North Shore of Conquest Sea, Truva.
In the early morning hours in Truva, the entire city was slowly recovering from silence. Crowds of people hurried along the sidewalks to their workplaces, an increasing number of carriages traveled on the roads, and newsboys were hawking at every street corner. All of this scene seemed no different from the usual Truva.
Inside a normal carriage traveling on the road, two men were sitting side by side. Judging by their age, both were middle-aged men around thirty or forty. One wore glasses and a grey-black trench coat, while the other wore a regular yellow coat and trousers. One looked out at the street scenery from the carriage window, while the other was intently reading a newspaper he had unfolded.
"Is there any news in the newspaper? Has there been any significant activity in this city in the past two days?" the man in the grey trench coat said while watching the pedestrians on the street. The man in the yellow coat beside him turned another page of the newspaper, scanned it, and spoke calmly.
"Basically nothing major. If I had to point out something worth noting, it would be the explosion and fire that occurred in the west of the city the day before yesterday. An entire house was burned down. The newspaper reported that it might have been caused by a gas leak. This might be related to our matter."
"Only one house destroyed... an explosion of the magnitude of a gas leak? This still doesn't confirm if it's related to the Dark Gold Society's matter..." The man in the grey trench coat stopped looking outside the carriage, turned his gaze back inside, and continued speaking to his companion.
"To deal with a Stone Gargoyle and several Wall Walkers, if forceful physical means were used, the commotion caused would not be as simple as blowing up one house. It's possible that half a street could be gone."
"Hmm... You're right, but the newspaper didn't report any larger-scale destructive incidents. Therefore, if the Dark Gold Society here was indeed dealt with, the mercenary who solved them is likely an Extraordinary with strong spiritual or soul-level abilities, as it's difficult to contend with Stone Gargoyles on a physical level."
Putting down the newspaper in his hand, the man in the yellow coat said this, and the man in the grey trench coat beside him also nodded in agreement.
"Perhaps so. If that so-called mercenary can truly wipe out the entire Dark Gold Society stronghold in one go, this is the most likely possibility..."
"Listening to your tone, you're a bit distrustful of the other party? Bosque." Hearing the man in the grey trench coat's answer, the man in the yellow coat raised an eyebrow and retorted, while the other continued to reply.
"It's not distrust, but it feels a bit too unbelievable. Mador, think about it, the Truva stronghold here only contacted us on the 5th, and then the Main Workshop told us on the 6th that the Truva stronghold had been infiltrated and replaced by the Dark Gold Society, and now it has been eliminated by the mercenary they found, asking us to come and confirm the situation...
"Heavens, even if the Truva stronghold that contacted us on the 5th was a disguise by the Dark Gold Society and they had been replaced, this at least proves that they were still there at the time. And on the morning of the 6th, the Main Workshop suddenly said they had all been eliminated by a mercenary hired on the spot. In all of South Castile, when did a mercenary capable of wiping out an entire Dark Gold Society stronghold overnight appear?"
The man in the grey trench coat named Bosque said this with some disbelief. After hearing his words, Mador, who was wearing the yellow coat, also pondered for a while and finally spoke slowly.
"What you said makes some sense, this whole matter is indeed a bit strange, but no matter what... since this matter was reported by the Main Workshop, it has a degree of credibility. We should believe the Main Workshop. This time, that so-called mercenary might be the result of some connections used by a certain important figure in the Main Workshop."
"What you said makes some sense, but isn't this a bit too casual? To ensure neutrality, generally speaking, people from the Main Workshop wouldn't easily borrow external forces to handle matters. This time, not only did they choose to hire someone else, but they also made the decision so quickly. It just feels wrong." Bosque said frankly. This was the first time they had received a task to confirm a mercenary's results, so it was understandable that they were suspicious.
"It is somewhat against convention, but we have repeatedly confirmed that the order from the Main Workshop is accurate. In this situation, we should focus on executing the task... Of course, we should still be cautious where needed."
Mador said this. Listening to his words, Bosque did not respond directly but fell silent. Mador, on the other hand, looked out the window again, and after glancing at the street scene, he spoke directly.
"It seems we've arrived. Let's get off. Be careful in a moment."
After speaking, Mador called the coachman to stop the carriage. Then, he and Bosque got out of the carriage from one side door and stepped onto the sidewalk. After looking at the relatively deserted street scene around them, they took their luggage from the back of the carriage and fixed their gaze on a seemingly ordinary hotel by the side of the street.
Next, the two walked into the old-fashioned hotel and climbed up the stairs. Before long, they reached a relatively high floor. Looking around, they checked the room numbers on the guest rooms. After looking around for a while, they found the room they were looking for.
"Number 504, this is it."
Looking at the number on the door, Mador said this. Then he knocked on the room door, and a male voice came from inside.
"Please wait a moment."
Footsteps were heard from behind the door, and shortly after, the door was opened. Then, an handsome young man in a shirt and vest appeared behind Mador and the other man. He was smiling as he looked at the two people in front of him.
