Chapter 241: The Real Mastermind

Chapter 241: Chapter 241: The Real Mastermind

Then, the sound of clanking metal footsteps approached.

A squad from the Silver Hand Knight Order, clad in silver armor, walked out briskly from their bombed-out garrison.

"Nieve! You scared me to death, meow!"

From the squad, the girl with cat ears leaped out the moment she appeared, clinging tightly to the Snow Lady’s neck and nuzzling her face desperately like a frightened kitten.

At that moment, a handsome young man in heavy Plate Armor strode to the center of the street.

He scanned his surroundings and spoke in a clear, loud voice to the other Adventurers still watching from across the street.

"I am Julius, captain of the Silver Hand’s squad stationed in this region of the Underground City."

"I deeply apologize to everyone affected by this explosion."

He raised his hand, and a soft Holy Light glowed in his palm.

"Any Adventurers who were affected by the blast and injured, please come to me. I will cast a Healing Skill for you."

Julius was a [Silver Contract Knight], a Rare Profession that was extremely sought-after in any team.

This Profession not only possessed considerable combat power but could also amplify area-of-effect Healing Skills and various group-buffing Skills, making them prime candidates for the core tactical commanders of Grand Guilds.

Julius’s timely appearance successfully diverted everyone’s attention from the young man who had been stripping a corpse.

Lance seized the opportunity to let out a long sigh of relief. He quickly put away the Inner Armor and walked back to Lilia’s side, feigning nonchalance.

"Are you two okay?"

Lance looked at the still-shaken Bazzer and offered a word of comfort.

"We’re fine, thanks to you," Bazzer said, nodding gratefully.

After confirming the father and daughter were safe, Lance turned to the Snow Lady, Nieve, who was getting her face "washed" by the frantic Cat Girl.

"Thanks for helping out during the explosion just now."

Lance expressed his sincere gratitude. Although he could have blocked the explosion himself, the fact remained that she had kindly helped.

"You’re welcome."

Nieve watched Lance quietly, her tone as flat and emotionless as ever.

"You are very strong. Even without Nieve, you would not have been injured."

As the two were talking, a lean man from the Silver Knight Order with his long hair tied in a wolf-tail braid had finished carefully examining the four gruesome corpses on the ground.

He stood up, dusted off his hands, and walked back.

The Cat Girl, having had her fill of nuzzling in Nieve’s arms, poked her head out and asked the man, "Falk, did you find anything over there?"

The man called Falk, the one with the wolf-tail braid, didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he turned with a strange expression and glanced at Lance, who was standing nearby.

A storm was raging in his heart.

’Is this shabbily dressed, black-haired young man really a newly-instated Level 1 Professional?’

He had just carefully inspected the state of the four corpses.

Two of them were clearly Rangers who focused on agility, yet in the thick fog, they had left no trace of a counterattack. Their necks had been snapped, killed in a single blow.

One was a Shield Guard known for his defense. The Fine Steel Hand Shield on his arm had a terrifyingly deep fist imprint on it. Weirder still, the metal around the imprint showed signs of having been melted by high heat.

Not only that, but the Shield Guard’s sternum and ribs were completely shattered, the result of taking two extremely heavy, fatal blunt-force blows. Furthermore, the inside of his corpse showed signs of having its moisture instantly evaporated and dried out.

The remaining leader died an even more gruesome death, with more than half the bones in his body broken.

Falk had never seen such overwhelming, absolute dominance against opponents of the same Class in all his years as an Adventurer.

He mentally estimated based on the extent of the corpses’ injuries.

This poor-looking young man, who was just crouching on the ground stripping a corpse of its Inner Armor... judging by the Basic Attributes demonstrated by his physical burst power, was probably on par with a melee-specialized Level 2 Adventurer.

Moreover, the Ether Energy he used, which carried a high-temperature melting Trait, was incredibly destructive. This proved that the grade of the Breathing Combat Technique he practiced must be exceptionally high.

All things considered, this young man might even be able to go head-to-head with an average Level 3 Adventurer without being at a disadvantage.

One had to understand that in the Material Realm, the gap between Classes is as vast as a chasm.

This gap is reflected, on one hand, by gaining one game-changing Profession Specialty for every level gained.

On the other hand, even the most mediocre Ordinary Profession gains a total of 8.5 points to their Basic Attributes upon leveling up.

If you then factored in the amplification from different grades of Breathing Combat Techniques, even if everyone specialized in a Power-focused Profession, as long as their free attribute points were allocated to an extreme, a mere one-level difference could result in a gap of nearly 10 points in a single core Attribute after all final bonuses were applied!

That was why Falk was so astonished and found the true combat power of the man before him so incredible after seeing the corpses.

