight.
'…!'
Actually, he hadn't disappeared.
It was just that the eyes of an ordinary wizard could not keep up with the movements of Davian, who possessed a power equivalent to a 4-star swordsman.
Twaak!
The wizard was split in half without even knowing what had happened.
The wizard next to him couldn't keep up with Davian's movements either.
"W-what?"
To the wizards, it was literally in the blink of an eye.
Kwang!
Only then did the fireball that the wizard had initially launched collide with the ice wall that Davian had created and left behind.
The ice wall was erected to prevent the people behind from being hit by the magic.
Even the people who were running towards the warehouse stopped in their tracks and stared blankly at this sight.
The tip of Davian's ice sword touched the other wizard's Adam's apple.
All the swordsmen who had been armed were already defeated, and the strongest of them, the wizard, had just been split in half.
Of course, besides the wizard with the tip of Davian's ice sword touching his Adam's apple, there were three more wizards behind.
But only one thought came to the wizard's mind as he looked at Davian's ice sword.
'Fighting any further is meaningless.'
The wizard slowly raised both hands.
The wizards who were coming out of the building one after another saw the scene and all raised their hands high.
Davian's cold voice was heard.
"Show me your tattoo."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Thwack!
"Kuhuk!"
Davian's ice sword extended straight forward, piercing the wizard's neck.
Davian pointed to one of the wizards who had belatedly come out of the building.
"Next. Show me your tattoo."
To suddenly demand to see a tattoo.
It was an absurd command.
However.
The wizard who was pointed out this time had already decided to unconditionally obey Davian's words.
Hiss.
A black tattoo began to appear on the forearm of the wizard to whom Davian's ice sword was pointed.
It was a shape that was already familiar to Davian.
"The masterminds entangled in this continent are all the same guys."
There was nothing more to confirm.
Judging from his skills, he didn't seem to be at the level to know any great information.
It was enough to know that the Marino Empire had orchestrated this as well.
In fact, he had suspicions, but he just didn't have any concrete evidence he had seen with his own eyes.
Davian flicked his wrist and sent the ice sword flying.
Thwack.
The ice sword pierced the abdomen of the wizard who had just shown his tattoo.
Swoosh! Thwack!
Next was wind magic.
The remaining two wizards fell to the floor without even screaming.
In that way, all the managers of the "7th Demon Stone Mine," which the Marino Empire had painstakingly created over half a year, were defeated.
'As expected, they only deployed a minimal number of troops.'
Davian gestured to the people standing blankly behind him to go to the warehouse quickly.
After a while.
The forty missing people were able to safely escape the Demon Realm through the dimensional portal in the warehouse.
Ding.
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[Hidden Quest 'Rescue All Missing Persons' Completed]
—Reward: 8,000 Mana Points (x2)
=====
Davian looked at the notification window with a satisfied expression.
'It was easier than I thought.'
The troops of the "7th Demon Stone Mine," who were annihilated in less than 10 minutes without even launching a proper attack.
Davian thought the quest was easier than he expected.
But.
In fact, the personnel guarding this mine were enough manpower to adequately defend the mine from any external threat.
One 5-star wizard, two 4-star wizards, three 3-star wizards.
Two 5-star swordsmen, three 4-star swordsmen, three 3-star swordsmen.
They were by no means weak.
Of course, that didn't mean Davian would lose, though.
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