I Raided the Demon’s Treasury

Chapter 54

Finding the warehouse wasn’t particularly difficult. Just like the goblin village, important locations always had additional guards posted.

The real challenge was getting to the warehouse without being detected.

-I’ll hide this jerky and eat it all by myself later.

“You selfish bastard!”

“Huh?”

“Even a single bean should be shared. How can you be so selfish?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“It’s no use hiding it! Let’s share it!”

– The Constellation, ‘Hungry Prince,’ mumbles that it’s too cruel to be tormented with food.

Thanks to the use of telepathy, Se-woon easily bypassed the guards.

‘They’re all just going through the motions.’

The fourth chapter of the tutorial. This area was designed specifically for siege warfare.

As such, most of the guards were concentrated around the castle walls, and no one anticipated an intruder inside the fortress.

Creak—

Because of this, he managed to enter their warehouse more easily than expected.

“It’s more ordinary than I thought.”

Towering Watchtower.

Since the fortress was specialized for archery, the warehouse contained light armor, various types of bows, and a large stockpile of arrows.

Upon checking, the most usable items were of D-rank.

Being a C-rank fortress, he had hoped to find at least a C-rank bow. This was only marginally better than what he had obtained from the goblin village.

Still, something was better than nothing, so he swept all the items in the warehouse into his subspace pouch.

It wasn’t a total loss as he also managed to collect a few mana stones.

As he was about to leave the warehouse,

“Is everything clear?”

“Yes, it’s clear!”

He heard a conversation among the halflings outside the warehouse.

One of the voices, however, sounded distinct from the typical halfling. Although it had a high-pitched tone, there was a sense of authority in the speech.

Peeking through a crack in the warehouse, Se-woon identified the source.

‘Is that the Castle Lord?’

Each castle had a lord.

A boss monster of sorts.

Though the gap was narrow and he couldn’t see clearly, he could tell the figure was clad in gleaming equipment from head to toe. It seemed to be at least C-rank.

‘Wait a minute.’

A brilliant idea struck Se-woon as he eyed the Castle Lord’s gear.

If he couldn’t find usable equipment in the warehouse…

‘Why not steal the Castle Lord’s gear?’

A smile spread across Se-woon’s face.

* * *

“I saw a group of humans, but they all went in a different direction. I think they’re searching for other castles.”

“Then there’s no problem.”

“Yes!”

“I understand. Keep watching.”

“Yes, but…”

“What is it?”

“I heard there was meat for dinner tonight, but quite a few didn’t get any. Could we possibly get another distribution…?”

“Meat, you say?”

“Yes! I definitely heard it!”

Zehael, the Lord of the Towering Watchtower, tilted his head in confusion.

If there was meat for dinner, there was no way the Castle Lord wouldn’t know about it. He had filled his stomach with bitter and tough greens. Who had gotten to eat the meat?

“…I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you, Lord!”

Zehael moved towards the dining hall.

If someone had indeed secretly saved meat and eaten it without his knowledge, he vowed not to let it slide.

He resolved to string the culprit up on the highest watchtower and use them as a target for archery practice.

As Zehael neared the dining hall,

Boom!

Crash!!

A fierce explosion erupted, and a hot gust of wind blasted against Zehael’s back.

Turning around, he saw one of the familiar buildings shattered and engulfed in flames.

“What’s going on?!”

“We don’t know! There was a sudden explosion in the warehouse!”

“In the warehouse? How could this happen?! Why?!”

The warehouse was the most crucial part of the castle.

It stored all the essential materials for maintaining the castle and the equipment needed for siege defense. All core elements of the castle were kept there.

That’s why guards were posted there even though it was unlikely for any enemy to infiltrate. How could this have happened?

“Is it possible we were infiltrated?”

“That’s impossible! The guards were always on duty, and we didn’t notice anything suspicious on the walls!”

“Damn it! Put out the fire immediately!”

“Yes, Lord!”

The halflings rushed around frantically.

The explosion was so powerful that the fire spread to nearby buildings, forcing even those on the castle wall’s watch to come down and assist.

Meanwhile,

Swoosh.

Zehael was unaware.

The great bow that was strapped to his back disappeared without a trace.

* * *

“Hmm, heh-heh~ hmmm~”

After sending Se-woon to the next chapter of the tutorial, Tuning, the tutorial supervisor, was whistling cheerfully while observing the situation in the third chapter.

The last respectful glance from his subordinate made him feel as if his shoulders were touching the sky.

“As expected of the promising candidates. They’re all growing well.”

Players marked by the Constellations.

As expected, they were gaining high merit points and heading towards the end of the third chapter.

“This is all thanks to me. Honestly, I deserve a bonus for this.”

Sending Se-woon to the next chapter—Tuning considered it a stroke of genius.

If some of the promising candidates had fallen victim to Se-woon, a few of the Constellations might have filed complaints.

As he was basking in his good mood,

Beep beep-

“Now what is it?”

An annoying phone call broke his reverie.

Picking up the receiver, he heard the urgent voice of a subordinate.

‘This feels oddly familiar…’

Tuning shook his head, recalling the time when Se-woon summoned ‘Krak Katlak, the Leader of the Starving Ogres.’

