A Reincarnated Demon’s Life of Wonder

After seeing Iron being transported to the local hospital at the rest area, I asked Mira to keep an eye on him and Lily for me. According to Iron's testimony, a group that looked like adventurers came up to the trio when they were looking for a place to eat.

This group told them about a fancy restaurant a little away from the main road, but that turned out to be a trap. The moment Noire started to decline their offer, the group attacked them and forced them into an alley. Iron got pummelled while Revi was knocked out by some gas skill and thrown into a sack. Noire was caught by a muscular man and was taken away after one of the fake adventurers said, "Let's take her with us as well! Just in case!". All this happened, just in the span of half an hour since we split up with the trio...

Regardless of the last bit, it's not safe to say if those guys are alone. More members of the Church of Chaos might be hiding here, disguised as adventurers. Oh, and the reason why Iron knows they're part of that psycho cult is because he heard them mention some "arch priest of chaos" while leaving. A big clue, that's for sure.

Still, what to do. Almost all of the adventurers were knocked out of their beds by the Union's staff members and joined a manhunt for the Church of Chaos members. And I'm not going to be left out. Therefore, I've returned to the scene of the crime.

Hmm? I should have joined the manhunt group? They should have enough people already. I'll leave the brute force method to them and instead go for the intellectual detective route. There might be other people here with better scouting skills than me, but as I mentioned before, there is no evidence to suggest whether those individuals would be genuine adventurers or cult members. And as an additional note, I'm more acquainted with Noire and Revi. If they left behind any hidden clues, then the best people to look for them are someone from our Guild.

Even so, Revi was knocked out, wasn't she? I doubt she could give a clue to where she was taken. Noire was just dragged along, but according to Iron, she was still conscious when that happened.

And now that I think about it, how did the Church members manage to do all this? Wouldn't people notice if a battle started in the back streets? Iron was only found because he managed to push himself to return to the main road, so is there something strange about this place?

A quick look over the street doesn't give me any weird vibes. No magical traps or concealment wards or anything along those lines. I haven't experienced one myself, but I have researched them at the Union's library back in Velantas. Which leaves two options: either I'm too dumb to notice the magical wards, or the people who assaulted the trio have some nasty levels behind their stealth-type skills.

If it's the former, then the manhunt mob might be able to find them even without me. But if it's the latter, my only hope is that the girls managed to leave behind something...

"Master! We found something!" - Bloom

Bloom, whom I had asked to scout the perimeter with some summoned Smoke Ghosts, returned with a high voice. Sweet. Now I have that something I was asking for.

"What's the news?" - Garami

"Dust! Sparkly dust! It might have been generated from Noire's [Gem Dust] skill!" - Bloom

[Gem Dust]! A Sand/Gem attribute skill that generates powdered remains of jewels. The stuff is barely worth anything, but it looks pretty when used to decorate accessories. Noire runs it for that exact purpose, or so she says, but I think the real reason is the rumors that one can make genuine gems if the skill evolves many enough times.

For the common man, this faint, sparkly powder could just be some reflective pebble on the ground, but Bloom and I are in the know about Noire's ownership of said skill. If she's only caught and not KOed like Iron said, then this is the only, yet perfect, method to lay out "breadcrumbs" for us to follow.

The trail is faint, probably to prevent the kidnappers from noticing it, but the Smoke Ghosts are as good at sniffing out clues as I am. Following the shiny trail, we were led to a massive tree. There are windows and doors fixed into the tree's trunk, so I'm willing to bet that someone's fashioned a literal "tree house". Or should I say "house in a tree"? Whatever.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Going in the front entrance, aka the door that the gem dust led to, is a no-go, so I moved to one of the 2nd-floor windows. It's locked, but no problemo. I asked one of the Smoke Ghosts to slip past the window's cracks and open it for us from the inside. Man, ghosts might be the candidate for the species with the best chance of succeeding as a phantom thief. Oh, wait. "Phantom". Now I get it.

Infiltrating the tree house was easy-peasy. No guards, tripwires, or other sorts of alarms to be seen. There was something that looked like a trap, but it was old and abandoned. Just as I was asking myself why it was so aged, I got my answer when I exited the small room we had entered. The tree house wasn't just a house in a tree. No, sir. It's a factory in a tree! Completely different scales there, bud.

