Chương 346: Another Face

Getting to the blood ocean wasn't actually that difficult. Leou had provided me with the location of an entry point, and I still had a plush hidden near Devilblood's residence, so I could get there in the blink of an eye. The main problem would certainly be the heightened surveillance. Some time had passed, but it didn't change the fact that the local lord had been poisoned.

If Hyotrask wasn't a complete idiot, then he had probably already figured out that the culprit was none other than little old sweet Leomi–That was without mentioning the deaths I had caused among the guards, or how I had robbed him silly. Though it should also be pretty obvious that his son was 'cured' thanks to me as well, so he is probably a bit confused about what this all means when all of my actions are put together. Regardless, I intend to do my best not to run into the lord or anyone else on this trip.

I kissed Leou and Mari goodbye. They worried about me, but they also trusted that I would come back no matter what. Meanwhile, Xlown was fully convinced that there would be no problems I wouldn't be able to chomp my way through. Everyone fell into these two categories–It is good to know that they have a lot of trust in me… I warped over to Devilblood's territory.

The environment was still as colourful as I remembered it to be, though everything felt a lot more yellow than I remembered–Malkazert is indeed quite the odd place in this regard. I stayed in my knightly form for now, taking on an appearance more akin to that of a demonic knight, and instead of a dress, I wrapped myself in a long cloak. As expected, I arrived just as the night was falling.

Few people were still outside at this time, allowing me to walk around without attracting attention, though I could already spot guards patrolling the territory, lanterns in hand. I only needed to be careful about mages who could sense me with their mana senses, and any demons who had the ability to peer through the darkness. I knew that Devilblood had some guards who could see heat, but as a lump of steel, I was always room temperature, so I might as well be invisible to those guys.

I remained on guard for any possible interruptions in my journey, but nothing happened, and I was able to make it to the entrance of the path that would take me down to the blood ocean. Immediately, I noticed that this particular passage had seen a fair bit of foot traffic, however. It seemed like the people sent by the organisation hadn't covered their tracks very well.

Hyotrask had seemed to only be aware of the blood ocean's existence at best previously, but now, it was clear that he definitely knew where it was, what it looked like, and he might have even harvested blood already. Damn thief, all this blood is supposed to be mine! I began to carefully descend into the darkness of the cavern.

The path was sloped, and the ceiling was low, but since I didn't have to worry about jagged edges and could turn into my 'Plush Form' to escape any situations where I could end up stuck, I was able to progress quite quickly despite all of this. It still took more than a full hour to get to somewhere interesting, so I do not dare to imagine how time-consuming this trip would be for people who needed to be actually careful… Regardless, I spotted light inside a wide opening.

Hyotrask's people–And perhaps others if he had shared the discovery–Had established a base all the way down there. They are quite efficient. It had been only a small while since I was last there as Leomi, and they had already built quite the impressive structures, and even brought cattle that could handle these depths and the lack of sunlight. Clearly, they were ready to remain down there for a while. As for the water issue, I immediately spotted a mage filling large containers with water.

Judging by how the man struggled despite merely manifesting water, it was clear that he was the rare kind of mage who knew how to create real water from mana. It was something I had learned during my classes on magic back in the day. Magic had the potential to manifest the actual thing instead of merely the 'mana version'. It wasn't considered very useful for a lot of elements, but for water in particular, it was considered an incredibly valuable skill.

Drinking the water created by your average water mage might give the impression of drinking, but the water is ultimately a spell and is made up of mana. Mana that will eventually disperse. Not only does it not help one get hydrated, but it has high chances of causing mana poisoning if the drinker isn't the caster themself, as it is akin to absorbing someone else's inner mana, which rarely goes well.

When a mage can actually create real water, all of these issues are eliminated, as what they manifest will not fall apart like a spell. Instead, their mana will go away, leaving only regular water that could be drunk safely. Nowadays, I hear that this skill is mostly known to earth and stone mages specialising in construction. It is apparently quite a difficult and mana-intensive trick to learn, and people are often too focused on having the most impressive offensive spells. Heh…

Times of peace have lasted for so long, and yet everyone wants to be the one who hits the hardest anyway, to the point that they've neglected useful skills that would be of tremendous value. … I wonder if this water mage is the only one capable of producing real water around. If I kill him, they'll have to clear the area swiftly, or else they'll all die of thirst within a week or two. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

I remained hidden in the shadows for now. The water mage was in the company of several people, including other mages. Which, to me, seemed to indicate that there were dangers lurking around down here. They could simply be careful with someone so important, but the team accompanying him wasn't random. It seemed to be a team of experienced adventurers or mercenaries.

