Chapter 1 The Matter of Rewards

Hao Ren led his group of friends out of Gelton's reception room. Two monks escorted them to their lodgings, while the Bearded Man and the other three stayed behind. It seemed the archbishop and the female marshal were about to discuss church secrets. Once they arrived at their temporary guest room, Becky suddenly remembered something: "Oh! Right! I haven't asked about the rewards yet... They wouldn't have forgotten about it, would they?"

Hao Ren glanced sideways at Becky: "Can't you be a little more ambitious? It's not like a whole country would swallow up your little reward."

Becky puffed out her cheeks: "It's just that my time is precious. I can only stay for fifteen days at most. What if someone comes and tells me that this needs to be reported to the royal capital and approved a month later? Wouldn't I be a fool?"

Hao Ren covered his face: "You do have a point... But let's take it one step at a time. By the way, why do Gelton and Ofra always seem to be arguing whenever we see them? Is there some conflict between the kingdom's army and the church army?"

Becky waved her hands vigorously: "There's no conflict. You're overthinking it. Holletta has had close cooperation between the church and the government for so many years, there hasn't been any opposition. It's just that they often have minor disagreements due to different standards. The church generally leans towards conservatism, while the kingdom's army emphasizes practicality. And Lady Ofra has been in charge of the army for hundreds of years, so she might be a bit stubborn. But let's not get involved in this kind of thing. There's no good that comes of it."

Hao Ren said "Oh." Of course, he had no interest in meddling in such a headache-inducing matter. He was only concerned about the secrets hidden beneath this land. Lily, on the other hand, seemed excited: "Hey, what do you think they're going to do about those stone giants? That thing fell from the Dragon Spine Mountains. The entire mountain range is so big, you can't kill them all. Are they just going to keep fighting like this? Has the Holletta royal family made any statement?"

"I did notice some notices on the road," Becky said absently as she organized her equipment. "The royal capital has already transferred two batches of troops to help, and the knight orders from nearby dioceses arrived here a few days ago. Now the military strength of the Beinz Diocese is almost three times what it was when we last came. But you're right, it seems even the royal family doesn't have a good solution: they can't just move the entire mountain range away, can they? Unless they can figure out how the stone giants came about, they'll have to keep fighting like this." At this point, Becky's face also showed a worried expression: "I hope the situation doesn't get any worse..."

After all, this was her hometown. Facing this situation of bizarre monsters constantly appearing, Becky couldn't help but feel worried. But this was obviously not something a small person like her could solve.

Meanwhile, in Gelton's reception room, the atmosphere was becoming increasingly oppressive.

"You're saying there's a heretical sect here?" The Bearded Man placed his hands on Gelton's desk, his expression solemn. "What's the specific situation?"

"We're not entirely clear about the origins of this sect yet," Gelton waved his hand at the Bearded Man, telling him to calm down. "They only surfaced half a month ago, and we haven't caught anyone yet. We've only found some traces of evil rituals. Some strange things have been happening in this area recently, and they should be related to this evil sect."

"Strange things? What strange things?" The Bearded Man frowned. Only news related to heresy could make the usually unsmiling ascetic look so tense.

Ofra snorted, her voice cold: "Many of our fallen soldiers' bodies have disappeared. According to reports from the front lines, the missing bodies were temporarily left on the ground for some reason. They disappeared after the guards' attention was diverted for a while, and have not been seen since."

"And it's not just fallen soldiers," Gelton's voice was low. "It also includes civilians. As long as someone dies recently, their body might mysteriously disappear, leaving only a little bit of blood at the scene, and sometimes not even that. The most recent example is a sentry post by the Holy Lake. The sentry post was attacked and lost to the stone giants. When the soldiers who escaped from the sentry post led reinforcements back to investigate the next day, they found that the bodies of the fallen soldiers left on the battlefield the night before were all gone."

The Bearded Man and the other three immediately exchanged glances. They instantly realized what the other party was talking about: they had come from there, and they had discovered a mysterious tunnel beneath the sentry post! However, nothing was found in the tunnel, which made the Bearded Man unsure if the tunnel was related to this matter. He decided to mention the tunnel later and asked another question instead: "Do the missing bodies have anything in common?"

Ofra thought for a moment: "Recent deaths, disappearance locations within the western side of the Dragon Spine Mountains – the dividing line is based on the central axis of the mountain range. Soldiers who died on the eastern side haven't encountered this kind of strange thing. Also, there are no eyewitness accounts. The bodies disappeared when they were unguarded. I specifically sent people to keep an eye on this matter. Nothing happened for three days and three nights when someone was watching, but the bodies disappeared the moment the guards' attention wandered."

Ofra couldn't help but clench her fist at the end, obviously she had been confident in finding out the truth of the matter, but in the end she suffered an almost mocking failure, which made this female hero, who rarely lost, angry.

The young monk among the ascetics then remembered something after a moment of silence: "Have you checked the cemeteries?"

Gelton nodded: "I thought of that too. We only confirmed that only recently deceased people were disappearing after checking the cemeteries. There's no problem with the old graves in the cemeteries, but the recently buried remains have also disappeared."

"Need 'fresh' bodies?" The young nun among the ascetics opened her hoarse voice, her voice a little surprised. "Could it be necromancers?"

"I don't think it's likely," Ofra crossed her arms, her voice seemed a little contemptuous. "Although necromancers are unpopular, they're legal in any case. As long as they follow the normal procedures and comply with the rules of the mage association, they can do whatever experiments they want – even the stupidest mage wouldn't risk coming to the holy land to do this kind of thing. And the earliest disappearance of corpses was about half a month ago, almost at the same time as the sudden increase in stone giants. I'd rather believe that it's a group of cultists seeking ancient power who are behind this. Don't let me catch them..."

"In fact, we may have some clues," the Bearded Man felt that it was time to mention the information he had. He stood up, "We happened to pass by the sentry post you mentioned earlier when we came. I don't know if you've checked the underground situation..."

The Bearded Man then described the strange tunnel and the suspicious bloody smell in the tunnel. Ofra and Gelton looked at each other after hearing this. Ofra looked at Gelton: "The church knights are responsible for that area. Did you find anything underground?"

"We really haven't checked the sentry post," Gelton shook his head. "But you also know that the other places where bodies disappeared didn't have that kind of tunnel."

The Bearded Man was a little surprised: "Other places? So you've checked underground? The other places where bodies disappeared didn't have any tunnels?"

Ofra shook her head: "No. We spent a lot of effort looking for the bodies after they first disappeared, and that included underground, of course, but we never found any tunnels. Later, when bodies disappeared again, we stopped looking for clues underground. It seems we have to re-emphasize this issue... Perhaps there really is something underground. Archbishop, what do you think – Archbishop?"

Gelton seemed to suddenly fall into a problem and began to ponder. Ofra called him a few times before he reacted: "Oh, of course, I will send people to investigate the facts at the outpost. But I suddenly thought of another thing..."

"Another thing?" Ofra frowned.

Gelton spread his hands: "The energy of the cultists seems to be beyond imagination, and it is obviously related to the anomalies in the Dragon Spine Mountains. I even suspect that a group of evil descendants of the ancient magic empire have infiltrated this holy land. If we put all our energy on those stone monsters, I'm afraid we'll fall right into the trap of those villains. Marshal, I can't leave the diocese, so I hope you can personally go to the royal capital and report this matter to His Holiness the Pope and His Majesty the King. I'm afraid this is more than just a regional crisis. We need support from the highest pontificate."

Ofra laughed when she heard this: "Oh, so you're finally feeling a sense of urgency."