The variants watched speechlessly as the Sorcerer of the Twilight Abyss was beheaded, a wave of disbelief washing over them.
“The chief… He’s… dead!”
It took a good few moments for them to come to terms with reality.
The strongest and most brutal chief in the history of their tribe was dead, killed effortlessly by a human.
While many didn’t like the Sorcerer due to his cannibalistic tendencies, his presence was a crucial backbone for the tribe. He had provided them with a sense of security and support, allowing them to flourish without the constant fear of being hunted by the stronger forces of the Forest of Dread. His death, therefore, was not just the loss of a tyrannical leader; it was a crushing blow to their morale.
“How did the intruder get behind our chief and assassinate him without being noticed? It’s like he is a ghost!”
“The assassination was so effortlessly. It makes me wonder how strong he is. But one thing is for sure. He is stronger than our Chief. We can’t overpower him with numbers alone. We can’t avenge our fallen comrades or our Chief!”
“At the moment, none of that should matter. Our immediate concern should be our own survival,” A wise, elderly variant, Dris, who had seen countless leaders rise and fall during his time, advised the other variants with vengeance in their minds.
“I don’t see a future where we survive unless he spares us, but he has no reason to take pity on us. Without the Sorcerer, our strongest combatant, we are doomed if we fight him! We should consider fleeing while we still have the chance.” Elrik, a younger variant with fiery red eyes, summed up the bleak situation they found themselves in.
“We are a race of prideful warriors! How dare you suggest we show our back to the enemy?!” a variant retorted.
At its words, Elrick flinched.
Sitting atop the corpse of the Sorcerer, Val beamed, 𝑜𝑽𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Running away in the face of a formidable enemy that you know you can’t defeat isn’t cowardice. It’s intelligence. It’s also the only move that can save one’s life when they are up against an unbeatable enemy. Sadly for you, It’s already too late to run away. While you were busy digesting the news that the Chief of your tribe is dead and wondering what to do next, I have already laid a trap to seal your fate once and for all!”
“Huh?”
“Look around you,” Val told them.
Dozens of undead, dozens of them had appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the chamber and formed a menacing circle around the variants.
They were standing in front of the entrances to the tunnel connected to the chamber, while Val was blocking the only way out.
Everywhere the variants looked, there was only one answer, which was a very dreadful one. They were thoroughly trapped!
“When did they appear?!”
“How did this also escape our senses?!”
The variants had sharp senses that rivaled a hawk’s. It was very rare for something to escape their notice. But in a single day, they were caught off guard twice. They couldn’t help but feel dismayed. Combined with the dread and fear they felt when the chief of their tribe was assassinated in the blink of an eye, it could be said that their morale was thoroughly crushed and the best time to suppress them have come!
“That doesn’t matter, does it? You should be wondering why I haven’t dealt the killing blow instead of thinking about useless things,” Val said with arrogance backed by hard cold facts.
“What do you want?”
“What I want is pretty simple. It is…” he pointed at them before completing the rest of his sentence, “your loyalty. If you promise me your loyalty, I’ll spare you.”
This was merely a facade.
The truth was totally different.
Val had no intention of sparing them.
The class advancement quest left him with a clear mandate: eliminate every last one of the variants. Any leniency would rob him of the Return Scroll. From its very name, it was evident that this scroll was his gateway back to his home. Failure to acquire it meant an eternal entrapment in this foreign land.
There was a lot he needed to do back in the kingdom. So he simply couldn’t allow that. He had to return. So they must all die.
So why was he telling such a cruel lie, giving them false hope only to shatter it later on?
He wasn’t the type to be cruel without a reason. He was, after all, not a villain, but he wasn’t a hero either. As long as it was necessary, he would submerge in utter madness and cruelty.
Basically, he was lying to them because of the questions gnawing at his thoughts.
Why were these variants, who clearly weren’t natives of the kingdom, speaking its national language fluently? How had they learned it? And who taught them?
The mystery piqued his curiosity, and he desired to uncover its secrets.
Not to mention, outside the cave was a vast forest that stretched as far as the eye could see.
It was most likely the second layer of the dungeon.
Delving into it without proper understanding was akin to diving into an abyss blindfolded.
And Val… he wasn’t one to leap without looking.
The variants, however, held a wealth of knowledge about the forest. It stood to reason that they would possess valuable information about the forest as they had grown up here. The forest and its caves were classified as the first and second layers of a Class Advanvement Dungeon by the system, but they were much more than that as Val had seen due to his Heavenly Eye.
Anyways, their knowledge could prove invaluable to him.
Information was power no matter where you go. Before daring to venture into the second layer, he wanted to be well-acquainted with its dangers. Only then would his chance of survival increase.
To gain this critical intel, he had to earn their trust or, at the very least, provide them with an incentive.
Offering a potential reprieve from death, even if false, was a strategic move.
Hope could make creatures do unexpected things, like sharing knowledge.
He could extract intel through torture, but he didn’t know what method would work on them. Their bodies were totally different than humans, after all. Besides, it would waste a lot of time.
Telling a lie was better in this scenario.
With just a lie, he had weaved a web of hope to lure them into revealing the information he so desperately sought.
Now, he just needed to be patient and wait for them to fall into the web.