abcnovels
Chapter 91
Chapter 91
Chapter 91
Psyche Temple.
Saintess Uira had been troubled by the sudden cult problem for several months.
“What about the mark?”
A new cult that had emerged, advocating for the absurd god Tenebris.
At first, she didn’t think much of it, but recently the number of people joining the cult had been increasing abnormally.
“Yes. We checked, and there was indeed a small mark on their backs.”
“I see…”
“Saintess, what is that mark?”
“Simply put, it’s brainwashing. Once the mark is engraved, they become brainwashed and blinded.”
Being blinded meant that their judgment became clouded.
In other words, their faith in Psyche disappeared, and they fell into the cult.
“…That’s absurd!”
“Sigh, have all the captured people been imprisoned in the underground prison?”
“Yes.”
“What about the benefactors who helped us?”
“I heard they were taken to the reception room.”
Uira headed to the reception room with the paladins and priests.
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin were sitting in the reception room.
Anyone could tell that they were the benefactors who had caught the cultists.
Otherwise, there was no way outsiders could enter this reception room.
“Are these them?”
“Yes, they are.”
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin.
They had accepted the hidden quest and followed Carmel into the reception room, waiting for Uira.
[Hidden Quest: Saintess Uira]
– Restriction: First clear of Hidden Quest: Eradicate a Part of the Cult (2/2)
– Reward: ??
– Description: Help Saintess Uira.
It was a hidden quest that could only be received upon the first clear.
In other words, it was a quest that only Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin could undertake.
Unlike Jeong-Hoon, who was standing calmly, Ha-Jin’s body was stiff with tension.
‘Wow… This is really fucked up. It’s hidden. Hidden.’
The Epic quest from earlier was a quest that anyone could do.
It was such a great honey pot quest that he was able to level up three times…
But this time, it wasn’t even Epic, it was hidden.
What kind of reward would he get when he completed the quest?
Whatever it was, it would be incomparable to leveling up +3.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Jeong-Hoon checked Ha-Jin’s complexion.
Ha-Jin’s face was stiff with tension.
“No, I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
“Really? The bathroom is outside.”
“…C-Can’t I get a heal?”
“You’re so high-maintenance.”
Jeong-Hoon placed his hand on Ha-Jin’s back and cast healing.
His face relaxed a bit.
“Phew, I feel better. Thanks.”
Jeong-Hoon shrugged.
Just then, Saintess Uira sat in the seat of honor.
“I heard you helped our temple.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you very much. …If you don’t mind, could we talk for a moment?”
“Of course.”
He accepted the quest.
There was no reason to refuse since he had to receive the reward.
“Thank you.”
With that, Uira signaled to the paladins and priests with her eyes.
Soon, luxurious tea and various snacks were placed on the table one by one.
“Wow… This is amazing. They say if you eat 10 of these, your strength increases. And this one increases agility?”
They weren’t just snacks.
Each snack had the effect of increasing strength, agility, or vitality when eaten.
So Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin’s hands immediately reached for the snacks.
“Hehe, there are plenty of snacks, so please eat as much as you like.”
As Uira said with a bright smile, one of the priests approached her with a sweat and whispered,
“S-Saintess… We don’t have that many snacks…”
“Tsk. Have some tact.”
Uira glared at him.
“Aww…”
The priest immediately backed away with a whimper.
‘It’s no wonder there’s not much.’
These were snacks that increased stats, not buffs or recovery.
The temple didn’t have a large quantity of these snacks, and the fact that she brought them out meant that Uira had something important to say.
So he would eat as much as possible.
Jeong-Hoon stuffed the snacks into his mouth without hesitation.
[Strength has increased. (+1)]
[Agility has increased. (+1)]
[Vitality has increased. (+1)]
After he finished all the snacks, the empty plate was refilled with the same snacks.
Jeong-Hoon reached out and quickly ate the snacks.
[Strength has increased. (+1)]
His stats were steadily increasing.
Ha-Jin, not wanting to be outdone, also stuffed the snacks into his mouth.
After repeating this for a while.
[Stats will no longer increase.]
[Stats will no longer increase.]
The amount of stats that could be increased per day by eating snacks was limited.
It was 5.
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin had increased their Strength, Agility, and Vitality by 5 each just in the reception room.
It was a very satisfying result.
“Oh my…”
“Oh dear, those precious…”
The priests cleared the empty plates with regretful faces, and Uira sipped her tea, quietly waiting for the conversation to begin.
“…Can we start talking now?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do that.”
As Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin nodded, Uira signaled.
The priests and paladins disappeared from the reception room in an instant.
“Good. The reason I wanted to talk to you is this.”
She placed a document on the table.
[For the Revival of Tenebris]
It was a notice about a gathering for the revival of Tenebris.
The document vaguely stated the place and time, and the entry requirements were written in code.
Jeong-Hoon immediately grasped the situation after seeing the document.
“You want us to infiltrate the gathering as spies.”
Uira’s eyes widened.
“Yes. That’s right.”
“…So that’s why you gave us these precious things.”
Ha-Jin felt a sudden pang in his stomach.
He had thought it would be a simple request to clear a dungeon or something, but he hadn’t expected her to ask them to infiltrate a gathering where the cult was actively operating.
On the other hand, Jeong-Hoon nodded as if he had expected it.
‘Do you remember the quest in Märchen Kingdom where you could level up by 3? I was the first one to clear that.’
His colleague and betrayer.
Saintess Amelie Reina.
She was the first one to start and finish this hidden quest.
If he remembered correctly, her current level was around 435.
