A warm atmosphere with loud music, beautiful women and lots of beer is just what most adventurers need to motivate themselves to continue in the monster hunting life. No matter how bad the day has been for them, or how unpalatable the food is, they will still smile and sing in a good mood.
Walley, a traitor to the Melkian army, always liked to use all that joy to get people talking. To him, there was no one who could hold his tongue after a few pints of alcohol and a cute whore sitting on his lap.
As the melody of a lively song echoed throughout the hall, Walley chatted with a famous knight from the town of Stahurt.
"So, big guy! What did you do after you heard the roar coming from the cave?" Walley asked, his smile also slightly flushed after too many bodies of beer.
"What do you think I did, man? I warned the guards! It doesn't matter what's in that cave, but it sure isn't a mad deer like the owner of the property said! HAHA HA!" Elster replied and laughed like there was no tomorrow.
Walley huffed and grumbled, "You're useless too..."
"What did you say!?"
"I said I'm useless, ha-ha! I can't find a contract that looks easy enough to make ends meet…" Walley quickly shrugged it off.
Walley was certainly stronger than Elster because he was corrupted and because Melkians didn't use Gene Abilities, but he didn't want to attract attention by creating a big fuss.
However, Walley's response only put him back against the wall.
"What do you mean you can't pay your expenses? You said you'd pay for everyone's whores and beer, didn't you!?" Elster opened his mouth so wide to scream that Walley could see the cavities in his teeth.
Covering his nose with his right hand, Walley tried to think of another lie, but just as he thought of a good farce, someone placed a bag on the table whose metallic clang was recognizably coins, lots of coins. Walley looked at the person and saw that this person was Luke, but the half-wolf was hooded, which probably meant he didn't want to be recognized.
The famous knight named Elster opened the bag before he even looked at the person who had put it on the table, and found hundreds of coins, but they were all just bronze, which wouldn't even cover the bill of things he had spent. Indignantly, Elster looked forward to charge the rest of the thin white-haired man sitting across from him, but the Walley was already gone. Instantly, Elster turned red with rage and roared.
Outside the tavern, Walley tried to hold the pose for a few seconds, only he couldn't help but ask, "Did you really deliver a purse full of money to a person you don't know?"
"They were just bronze coins. By the way, is this how you treat an acquaintance who just saved you from a mess?" asked Luke, removing his hood. The streets weren't very busy and it was very dark, so it was safe for him.
Walley felt guilty and gave the half-wolf a weak pat on the shoulder. "Did you get what the guy asked you to look for?"
"The story is a little long, not much time for that now. Did you find what you were left to look for in this city?" Luke started walking away from the tavern.
At the same time, people inside the tavern were trying to open the door, but Luke had locked it with the key he stole from the manager's pocket at the counter. This would buy them enough time to get away.
"There's a rumor." Walley responded after the half-wolf's question.
"What kind of rumor?"
"A scary rumor."
The half-wolf paused for a few seconds and then asked what the rumor was about.
With the sounds of dogs barking in the background throughout the city, Walley revealed to Luke that there was a rumor floating around among the adventurers about fake contracts that led to the Stahurt side, which was very close to where Hazor's dojo was.
"Fake contracts? What does that mean? People take the quests and the monster they kill is not what the quest says?" Luke asked.
"Errr… more or less that's right. Usually the quests say the target is a rabid deer, mad deer or something, apparently this is a monster that started to appear regularly around here." explained Walley.
"Alright, let me understand better. As you told me a few months ago, monsters break out of Dungeons breaks and are taken into the ridges, controlled by other corrupted ones, right?" Luke was just recapping.
"Right, I think. At least that was the plan I knew before you kidnapped me. Powerful corrupters can overpower hundreds of weaker monsters, I can control a few, like the ice Orcs you killed when we first met."
"Focus, Walley. I want to know about the routes, you already told me about the corrupted." The half-wolf massaged his temples.
"Ah yes, the routes... At the time I was in the Melkian army, most of the monsters were coming out of the Yukiat Dungeon Break and a Dungeon near Orkenby."
"Orkenby is the closest town to Stahurt other than Palatine Hill, isn't it?" Luke could open the map in his pocket, but he was more busy covering his head, so a bunch of drunks wouldn't see his ears.
"Yes, you're right. Why these sudden questions? You are very mysterious, much more than usual." Walley noticed the half-wolf's mood.
Luke Lange stopped and looked up at the cloudy sky. "You were right when you thought there was something strange about this town. Hazor told me that a demon lives here, which coordinates the local economy at the request of the First Servant. Hazor was in exile at the dojo so as not to create too much trouble, but I don't have the same intentions."
"Oo First Servant?! Wh-what do you want with him, Luke?" Just hearing that name, Walley's voice shook.
Up until this point, Luke Lange had never told Walley much about his story, but the glimmer of hope that he could actually kill the First Servant and end the war excited him greatly.
Smiling, the half-wolf turned around, smiled at Walley, and said, "I will kill Stahurt's demon, and bring the war here. If the Adventurers here are looking for so many monsters to kill outside of the Dungeons, they will have one."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel