After making a few questions to the big sword guy, who turned out to be called Aguil a middle stage Knight Lord of this place, Daimon honestly felt… disgusted.
"I expected that this wild environment would make a lot of scum to bloom, but to think practically the whole upper echelon, besides the chief who is only a leader in name nowadays, is involved", he mumbled.
"Well, we can just kill them all", casually said the crazy girl making Daimon raise an eyebrow at her.
"If you do that, who will hunt food for…", Daimon, stopped midway, originally, he was simply going to kill all the scum, but turned out that a lot of those scum was needed for the town to survive.
Only sheltered idiots would divide things in "good" or "evil", the real world is full of grey tones, this is something Elaine who was in charge of educating Daimon in the duties of a leader made sure to put a lot of emphasis into.
Let's say that you find a small settlement inside a dangerous area, they have a harsh life, and have to pay tribute to the strong group who rules with iron hand, then one day you just appear and in a heroic moment get rid of the group who is always pressuring the small settlement.
Now they are free and they all celebrate, to then find out the next day that those who ruled over them, hunted the strong magic beasts that lingered all over the place, the people of the small settlement are then attacked by the magic beasts and they all die.
Sometimes both parts are mutually dependent, remove one and the other will follow soon, that is in part the origin of the saying that "There are no eternal enemies, just eternal benefits".
Of course, that doesn't apply to all the situations, because once again the world isn't as simple.
"The chief's store, the town's granary and storehouse, Tom and Ric merchant stores as well as Wild Night brothel, we'll pay a visit to those, but first the HQ's of the Sand Wolf army and the Desert Vulture", said Daimon.
Sarah nodded, according to the information that Aguil proportioned, those places were where the worst scum was gathering as of current, if Daimon were to be strict the list would be thrice larger, but the others had committed "minor" things compared to those, at the very least they still preserved some decency.
Alguir could tell what was about to happen, and he rushed to beg for mercy.
"W-Wait, esteemed Lord, I-I was tricked into coming here by that bastard, if you spare my life, I will give you all my possessions, it seems that the young lady likes to collect mana crystals, I have a million of them in store, I will be the most loyal dog I swear!".
Unfortunately, his fate was sealed the moment he agreed to come here, there are four hunting teams in this town, the idiot from the store clearly didn't have good intentions for Sarah, nor Daimon.
While he would have been killed and probably turned into food for others, Sarah's destiny would have been even more miserable, and this guy was "selected" to take such a task, instead of either Ender or the other big hunting team.
The Sand Wolf army didn't count, since sparing them wasn't an option to begin with, anyway the previous demonstrated that Aguil's group has done similar things in the past, which is why they will all be disappearing tonight.
"Sorry, I don't need trash and with your death all your possessions will be mine anyway", casually said Daimon as he grabbed Disaster.
"I-If you kill me, you will never be able to open the magic array in my treasure room, it will self-destroy thirty minutes after my death, unless you use a secret password…", before Alguil could finish the tip of Disaster pierced his head killing him on the spot, his mana and vitality was then drained and he turned into a mummy before his body crumbled into ashes.
'Sorry Narasha, it seems it's going to be hard to find some weapons worth breaking', inwardly said Daimon.
'Mm, no problem, leave those array things to me Daimon, it's also fun to destroy them!', enthusiastically answered Narasha, which made Daimon softly smile.
The moment Alguil mentioned the words "magic array", Daimon lost any interest in keeping him alive, Disaster could easily erase the arrays made by the Skelefiends in the underwater tunnel back when they were making their way out to the surface during the magic beast hunt event.
In fact, unlike any other magic weapon, Disaster had no runes, it killed the one who turned the original metal into a sword, its ability which is devouring and assimilating, was innate, so not only there is no need for runes but there is no way to engrave them into the sword, as they will be erased anyway.
In a sense, Narasha obtaining a grimoire was the only way besides devouring in which Disaster could grow, because the skills that came with it didn't depend on arrays like other magic weapons, from the very beginning the black sword has been a one-of-a-kind existence.
"Well, let's pay a visit to our friend in the chief's store, maybe we can get some answers as to why mana crystals here seem to be less valuable than beast cores, despite being high purity ones, in the storage of the store", said Daimon with a smirk on his face.
"Mm, but let me kill him, I specifically said that I was already taken, what if this makes my destined one jealous, so I'll clear any doubts by ripping his head off his shoulders with my own hands~", as always, Sarah amazed Daimon with the crazy things she said.
Especially because she was intensely gazing at him, when she said "destined one", which sent a shiver down Daimon's back.
Against any rational thinking, Daimon told the crazy girl to hold onto his shoulder, and then they both disappeared, twenty people came here to get rid of two, and all ended up becoming less than corpses as there was nothing remaining of them.
Five of them were turned into ashes by Disaster while the ones Sarah took out melted into puddles of black liquid, armor, equipment and clothes included, only their spatial treasures were saved, and turned into loot for the crazy girl.
…
At the northwest area of the town, there was a mansion that outstood, compared to the rest of the town's buildings which were made to be durable without any decorations or things like that, this mansion was quite well made.
Having enough quality to belong to a middle ranked noble from the Clear Water kingdom, in Daimon's judgement, not only that but the whole area around the mansion was fully illuminated, there were guards stationed at the entrance, it clearly didn't go along with the rest of the town.
And the reason to that, is that this was the headquarters of the strongest hunting team in Brown Wind town, the headquarter of the Sand Wolf army.ραпdαs `n?ν?| сom
Right now, in the large front yard of said mansion there was a tense situation ongoing, Ender as well as his five vice-captains, were surrounded by around thirty people, not all the times numbers give and advantage over an enemy.
The problem is that all the thirty people were early-stage Lord ranks, each one of the other three hunting teams has at most ten Lord ranks besides the captains, but the Sand Wolf army has more than forty of them, or that used to be case until earlier today, since Sarah killed all of Omar's subordinates.
They also were the only ones that had a vice-captain on the middle stage of the Lord rank, until Omar died of course.
"What is the meaning of this, Ismael, I came here as a guest by your invitation", coldly said Ender, his whole body was tense and ready, he had to, because of the bulky tanned man who was sitting on an ostentatious metal chair, in front of him, without any worries on the world.
"And you will be guest, both of you will stay here until the sun raises, if my brother doesn't return by that, then both of you will be killed along with your whole squads and their families", said Ismael with a murderous voice.
Ender gritted his teeth as he turned to see the other group that was trapped in the encirclement, just his, it was conformed by a middle stage Lord rank and five early-stage ones, that was the core of the remaining team Fire Dune, and their leader was a woman who appeared to be in her late thirties, with some slight scars on her arms and dark skin, something common for those who spend time out in the wasteland.
"Why is it our fault that your bastard of a brother went out and didn't return, he wasn't supposed to go out today as he lacked experience, and he separated from Ender's group on his own, if you wanted him to live them why didn't you chain him or something", said the woman.
Ismael body trembled due to anger, but he didn't lose his cool and instead snorted.
"Tila, I believe I told you that whenever my brother left you had to look out for him, as something happening to him will mean your death, both of you were out hunting, I don't believe you have the balls to kill him, but maybe you saw him and didn't bother in bringing him back, so if he is gone, you'll pay with your lives, it is as simple as that, but in your case I might have some use for you".
Ender gave the woman an apologetic gaze, they were old friends who have cooperated many times before, and today it was their turn to go out hunting, Tila's team left to a far area from the town, while Ender was patrolling the nearby area, when the pack of magic beasts appeared, he went out to distract and hunt and Omar tagged along, even when it wasn't the turn for the Sand Wolf army.
"Sorry Til, it seems I ended up dragging you into this mess", said Ender as he sighed, he knew that Omar wont' be returning, so that meant they will die here.
"Nah, don't say that, that bastard has been eyeing us from the very beginning, that coward of Aguil doesn't have the balls to stand up for himself, unlike us, so he just wants to eliminate us, and that idiot's disappearance is his excuse, he might have even told Omar to follow you just for this", said Tila, which made Ismael sinisterly laughed before saying.
"As expected of the only woman who has survived enough to become a middle stage Lord rank, in this town, in a really long time, you have some wit, what a shame you didn't accept my offer, but I'll still have some fun with you later".
Tila spat on the ground, certainly it was harder for the women in this town to become stronger, not because they were weaker in any sense, but because simple numbers, there was more than three times the number of men than women here, so more men survived till the age of five which was when it became possible for them to become mages or knights.
Add to that the fact that there were always more men than women here, those without any backing were only pray for the strong, the vast majority ended in the brothels, or worse, not like it didn't happen to men too, but with bigger numbers the possibility of a lucky bastard reaching the Lord rank increases, and so does the chance for a middle stage too.
As for Tila, her mother was lucky enough to become an early-stage Lord rank, and she survived enough to allow her daughter to grow to replace her, and left her a hunting team with some decently strong people, out of her five vice-captains, three were girls and two were men.
You might ask why aren't Ender and Tila joining hands to fight their way out, the answer is simple, even if they do, Ismael as a peak Lord stage Knight, can take them at the same time without any problems, and their ten subordinates will just be outnumbered in a 3v1 situation.
The only consolation they had, is that they already ordered their remaining five Lord rank subordinates, to take their families and the other members of their hunting groups and escape the town if they don't return in a couple of hours.
So, they weren't trying anything, to give them time to escape as well, unfortunately Ismael might look like a musclehead and he is, but he has a brain on his side too.
"Ah right, in case you rats try to run, let me tell you that Tom and Ric's guards as well Jeremy's ones were hired to surround your headquarters and houses, they will kill anyone who tries to leave", casually said Ismael as he nodded at a man with short brown hair and glasses, that was standing behind of him.
Ender gritted his teeth, as he regretted not having asked for a way to contact Daimon.
'With those two's help we could have had a chance against Ismael, damn it', he thought.
But then he came out of his daze when the atmosphere suddenly became heavy, the air started trembling in the while area of the front yard, and all the early-stage Lord ranks on both sides felt as if they were lacking oxygen as they collapsed on the ground.
?α?dαsηθνε| Ismael's pupils contracted like needles, as he felt a chill coursing through his body, he was sitting and he had to use his battle aura to move and look at the origin of this horrifying pressure.
"Sorry, this is the slightest amount of aura I can use now", Ender recognized the voice, for a change he actually felt glad to hear and see the silver haired masked man he met only today.
But the happiness didn't last at all, when the green haired woman that was accompanying him, casually said.
"Hey look, that guy looks like the idiot you killed in the wasteland, so that should be their captain, lucky we don't have to look for him somewhere else".
"…".
A sepulchral silence fell on the whole area, before Ismael literally exploded in red flames, which were more accurately his battle aura.
"So, it was you huh, well, well, well, I can't believe two high quality women had decided to come to me in a single day, must be Omar helping me overcome his death from the afterlife", said Ismael as he summoned his weapon a large Warhammer and a tower shield.
Which were surprisingly Arch ranked equipment, and not only that, but they were different than the ones Daimon is used to see, because these ones had spherical spaces on them, where there was a core similar to the ones Daimon saw Ender selling, with the difference that those looked bigger.
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