Chapter 115 – Because I Have a Battle AI
“P-please, spare us!”
The mercenaries bound by the blood-red magic circle begged for their lives as they spotted the shaman.
Without a word, the shaman pulled out a crystal the size of a fist from his robe and held it up in front of the mercenaries.
Flash—!
“……!”
The moment the crystal burst into light, the mercenaries' eyes rolled back, and they collapsed to the ground like lifeless corpses. Calmly putting away the crystal, the shaman turned to the robed figures nearby and gave them a command.
“Gather the sacrifices.”
“……”
The robed figures moved sluggishly, dragging the unconscious mercenaries into one place. Altogether, there were three of them—each shaman appeared to control one of these figures.
“S-spare… me…”
One of the mercenaries, who had been knocked unconscious by a punch earlier, barely regained his blurry consciousness and stretched out his hand.
Grabbing hold of the hem of a robe, he pulled it slightly, revealing what was hidden beneath—what he had assumed was a human figure stared down at him with blood-red eyes.
Its entire body was wrapped in pure white cloth.
All over its body were crimson imprints resembling seals.
The voodoo doll, Bandike, clenched its fist.
Thud—!
The mercenary’s face caved in with a sickening crunch. Grabbing one of the mercenary’s ankles, the Bandike dragged him toward the growing pile of bodies.
The voodoo dolls steadily stacked up the sacrifices.
“Tch.”
Watching the Bandikes, the knight clicked his tongue briefly in irritation. His expression was filled with displeasure.
These unsightly creatures had been increasing in number lately, and as a result, the shamans had begun encroaching on the duties of the royal guard.
Their methods were so eerie and brutal that the knight didn’t even want to make eye contact with them. Yet, recently, the shamans had been assigned to protection detail.
Though annoyed, the knight calmed himself by glancing at his shield.
‘Well, at least I got some good gear out of it.’
The magical equipment—Artifacts—that they received were compensation enough.
If it weren’t for the gift bundles brought by Commander Lyon, he would have never taken on this protective role without complaint. There were so many artifacts that even the royal guard had received a fair share, thanks to the shamans’ contributions.
The clean-up was completed swiftly.
After stacking the mercenaries in one place and setting up ritual tools around them, the shamans prepared to move.
Once they set things up like this, a retrieval team would soon arrive to collect the bodies.
These shamans were part of a hunting team.
As the scarcity of mana stones increased, more and more mercenaries had entered Laup Forest in search of them. In response, the Nest of Shamans began hunting mercenaries to gather high-quality sacrifices.
Collecting mana stones was merely a bonus.
The knight’s job was to escort the shamans, protecting them from any potential threats.
As soon as the shamans gave a signal, the knight moved to stand beside them, ready to depart in search of their next prey. But just as he took a step forward, he froze.
His eyes narrowed as he gazed intently at one part of the forest.
A faint crimson light flickered in the distance.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s something over there.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Just wait.”
Moments later, the crimson light suddenly turned blue and closed the distance in an instant.
Fast. And sharp.
An arrow?
The knight widened his eyes and raised his shield, shouting,
“Ambush!”
“……!”
The shamans immediately shifted into combat stances, while the knight lowered his posture to protect them.
Suddenly, an electrifying sense of danger surged through the air.
A murderous aura.
The very atmosphere seemed to be sucked toward them and then poured down like a torrent.
What is this?
As the projectile drew closer, its size felt oddly large—no, it wasn’t an arrow.
A javelin?
Sensing something extraordinary, the knight hurriedly activated his shield’s power. A transparent barrier enveloped the shield, and just as the artifact’s protection extended to cover the group—
BOOOOOM—!!!
An enormous explosion engulfed the knight.
“Gaaahhhh!”
The shield flew out of his hand, spinning into the air.
It felt as if he had taken a direct hit from a ballista, a siege weapon.
The knight spun through the air before hitting the ground and rolling several times. Lying on his back and staring up at the sky, he realized that one of his arms had been torn off.
“Urgh… cough!”
As an elite knight, he quickly grasped the situation. If it weren’t for the artifact’s protection, it wouldn’t have been just his arm—his entire body would have been obliterated.
I have to get up!
Gritting his teeth, the knight tried to stand.
Thwung—
“…!”
Then, from a distance, he heard a chilling whistling sound.
Another terrifying projectile was coming?
Feeling its deadly presence on his skin, the knight’s body stiffened like a stone.
“It’s above!”
A dark object suddenly dropped from the sky.
There were four arrows.
But unlike before, these were smaller and gleamed with a golden hue.
The shamans pointed to the sky, prompting the Bandikes to leap into the air to intercept the arrows.
However—
Keeeaaack—!
Keeeck!
For the first time, a horrifying screech escaped from the voodoo dolls.
The moment the arrows struck them, their bodies turned golden and exploded—
Boom!
The knight’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Th-this is impossible!”
A sight too unreal to comprehend unfolded before him.
Though he had disparaged them earlier as lowly creations, the knight knew better than anyone how terrifying Bandikes were.
They were immortal puppets, impervious to conventional weapons. And yet, they had been annihilated, all three of them, in an instant.
“G-gold light! It’s him!”
“…Activate the magic circle!”
Him?
The shamans seemed to know something.
What the hell is happening?
The usually composed shamans, who always maintained their cool, now sounded more frantic than ever.
As ash scattered through the air, a figure descended through the hazy cloud.
The knight, still lying on the ground, could only stare blankly at the figure in disbelief.
His vision darkened.
Crunch!
“……”
The figure stomped down on the knight’s head, crushing it with ease.
As the knight’s life ended, I disassembled the Bow of Bloodlight, replacing it with a dagger.
