Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The tale gave Skullius much to think about.

So that's who these people were?

Fanatics who believed that involving themselves in any conflict with their own bodies was a taboo. Even cultivating their own strength seemed to something they saw as unnecessary.

They were a few things that Skullius didn't understand with this but he let it go for now.

'Is that why they use these dolls to do their work for them?' Skullius wondered.

If that was the case, then they were extreme.

They were said to follow the teachings of the Giants religiously too, but to Skullius it seemed like these people saw Giants as unblemished messengers of the Deities who were exempt from the mortal norms they placed on others.

'So I suppose how they crafted a pill that allowed one to become a host to a Deity was their major contribution, and what Sila mainly remembers them by,' Skullius scoffed.

Apparently, no one had met these people face to face as they only sent dolls as their messengers. Dolls that could take on the likeness of whomever they wanted.

Hmm.

Why were they collecting the sick and injured then? What was the relevance of that?

Even Sila didn't know. This was new territory.

One thing became clear at the end of the tale though.

Skullius unfurled the All Eater Scroll and checked its description again.

~~~

[All Eater Scroll]

<Legendary>

A scroll created by an ancient group of mages who thought of cultivating their own magic to be a taboo towards their favoured Deity, Suzamete. They chose to master inscription of the highest order, in their years managing to create a sequence of runes that could store any form of attack at the Incandescent Stage and below.

-Special Effect-

Stored attacks are kept in Stagnant Space and released at the user's discretion at 10 times the power and speed with a 10% chance to incorporate any of the user's attributes and traits over said attack at the moment of release.

<Currently stored attacks - 1/2>

~~~

Mages, huh?

'This must be them then,' Skullius thought, 'They believe in Suzamete? That's strange. The guidance field identified them as Mages too. How does that even make sense?'

When Skullius had first seen this description, he would have never guessed that he would cross paths with these people's trail multiple times.

Hmm, this was all great insight, especially when the Hybrid Luman considered everything about this man, Rayn.

Someone like this existed?

He probably played a huge role in putting down Fulgardt back then but... Fulgardt eventually reached Divinity.

How did that battle turn out?

"Questions, questions, questions..." Skullius said as he breathed out a sigh.

All this information wouldn't help anyone fight against these guys, unfortunately. It only made it more apparent that it was nigh impossible to fight these people.

In fact, Skullius became more inclined to distance himself from anything to do with these people altogether. If even he guidance field described these guys as being chummy with a Deity, they probably were. Also, if they were serious about not getting their hands dirty, but had all these crazy artefacts to use for themselves, they must be masters of runecraft and alchemy... somehow.

How that was possible without a core and skill pertaining to the relevant Classes and all was anyone's guess.

'Yeah. It's best to leave this alone,' Skullius thought. 'It probably didn't end well for Bek when he kept pursuing them too.'

The Hybrid Luman remembered his last moments in the Bookworm Cluster when he was trapped in his Projected Form. He had seen a glimpse of Bek sinking into the colourful hellscape of the unfinished Cluster in his chase for that individual with the cart.

No.

This had nothing to do with him.

He wouldn't want to die a cat's death.

*

An hour later, Skullius, along with Bull, Cast, Oliviana and the rest of the remaining Contract Knights rode horses out of the City as the Hybrid Luman's plan to attack the bandits' base was heeded.

Since he was clearly capable of handling what they couldn't, everyone didn't argue.

Anara and his Purity Knights remained in Evic just in case another attack landed on the city but the crux of why they remained was that Skullius had said a large group wasn't necessary for what followed, despite everyone's suspicions.

All of a sudden, this new arrival was taking over everything, becoming the talk of the City while claiming that he knew things which he couldn't possibly know, like the exact location of these bandits which the Contract Knights had struggled to find over the past few days.

It was weird and suspicious.

Bull and Cast still held onto their position that Skullius was probably not as bad as he said but they too felt that his sudden knowledge gain needed a little more explanation.

"Sir Festos, I understand that you have your own secrets and means to procure information but can you at least tell us what to expect?" Cast asked with concern.

Skullius, jiggled by the gallop of the horse under him hummed before deciding that it wouldn't be a problem to tell them what he knew. He was going to anyway but since these people were impatient...

"Sure. I heard you already know where these guys are so I'll spare you that detail. I killed off quite a large chunk of their entire band than you realise. They wanted to finish this raid as quickly as possible, so they send more than half of their forces. This was their confident, sure-fire play in order to strike, get what they wanted and leave before stronger reinforcements intervened and as you can imagine, they would have been successful," Skullius explained.

The scenery around the small group swiftly changed as they rode out, going from lush, tall green to runner grasses withered with a yellow tint.

