Karnak, Monarch of Death

Karnak’s current mission was to rescue Edia. However, that wasn’t their official objective. As members of the King's Order, their formal mission was to gather and report comprehensive intelligence on the Wellad branch of the Cult of the Black God, enabling its eventual eradication.

The Ethriel King's Order already knew that cultists were hiding somewhere within the Kalenta Great Forest. That much was clear from their repeated appearances in Wellad City. They had also confirmed that the cultists were using an abandoned dungeon in the forest as their base of operations.

The problem was that they didn't know the exact location of the base or how many cultists were hiding there. For this reason, the Order had been unable to act. Fortunately, the Eustil King's Order had requested their cooperation at the perfect time.

Thanks to Karnak's interrogations, they had discovered that the Wellad branch of the Cult of the Black God was hiding in the abandoned dungeon known as Maleficus. Using guild records left behind by adventurers, they had narrowed down the dungeon's location to a specific region within the Kalenta Forest.

However, the information lacked detail. Even with an accurate map, navigating the forest was notoriously difficult. On top of that, adventurers, known for their lack of meticulousness in documentation, had left behind only vague records.

Determining the exact location of Maleficus and the route to reach it required firsthand investigation. Once they infiltrated the dungeon, they would map its internal structure and assess the cult's approximate strength. Only then would the Ethriel King's Order launch an official raid.

Rescuing Edia along the way? That was a bonus. Why not just have Karnak's group wipe out the cultists themselves, you ask?

Well, it turns out that's not an option either.

For a variety of reasons, Karnak's group was currently roaming the forest, investigating suspicious areas and hunting monsters.

No matter where one went, the easiest way to gather information was through the locals. And in the case of the Maleficus Dungeon, the locals were the cultists. By eliminating monsters wherever they went, they hoped to find traces of necromantic influence, as cultists near the dungeon would likely use necromancy to control the monsters and defend against outside threats.

Yet despite spending more than half a day killing various monsters, they had yet to encounter any under a necromancer's control.

Serati let out a long sigh.