How the Cult Saves the World

Chapter 21

I stepped into the Cartel Forest. Chester, the paladin, was at the front, followed by Alphius, then me, and Zain at the back.

We didn't arrange the formation beforehand, but it turned out to be the most efficient one.

We all walked through the forest as if we had made a promise, keeping our presence as low as possible.

"It feels like we're doing some kind of courage test..."

The Cartel Forest at night was like something out of a horror novel.

It was so quiet that not even a sound of insects could be heard, and there was a damp smell of grass.

The only sounds were our breathing and the footsteps on the branches and leaves.

The tall trees and the unknown plants added to the atmosphere.

Everything made me tense. But I was able to stay calm to some extent because our current strength was considerable.

Zain was one thing, but both Alphius and Chester were strong enough to match their S-rank status.

Darkwolves were powerful, but they were no match for the two kids.

'Especially Chester, he easily slaughtered low-level monsters.'

I didn't notice it at the time, but I realized it later. Chester was as strong as Terdius, if not stronger.

Of course, unless the two fought each other, I couldn't rank them precisely.

-Be careful. If it gets dangerous, run away immediately. The angels will protect you.

'Let's see how it goes first.'

As I casually replied to Kyros' words, it happened. Chester, who was walking ahead, stopped and raised one hand.

As soon as we saw the signal, we all stopped without hesitation. I tightened my grip on the mace, and Alphius, who was in front of me, cast a barrier.

Alphius' barrier was big enough to cover all of us. And then,

Roar!! Bang! Bang!

The attack began with the sound of beasts howling.

Crash!

Darkwolves appeared out of nowhere and rushed towards us. Fortunately, they bounced off the barrier and rolled on the ground. But they got up quickly as if nothing had happened.

"Damn it."

Zain cursed behind me and did something that made a noise.

"Master, what should we do?"

Alphius asked me. We were surrounded by darkwolves in an instant.

Six darkwolves were staring at us from around the barrier.

I scanned them. They looked like nothing more than ferocious dogs when I saw them in graphics, but they were actually very intimidating in reality.

'To see wolves here.'

The darkwolves were hard to see in the darkness, but their yellow eyes were clear. And the size of the darkwolves seemed to be twice that of a human.

This was a different kind of fear from facing monsters.

And it was midnight. The darkwolves got a buff at night.

According to HSAW, the buff for darkwolves was that their attack power and movement speed increased when there was no sun.

'Well, at least there aren't many of them...'

After a brief thought, I came up with a plan and opened my mouth.

"Let's take care of them."

As soon as I said that, Chester and Alphius nodded their heads.

The barrier was lifted in an instant. At the same time, Chester flew forward.

Swoosh---

He cut through the wind with his sword and slashed two darkwolves in a blink of an eye.

The two darkwolves fell without even screaming.

After that, Alphius used his holy power to kill another darkwolf, and I also moved my body.

Grrr!

I swung my mace at the darkwolf that ran towards me.

Thud!

-Good job!

The darkwolf hit by the holy mace collapsed with its head caved in.

Thanks to the item's advantage of being holy, I could easily kill one of them.

And then, the remaining two charged at me again.

I swung my mace without a break.

Whizz~ Thwack!

The two darkwolves dropped dead without a sound.

"Phew.."

When all the darkwolves around us were taken care of, I unconsciously relaxed as if I had been tense.

"Is everyone okay? No injuries?"

"Yes! We're fine!"

"Me too!"

Alphius and Chester smiled and nodded their heads.

-You're doing great, kid.

Maybe it was because I had some experience fighting low-level monsters before, but it was a bit easier this time.

"Wow, that was close."

Zain came up to me, breathing heavily, unlike the two kids. He had a bow in his hand.

"What a fuss."

"'What a fuss'? That was really dangerous! If it wasn't for the Master's barrier... Ugh, horrible."

I chuckled as I saw Zain shivering.

"Let's move on."

We still had a long way to go. Then, Zain raised his hand.

"Wait a minute, Master. Just wait a little bit."

"Why?"

When I asked him, Zain ran to the corpses of the darkwolves. He took out a knife from his pocket and started to rip off their fangs.

'Oh, that.'

It was a junk item that you could get from killing darkwolves in HSAW.

"These are quite valuable, you know."

It wasn't a big amount, though.

"Hehe, it's the basic of a merchant to not neglect even the small things that make money."

He seemed to have read my expression.

While Zain was collecting the fangs, I looked around.

The main purpose of this quest was to meet the believers of Kyros Faith.

The believer was in a village somewhere deep in the forest.

It must have meant the 'Cartel Village' in the forest.

And the location of the village was...

'I can't forget it.'

I couldn't forget it or fail to remember it. I cleared it once, but my character died here several times.

