Chapter 160. Drrrk (1)
Uma willingly brought out the food.
“It’s nothing much, but I hope you enjoy it.”
Slightly stale, hardened bread, a mishmash stew with all sorts of ingredients, and roasted chicken.
Just as Uma said, the meal was undeniably modest.
Especially from Anagin’s perspective, who had been eating well for a while in the Festival Village.
However, everything has to be seen relatively.
For a poor traveling troupe wandering from place to place, it was true that they had put out quite a generous spread.
That alone was proof that the ‘favor’ they wanted to ask of Anagin was important.
Anagin tore into the roasted chicken as he listened.
“Not long ago, Magno interrogated us. They asked if we had betrayed the organization.”
“Did you?”
“…No!”
“Then why?”
“They saw us getting along well with you, Lord Anagin.”
“I don’t remember ever getting along with you.......”
“It seems Magno didn’t see it that way.”
“Hmm, how did Magno even find out? Are there other Magno members in the Festival Village?”
“I’m not entirely sure about that either. It’s not like everyone in Magno knows each other. If anything, there are more who don’t.”
Anagin could roughly guess what kind of organization Magno was.
It didn’t seem very structured. Then again, they did call themselves an organization that protects mages. It was likely they were scattered all over.
“Perhaps someone on our side secretly reported it.”
“The Pebble Traveling Troupe ratted you out? Are you suspecting your own people?”
“Rather than suspicion, I’m just talking about a possibility. Weak people tend to seek security by attaching themselves here and there, so I don’t particularly intend to blame them for it.”
Uma spoke bitterly, as if it were unfortunate. Well, that wasn’t Anagin’s concern.
“What’s the point?”
“That Magno suspects us of being traitors.”
After going in a circle, they were back to the start.
Uma continued her explanation.
“It might have been one thing if we had merely come into contact with you, Lord Anagin, but the mages who went earlier to retrieve the Coins of Greed were also dealt with.”
For a moment, Anagin wanted to sneer, ‘Ah, I see. So I was supposed to just quietly get robbed!’ but he held it in.
Whatever the case, he had received help once.
“So what do you want me to do? Protect you from Magno?”
“It’s not a bad idea, but that would only waste your time, Lord Anagin, so I must decline. Besides, it’s faster to cover up a misunderstanding than to clear it.”
Now it finally seemed like they were getting to the point.
“Cover it up… What do I have to do to make that happen?”
“By any chance, are you familiar with the Barbaroi Cult?”
“I’ve fought them once, but I don’t know the details. Just that they’re bastards worship pig-like things?”
Anagin, who had only picked up rough information while fighting, answered like that. Just that they were some kind of heretical group worshipping cows and pigs.
“That’s roughly correct. It gets more complicated if we go into detail. They’re a massive force that threatens Hellas and prevents it from advancing to Anapik—”
“—Just get to the point.”
It was somewhat interesting, but not enough for him to hear the full explanation, so Anagin cut her off.
“The point is that the Barbaroi Cult is powerful.”
Anagin nodded, roughly understanding.
After all, even Meleager the Immortal of the Argonaut Expedition Team had defeated a Barbaroi Cult bishop listed as one of his major achievements.
“And Magno, too, has long taken an interest in the powerful Barbaroi Cult. They believe it has great research value.”
“So?”
“…We would like you, Lord Anagin, to help us capture a priest of the Barbaroi Cult.”
* * *
Capture a priest of the Barbaroi Cult.
More precisely, they said it was about capturing a “priest” who was just on the verge of becoming a “bishop.”
“A priest?”
“The Barbaroi Cult has ranks. Archbishop, bishop, and priest, in that order. There is said to be another rank above the Archbishop, but it’s only a rumor, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
Uma said that, but Anagin found himself a bit concerned.
It wasn’t anything major—just that the Barbaroi Cult felt more structured than he had expected.......
He had assumed that since they worshipped barbarian gods, they would be more crude and disorganized, so it was somewhat unexpected.
Then again, thinking about it calmly, maybe it wasn’t that strange.
The plan had only gone wrong because of Anagin, but Hippomenes had shown a rather meticulous side.
For example, instead of trying to take Atalanta by force, he had attempted to obtain her legitimately through the Groom Tournament.
The vast amount of treasures prepared for the tournament, along with the Golden Apple meant to sway Atalanta’s father’s greed, were just extras.
If Anagin hadn’t caused that outrageous chaos by ambushing Hippomenes, the plan might have actually succeeded.
Perhaps those Barbaroi Cult bastards weren’t as barbaric as people made them out to be.
Just a guess, though.
Still, it piqued his interest.
Not that he had any intention of praying to pigs, but he had recently grown quite disappointed with the gods of Hellas.
No, maybe not disappointed. You need expectations to feel disappointment.