The moment I took out the Bandikes and the knight, the game was over.
A perfect ambush.
I weaved through the falling ash and charged toward the shamans.
“I’ll hold him off! Go and report this!”
One of the shamans stepped forward to block my path.
As soon as my feet touched the ground, a crimson magic circle wrapped around me, paralyzing my body.
A shamanic trap.
While mercenaries would have panicked and struggled, I simply smirked and raised my right hand.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that black shamans are weak against me.
Flash—!
“Gaaahhh!”
The moment I activated an ancient glyph, the shaman blocking my path staggered back, coughing up blood.
Overwhelmed by the backlash of his own dark magic, he collapsed.
Knocking him out with the hilt of my dagger, I turned my attention to the fleeing shamans.
I hurled a dagger, tripping one of them, and followed up with a soccer kick to his jaw.
I had previously asked Reto how to neutralize a shaman.
[Rip out their tongue.]
“Wouldn’t that make it impossible to question them?”
[Then break their jaw and dislocate both arms.]
Reto’s violent suggestion was predictably brutal, so I opted for a slightly more humane approach—breaking their arms instead.
After dusting off my hands, I turned to see the last shaman disappearing into the forest.
Moments later, a scream echoed from the woods.
Nella appeared, dragging the unconscious shaman by his collar with the help of her shadow spirit, Banri.
Without context, it looked like something out of a horror movie, but knowing the truth, it was oddly reassuring.
‘Thank god Banri isn’t as temperamental as Fenry.’
Before the battle, I had asked the shadow spirit for assistance, just in case. Surprisingly, it was more cooperative than I expected.
Though its support relied on Nella’s mana, it was a reliable addition to our forces.
Of course, if Fenry found out, she’d probably demand a fee for using the spirit. I decided to ignore that possibility for now.
Nella gave me a curious look, as if she had just witnessed something unbelievable.
“Since when did you fight like that?”
“Me?”
“I didn’t expect you to take them down so easily.”
Three shamans and one knight—it didn’t seem like an easy fight.
Yet I had defeated them perfectly, almost as if it had all been scripted.
“I just followed instructions. I have a battle AI, after all.”
“Huh? AI?”
[My name is Reto.]
Before the battle began, I had reviewed the information in my head with Reto and adjusted my movements accordingly.
The Bandikes and black shamans were enemies I had faced at least once before.
The knight had been the wildcard, though I hadn’t expected him to withstand the Bow of Bloodlight’s full power.
Had he been able to fight properly, things might have gone differently.
[I sensed the power of an artifact.]
An artifact, huh…
Walking over to the shattered shield, I saw it lying next to the knight’s severed arm.
Since I had neutralized him with a surprise attack, I hadn’t seen him fight, but judging by the artifact, he must have been an elite knight.
“It looks like Kamel invested heavily in his knights by selling information about my divine name.”
“We should assess how well-equipped they are. Also, the shamans seemed to recognize your power.”
I nodded.
As soon as they saw the golden light, they had opted to retreat rather than fight.
It seemed that the information from the Bandike I encountered in the research forest had been shared, though whether Kamel had seen it himself remained uncertain.
“Well, let’s ask them.”
I tossed the captured shamans into a pile and loosened their wrists and ankles.
The Nest of Shamans also served as an intelligence organization for Blyer.
If they were capable enough to handle Bandikes, they surely had valuable information.
There was a lot I wanted to know, so I needed to get them talking as soon as possible.
As I walked ahead, I murmured softly.
“Reto.”
[There are 158 methods to make a lowly shaman talk. Of those, you can use about 20 with your current abilities.]
“…Why do you know so many?”
[Because they involve acts close to death.]
“……”
Is this lunatic serious?
Don’t tell me… did he actually try all those methods on himself?
[Your assumption is probably correct. I’m familiar with every torture method from ancient times.]
Damn it.
So this so-called immortal Retonicalus—was he actually some infamous villain from ancient times, lost to history?
Could it be that I was being deceived by him all along?
“…Give me the fastest and easiest one.”
[I recommend Holy Power infusion.]
I decided to shelve my suspicions for now and focus on getting answers.
“Aaaah! Please, I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!”
The interrogation was a resounding success.
When I infused their bodies with Holy Power, the backlash from their dark magic inflicted excruciating pain.
On top of that, since my Holy Power was overwhelmingly strong, it began dissolving their spiritual energy, causing them to fear losing their abilities.
Once they started talking, the information poured out like water.
Lies?
No problem—I had a fantasy version of a lie detector. I could tell if they were lying by monitoring their heartbeat.
As things progressed too smoothly, Nella looked a bit disappointed. Was it okay for a priestess to feel that way?
“I feel like we could squeeze more information out of them if we kept going…”
“……”
The elves in this region were definitely far removed from anything resembling peace. No sweet flavors here—just pure spice.
Crack—
When they had nothing more to offer, I ended their suffering swiftly. I couldn’t risk Kamel learning of our location.
For a moment, I felt a strange sense of detachment at how easily I snapped their necks.
It was brief, though.
I had fully adapted to this world.
“We need to sort through the information we’ve gathered, but let’s do it all at once later. We need to move immediately.”
“Alright.”
The information provided by the shamans revealed that there were three more hunting teams operating in the area.
Their composition was the same as the one we just encountered:
Three shamans and one knight per team.
While they were moving counterclockwise in search of prey, I planned to go clockwise and hunt them down instead.
The plan was simple—eliminate all of them and then consolidate the gathered information.
I wasn’t too concerned about being ambushed from behind.
There were no Hunting Dog Units, no Rengua, and—
‘No Massacre King, either.’
That meant we had already identified their approximate positions.
Summoning the Ring of Blood, I began running.