They had clearly been paid to be his bodyguards, which would be excessive if it was just to be careful, and not because there were genuine dangers that could attack him right as he was reeling from producing so much genuine water. Unfortunately, nothing leapt out of the darkness to confirm my suspicions. The mage and his entourage merely went away once the man couldn't produce any more water without risking suffering from mana deprivation.

It seemed like the threats weren't the kind to damage objects, as they left the water containers right where they were without fear, right on the edge of their base. Mmh… Looks like they are planning to build a wall as well. This place won't be so easily accessible eventually… But I guess they ran out of materials? The wall is only partly done, and it doesn't seem like anyone is around to continue construction. I would suppose that carrying materials down here isn't exactly an easy affair.

Rather than sneak into the camp, I continued to move in the dark, exploring surrounding spaces and tunnels that hadn't been invested by these people yet. Though it did seem like some patrols were run around the base, I found a broken lantern that must have been dropped or accidentally struck a wall. Someone also dropped a coin somewhere–Why take money underground? Mmh? I hear voices…

"Come on… Not here. It could be dangerous, and… What if someone hears us? These damned tunnels carry sound far…"

"Don't worry, I can cast a silence and concealment spell… No one will be none the wiser, not even those bloodspawns…" Seriously? In a dark cave like this? Is this the idea of romance for this generation or something? I soon spotted a light around a corner, allowing me to see clearly as some demon woman with three eyes, carrying a sword and light armour, was making out with a demon man who was most definitely a mage.

He cast his spells a bit too late, as I had already locked onto them, and the concealment spell seemed to have no effect on someone who had already spotted what was within the concealed zone. Mmh… Should I, or should I not? I asked myself the question, but I was already making my way closer. They were far too busy with their business to notice my silent approach.

I manifested a trident in one hand, and the second the chestplate of the woman was unlatched, I made my move, stabbing through both of them at the same time, the three prongs of my weapon allowing me to go right through their heart and lungs all at once, killing them nearly instantly. Since I was all alone now, I transformed back into my 'Base Form' to devour the corpse of the male and also threw any item I couldn't eat into the Gravescape. This left the remains of the female. I didn't devour her immediately.

The goal was simple: I was going to use my 'Gynoid Form' to steal her appearance and enter the base unnoticed. It required a bit of improvisation as I had never taken on a three-eyed appearance, but it wasn't that big of a deal as I had plenty of experience messing around with this form to begin with. I then put on her clothes and casually made my way back to the camp.

I wasn't aware of whether her being here right now was normal, but no one spared me more than a glance that acknowledged my presence, so even if it wasn't normal, no one seemed to give a damn. I was able to walk through without problem until a demonic rabbitfolk came up to me. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and looked around for a few moments before speaking.

"Where is Lorge? Weren't you guys supposed to do a patrol together?"

"He stayed behind to get some water" I came up with an excuse at lightning speed. My explanation seemed to make sense to the red-furred rabbitfolk.

"Again? I swear, he only drinks when he is on the verge of passing out… Well, if you see him again, tell him that I'll be with the team running tests on the blood, but that I'll be back tonight, so he can expect a treat from his girlfriend!" With these words, she hopped away. … Damn. Now I know why they were doing their business in some dark tunnel. This fucker was dual-wielding in secret. I watched the direction she left intently. Tests on the blood, huh?

The way she said it made it sound like they were running tests on samples rather than the blood ocean itself. I need a bit more information, I feel. I walked around the camp. There were some structures built out of wood, but it was mostly tents of various sizes, and even the smallest was quite spacious. The people down here were all fairly strong, it seems. The two that I killed probably would have struggled quite fiercely if I hadn't snuck up on them whilst they were 'busy'.

Though certainly due to the way that had to be taken to arrive down here, it seemed like none of the large kinds of demons were around. Only the ones that were human-sized or smaller were to be seen. This eliminated a lot of threats that would have the potential to match or surpass my brute strength, which was good. I caught a whiff of some suffering and followed the thread until it took me to a medical area, where a demon with a somewhat triangular face was currently groaning with his teeth gritted.

He was missing his right leg beneath the knee. A healer was doing her best to stop the bleeding, all the while scolding her patient for apparently doing something stupid.

"For being such an idiot, you should have lost both of your legs!"

"Come on, can you not be a bit nicer to me?!"

"Shut up!" She tightened the bandages suddenly, making him wince in pain.

"Damn it! How was I supposed to know that this thing would leap out of the blood to get a bite out of me?! I was so damned far away from the blood!"

"Did I not tell you to shut up?"

"Y-Yes ma'am…" Huh… So there are creatures in the blood ocean…