Cosplay
I paid the fee and put the wand back into my subspace pouch.
It wouldn't be good to walk around with a wand in my hand.
It would be like advertising to everyone that I'm a mage.
The strength of an original mage comes when the opponent doesn't even realize I'm a mage.
With that in mind, I used magic.
[Memory]
First, I had to check the memories of this area.
And I had to track where the bandit went.
So, I used Memory to check the memories of the area.
It was a bit of a daunting task, but it was fine.
Catching the bandit came first.
How long had I been checking the memories?
“...Found it.”
I could see traces of someone passing by here.
The bandit was moving, looking around hurriedly as if someone was chasing him.
I watched carefully where he was running away.
The bandit killed a nearby resident and took his clothes.
He was dressed in rags.
But the fierce murderous intent on his face couldn't be hidden.
And then he headed for the sewers.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve been to the sewers.’
I hadn't been there since I dealt with that strange monster before.
Feeling a strange tremor, I entered the sewers.
And a moment later.
I could smell the thick stench of blood coming from the sewers.
The sewers were always dirty, but they didn't smell like blood.
“Here you are.”
I spoke to the bandit who might be listening somewhere.
With that in mind, I used magic.
[Track]
I used Track on every single drop of blood around.
Then there was a place where all the blood gathered.
So I headed straight there.
I put up a Barrier just in case and moved on.
My goal was to kill the bandit.
It wouldn't do for me to be the one to get caught.
Thump, thump.
I walked through the sewers without hesitation.
There were places where blood was splattered here and there.
He must have killed all the homeless people living here.
I don't know why.
‘..Does he enjoy killing people?’
If he was the kind of person who enjoyed killing people, he shouldn't be left in this world.
He was a human being who was of no use to the world.
How long had I been walking?
“It's blocked.”
The road was blocked.
To be precise, there was originally a door, but it had been broken down and the debris was blocking the entrance.
I knew because I had been here before.
This was blocked on purpose.
[Strength]
I used magic and put strength into my fist.
And-
Bang-!
The pile of debris shattered at once.
As I walked through the debris, there were traces of the blood I had been tracking.
“...Cruel.”
It was cruel.
It was as if the bodies had been deliberately mutilated and put on display in strange shapes.
I had a bad feeling about this.
It wasn't this cruel when I saw it last time.
It seemed like he had gone through a lot of emotional changes while he was locked up in the lord's prison.
With that in mind, I used magic once again.
[Memory]
I read the memories around me.
The bandit entered the sewers, brutally killed all the homeless people living there, and gathered them in one place.
It was an unpleasant memory.
I don't know why he did it.
If he was unhappy, he should have come to me.
Slightly annoyed, I moved on.
And at that moment.
Whoosh-
A dagger flew towards me.
But I didn't dodge it.
Because I had a Barrier.
And I wasn't quick enough to dodge a dagger that flew at me so suddenly.
Clang-!
The dagger hit the barrier and pierced right through it.
‘..What?’
Is that even possible?
To pierce through the Barrier like that?
My Barrier had rarely been broken through.
It was a good thing I had multiple layers of Barrier up, otherwise I would have been in trouble.
Relieved, I checked the direction the dagger had flown from.
And there-
“Ah, this is going to be a pain.”
There were traces of a demonic ritual being performed.
One of the books I read at the academy said that there were many cults that worshipped demons in the world.
To think they would perform a demonic ritual here.
As I was thinking that, the bandit appeared.
“Ehehe…”
The bandit revealed his face with a disgusting laugh.
But… something felt very unpleasant.
It was as if his face was very different from the one I had seen before.
The mana I felt was different too.
‘..This is obvious.’
It was obvious that he had made a deal with a demon.
There was no other way to explain the atmosphere that was so different from before.
As soon as I made that judgment-
[Dark Spear]
I summoned a spear of darkness in the air and thrust it straight at the bandit.
Puck.
The Dark Spear pierced his stomach, but the bandit was still grinning.
The situation was not good.
So, I took out the wand I had put in my subspace pouch.
It felt like the power of my magic had increased a bit.
My mana was recovering faster too.
It seemed that the Griffin's milk had definitely had an effect.
Anyway.
‘..This kind of opponent is annoying.’
Even though I had attacked the enemy, he didn't seem to be hurt.
I learned about this kind of situation at the academy.
“Your heart is somewhere else.”
A contract with a demon using the heart as a medium, and the heart is hidden somewhere else.
As long as the heart wasn’t destroyed, the person who made the contract with the demon wouldn't die easily.
That's why so many people try to make contracts with demons.
Of course, only 72 people can do it.
‘..Which one of the 72 demons is it?’
The one-eyed bandit was strong.
That must have caught the demon's eye.
He must have been burning with hatred for me.
With that in mind, I used magic.
[Memory]
The bandit wouldn't have been here long.
So, it was highly likely that he had hidden his heart nearby.
If he hid it somewhere else and it was stolen, his life would be forfeit.
I read the memories of this area.
But at that moment.
Bang-!
He charged at me with incredible speed and punched my Barrier.
Multiple layers of my Barrier were shattered.
I was also pushed back slightly.
“..I can't do that here.”
I could use it if I had to… but if I did, the sewers would be rendered useless.
So, I couldn’t use ‘Tsar Bomba’.
It wasn’t the Tsar Bomba from before, but the enhanced Tsar Bomba.
If I used it, the sewers would surely turn into a living hell.
With that in mind, I deployed the spell formula.
[Inferno]
Flames gathered in the air and burned the opponent.
No matter how invincible he was, if his body was on fire, it would be difficult for him to move.
Whoosh-
The gas in the sewers got in the way a little, but thanks to the well-functioning ventilation system, there was no chain explosion.
As I was watching the bandit burn, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
It was similar to a champion from a certain game who used fire.
“Hmm.”
I was a bit nervous because of the sudden punch, but once I started using my wand, he wasn’t that difficult an opponent.
But that didn’t mean I had completely won.
‘I need to find his heart quickly.’
I had to find his heart and destroy it quickly.
Burning him was also consuming mana, so I couldn’t burn him forever.
By the way.
“Ah, when will I find it?”
The sewers were very wide.
And the bandit must have been in the sewers for more than a day.
Then.
It was highly likely that he had hidden it somewhere out of sight.
“He’s made it so I can’t even use Memory.”
He had made it so that I couldn’t even use Memory, which reads the memories of the area.
He had deliberately disturbed the mana and scattered the memories.
This situation was a bit of a headache.
Where should I start searching?
As I was thinking that, I heard someone walking behind me.
I turned around at the sound-
“Ehehe…”
It was the bandit, walking towards me with his entire body engulfed in flames.
To be honest, I didn’t think much of it before, but now that I saw the bandit walking towards me like this, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘..I should post this on the forum.’
If I posted this on the forum, it might even make it to the top.
This kind of cosplay wasn’t something you could see every day.
And I hadn’t been able to get to the top of the forum lately, so I wanted to go.
With that in mind, I took a picture and posted it on the forum.
[Author: ReallyDirtPoor]
[Title: Saw someone cosplaying on the street…jpg]
[Content: (Photo) This is the real deal lol Even the leader]
After posting that, I slowly started searching for the demon’s heart.
Inferno consumed quite a lot of mana, but my mana regeneration speed was also fast.
I figured I could use it for another hour without any problems.
“Where could it be?”
I lifted the floorboards and checked everywhere.
But the demon’s heart was nowhere to be seen.
I was starting to run low on mana.
So, I stopped using Inferno.
The flames died down immediately.
“…”
The bandit didn’t laugh anymore.
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