Conqueror

After the 3 days the king promised, the people from Polk finally arrived.

We were sitting on the top of the roof of the inn. Its one of the highest vantage point of the whole kingdom of Cagyer. We saw the people from Polk walk through the gates. It seems that they were welcomed and had good reputation with the people here. Just about as we were to follow them, Yefa pointed out something.

"Zieglind... Isn't that...?"

I looked to where she was pointing and to my surprise, I saw Greta and Zeta following them. "What?! Why are they here? Damn. Yefa, use blink to go to my room. I need to contact the king."

"Yes." Yefa grabbed my hand and in an instant, we blinked back to my room.

"Go and follow them for now. And if Zeta or Greta comes near you act as if you know nothing. Tell this to Precia too."

"Will do." Yefa blinked again back to the roof.

"Haa... Damn, what's happening now?" I began contacting the king. The line connected. "Why is Greta and Zeta here?!"

"Lord Zieglind... I told you to be formal and use messengers..."

"I don't care about that. Why are they here?"

The king made an exasperated sigh. "They're distractions and your way of learning their plans."

"How?"

"Use Telepathy on one of them and make them repeat what they're saying."

"*sigh* That seems plausible. Anyway, I'm going to go now. I'll contact you if we're inside later."

I disconnected the line and connected to Zeta. "Zeta, what happened?"

"Huh?!" Zeta screamed on the other end.

"Shh! Don't be loud. You'll be discovered. Anyway, why are you here?"

"Ah yes. The king sent some troops to our village and asked for escort. We declined at first but they said you were in on it. So we just decided to help."

"Haa... You idiots. Well, thank you. Tell that to Greta later. Tell me if you see any government related people you see or any high ranking officials. I'm going to keep the connection intact."

"Yes!"

"Is the village fine?"

"Yes, there are some troops from Itz. Rize and Afal are guarding the place as we speak."

"Good. Anyway, I'll follow you now. Just repeat what they say in your head."

For a couple of hours, we spent following the people from Polk. There were some strong looking guards that were following them. They've gone into several shops and none of ehat they're talking about isn't really all that important.

Night finally came and Zeta seemed to have picked up a conversation worth mentioning. It seems 20 minutes from now, they'll be meeting in an underground place.

"I see... Just lay low and act as a bodyguard. I'll tell you what to do next." I told Zeta over the telepathy.

I gave signals to Yefa and Precia. We're now infiltrating the castle. We waited for 20 minutes outside the castle and after the two months we were here, we finally saw someone come out of the gates. It was about 8 people that came out. But something heavily bothered me. They had the same floating arrow on their head just like Tark. "They're players?!" It seems I caught the attention of Yefa and Precia.

"What's wrong Zieglind?" Precia asked.

"Damn it. I knew this isn't normal. They're players."

"Players?" Yefa asked.

"I'll tell you everything after this. We just need to focus on the mission for now."

After they left, I didn't feel any power pressure for them. They are either low leveled or just hiding it intentionally. Ignoring that for now, we blinked to the other side of the wall.

"Okay, commence mission. I'll be keeping in touch with Telepathy." I connected us all.

We all split and went our ways. "Sprint!" I began running through the front door of the castle. I went in and it seems nobody is here.

I began running to the top of the castle and there were no people nor guards at any room. "Yefa, have you found anything?"

"Yes." Yefa spoke through the Telepathy. "There is a jail here filled with slaves. What should I do?"

"Nothing... For now. Just go find something useful..." I can't help but feel guilty. It is true that they'll just be dead weights and it'll increase our chance of being caught. "Precia, you?"

"The other tower is a storage for grains and food."

"Ah darn it. I should've given you the bottomless box. Wait."

I began running downstairs at the entrance.

"I left the bottomless box at the entrance of the castle. Pick it up and grab every food or edible things you see. Anyway, continue what you're doing. I'll be going at the top now."

I ran back up to the top. I found a large door perfect for a large room. I opened the door only to find a large table and several chairs. "What... Is this?" All of the people sitting on the chairs are all dead. "Tsk. No time." I began looking at every paper they held and used Perfect Imagery to capture these things.

Everything here was detailed. I can see everything here. From the conflicts, data on population, adventurers and so much more.

After a short while, I was done copying everything.

I went out the room and explored more of the upper floors. The hallways were decorated in armors and several weapons. They had really good stats too but it would be too risky to get anything here. I'll get discovered if someone uses this or I use this outside of this kingdom. I went to the top of the castle and I found the King's or Queen's chamber. A single throne sat in the middle of it and a dead man wearing a crown sat on top of it.

"Oh? Welcome. How does a stray lamb got here?" A man's voice was heard behind my back. I turned around and saw a man wearing a full white armor. But the thing that bothered me the most is the icon is hovering above his head.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"That icon... I see... You're a player too? Oh, sorry for the sight. That king is an idiot. He was going on about how he want to hide his identity so that no one will target him."

"That's the king?" The dead man sitting on the throne was the king.

"Yes! He's an idiot. You agree with me right? This, this is a blessing from god. And it is just right to worship him."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm taking over the world by killing the kings and queens one by one and spreading the love of my religion."

"You're a madman."

"No! That statement is severely incorrect. The love of god shall reach the whole cosmos of our universe. If one shall disagree such as you, death is the only salvation for you!"

"Come, Bloodlust!"

"Hoo...? That is the power of the demons. The unsightly color of red and black. Disgusting."

I rushed at him using sprint and swung my blade at him. But it just passes through his body.

"Haha... I know you were here the whole time... I planned everything from the start. My next target is Itz. You better get ready... Player."

His body turned into fog and scattered throughout the whole castle. "That's a fake? Wait... No! This castle was just a decoy! Damn it!" I contacted Zeta and Greta using Telepathy. "Get out of there, now!" But no voice could be heard on the other side.