NBAA Vol. 7 Chapter 4 Part 2
“…At first there was only one, but suddenly there were three.”
“More presence? Are you sure you didn’t miscount?”
“From my perspective, I can only think that the number has suddenly increased, that I can. It’s hard to imagine that they just arrived from outside the range of ‘Detect Presence’, but…”
Reito frowned at her words, left the torch to Dain and activated his “Night Vision” and “Far Sight” skills, as well as his “Observing Eye” skill, and peered into the passageway to the right.
“Is that…human?”
“What!? Human!?”
“Shhh!!”
Reito observed again, paying attention to Dain, who was about to shout out loud.
A black-robed human was standing at the end of the passageway, and next to him were monsters that appeared to be “Goblin” and “Ogre”.
The goblin had one eye protruding and a large sword wound on its abdomen. The ogre had one arm and both horns severed.
“What’s with that guy… he’s so obviously suspicious.”
“Reito-dono, it’s dangerous if you lean too much.”
“W-What’s going on?”
“It’s a long way from here.”
Even though the monsters were in front of a human, they didn’t seem to attack. Not only was this an abnormal situation, but the black-robed person also took surprising action.
“Damn… why would he do such a thing…”
“Aaaah…!!”
“Shut up!”
The black-robed person’s voice echoed through the corridor. Judging by the sound of his voice, he appeared to be a young man.
He pulled out a blood-red magic stone in front of the groaning undead. It was a magic stone called “Necrostone,” which Reito had also seenn at a match the other day.
“Okay, now bring that one.”
“Aaah…”
At the man’s command, the ogre picked up the carcass of a kobold lying on the ground with one arm and held it out in front of him.
When Reito looked closely, he saw an odd number of monster carcasses lying in the passageway. Some of them had blood gushing from their wounds, so it seemed that they had not been dead for long.
“What are you going to do…?”
Hanzo and Dain leaned forward from behind Reito, who continued to observe the man carefully. Like Reito, they had also acquired the skills of “Observing Eye” and “Night Vision.” Gonzo was the only one who had not mastered these skills, so he could not understand what was going on.
“Wait, don’t tell me he’s trying to create… Dead Soul Puppet? I see, so that’s why the presence suddenly appeared!”
“What do you mean? What does that mean, that you know what that gentleman is going to do, that you do?”
Hanzo asked Dain. But before Dain could answer, Reito asked him a question as well.
“Does Dain also have ‘Night Vision’?”
“Yeah, Bal forced me to learn it because it’s a useful skill, but… no, that’s not important. You should take a good look, Reito… because that’s how Necromancers create Dead Soul Puppets.”
“Dead Soul Puppets…”
Reito’s eyes narrowed and he looked at the man.
The man plunged a dagger into the kobold’s chest. Blood immediately gushed out, but the man didn’t care and pulled the knife out.
The wound opened wide enough for his palm to enter, and the man began chanting some kind of spell while holding the Necrostone.
“On Kirikiri… On Kirikiri…”
“…What is that? Magic?”
“It’s a curse… look, the Dead Soul Puppet is ready.”
Chanting a mysterious incantation, the man pushed the necrostone in his hand into the puppet’s chest.
When most of the man’s inserted arm was inside the carcass, the man finally pulled his hand out. Blood flowed from the wound for a while, but the bleeding stopped abruptly. A large black “scab” had formed over the wound.
“…Uh, aaah…”
A cry escaped from the kobold’s mouth.
“Okay, let go now.”
The man who had turned the kobold into a Dead Soul Puppet breathed a sigh of relief and commanded the ogre. He then turned his attention to the other carcasses and looked troubled for a moment, but eventually shook his head and moved further down the aisle.
When the man was gone, Dain spoke.
“Did you see that? That’s the ritual in which a necromancer creates a Dead Soul Puppet… It was a horrifying sight, wasn’t it?”
“I see… the carcass was brought back to life, so my Detect Presence response increased, didn’t it?”
“Ah. That means he’s the culprit. I’ll catch him!!”
“Wait…let’s take a closer look.”
Reito stopped Dain, who was about to run.
Dain thought he had found the mastermind behind this incident, but Reito had heard from Airis beforehand that the necromancer who created the undead had already escaped. It was hard to believe that the person was still in the sewers.
Additionally, there was something unnatural about the carcass of the monster left in the passageway. Among the carcasses were kobolds with a keen sense of smell.
The sewers should not attract wolf-like monsters with a keen sense of smell. However, the young necromancer had definitely made a Dead Soul Puppet out of kobold’s carcass.
“Hanzo, follow him. We’ll check out the carcasses.”
“Yes, sir!”
Hanzo immediately followed after the young necromancer.
On the other hand, Dain asked Reito curiously.
“Why do you want to… examine the carcasses?”
“Do you think an ogre or a kobold would normally wander into the sewers?”
Reito said so and approached the carcasses with Dain and Gonzo in tow.
“Look, there’s not just Orcs, there’s even a Blood Bear. Goblins aside, isn’t it strange that these guys are also here?
“They’re from the above ground, aren’t they?”
“All those monsters?”
Dain fell silent at Reito’s words.
“Hmm…that’s definitely strange.”
Gonzo also turned his head to look at the carcasses.
A dozen or more monster carcasses were lay in the corridor. All of them had been dead for a long time.
“These guys are all different species. And the way they were killed… they were slashed, smashed, burned… they were all different, right?”
Dain, who had carefully inspected the carcass, said with a suspicious look on his face.
At that moment, Reito had an epiphany.
“Maybe this is the carcass of a monster killed in the arena.”
Gonzo was surprised by these words.
“What? So the carcasses created in the arena are left in the sewers?!”
“That seems most likely. I think that when a monster is needed, they turn it into a Dead Soul Puppet and send it back to the arena. The person from earlier might have been hired by the arena.”
“S-Seriously…?”
Dain and Gonzo frowned when they heard Reito’s guess.
Reito went on to share more of his suspicions.