Greed

As Zayn had already expected, the Adventurers who had been sent to the Undead Caves were merely sacrificed. These sacrifices had been created by the people from the Adventurer Hall of the small town.

It was a mission that had been given by their God, whoever that may be.

Zayn couldn't really understand why a God, an existence that was supposed to guide mankind to return to their former glory, would ask his Blessed to sacrifice others to the Undead, but it showed quite clearly that the Gods were not always on the side of the humans.

Not all Gods were good or generous and they only cared about the end result. That was what Zayn had figured from the experience he gained throughout the last few years.

'I should continue to listen…right?' Zayn wondered while he was hiding behind a small building as he continued to eavesdrop on the conversation between the crying Blessed of Phillip's group and the other Blessed, whom Zayn presumed to be the best friend of the crying man.

It was hard to understand the gibberish being uttered by the crying, and dead-drunk Blessed but the pieces of the puzzle were slowly fitting in, allowing Zayn to figure out the big picture.

'The Undead will leave the caves soon now that Phillip's mission has been completed…the team mission rewards will be given later and their value will be in accordance to the destruction caused by the Undead…? They're going to bulldoze the towns…'

Even if Zayn had already expected the situation to be bad, he was still astonished because he didn't think it would be THAT bad.

He didn't know the exact number of Undead living in the Caves and neither was Zayn aware of how strong the strongest Undead in the Caves was, but it was already enough to know that Phillip, his father, and the other Blessed from the same God had viciously hunted the monsters living in the surrounding areas, injuring them severely before sacrificing them inside the Undead Caves.

They had been given various missions to sacrifice humans as well, which was what Phillip did without guilt or unease as he wanted his Stigma to enlarge by hook or crook. He was the one who brought the C-rank Adventurer team to the Undead Caves and he was rewarded according to the effort he put in to convince the C-rank Adventurer team to solve the Undead Caves' mystery.

Zayn's eyes turned sharper and ice-cold the longer he listened to the miserable Blessed who didn't even have a single credible reason to follow Phillip and his father. He and the others had been blinded by their own greed and he was only afraid now that things were getting out of hand.

The Blessed was drunk and thus more emotional. If not for him drinking way beyond his limit, he might not even have told his best friend to flee.

"That bastard…" Zayn cursed under his breath as his fist clenched.

He didn't feel any pity for the miserable figure of the crying, drunk Blessed who was brought back to his place by his best friend.

The best friend was also a Blessed but he would have never accepted the same mission as his drunk friend had done under the influence of greed.

"Paul…just what did you do…'' Paul's friend mumbled while supporting him. He entered the small house and put Paul, the crying Blessed, down on the bed.

He didn't know what else to say or what to do after the confession of his best friend. Paul had always been a good guy, but lately, he seemed to have deviated from the right track. The more time he spent with Phillip and his people, the bigger and more noticeable the changes became. Paul got arrogant just because he was close to finishing the creation of his first Soulring.

His advancement had been rapid and everything made sense now.

"You really sacrificed other Adventurers just to become stronger…you would have never done that….why…?" The best friend asked but his friend was too drunk to formulate a coherent response. This caused him to quietly curse, "...fucking idiot…"

After he cursed Paul, he left the simple wooden house. He had to rush to his wife and little kid to pack up and leave as quickly as possible.

Paul didn't know when the Undead would attack, which meant that they had to leave as quickly as possible. As for what happened to Paul. his best friend couldn't really think about that right now.

Paul should face responsibility for his actions. Whether he would overcome the hurdles that would be thrown his way or not was up to his fate and courage. It was not something his best friend could decide for him.

As his best friend, he wished the best for Paul, but he couldn't forgive his actions. That was a very grave matter which tore apart the heart of the man who had fully sobered up.

Only when Paul's best friend had left did the sleepy Blessed mutter in his sleep.

"Power…rules…everything."

Zayn had followed the two Blessed inside the house and hid behind the door while listening to everything in silence. He heard everything even the three words the Blessed, Paul, spoke in his sleep.

Paul had stopped crying and he was sleeping soundly as Zayn stepped out of the darkness.

'Looks like you can sleep soundly after what you've done,' He thought to himself as he walked through the small house. Zayn made his way straight to the Blessed whom he stared at in silence.

Paul didn't seem to realize that someone was still in his room as he continued to sleep soundly.

'You were just acting, weren't you? Your friend might be important to you but there is not an ounce of regret in your actions. Blinded by greed, you did whatever it took to become stronger…' Zayn thought in his mind as he slowly unsheathed his silver iron shortsword.

A soft hiss rang through the room as the shortsword was pulled out of the leather sheath, which should have been loud enough to wake up the Blessed.

However, he remained sound asleep which caused Zayn to frown deeply as he stabbed the shortsword mercilessly in the neck of the Blessed.

"...in that case, you shouldn't even be able to say something if I do exactly the same!" He announced just before the eyes of the Blessed flew wide open.

"Nooo…I don't—..."