If you enter the Cartel Forest and walk straight, you will face a moss-covered tombstone. The tombstone says 'Cartel Forest'. If you face the tombstone, you have to move to the right.

The Cartel Village is near the end of the right side of the tombstone.

"Ha ha, what a jackpot."

Zain finished collecting the fangs and laughed wickedly. After he returned to the formation, I spoke.

"Let's go to the right."

"Yeah, it's faster to go to the village if we want to find someone."

Zain also seemed to know the location of the Cartel Village.

"There's a village in this forest?"

"Yeah, yeah. There are people who live in such scary places."

After one battle, everyone seemed to relax a bit and started to chat as we moved. But we still maintained our formation.

As we wandered through the forest, we encountered two more packs of darkwolves.

'They're quite numerous.'

The battles were as easy as the first one.

But one problem was... The darkwolf leader still didn't show up.

'Is it because the quest progress is not enough?'

In HSAW, too, I met the darkwolf leader at the end of the quest.

As we continued our steps toward the village.

At some point, I saw a light in front of me. It was hidden by the darkness of the forest, but there was definitely a light.

"What is that light...?"

"I think that's the village over there."

Alphius and Chester widened their eyes as they spotted the light.

I quickened my pace instead of answering. We walked briskly towards the light.

And finally, we found Cartel Village.

"Is this the place?"

"A, a village?"

The two kids tilted their heads as I smiled faintly. Then, Zain answered.

"Yes, this is Cartel Village."

It was no wonder that Alphius and Chester were doubtful.

What appeared before our eyes was a small and shabby place that could hardly be called a village.

Around the village, there was a wooden fence that surrounded it. Moreover, the fence had wooden planks haphazardly patched up, as if it had been repaired many times.

And in one corner of the fence, there was a sign that said 'Cartel Village' that was leaning to one side.

"It's a bit small."

Inside the fence, there were only about ten wooden houses that were too modest to be called a village.

And in the middle of them, there was something that illuminated the dark forest.

It looked like a street lamp, but it was actually a wooden pole with a crimson stone embedded in it.

"What is that?"

"A, a stone?"

The two kids also wondered the same thing as me.

"That's a sunstone. As the name implies, it's a stone that contains the power of the sun. Amazingly, such a precious thing is in this village..."

Zain muttered in awe. By the way, this guy seemed to covet the sunstone.

Anyway, Cartel Village was able to protect itself from the darkwolves thanks to the sunstone.

The sunstone not only contained the power of the sun but also blocked the magic of the darkwolves. Besides, the darkwolves couldn't survive under sunlight.

I approached the village. At that moment, someone appeared from behind the fence.

"Is this a dream or reality?"

He must have been sleeping near the fence, judging by his sudden appearance.

I put on a business smile and greeted the middle-aged man.

"Hello."

Then I felt a gaze from beside me. Zain was looking at me with a slightly annoyed eye.

Huh, what? You also smile like this when you work.

I wrote 'I'm a harmless human' on my face and walked towards the middle-aged man who looked like a gatekeeper. Then his eyes widened.

"No, no... How can there be people at this hour? Am I seeing things?"

"No, you're not."

As I got closer and stuck to the fence, his eyes grew even bigger.

"Did you enter Cartel Forest at this hour?"

"Yes, we did!"

Alphius came up to me with a bright smile and answered instead of me.

"No way... How did you...? There are darkwolves in the forest!"

"Yes, we know."

I nodded and smiled, and then Chester ran up to my side. He raised his hand and shouted.

"We, we killed them on our way here!"

"Wha, what?!!"

The man's eyes were about to pop out now.

That's when people came out of the village.

"What's all this noise?"

Among the people who came out one by one from their houses, an old man who looked like the oldest came over and asked the middle-aged man.

"El, elder!"

The gatekeeper quickly explained everything to the elder.

How we suddenly appeared and how we killed the darkwolves on our way here.

Then, everyone in the Cartel Village started to murmur in surprise.

"Quiet!"

The people calmed down at the elder's words. The elder then looked at me and asked.

"Is it true what Kess said?"

So the gatekeeper's name is Kess.

"Yes, it is."

At my answer, everyone in Cartel Village lit up their eyes. Well, I can understand why.

Then, the elder opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something.

What is this? I feel like I'm about to get a sub-quest here.

I don't want to add more quests at this point.

I took the initiative and asked first.

"By any chance, did someone from the Holden Territory come here recently?"

"Huh? Well, yes... But, why do you ask?"

"We came here to look for him. He's the one who called us here."

Everyone in the village opened their mouths wide. The elder was no exception.

"Kess, hurry up and bring that young man here!"

"Yes, yes! Elder!"

Kess ran into the village hastily.

Do I just have to wait now?

As I thought that, Zain, who had been watching the situation, spoke to the elder.

"Excuse me... but..."