It couldn’t be. Se-woon had used the pass to move to the fourth chapter of the tutorial, where only one castle could be claimed.

But, unfortunately, the subordinate was referring to the fourth chapter, where Se-woon was currently located.

“Team Leader! You’re not watching the next area, are you?”

“What’s there to see? I’m busy preparing reports on the promising candidates. You should focus on them too. One mistake, and the Constellations will…”

“No, you need to see this! It’s chaos right now!”

“What? How could there be chaos in the fourth chapter?”

“Just look at it already!”

“Why is this guy shouting…?

Tuning reluctantly turned the monitor.

Convinced there wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary, he reassured himself, though his hands were slightly trembling.

When he finally turned the screen,

Whoosh!

-Put out the fire! Hurry!

-What happened? Explain!

The first thing visible was a castle engulfed in flames.

Although there weren’t many casualties, the interior of the castle was already in chaos due to the fire.

The soldiers were desperately running around, trying to extinguish the flames.

The method of capturing the castle seemed a bit unusual.

“So, what’s the problem here?”

Nothing seemed particularly wrong.

There were players who used such tactics to capture castles instead of direct sieges.

The only oddity was,

‘A player with this much power should be aiming for a better castle.’

The difficulty of the castle.

C-rank.

The fourth area had numerous castles with various characteristics, some of which were rare and highly coveted.

However, the castle currently burning was one of the most ordinary and unremarkable ones. It seemed like the player hadn’t considered the type of castle and just occupied the first one they saw.

That illusion was shattered by the words of his subordinate.

“Display multiple screens!”

“Multiple…?”

Leaving behind the screen of the promising candidates performing admirably, Tuning switched to the screens of the next area.

And then,

Whoosh!

Boom!

-The warehouse exploded!

-How did this happen? Explain!

-I didn’t touch anything!

-So the warehouse just blew up on its own?

-I… I’m not sure…

-You’ll be held responsible for the warehouse incident!

-This can’t be happening!

-Wait. My sword! Where’s my sword?

Several fortresses, all ablaze, appeared on the screens, giving the impression they were the same location.

For a moment, Tuning thought they might be showing the same castle from different angles, but that wasn’t the case; the soldiers in each fortress belonged to different races.

“What on earth is happening…?”

Tuning dropped the pen he was holding.

In the fourth area, only one clan is allowed to occupy a single castle. So how were so many castles being laid to waste?

So flustered that he couldn’t think straight, Tuning just gaped with his mouth open until his subordinate’s voice broke through.

“Player Jung Se-woon… It’s him.”

“Alone?”

“Yes. As you can see from the screens, his clan is elsewhere.”

“Are you serious, he’s really doing this alone?”

“Yes. From our monitoring, instead of capturing castles, he has been causing havoc.”

“Why! It’s not like he’ll gain additional merit points by doing that!”

“Well, he’s been stealing.”

“…Stealing?”

“Yes. He’s raiding warehouses, stealing items from the castle lords, then setting off explosions and escaping in the confusion.”

“Crazy bastard…”

Tuning cursed under his breath.

He thought he had rid himself of the troublemaker in the third area, only to discover that Se-woon was the one causing this chaos.

This was no trivial matter. The castles currently burning were intended for players who would soon complete their tutorials and arrive here.

While the sieges might become easier, what would happen when those players discovered the ruined interiors after successfully capturing the castles? The players—and certainly the Constellations—would not let this slide.

“Ugh! Stop that bastard at once!”

Tuning frantically began tapping on his keyboard.

Leaving behind the screens of the promising candidates, he focused entirely on the chaos Se-woon was unleashing.

* * *

“Sigh.”

Se-woon was admiring the fiercely burning flames from atop the desolate castle walls after extinguishing the fire.

A bow, previously unseen, was slung across Se-woon’s back, and a sleek longsword hung at his waist.

Having raided five different castles, starting from a high watchtower to various fortresses and thorny towers, his subspace pouch was now substantially filled, containing several items obtained from the Castle Lords.

[ Giant Hunter ]

Category: Bow

Rank: C

Description: A magnificent bow engraved with the secret techniques of the Halfling race, used by the Lord of the Towering Watchtower, Zehael.

Abilities:

1. Large but Light – Increases the attack range by 10%.

2. Big and Fast – Increases the arrow’s flight speed by 20%.

3. Large and Fierce – Increases the arrow’s attack power by 20%

True to its name, the bow used by the Castle Lord was a great bow, reflecting its title of Giant Hunter.

Considering the Castle Lord’s height, it was almost as if the guy was carrying a bow as tall as himself. Imagining him assuming a stance to shoot the bow just seemed comical, no matter how one looked at it.

Beyond this, the items Se-woon had obtained—or rather, stolen—from the other Castle Lords were all high-ranking items, ranging from C- to C+. Each one was a rare find in the tutorial.

By the time Se-woon was preparing to leave, the Castle Lord had only just realized his weapon was missing, visibly flustered in the background.

“So this is how you show up, huh?”

A system message, seemingly sent by the tutorial administrator, appeared in front of Se-woon.