However, she hadn’t yet reached the 5th job advancement when she visited Märchen Kingdom to fulfill the conditions, and she had fulfilled the advancement conditions through this hidden quest.
‘According to my calculations, she’ll take the quest in 4 months.’
He remembered clearly because she had babbled on about when she got the quest.
Amelie was already vaguely aware of the existence of the hidden quest.
Nevertheless, she had delayed as much as possible, probably because of the job advancement conditions.
So this time, Jeong-Hoon would take it first.
At the same time, he would be able to greatly complicate her advancement conditions.
And it would be a good opportunity to help Ha-Jin grow as well.
“…Will it be difficult?”
Uira asked, a bit anxiously, when Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin didn’t answer.
“No. We’ll do it.”
Uira’s face brightened at the positive answer.
“Thank you! Then I’ll tell you about the place, time, and the code.”
Of course, the temple had succeeded in deciphering the cult’s code.
Nevertheless, they hadn’t moved quickly because they suspected there might be a spy within.
In fact, a spy had recently been caught inside… so the atmosphere within the temple was still unsettled.
“Yes.”
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin checked the document that Uira had deciphered for them once again.
The Tenebris revival gathering was tonight at midnight.
“But there’s one thing we need to do before that.”
“What is it?”
“It’s to get the mark.”
“Mark?”
“Yes.”
Uira nodded.
* * *
Midnight.
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin arrived at the gathering place under Uira’s guidance.
The gathering was held in a large mansion a little distance from the capital.
“Hmm? Who are you?”
Two elderly men in their 70s were cleaning in front of the mansion.
They greeted Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin with kind smiles.
“We came to correct a mistake.”
As they said the code, the old men’s eyes changed.
“The mark.”
“Here.”
Ha-Jin held out his wrist.
A very small golden full moon mark was engraved on his wrist.
“…Confirmed.”
The old man’s gaze turned to Jeong-Hoon.
Jeong-Hoon also showed the mark engraved on his wrist.
Only then did the two old men step aside and resume their cleaning.
The cold look in their eyes was gone, and they were smiling kindly again.
Creak-
The closed door of the mansion slowly opened, and a middle-aged man beckoned them to enter.
At the signal, Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin entered the mansion.
“The mark. It’s not fake.”
The mark reacted to the mana in the mansion and glowed black.
‘It’s definitely working.’
Jeong-Hoon admired briefly, looking at the mark glowing on the back of his hand.
[Seal of Tenebris (Imitation)]
– A fake made to imitate the Seal of Tenebris.
This mark was engraved by Uira herself, and it was set to disappear naturally after a day.
It had been several years since the cultists started setting up, so Uira had gathered all sorts of information to eradicate them.
She had also obtained this seal while gathering information.
‘It’s a black magic stone. …I didn’t want to touch this, but I had no choice but to deceive them.’
She had even used the mana contained in the black magic stone to increase the synchronization rate to nearly 95%.
At this level, they wouldn’t be caught unless someone used detection magic at a very close range.
“Go in.”
The middle-aged man guided Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin to the portal.
The portal located inside the mansion.
It was a portal leading to the gathering place.
This was because, like the information guild, it was a place operated in secret.
“Yes.”
Jeong-Hoon and Ha-Jin stepped onto it.
“Hoon… I’m going to die.”
Ha-Jin couldn’t relax his tension.
“It seems like you can’t do it. Do you want to go back?”
If he couldn’t even handle it when it was handed to him on a silver platter, he had no choice but to leave him behind.
At Jeong-Hoon’s words, Ha-Jin hurriedly shook his head.
“I’m not saying I’m quitting.”
“Then act well.”
“…Okay.”
The portal activated.
Their vision went dark, and when it brightened again, they were in front of a cave, not the mansion.
In front of a giant statue that seemed to embody Tenebris, countless people were gathered, chanting strange spells.
“#!@!@#”
“$%^$%”
The incomprehensible spells gave him goosebumps for some reason.
“Hey… What should we do?”
“What do you mean what should we do? We have to blend in with the crowd.”
Jeong-Hoon dragged Ha-Jin into the crowd and imitated their actions.
Uira had asked them to raid the cultists’ gathering place and arrest as many people as possible.
[Capture as many people as possible.]
That was also the content of the quest.
In other words, the more people they captured alive, the greater the reward.
‘It’s a shame that I couldn’t reach the maximum reward because I couldn’t catch the core executives… If I go back in time, I’ll catch that bastard and get the maximum reward.’
Saintess Amelie regretted this quest even though she had cleared it and fulfilled the job advancement conditions.
She had been so focused on filling the quota that she had cleared the quest without capturing the key figure who had escaped.
If she had waited and captured the key figure who organized this gathering, she would have received an even greater reward from Uira.
“Shall we go now?”
But he had to figure out what to do with this clueless friend.
“Just stay still.”
Jeong-Hoon put his hand on his shoulder and applied pressure.
“Okay, okay. Then when are we going?”
“When the gathering is in full swing.”
That was the time to strike.
[Humans can’t live without relying on something, can they?]
Mukho’s annoyed voice rang out.
‘It was so nice when you were quiet.’
[I wanted to be quiet too. But you keep provoking me.]
‘…Alright, just be quiet.’
Jeong-Hoon calmed Mukho down and blended into the gathering with Ha-Jin.
After a while, a man slowly walked out to the empty center.
He was wearing a mask and expensive silk clothes.
‘That’s him.’
The key figure of this gathering.
And the material that would become a necessary reward for Jeong-Hoon.
“Let’s go.”
Jeong-Hoon signaled to Ha-Jin and used his movement technique.