After silently marveling at Lance’s strength, Falk finally looked away and continued reporting his findings to his teammates.

"That Enchanted Inner Armor is indeed the standard-issue equipment for members of the Iron Throne."

"These four were likely Level 1 Professionals who had just recently entered the Underground City."

Falk paused, then stated his deduction.

"However, this group was most likely just bait, meant to draw our fire. The core personnel who actually planted that large batch of Alchemy Explosives under our supply depot and detonated them remotely probably used the chaos to slip out of the camp long ago."

"It seems the Iron Throne is dead set on declaring all-out war against us, the Silver Hand."

Falk heaved a long sigh.

Although everyone knew that they and the Iron Throne were on bad terms after the last event, to use such dirty tricks to attack another’s supply garrison... wasn’t that going too far?

More than half of the Summer Crown supplies they had painstakingly transported in were completely destroyed in that explosion.

Especially the precious restorative Alchemy Potions. It was as if the enemy had deliberately targeted the room where the Potions were stored; they were almost completely wiped out.

In a high-intensity environment like the Underground City, losing their medicinal supplies was equivalent to having half their combat effectiveness cut off.

If they requested reinforcements and supplies from the rear now, even if the transport went smoothly, it would take several days to configure and deliver a sufficient amount of Potions.

And in the race against time for the Summer Crown rankings, wasting several days basically meant this Silver Hand squad could be declared out of the team competition.

Just then, Julius and another support-class Priest had finished treating the last injured Adventurer’s wounds and walked over.

Julius had clearly overheard Falk’s analysis.

"I’ll report this to headquarters immediately, then take some people to negotiate with the Iron Throne’s management."

Julius’s face was ashen. He glanced at the surrounding Adventurers, who were all murmuring amongst themselves, and an indignant expression appeared on his face.

"The enemy wantonly disrupted the order of the Public Safety Zone just to suppress us. The Silver Hand will absolutely not let this go."

While these core members of the Silver Hand were discussing, they made no effort to hide it from Lance, who was standing nearby.

After all, Lance had indirectly helped them by intercepting the attackers.

So, Lance heard every single word of their analysis and deductions.

Lance watched their righteous indignation and couldn’t help but frown.

He wasn’t one to meddle in other people’s business.

But a moment ago, during the crisis, the Snow Lady named Nieve hadn’t hesitated to raise a shield to protect Lilia. Her actions had given Lance a very favorable impression of her.

Besides, Lance had no intention of letting that organization off the hook. Causing them some trouble would be good, too.

"Don’t you think this whole thing is strange from start to finish?"

Lance crossed his arms and suddenly cut Julius off.

Hearing this, the members of the Silver Hand squad turned in unison, their gazes all focusing on the black-haired young man.

"What do you mean?"

Falk frowned slightly and tilted his head, asking in confusion.

Lance shot back a question of his own.

"The Iron Throne is currently sitting firmly in first place on the team rankings, right?"

His gaze swept between Julius and Falk.

"Since they’re already number one, why would they risk ruining their reputation by carrying out such a despicable bombing in a safety zone just to target you?"

Lance had only learned that the Iron Throne was ranked first from the surrounding Adventurers after the explosion.

At his words, the members of the Silver Hand, who had been seething with righteous anger just a moment ago, now looked at each other in dismay.

The Cat Girl, who had been clinging to the Snow Lady’s arms like a small animal, stopped her coddling and blinked her big eyes, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Only the Snow Lady, Nieve, was staring blankly at a floating speck of dust.

These elites, trained by a Grand Guild, were no fools. They had simply been blinded by their anger over the destruction of their garrison and supplies.

Now, with Lance’s reminder, they immediately sensed that something was amiss.

Lance continued with his reasoning.

"If a Guild like that were really going to carry out an attack, why would they let their subordinates do it while wearing standard-issue Inner Armor bearing the Guild’s emblem?"

When this question was laid on the table, everyone’s conviction began to waver violently.

’That’s right.’

’It’s too deliberate.’

Lance pointed at the corpses on the ground.

"Besides, for a high-difficulty mission like infiltrating an enemy garrison to blow up a core supply depot, why would they send these weaklings who just reached Level 1 to do it?"

"They were obviously bait thrown out by someone else."

"In fact, if the guards in your garrison had reacted just a little faster, these people were meant to be left behind to be killed by you on the spot, ensuring you would find the Inner Armor planted to frame them."

Lance’s three-part questioning was like a basin of ice water, instantly extinguishing the flames of anger in the minds of the Silver Hand members.

An answer surfaced in everyone’s mind.

This explosion was, without a doubt, a meticulously planned frame-up!