"Ah... you've finally arrived, gentlemen of the Craftsmen's Guild. I've been waiting here for quite some time. My name is Brandon. How should I address you two?"
With an enthusiastic tone, Brandon smiled and extended his hand to shake hands with the two in front of him. After exchanging glances, Mador extended his hand and shook hands with Brandon, then spoke.
"There's no need for names. Let's get straight to the point, Mr. Brandon."
"Get straight to the point? Of course. Please come in, gentlemen." Saying this, Brandon released the hand he was holding and made a gesture of invitation. After the two entered the room, they looked around and found it to be a guest room with simple but quite spacious decor. A stretcher was placed on the floor of the guest room, covered with a white cloth. Beneath the white cloth, there was clearly a human-shaped outline.
"The bodies of those black market leaders are here. You can inspect them freely."
Brandon said casually, looking at the bodies on the ground. Then the two walked up to the stretcher, lifted the white cloth covering it, and saw the body of an old man. After looking at the body, the two chatted casually for a couple of sentences. Then, Bosque opened a box and took out many unclear tools to begin some examination, while Mador walked up to Brandon and started talking to him.
"Mr. Brandon, were you the one who hunted the Dark Gold Society mercenaries in Truva?"
"To be precise, it should be the person I serve... I am merely a representative here to handle the handover with you." Brandon replied easily, while Mador continued to ask.
"The person you serve... In all of South Castile, there aren't many powers capable of wiping out a Dark Gold Society stronghold overnight, and we basically know that you, Mr. Brandon, must be from somewhere else."
"That's right. We happened to be passing through Truva, and then the important figure I serve coincidentally noticed the unusual situation here. After notifying an old friend of his in your Craftsmen's Guild, he was entrusted with this cleanup work. Aren't you here now to confirm the results of the cleanup?"
Brandon continued to say with a smile. Listening to Brandon's words, Mador thought to himself that things were indeed as he suspected. This so-called mercenary should be a connection of a certain important figure in the Main Workshop, brought in for temporary help. That mercenary should have a considerably deep close relationship and trust foundation with a certain key person in the Main Workshop; otherwise, the Main Workshop wouldn't violate convention like this by choosing to hire someone to solve the problem in Truva.
Mador was thinking with this understanding in mind, and just as he was about to say something further, he suddenly heard a voice of surprise coming from behind him.
"This, this... impossible..."
Hearing the familiar voice, Mador immediately turned his head to look at Bosk, who was kneeling on the ground conducting an examination. Seeing his stunned expression, Mador asked with a frown.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the corpse? Isn't it a Stone Gargoyle?"
"No, I have verified the true identity of this corpse. He is Dark Gold Society's 'Corpse Benge'. He is indeed a Stone Gargoyle, there is no problem with that." Looking at the corpse before him, Bosk said in a murmur, his eyes wide. After he finished speaking, without waiting for Mador to say anything else, he stood up directly and then looked solemnly at Brandon in the room.
"Mr. Brandon, I have finished examining this corpse. There are no problems. Thank you for the great lord you serve who was able to help. I am Bosk, one of the bargaining chips the Craftsmen's Guild prepared for that great lord, right here."
As he spoke, under Mador's somewhat surprised gaze, Bosk opened another briefcase, took out an oil-paper package from it, and politely handed it to Brandon. Brandon took it and said with a smile.
"Thank you both for your hard work. I need to go back and report now, so I'll be leaving first."
Brandon said this, then quickly left the room with the oil-paper package, opened the door, and walked out. Only the serious-faced Bosk and the confused Mador remained in the room.
Looking at the corpse on the stretcher in the distance, Mador's expression became a little strange. He walked directly towards Bosk.
"So he was Corpse Benge? Hmph, I didn't expect it would be this old fellow who died, that's one good thing. But as long as it's confirmed to be him, that's fine. Wasn't your reaction a bit excessive?" Mador said this to Bosk, and Bosk, after glancing at him, pointed to the corpse on the ground and said.
"Come and look at the injuries on it."
"Injuries?"
Listening to Bosk's words, Mador walked to the side of the stretcher, bent down, and leaned over to examine the corpse lying on it. Then Mador found that the corpse's upper clothing had been removed, and on the exposed chest, there was a very obvious injury.
It was a circular hole located in the left chest area, exceptionally regular, passing through the entire chest. When he saw this hole, Mador's eyes couldn't help but widen directly.
"This is... an external injury?! And such a large one. Corpse Benge... shouldn't he be a Stone Gargoyle? What kind of external injury is this..."
Looking at the wound on the corpse before him, Mador murmured in disbelief. Corpse Benge was a Stone Gargoyle, a Chalk'Stone' Extraordinary with defense comparable to steel. How could he have such a serious external injury!
