The silver doors slowly open and I walk through as the woman's voice from the black box stops.

The buzzing sound of ambient mana surrounding me is very loud. It only gets more violent the deeper I walk through. A glowing white light distorted the air in front of me, but using my perception skills I can tell there's a room just 5 meters ahead.

There's another odd barrier that connects the 3rd door to the room before me, but I sense no ill-intent or power-draining abilities attached to it. It's light grey and would not be perceivable without my All-Seeing Eye. The odd energy is in the shape of a small dome surrounding the person inside. I step through.

The buzzing stops entirely.

The bright white glow of mana shielding fades away behind me too.

The room is silent.

All I'm left to see is a fair-skinned woman with long black hair and violet-colored eyes. She sits in a tall black chair behind a mahogany desk. The room is circular and feels like a private study. The walls around me are covered in artifacts, colorful paintings, and intricate maps of the desert.

Beautiful furniture lines the walls and are separated by tables covered by velvet cloths and lush green house plants liven up the mood. There are potions in colors I've never seen before, and weapons that must drop from monsters I've never fought before.

The floor beneath my feet makes an eye-catching pattern of red, yellow, and orange material to create an extravangent-looking carpet.

I try my best to keep my eyes facing forward acting natural as I'm in disguise, but the room around me leaves me in a state of awe. The woman in front of me pays no mind to my wandering gaze and continues to speak in the same tone as she did over the black speaker.

"The Boss is out for a while. He left for important business late last night. Whatever news you're here to tell him is going to have to wait."

A shiny silver pin labeled "002" is on the upper portion of her tight black combat suit raises more questions.

I use inspect and appraisal.

_________________________

[Lv. 414]

Active Items:

Platinum Amulet of Protection [+85% Defense]

Golden Amulet of Strength [+70% Strength]

Golden Ring of Magic [+65% Mental Strength]

Silver Ring of Protection [+45% Defense]

High-Grade A-Class Shielding Artifact [4/10][IC]

Active Skills:

Hush [Legendary Grade]

Stealth

_________________________

She has an upgraded version of that shielding artifact and her hush skill must have something to do with the lack of noise in the room around us.

The woman continues as I come to a halt less than 2 meters in front of her desk.

"He's obsessing over those black stones that Elite mage had on her."

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I raise an eyebrow, thinking back to Lydia telling me she would collect more drops from those Demonic Energy wielding Knights. I haven't fully examined those stones myself yet, but it seems their boss is taking an interest in them.

The woman sees my confusion and continues.

"I don't get it either. That Ice Mage wouldn't say a word so he's taken her to the observatory for a private interrogation. The Boss knows best, so we shouldn't question him."

I nod slowly. still examining the room around me carefully. I spot a collection of item boxes at the back edge of the wooden desk in a small open-topped black box.

The woman sitting down gives me a glare and changes her tone.

"Yeah. These are the captive's items, don't get any bright ideas. They'll be going up for auction later this week."

I tighten my lips and gulp.

She chuckles and continues.

"Anyway, how's the interrogation going? Will you be ready to present him and that old man by sunrise in 3 days? We'll have the crafter bring a one-time use artifact to scrape any leftover information together that your lie detector missed."

I stand in silence thinking to myself.

Everything she's saying is clicking together like a puzzle in my mind. The observatory must be where the old man was doing research and was kidnapped by this organization. The stones Lydia collected are drops from monsters wielding Demonic Energy and they're somehow related to the abyss. Lastly, the Labyrinth and Arch Demon are connected to all of this too. But how?

I need to know more...

The woman's voice enters my ears again, interrupting my racing thoughts.

"Hello? Is everything okay? Did that Association Hunter finally break you? You didn't kill him, did you? The Boss would not be happy about that."

She's waving her hand in front of my face waiting for a response.

The longer I don't give her what she's expecting the more suspicious she'll become.

I set out a sigh.

It seems like this is all the information I'll be extracting today. She knows too much, but luckily she's given me many clues to help my hunt near its end. Just one more after her it seems.

I begin charging up by absorbing the mana in the air from the doors behind me. In one swift movement without changing the expression on my face, I grab my sword from item storage and swing it across my body at her at point-blank range to release a wave of pure pink mana.

I would have used fire magic to ensure a quick victory, but if anything were to go wrong the entire room would go up in flames and that could lead to many other problems.

To my surprise, she reacts quickly.

Her eyes open wide while activating her shielding artifact while jumping to my right side out of her chair.

Her easygoing smug expression instantly changes to cool and calculated killing intent.

An explosion of white mana vibrates through the air as my light pink crescent of pure energy collides with the Shielding. It holds up for a moment, but cracks under pressure and my attack manages to pierce through leaving a horrific gash across her body.

Although A-Class in name, I have my suspicions the craftsman who made these items is overhyping his work with the artifact names. The B-Class shielding from earlier grunts was sliced through like it wasn't even there, and this A-Class is hardly on par with a ranked-up Boss monster.

Still, it is impressive that a magic item can replicate such intense mana control without a competent wielder using it.

She dives to the floor and reaches her hand to the underside of the desk while boosting her shielding artifact again. I hear a click, then she rolls to the floor away from the wooden table and black armchair. Another layer of mana envelopes her. Fractions of a second later, it pulses again. Another layer forms and the protective white glow around her only gets thicker.

I throw another bright pink mana-imbued slash at her while she activates stealth and tries to evade my vision.

Unfortunately, It makes no difference at all. I can see her as clear as day.

The attack hits her straight on and destroys both new layers of her shielding, but does manage to slightly weaken the brunt of the blast.

I grit my teeth in annoyance and throw another.

"You put up the best fight so far, I'm looking forward to meeting your leader."

The final attack finishes her off. I don't give her the chance to respond.

A series of blue text pops up over her body.

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Hush [Legendary Grade]

[YES][NO]

I choose yes quickly, collect the artifact labeled "002" from her body, and then run over to the desk to store the item boxes of my teammates in my item storage.

Before I get a chance to look around the room for any more clues I hear a loud thud. It's followed by the splintering and cracking of wood. Then, another loud thud. Then, another.

The heavy metal doors that were previously open behind me shut one by one in rapid succession.

On top of that fact, the walls and ceiling start to slowly close in. The magic items and paintings on the wall shake and rumble as the room begins to shrink.

The loud buzzing sound of mana creeps back into my ears from all sides as the woman's hush skill is no longer active. She lies in a puddle of blood with dead eyes and a wide grin. Her final gaze points toward the glowing red button she pressed underneath the Boss' desk.