Hmm, no matter how he thought about it, “shittyl” was the most accurate way to put it.
After all, he had learned that to receive blessings, one had to offer an absurd price in return, namely, the merit a practitioner had accumulated.
From Anagin’s perspective, someone who valued what was his, it felt like an extremely losing deal. No, it was something closer to exploitation.
It was enough to make him wonder why other practitioners even followed this. Did they not know, or did they know and still accept it?
Of course, learning this didn’t directly help Anagin’s practice, but it did give him one strong conviction.
Out of Tacheon (他薦), Yeokcheon (逆天), and Jacheon (自薦),
He was certain he had made the right choice in choosing Jacheon.
And he felt like he was beginning to understand, at least a little, how Jacheon worked.
It literally meant reaching the heavens through the merit one accumulated for oneself.
In the past, he hadn’t really understood what that meant, but now that he knew the truth behind blessings, it made sense.
If one kept accumulating the kind of merit even gods coveted, one could eventually reach the heavens.
That is, as long as one never handed over that merit to anyone else and kept it entirely for oneself.
It might sound a bit strange, but Anagin found this whole process rather interesting.
He didn't know if he had lost his mind after coming back from the brink of death.
Anyway, having learned something new about practice and the gods of Hellas, his curiosity now shifted to the Barbaroi Cult.
Who knew, he might gain something useful here as well.
No, it felt like he would. He had a feeling. A baseless, unfounded feeling.
Anagin decided to trust that vague intuition.
“Before I accept, I have a question.”
“Please, go ahead.”
As Anagin gave a positive response, Uma smiled.
“You said this guy is a priest just about to become a bishop... how do you know that? That’s pretty specific.”
“We captured someone related to them.”
“Related? Are they here?”
“No, not here. We caught them further up ahead. They were a subordinate working under a Barbaroi Cult priest.”
The subordinate Uma mentioned was a lure, someone who traveled around Anapik and Hellas, enticing people to be offered as sacrifices to the priest. Someone who sweet-talked people and delivered them straight to the cult.
But as the saying goes, if you keep doing it, you’ll get caught. Their identity was eventually exposed, and they ended up on the run, only to be captured by Magno.
“They’re from a poor fishing village in southern Anapik. More precisely, a village that used to be poor.”
“Used to be? That’s past tense.”
“Yes, because it’s no longer poor. It was originally a declining fishing village, but after cooperating with the priest, they started catching enormous amounts of fish and became wealthy again.”
“Sounds fishy. Is the priest in that village?”
“No, they’re said to be on an island out at sea nearby.”
“So, there’s a priest on the island, and they’re controlling the fishing village from there?”
“Yes. There are probably other cooperating fishing villages as well.”
Having finished his meal at some point, Anagin crossed his arms and stared at the ceiling for a moment.
“I get that they’re troublesome, but are they really beyond your ability to capture? You said they’re not even a bishop, just a priest. Are priests that strong, too?”
Anagin asked based on his experience fighting Hippomenes.
Hippomenes, who was at the bishop-level, had been both strong and troublesome—he acknowledged that much.
Not just his size and strength, but those parasites had been an absolute nightmare. Because of them, Anagin had been forced to fight in blazing flames.
If he had tried to deal with it in a conventional way, it would’ve taken several times more effort.
In that sense, he had been quite lucky.
Still, whether a mere priest would be that strong was questionable.
If there were ranks, that meant there was a noticeable gap in power. In that case, it shouldn’t be that difficult.
The reason Anagin was bothering to question this was because he suspected the mages’ intentions.
After all.......
“Who knows what kind of tricks I might pull.”
If the mages were targeting it, that meant there was something to gain.
Bluntly speaking, what if Anagin pretended to help and just took everything for himself? Surely the mages had considered that possibility.
Uma didn’t spout nonsense about trusting Anagin’s honor or promises. Instead, she gave a more practical answer.
“Would there really be anything worth scheming for, in your eyes, Lord Anagin?”
“Who knows. Maybe there will be once I get there.”
“That’s a fair point. Still, we need your help. To be honest, we would prefer to resolve this without borrowing someone else’s strength, but we’ve judged that it would be difficult.”
“Because the priest is strong?”
“No, as far as we know, priests aren’t particularly threatening. However, the priest there has reportedly obtained a special magical tool, one that controls the sea and fish. And on top of that…”
“On top of that?”
“There are many who assist them, so we determined it would be difficult for just us alone. If you help us, Lord Anagin, our Pebble Traveling Troupe will be able to avoid Magno’s interrogation this time.”
“Does that even matter? Feels like they’ll just find another excuse to pick on you later. What will you do then?”
Uma gave a small laugh and shrugged.
“What choice do we have? Rather than worrying about the distant future, we have to deal with what’s right in front of us first.”
