Chapter 70 - Worshippers

'Devils? Just how did Gaarm mistake them as humans?'

Cyril complained as soon as he saw the devils. He even noticed that some of them have bumps on their foreheads indicating that their transformation or perhaps awakening is about to be completed.

He decided to continue hiding his presence by activating his newly acquired B-Rank Artifact, the Traceless Scarf.

Against low-level creatures, the power of the scarf is truly incredible.

'I forgot to bring my Lucky Token... Tsk... I didn't think that I'll be exploring the outside.' Cyril regretted it a bit.

Anyway, he continued moving to the village... Unless they have a higher ranking Artifact or he deliberately got too close, there's no way that they could find him at all.

As Cyril continued watching them, he noticed a statue in the village that seemed like a real Demon… It wasn't human-like at all, unlike the devils he's seeing in the village.

The demon portrayed in the statue may not be at the level of Xagan, a True Demon with a title, but it doesn't seem to be an average demon as well.

It has shorter wings, a single horn, smooth tails, and a petite body which is completely unlike Xagan's horrific appearance.

Anyway, he decided to ask Xagan himself to make sure.

"Contractor… Your question is worth 9 days. Information about other Devils and Demons is cheap. You can always ask me about them…"

"Ugh… Nevermind… I'm not that interested in this Demon anyway. I'll ask about them in case I needed them later. This should be related to the grimoire as well"

Cyril said as he shook his head.

Time quickly passed and Cyril finally realized what was going on… All the people living in the village are actually demon worshippers and they aren't fully converted yet. They seem to be doing some ritual every now and then to please the demon or the statue.

"I assume they create those runes as well..." Cyril muttered after realizing that these villagers weren't that simple.

If they are real devils, why did they decide to block the goblin's exit instead of seeking them out to brawl it out?

He couldn't make sense of their actions. Nevertheless, he doesn't have time to think about such matters…

The village only has 12 houses so there shouldn't be a lot of demon worshippers here. With his current strength, he wasn't worried about facing them at all. The only concern that he has was whether the demon they are worshipping would act suddenly.

Though this is a low-class Arcane World, some kind of a powerful being might've managed to sneak to this place.

He also can't rely on Xagan since they are currently inside the Arcane World. It means that he will be given overprice fees once he decided to seek help.

Cyril made up his mind, he can't let these guys increase in number. It should be better to clean them up right now while they are still not quite strong.

He pulled up two of his Goblin Daggers as he decided to kill the one on top of the watchtower first.

He didn't think that he would be battling here because if he was, he would wait until his-Rank Armor, Bracer, Short Sword, and Boots were delivered by the Association.

However, since he's already here, he just decided to not waste any more time.

Ssak!

Cyril silently came up of the tower. The incomplete devil, or the Demon worshipper, didn't notice him at all until it was too late.

The person's throat was sliced as he could only die filled with resentment.

Cyril has been very careful of his actions as he didn't want to alert anyone in the village yet. He carefully placed the corpse on the platform and didn't make any noise at all.

'The blood is black? No doubt about it, these guys are the lowest rank devils…' Cyril mused as soon as he noticed the blood…

Based on his limited knowledge, these humanoid devils weren't devils before… They are most likely humans before but after worshipping the Demon Statue, they have been converted into this state as a gift from the demon.

They might be the lowest kind but they would achieve longevity and they would no longer easily suffer from hunger as long as they cultivated their devil heart.

Aside from this knowledge, Cyril no longer has any idea about the devils. He knows that there should be rank among the devils, there should be characteristics that he could use to identify them, there should be some kind of unique abilities they could do, but all of these are unknown to him.

Well, he wasn't a strong Awakened before after all. Any matters related to their existence are all being handled by the higher-class Awakened.

"One down…"

Cyril muttered as he descended from the tower… The worshippers haven't noticed that someone is invading them so he immediately made a move and eliminated four more devils…

However, as soon as he did this, the leader of the small village was finally alarmed…

"You! How dare you?! Why are you targeting us, human?!"

Cyril's Traceless Scarf was disrupted as soon as the devils surrounded him. They seem to be using some kind of ability that he didn't know.

"Fifteen… Sixteen… Nineteen… Twenty-one… Twenty-two…"

Cyril counted the number of devils that is surrounding him. Of these twenty-two devils, five of them were actually children.

Of course, since they are already devils, he wouldn't show mercy at all. Anyone who had worshipped a demon and cultivated a devil heart would have their minds corrupted and there is no longer any turning back at all. They might act timid but that is only on the surface.

Not even the Holy Artifacts or Blessed Items could save them as far as he knows.

"Is this all of you? Are there any more devils hiding?"

Cyril asked. He doesn't seem to be worried at all which infuriated the leader.

This leader is a huge and muscled man equipped with a huge stone hammer.

He is a meter taller than Cyril so he can probably call him a giant at this point.

"You! Why have decided to target us?! We have never harmed any humans! We are living here peacefully!"

The devil asked furiously… He wanted to tear apart Cyril but he also wanted to make sure about the current situation. He wanted to know if he has an accomplice or he's actually moving alone in the forest.

After all, this leader is already considering whether to move to a different location once he killed Cyril.