Mador had thought about what method that mercenary used to deal with a Stone Gargoyle. It could have been interference on the mental or soul level, but usually, there wouldn't be wounds on the body this way. It could have been restrained by a powerful 'Cup' force and slowly killed using a method similar to suffocation, in which case the injuries on the body wouldn't be like this. It could have been forcibly armor-pierced by a powerful'Shadow' force, but if so, he should have various sharp weapon injuries on his body, not such a regular penetrating hole through the heart.
Mador and Bosk had discussed the cause of death of this Truva Stone Gargoyle when they arrived, and they unanimously agreed that the possibility of that mercenary defeating the Stone Gargoyle on a more material level was unlikely, but they didn't expect that was exactly what happened.
For a Stone Gargoyle, even a rifle shot is just a white mark. What kind of attack could cause this kind of one-hit penetrating effect?
"Terrifying... To be able to shoot through a Stone Gargoyle, what kind of attack power is terrifying to this extent... Corpse Benge, actually died from this kind of injury..."
"And there's more. Come closer and look carefully at the inside of this wound." Squatting by the side of the stretcher, Bosk pointed at the corpse and continued to speak. Mador, hearing Bosk's words, also bent down in confusion, looked at the inside and edge of the wound, and then suddenly discovered a circle of charring.
"This is... a trace of being burned by high temperature. Was this hole actually burned out? He was burned through by an Extraordinary attack that controlled fire. Is that mercenary on the Path of Solar Fire?" Looking at the charred marks on the wound, Mador blurted out directly, although he suddenly realized something was wrong.
"No... Isn't Corpse Benge a Stone Gargoyle? Doesn't he absorb all elementalized spirits attacks? How could he be directly burned through by someone! How high of a temperature would that require... And how did this flame manage to be so highly concentrated to only burn one point?"
Mador said in disbelief, and Bosk, who was listening beside him, let out a long sigh and then continued to speak.
"Stone Gargoyles are naturally countered by various Elementalists... This is undeniable. If an Elementalist wants to forcibly kill a Stone Gargoyle with elemental attacks, they can only increase their elemental attack to beyond the Stone Gargoyle's tolerance limit, and this is not something a Chalk Elementalist can do..."
Bosk said solemnly. Listening to his words, Mador on the side swallowed a mouthful of saliva and then recalled the fire he had seen in the newspaper before. At that time, they thought that this fire should have nothing to do with the Stone Gargoyle incident.
Because if that was truly the scene of the incident, since there was an explosion and a fire, a material-level battle obviously occurred, and generally, to resolve a Stone Gargoyle on the material level would inevitably be a tough fight. The scale of destruction was a bit small, but now thinking about it, there might be another explanation for the matter.
That is, there was a difference in rank between that mercenary and Corpse Benge. The other party didn't expend much power and easily took care of Corpse Benge, so there were few traces of destruction at the scene.
Such a conjecture surfaced in Mador's mind, and this conjecture also strongly matched his previous belief in another guess, which was that the mercenary had a relatively close relationship of trust with someone in the main workshop. Now it seems that that someone might indeed be a high-level important person in the main workshop. After all, someone closely related to Scarlet should also be Scarlet.
"So that mercenary, the great lord Brandon serves, is a Saint of Heavenly Fire? Is he from the Church?" With his guess, Mador said to Bosk, and Bosk also replied after a moment of thought.
"It's very likely. If that's the case... isn't the main workshop cooperating with the Church in terms of military force? Unless there are Saints of Heavenly Fire in this world who are not controlled by the Church."
Bosk said seriously. For a moment, both of them felt as if they had vaguely caught a glimpse of some unspeakable secret within the high levels of the Craftsmen's Guild, and couldn't help but feel a slight chill down their spines.
"Don't think too much. Matters at this level are not for us to consider. Let's quickly transport the corpse back first."
"Okay..."
...
In the early morning, somewhere in Truva, in a high-class suite of another hotel, Dorothy was sitting by the window, eating breakfast while placing her "wen hai hang zhi" on the table. She held a grilled sausage in her left hand and a pen in her right, writing on the pages.
"Your people have finished inspecting the goods. You can tell me the information now, right?"
After writing, Dorothy took a large bite of grilled sausage, and just then, regular printed text appeared on the pages.
"Have they finished inspecting? That's good, they were quite fast. I won't go and confirm the result. I'll tell you directly. Miss Neighbor, you want information about the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society), right?"
"Of course. Do you know of any secret ruins of the Xiu Shu Hui? Preferably large ones."
"I don't know about secret ruins, but I do know people who frequently visit secret ruins. Miss Neighbor, have you heard of the Hai Sha Society?"
"Hai Sha Society? What's that?"
"It's a treasure-robbing society. They are active in a wide area, excavating various ancient ruins. They are the only treasure-robbing society that has records of excavating multiple Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins. Just by selling 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment), they have become one of the wealthiest treasure-robbing societies. Among all treasure-robbing societies, they are the one that has the deepest dealings with the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society)."