Hills emerged from the once flat ground and in the distance, a couple of mountains could be seen stacked close to each other.

"They have been monitoring you since they arrived nine days ago and they didn't setup camp until they were sure you wouldn't call for more combatants because of your win streak. That first attempt days ago was to probe for any additional forces you had on hand. Unfortunately for you, them using a few dozen of their numbers to attack you made you think they couldn't possibly have an army of a few hundred."

"Thus you only thought to reinforce your defences and surveillance while calling for help from neighbouring cities."

The hell?

At this point Bull couldn't help don a deep frown.

This all made sense.

It made perfect sense.

These bandits were pretty smart.

The problem though was...

"How on earth would you know all this?" Bull asked.

Even Oliviana who trusted Skullius was quite curious. Only someone from within this band would know how they thought and strategized.

So unless Skullius was secretly part of a rival gang, had suffered many attacks by this band to know how they acted or had been a member previously...

"I extracted this information from Brown," Skullius said succinctly.

It was the truth.

He had extracted the darkness within Brown, which told him of every deed attached to it that the man had ever conducted.

This wasn't something these three with Skullius and their mates had seen clearly as it had been a very brief interaction after Skullius had somehow defeated twenty nine Masters in less than the blink of an eye.

Bull and Cast felt conflicted once more.

Skullius' response sounded genuine and of course, he seemed to want to keep his means of 'extracting information' hidden.

pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 That was acceptable.

"I'm sure you're also aware of the fact that there is a barrier around these bandits' hideout?" the Hybrid Luman asked.

"Yes. I've seen it before when I came here to scout out the activities around their base. The barrier rejects anything that tries to enter, living or otherwise," Oliviana said.

She and her fellow Knights had cautiously tried many different ways to enter but they had all failed.

"Right. Have you thought about why they chose somewhere with a lot of vegetation?" Skullius asked while turning to Oliviana. "The high ground is definitely good for setting up camp but with the geographical setup of this end of the region, it could become a trap when powerful and numerous enemies attack."

"That's true. Why then?" she asked.

The grasses, shrubs and trees turned more dull in their colouration but their distribution was still quite close set. Asides from areas around where the group passed, populated with towns and villages, the vegetation persisted over here with exotic plants growing all around.

The more rich plant life could be found within the mountains however, but the locals tended not to venture too far from their settlements unless where they were going was closer to the Carpet Keep or accessible to Capital Service patrols and checkpoints.

Was there a significance to the vegetation for the bandits then?

"The barrier around their base is supported by Shamans. They are using the surrounding plant life to strengthen it," Skullius said.

...!

It struck Bull, Cast and Oliviana right then!

Of course!

All this while, they had been thinking that it was probably the effect of some Legendary grade artefact but as it turns out, they subconsciously ruled out the possibility of the bandits having Shamans on their side, as would most people when looking at bandits such as these.

Shamans were an Energy Former class with the ability to manipulate natural forces. They had a high affinity with the elements as well as plants and could draw energy from them to strengthen themselves.

Above this, they also had the inherent feature of being able to pass down abilities between related Shamans or those with close links to one another.

For those deceased, their wills and powers could carry on within their descendants or loved ones, manifesting as hazy images around them whenever whatever they left was used.

As a result, it was a popular belief that below Mages, Shamans were the next best thing as their potential was ridiculous.

"So all we have to do is somehow kill these Shamans and the barrier will be dispelled?" Cast asked Skullius, going along with his bottomless well of knowledge.

"No. That will be difficult. I have a better plan in mind," Skullius said before he shared the entire plethora of schemes, habits and secrets of this band of thieves.

They were a very well-prepared, cautious group.

They had tools for seemingly any circumstance.

Tools against Diviners.

Artefacts to briefly counter the sudden arrival of an enemy with overwhelming might.

They even had a tool capable of mass transporting them all to a new location.

That grey cube.

Granted, all these artefacts were procured successfully because of the shrewdness of their leader. The person they called the boss.

He was quite a dangerous man.

Skullius fed all this information to the group before they finally arrived at the foot of a large mountain that blocked the sun which was hanging low on the canvas above.

Amidst the trees, rocks and shrubbery growing over the surface of the mountain, a barely visible barrier could be seen rising to cover the entire face of this geographical feature all the way to its behind.

It completely sealed off the mountain.

The faces of the team here to deal with the bandit once and for all did not show worry and concern though as a very elaborate plan had been weaved and disseminated by the individual who was leading them.

"Alright. Just follow the plan as it is," Skullius said as he pulled out the Simmering Cloud from his spatial storage.

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