"(Master, it seems to be a potion-making factory)," whispered Bloom to me softly, a conclusion I can agree with. Large cauldrons, loads of dirty bottles, and heaps of empty, broken plant pots were spread across the 2-story room we had just intruded into. It's easy to see the whole area from the wooden scaffold we're standing on now. Speaking of wood, there are no conveyor belts or sorts in the room, so the factory is more magical than mechanical.

I guess that, back in the factory's prime, potion makers would be sitting by the now-broken desks on the first floor, preparing the potion ingredients before other workers picked up the readied materials and transported them to the giant cauldrons at the back of the room. I can faintly see the remains of rotten wooden wheelbarrows here and there, probably the vehicle for transporting the materials to the pots.

Too bad that Shaharin is more famous for their magitech tools and weaving products, cause this factory could be the start of a 3rd local specialty product. That must have been the previous owner's idea back in the day. I'd fancy researching why they went bankrupt, but there's something else that demands my attention right now.

"What is that stupid code again!?" shouted a robed dude down on the 1st-floor floor. The Chaos Church psychos. One, two... 8 of them, just as Iron said. And two potato bags. One of them looks like it's fuming, so that's gotta be Noire. Great. That's the last one I need to worry about.

"Come on! Don't tell me you really forgot it!"

"S-shut up! It's this damn lock that's a little rusty, that's all!!"

Aha~. They're trying to bust into a cellar door behind the giant cauldrons. Ten to one that's a secret tunnel out of the rest area. The magical barrier around this pseudo-village might stop anything from fliers to teleporters (according to one of the adventurers I overheard when they spread out to search for the Chaos Church jerks), but underground might be a different story. Or they just have one heck of a teleport gizmo underneath that door. I'll go and take a look after I save the girls. Which means it's showtime.

"Argh! Guys, just go and find that note! This blockhead is going to take the whole-*PUNCH*-GUH!?"

What the ****!? Did I just see a bona fide rocket punch!?

"I said I got it under control!! But, ehm..., why don't we look for that slip of paper anyway? Just to be sure?"

The puncher, aka the guy who struggled with the padlock to the cellar door, tried his worst to keep up appearances. It didn't work. The other psychos did start looking, but is it alright if I can comment on one thing?

"(When did the Church of Chaos turn so high-tech?)" - Garami

"(You know, I was wondering the exact same thing.)" - Bloom

Today, the psycho goon squad is armed with sci-fi-looking gauntlets and greeves. That "rocket punch" just now came from one of the code-forgetting-guy's gauntlet flying off his arm with rocket boosters before returning after finishing punching the complaining-guy across the room. Hey, the punch even knocked jerk B out cold. That makes it only 7 guys I have to KO now. Lucky~.

Jerk A and C-to-H started looking through the old desks and crates on the first floor, leaving the two bagged girls unattended. Hey, I can see you got them roped up pretty tight, but shouldn't you keep at least one set of eyes on them? Not that I'm complaining. This makes my work so much easier.

"(Bloom, take ghost 1 and 2 and try to save the girls.)" - Garami

"(I can try, but what are you planning on doing, Master? And why all the climbing?)" - Bloom

Right, I forgot to mention that. After first spotting the psychos and the girls, I started climbing up to the ceiling before heading to the giant cauldrons without letting the jerks below notice me. It's a good thing the dispute between jerk A and B got so loud (and violent!) and that they're now too busy looking into drawers and underneath crates and pots to look up. Makes things just so much easier for me.

"(Just preparing a little distraction. Be sure not to let the girls get caught in the crossfire.)" - Garami

"(Roger! I will let no rocket punches or kicks come their way!)" - Bloom

Ehm, sure, that too, but there is something bigger on the menu today. I didn't wanna put a damper on Bloom's unusual

*** Note 3: After the battle, Garami will discover a "terminal item" similar to the Azi Terminal she already has. The found terminal is broken, but the Azi Terminal reacts to the new item and transfers the broken copy's data over to itself. This is partially because the item is connected to the Demonic Seas, which the Chaos Church is using to restrict the titles that non-Church members can obtain. Solving this will allow Garami to earn the Wind Ultimate God's blessing and Champion skill.