I didn't return to Town Yoentia immediately.

There were a few reasons for that. The simplest reason was the risk of being tracked directly... Even after destroying the three runes, I couldn't be sure that they didn't have any method of tracking it. I was reasonably sure, but there was a difference between reasonably and completely.

The second, and the more important, reason, I had to dispose most of the advanced skills. As much as distributing them to the hunting lodge was useful, it was impossible to hide the presence of dozens of advanced skills being useful from even an incompetent spy.

Luckily, the only reason I had requested that many skills was to pick some decent advanced skills that had the possibility of having mana attacks that would be useful in the dungeon. Since I didn't care about leaving evidence after a potential explosion behind, I had spent ten minutes going through their internal structure carefully, picking the twenty best ones.

Though, as I went through them, I was glad to receive more than I requested. As I analyzed all of them, I slowly reached the conclusion that the integrity of the outer shell wasn't the perfect indicator I had thought it to be. There were several with an almost-intact shell with large pieces of the internal structure missing, and a few of them had relatively stable interiors despite missing almost half of their shell.

After I had separated the ones I had picked, I needed to find a way to get rid of the rest. Unfortunately, throwing them out or destroying them was not an option. I had no doubt that, after that purchase, a lot of people would have been looking for the destination of that trade….

I needed to sell them a reliable story to make them search all the wrong places. The distance from Town Yoentia was given. Also, I needed to find a better way than just selling to another group.

As. I moved through the forest, using the full range of my Speed, I thought about that problem, but failed to find a nice solution. However, an hour — and almost a hundred miles — into my travel, I came across an interesting detail.

The sky was getting emptier.

There were supposed to be near-constant patrols in the sky, making sure nothing disastrous was happening, but right now, their presence toward the south of me was getting thinner.

I wouldn't have paid much attention to that detail, treating it as a small fortunate advantage that would allow me to rush forward faster … if it wasn't for one very important detail.

The last time I noticed such a conspicuous lack of patrols was during the kidnapping attempt of the cultists. A horrible situation, one that I had no intention of allowing to happen. First, I rushed forward, trying to find the target of the cultists.

It wasn't particularly difficult to find, not with the monsters constantly attacking any human presence unless they had charisma or magic to protect them.

Soon, I found myself looking at a caravan that was currently camping. A glance was enough to show that they were not exactly shouting success. Their defensive perimeter, one that was manned by less than a hundred combatants, was struggling under the constant attacks.

Considering the rest was gathered around the fire, worriedly watching even as they ate, it wasn't blindness of the risk that kept them back. They either didn't have enough competent cooks to prepare food, or the build-up of the wild energies reached a point that would prevent them from renewing their Health.

Either way, they were already tethering near collapse. A day, or two at most, they would have collapsed already.

Not that they actually had a day, I thought as I noticed a presence near them, a sole scout watching the camp, the red scales over his face distinctive.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Cultists were preparing to move.

The scout moved back, and I followed him from a distance, and soon, he reached a cave and slipped inside. It was risky to follow him, but it was riskier to stay blind to their ways, so, despite the risk, I moved forward, and a minute after him, I entered the cave.

It immediately gave me the answer about how they were moving around, as at the bottom of the cave, I could see a tunnel, its sharp edges, and moist walls telling that it was freshly dug. Since I had already received my answer, I didn't dare to go into the tunnel, as I could see the subtle red hue of the destruction mana inside, stopping right at the entrance of the tunnel.

Instead, I retreated and slipped back to the camp. Since the patrols were getting thinner, and the camp was ripe for picking, I didn't expect much delay before they chose to attack. I rushed back to the camp, but rather than alerting them to my presence, I slipped inside, and stole the armor of a warrior that was too wounded to fight, who was roughly my size.

Stealing the armor didn't take long, but the constant curses delivered by the people were enough to give me a gist of the idea of what was going on. Apparently, they were initially traveling toward Town Maell, following a larger caravan,, but just before they had arrived, they received an order to join another town instead.

Just like ours, they had a noble — for them a mere knight — that was responsible for leading them, but just as they reached the middle of the forest, with no town nearby, the knight went to a patrol with twenty of their best fighters … only to disappear.

I wondered if the situation was arranged by the traitors in the military directly, or if it was more of a political ploy like the one we had experienced, and they were using it as an opportunity.

Not that it mattered much, when it meant the death of hundreds of people for no reason.

Then, I escaped the camp once more, and started modifying the armor.

I didn't steal the armor for practical reasons. Even if the armor wasn't filled with damaged and broken sections, with its weak metal structure, it would be ineffective against anything but the weakest critter. Certainly, nothing could stop a cultist.

Repairing it was not something I could do, but luckily, that was never my intent. I roughly plugged the gaps with fitting wood that I cut from a nearby tree, and I cut a similar shield.

Then, I used the paint from my small disguise kit, and painted it gold and silver, and put it on. After putting the helmet on, I checked my reflection as I let my eyes glow blue with mana.

It was time to add a brave and generous knight to the mysterious organization that was poking around.

"Nice, an imposing sight," I murmured as I let the same glow spread around my armor for a moment before I carefully examined how I looked. With the mystical mana glow, the armor looked far better than the abominable set of materials I had used justified.

Yet, I was glad that it was still the middle of the night. I really didn't want to try to sell that impression under the bright sunlight.

I picked a location near the camp, sat on my silver chest, and waited for the cultists to appear. It felt like a callous decision, but I couldn't risk cultists deciding to attack at a different time when I was not there to intervene.

Nor I had the ability to face the cultists regardless of the numbers they would bring.

The sudden disappearance of a new wave of animals signaled their appearance before I could see any of them. Some of the people at the camp celebrated the sudden break they received, but a few looked around with a grim expression.

Realizing that such a sudden change was not good news.

A few seconds later, a squad of cultists appeared at the edge of the opening. There were only twelve of them, which surprised me. I had fought against them, and while they were formidable and dangerous beings, I doubted that they would be enough to deal with a thousand desperate people.

"Behold, salvation is here," one of the cultists, the only one that was wearing a robe unlike the rest that was wearing armor, shouted. "Cast away your false gods and embrace one true lord!"

Even as I waited for an opportunity to act, I couldn't help but appreciate the irony. No matter whether the gods that they worshipped were true or false, the annoying missionaries had the same playbook.

I was planning to wait until they were closer to engagement, which would allow me to rush forward and cut them off early. Pity that I had missed one important fact. Already near their breaking point, a weak aura of fear spreading from the cloaked figure, combined with their mere presence was enough to shatter the resistance of the camp.

I could already see a few of the faster ones moving to retreat. They were just a few seconds away from the stampede, which would probably be bad enough to prevent them.

A few of them gave declarations of bravery, but it was nothing compared to the growing panic.

"It seems that I have to intervene early," I muttered, and stepped into the opening, my glowing armor demanding attention. "Don't worry, my sons, salvation is here!" I shouted as moved forward with a steady, confident gait…