It wasn’t wrong, so Anagin nodded.
Thinking about the future was a luxury concern. Most people were already too busy dealing with what was right in front of them.
And it would be arrogant to lecture those trying to survive on their own.
“Fine. I’ll accept, for now. But I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll discuss the detailed terms directly with your superior. If that’s agreed, I’ll help as much as I can.”
* * *
Anagin’s reason for setting a condition was simple.
Even if his life had been saved, he had no intention of working for cheap.
Who was Anagin, after all? A man who had refused his father’s advice to learn farming thousands of times, just because he didn’t want to work for scraps.
That was why, to preserve his pride, Anagin agreed, but insisted that the detailed terms be discussed directly with their superior.
Besides, Anagin himself had once debated whether to kill the Pebble Traveling Troupe and ultimately spared them, so it evened out.
If they didn’t like it, they could try him.
Instead of protesting this unreasonable stance, Uma simply smiled and said she would relay Anagin’s intentions to her superiors.
She seemed to think she had done enough for now.
Magno, too, appeared to accept it for the time being. It seemed they truly needed Anagin’s help.
“They said they’ll come here, so please wait.”
“I’ll wait.”
He had things to do anyway, so it wasn’t much of a loss.
Anagin first went to find Pairon.
For reference, Pairon hadn’t returned to the Interspatial Bag. Instead, he remained in his boar form and was leisurely staying with the Pebble Traveling Troupe.
“I’m standing guard because I’m worried about you, Brother.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Do you even have a conscience?”
Oink.
Pairon nodded, agreeing with Sphinx.
Regardless, Anagin got straight to the point.
He told Pairon to bring out the recovered Beast Devourer and Giant’s Cutting Board.
He had dropped both during the fight with Orpheus. If they had been left behind, it would’ve pissed him off so much he wouldn’t have been able to sleep for days.
Fortunately, just as Sphinx said, Pairon had retrieved both the Beast Devourer and the Giant’s Cutting Board.
“Well done, Pairon.”
Anagin was so relieved that he actually praised Pairon.
Oink, oink.
“As a reward, I’ll give you a mountain of gems—”
“—Alright, let’s check if they’re intact.”
Oink!
“Damn! …This guy.”
“Damn, he’s more entertaining than we are.”
The troupe members watching from the side made comments, but Anagin ignored them.
Inspecting the Beast Devourer and the Giant’s Cutting Board was something he genuinely needed to do.
The fight with Orpheus hadn’t been light by any means, and naturally, it had put a heavy strain on his weapons.
The Beast Devourer had even displayed a new function—“Pigmenes Complete Form (estimated),” while the Giant’s Cutting Board had endured countless slashes and shockwaves.
If even a crack had formed, it would’ve been painful to see.
He had just upgraded them not long ago!
Anagin inspected them carefully, and fortunately, neither was broken nor cracked.
Of course, that didn’t mean there were no changes.
“Hmm… did I overuse it?”
Anagin muttered as he looked at the flaming pig engraving on the blade of the Beast Devourer.
The pattern itself was unchanged, but the problem was its color. Unlike before, when it had been vivid, it was now faded.
“I’m no expert, but it feels like the power within the Beast Devourer has decreased.”
Sphinx shared the same opinion.
Well, considering Pigmenes had evolved into its final form during the fight with Orpheus, it wasn’t something to complain about.
Thanks to that, he had been able to seize a chance to counterattack.
Still, just in case, Anagin infused Energy(Γι) into the Beast Devourer to check its condition, also to see if it was still functioning properly.
Oinkkkk.......
Perhaps it wasn't completely broken, as a small piglet emerged when he infused Energy (Γι).
However, compared to before, it was smaller, thinner, and lacked strength. On top of that, only one could be summoned now; summoning multiple at once was no longer possible.
He felt a bit disappointed, since he had confirmed that summoning several at once had been surprisingly useful, but he chose not to dwell on it.
After all, he was about to go deal with the Barbaroi Cult, there might be an opportunity to restore it there.
And so, Anagin spent his time checking his equipment, examining his physical condition, practicing his Energy, and asking questions about Magno’s mages. Finally—
“Please, come in.”
“I heard the Practitioner Killer is here?”
The Magno mage he had been waiting for finally arrived.
The Pebble Traveling Troupe only handled odd jobs like gathering information and providing shelter—this is the real Magno.
As Uma brought him over, Anagin remained seated as he greeted him.
“Well, now, nice to meet you. I’m Anagin. Now then, let’s discuss the detailed terms.”
“The detailed terms…?”
“We need to talk about how to split the spoils. Come on, have a seat.”
Anagin tapped the seat across from him with his palm, inviting him again.
The mage who had come from the real Magno wore an expression that suggested this was not what he had expected.