Chapter 138: Congrats

"Welcome back." Dukiel greeted Zach and Nessa with a voice that made it clear his mind wasn't in a cheery place. He wasn't sad or anything. He was just preoccupied with some dark news."What's going on?" Zach asked while he and Nessa pulled out chairs and sat down next to Dukiel and Julius. He looked at the two who had returned from an unfortunately successful investigation. Dukiel and Julius glanced at each other before Dukiel answered.

"It's bad."

"How bad?"

"Real bad. Counting only the ones we found the names of, there have been twenty disappearances so far this year."

"And with the ones you don't know the names of?"

Dukiel and Julius glanced at each other before looking at Zach again.

"We don't know."

"What?"

"Although Basilia is a trade city with people working with the Academy and relatives of students and teachers and so on, there are a lot of people with no family, friends, or even acquaintances. Those people who have been living isolated lives in the middle of a bustling city have started disappearing. Empty houses and rooms where people thought someone lived and so on."

Dukiel's face darkened as he showed Zach and Nessa the map. There were twenty blue markings and around fifty red markings.

"The red ones are the kind of location I mentioned. Neighbors and deliverymen thought people lived there, but when someone investigated, it was completely empty. We have no idea how many people have lived at each place either. Some places are big houses, while others are one-room apartments. We could be talking fifty additional disappearances. We could be talking over a hundred."

"Plus the twenty," Zach stated.

"Plus the twenty," Dukiel confirmed.

"This year."

"This year."

"What about previous years?"

"The numbers last year are a little unclear since the Student Council's investigation wasn't as clear, but maybe fifty in total."

"Before that?"

"There's no way of knowing, but if it had been noteworthy, someone would have noticed, so we can guess it has escalated the last couple of years."

"That aligns with the Underworld's activity." Zach nodded. He wasn't sure about the details. But the Underworld had been pretty active in trying to deal with him during their first year after he pissed off the Great Ugor. They had also done that thing with the exploding tiger arm and the experiment Jigak secured.

It also seemed like the principal wanted to end things with the Underworld in a couple of years, considering he set the Great Ugor as their final graduation exam. The Underworld was probably responding to that by speeding up any plans they might have.

Zach stroked his chin while nodding slowly as he looked at the map over Basilia and the randomly spread-out markings over the entire city.

Zach looked at Julius.

"No luck?"

Julius shook and hung with his head.

"I didn't feel the slightest trace of underworld energy. The city was refreshingly free from it, despite being not too far from the forest."

"Yeah, I doubt older summoners and others would let the underworld energy build up. You said you got this information from the Student Council?"

"Yes. One of their members has been investigating these disappearances on behalf of the city. They found us when we were asking around and shared this with us." Dukiel answered.

"Have you tried asking them about the underworld energy or anyone who might be clearing it from the city?" Zach asked.

"We asked them if they had noticed any underworld energy. They hadn't, but we can ask them about anyone or anything clearing the underworld energy tomorrow."

"Perfect." Zach nodded and continued looking at the map.

"It's also worrying that there's no pattern to this. See if that student council member has any witnesses. With these many disappearances, someone has to have seen something. There should also be traces. A hundred and twenty people are a lot.

Even if the Underworld ended up killing them, it's not like the corpses turned into thin air." Zach's words were grim and not filled with a lot of hope for the people who had disappeared.

But they had to face reality. Any fate the Underworld had in store for the ones who disappeared wasn't bright. At best, they would adapt to the underworld energy and become underworlders. But that was what was best for them. Through that process, they would surrender their humanity and turn their backs on the surface, adding their power to the Great Ugor's. seaʀᴄh thё nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Will do." Dukiel naturally accepted Zach's orders. He was the club president, after all. But he was also more than that. With all they had been through and how their relationship looked, Zach was just the leader of their group.

"We should loop in our classmates, too, so that they can help investigate Basilia," Zach said as if he just remembered or realized.

"I'll do that." Nessa raised a hand and took responsibility for Zach's latest order. She hadn't contributed anything, so if there was something she could do, she would. She was also the one with the best relationship with the rest of the class.

She was a noble, but a lesser one, and her familiar was low-ranked. She wasn't as lofty as the A-ranks or as difficult to socialize with as Julius. She was also very different from Zach, even if she got along well with him.

Nessa was the best bet to ensure their classmates' cooperation.

With that settled and Dukiel and Julius done with their report, it was finally time for other important matters. Read new chapters at m_v-l'e|-NovelFire.net

"You two…" Zach looked at Dukiel and Julius.

"Yes…?" Dukiel hesitantly asked.

"Are you two level ten yet?" Zach asked with a face almost as serious as the ones Dukiel and Julius had carried before.

Dukiel and Julius glanced at each other.

"Yes, actually. I have to get permission to use the Chamber. We took a detour on the way back since the Sentinel sensed a few monsters, and we killed them. That was enough for me," Dukiel answered, thankful for the reminder. The other matter with the disappearances in Basilia had overtaken his mind.

"I…I'm thinking about trying to help Mannequin evolve first." Julius' answer was different from what Zach had hoped, but not entirely unexpected. If it evolved again, it would be B-rank.

"That's a good idea—"

"Since it's already B-rank, I might as well try for A-rank."

Zach's eyes widened

"You mean…?"

Julius looked at Dukiel instead of answering Zach's question.

"Oh, I thought…Seems no one told you. Yes, Mannequin evolved to B-rank when it took that tiger's explosion of underworld energy to the face, and I've been working on it since then. It feels like it isn't far off."

"Congratulations, then. Let me know if you need help with anything."

"Sure, thanks."

Zach glanced at the Mannequin.

'Makes sense.' It looked differently from before the first year ended, after all. It was more complete with underworld energy rather than its contaminated earlier self.