Chapter 122: Confrontation With The Devil

POV Cornelius

We sent a total of three people to search incognito for the group of adventurers. We gave them two days and then awaited their reports. That evening, they joined us in the meeting room.

“So, what did you find out?” <Cornelius>

"I asked around the guards in the city guard. None of them heard anything that could fit your description. According to their answers, they're not soldiers or guardsmen." <Man1>

"I expected that. Next." <Cornelius>

"I asked the receptionists in the guild itself whether there are currently any groups in the city that can easily clear the floor above level 20 within a day. According to the receptionist, there are currently 3 of them on site. All three are rank D and around level 40, but they are more in the region of floor 25. What's more, all three are returning with monster materials, so the receptionist rules out the possibility that they are from these three groups." <Man2>

"Around level 40 and don't leave any monsters behind? Then they are doubly uninteresting for us. At level 40, they have too little potential for us to influence though." <Cornelius>

"Don't get upset. You wanted to find them to banish them from the dungeon.“ <Ansgar>

”That's right. We should still know the names of the groups in case we encounter them in the dungeon. So they can go somewhere else when we get there." <Cornelius>

“I'll write down the names and give them to them, noble heroes.” <Man2>

"So far we haven't found out anything. Now it's up to you to bring us good news." <Cornelius>

"I have information for you, but it is different from what you expected. I had a chat with the adventurers present and after a few beers they were willing to tell me all sorts of rumors. One of them was particularly interesting. It's about the devil with the sharp fangs." <Man3>

"The devil with the sharp fangs? Who or what is that supposed to be? An old wives' tale?" <Cornelius>

"On the contrary, noble hero. Over the past few weeks, there have been repeated stories of adventuring groups who, on their way back from the dungeon, have found floors where all the monsters have been defeated without taking the valuable materials with them. Some of these groups have also seen who is responsible for this." <Man3>

"Now get to the point, man. Don't beat around the bush. Where do we find this group?" <Cornelius>

“Noble hero, it's not a group, it's an individual.” <Man3>

"An individual? On floor 20 and below? How strong is this person?" <Cornelius>

"Sorry, I couldn't find out the level. According to the descriptions, it's a man of 180 cm or more and slim build with a hooded cloak and two daggers." <Man3>

"Two daggers? Daggers are supposed to be that strong? Strong enough to defeat the bears and treants? Never. You need an axe for that." <Ansgar>

"I can't imagine that either. Back to you, where can we find this person?" <Corelius>

"No one knows. No one outside the dungeon has ever seen him or knows anything." <Man3>

"You three, look around everywhere and try to find out something. You may go now." <Cornelius>

The three men bowed and left the room. Then I turned to the others.

"If no one knows who this person is and where to find them, we'll have to look for them ourselves. We want to go into the dungeon anyway and if we meet him there, we'll have to confront him. Either he cooperates with us or we take him prisoner." <Cornelius>

"Hmm, then we should take more soldiers with us this time. It will make us look more official and they can take him into custody if necessary and escort him out. Then we won't have to do that." <Javier>

"I wish he would resist. I want to test my strength on him." <Ansgar>

We went into the dungeon the next day with three additional soldiers. The soldiers were around level 30 and therefore not beginners. That should be enough to take out a single person. And if they couldn't do it, we were still there.

The floor with the slimes was untouched and we had to fight our way to the portals ourselves. Had the devil not come through here or was he not in the dungeon today? But our doubts were quickly dispelled, as the level with the beetles was littered with monster corpses. All of them still had their mana core (Author note: Monster Core = Mana Core). But we didn't find anyone on this floor and had to move on to the spiders. Here we were in for a surprise, as this floor was also littered with corpses. The mana cores were still there too. We got closer, but the devil was nowhere to be found on this floor either.

The next floor was the one with the goblins. Here we found other adventurers for the first time. By now the day was well advanced and we would normally be on our way back, but we were close to the devil and didn't want to let him get away. I approached the first group of adventurers that came towards us.

"Hey, you there. Did you defeat the goblins here?" <Cornelius>

"Unfortunately not. We wanted to fight here, but someone was faster. We don't know who exactly, but we know there's another group here on this floor. We only got the leftovers today. We'll try our luck again tomorrow on another floor." <Adventurers>

We met another group of adventurers on our search.

“Are you responsible for all the bodies here?” <Cornelius>

"No, that was the devil. He's still fighting further back on the floor. Better not to get in his way." <Adventurer>

"What do you mean? Is he a beast or what?" <Cornelius>

"What's the best way to describe it? His fighting style is wild, very wild, I guess that sums it up best. He doesn't seem to care if he gets hurt himself, but because he's so incredibly fast, he gets away with it. He skillfully dodges all attacks, but when he gets hit, he doesn't seem to mind. He is like a wild beast that has gone into a frenzy, but still keeps control of his actions. It's hard to describe, better to see for yourself. If he's not down to the next floor, he should still be around. We saw him a good fifteen minutes ago." <Adventurer>

I looked at the others and we followed the description. There were dead goblins everywhere and after a while we could hear the sound of fighting. We rounded a small hill and immediately understood why the person was called the devil with the sharp fangs. The fighting style was indeed as savage as written.

"The fighting style reminds me of you, Ansgar. Only this person wields daggers and is much faster than you. I wonder if he also has the Berserker Ability?" <Cornelius>

"Quite possibly. Then he would do more and more damage the more damage he takes. But something is wrong. The Berserker's ferocity is similar, but I don't see any injuries. Does the cloak cover everything?" <Ansgar>

"What do you think, Javier? I'm curious about the person's status." <Cornelius>

"Hmm, that's strange. I can't see anything." <Javier>

"What do you mean, nothing? Explain that to me." <Cornelius>

"Hmm, the status is blank. I don't see anything at all, just an empty field. But the description fits. This person there is at least 1.80m tall. But why can't I see anything?" <Javier>

"How can that be? Is that the Concealment effect we were told about? How high must this skill be so that you can't see anything with your Master Appraisal? Watch out, guys, this person is a lot more dangerous than we thought. If he cause us trouble, we'll have to be ready for anything." <Cornelius>

“Corni, just be careful.” <Eleonore>

"Don't worry, Eli. We're the heroes and we're 10 against 1. What's going to happen to us if we're prepared? There, the fight is over. Let's see who we're up against then. Hey, you there! Are you the one they call the devil with the sharp fangs?" <Cornelius>