Chapter 31: Black Cloak [Part 1]

Two months have passed since my birthday, and Mai, Aiden, and I can officially call ourselves Holy Knights.

It's really strange to imagine five years passed so quickly, from waking up in the basement to failing the daily quest. If I'm being honest, sometimes it feels like not even a month has passed.

I chuckled, remembering how I ran from those centipedes.

Then the escape we made with a stupid plan that I'm still surprised worked out.

And lastly, arriving in the city.

I looked at the cloudless sky with a smile, happy to have gotten this second chance at life.

"Hey, Cale, are you ready?" Came Mai's voice and I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I looked down and chuckled, seeing her on her toes while trying to do it. I have grown a lot in those years, being at 175cm.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I answered with a chuckle, "It has been some time since I have been monster hunting." Of course, I lied, as the last time was a few days ago, but they don't need to know that, "So where is Aiden?" I asked.

"He is still getting ready," She sighed, "Seriously, he takes hours to wake up." She grumbled.

Megan arrived a few minutes later, and Aiden took another ten minutes.

"Let's get going. We shouldn't keep Clive waiting." I said, and we started walking toward the gates.

After finishing the training, Holy Knights were assigned a senior Holy Knight to show them the ropes, and I had Mom pull some strings to get Clive as our senior.

At first, I wanted to go solo so I could spend time killing the high-leveled monsters, but on second thought, I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time with the group.

It will only be for a few months, and then we will probably split up and do our work.

In the first two weeks, nothing special happened. We just helped some villagers to kill monsters attacking them, but one of my shadows found something interesting.

A group of people wearing masks and black cult-like robes. Now this is something that is interesting, so during the night, when everyone was sleeping, I decided to check it out.

I made sure everyone was asleep before I used shadow exchange.

Looking around, the place resembled a basement, but it had what looked like a summoning circle in the middle. So that leaves me with three options for what they are trying to summon: Demons, Elementals, or Otherworlders.

I could easily scratch elementals from the list, and that would leave me with demons or otherworlders. I'm seriously hoping they are trying to summon demons and not otherworlders.

I started looking around the place for any clues, but when I found some notes scattered on a table, I frowned. It described a 30-day ritual that needed 30 mages to perform.

While it could still be that they are trying to summon a powerful demon, the chances are small, leaving me with only the otherworlder option, and they never end well.

I memorized the ritual just in case I wanted to use it at a later date. While I'm not fond of summoning otherworlders, you never know when the information could be useful.

Summoning magic is something I skipped entirely over the years, leaving it on my to-do last list.

I also saw another list with names I didn't recognize but quickly memorized if they were important.

"Oh, a map," I mumbled, finding a map with different spots marked. Judging by the fact that my current location is marked on the map, I assume they have more hiding spots.

But would that mean they are trying to summon more otherworlders? If so, then what are they trying to do? I know otherworlders are used as powerful slaves to their summoner's bidding due to a control curse. This could be bad.

Sensing people coming here, so I hid in the shadows.

A group of thirty people entered the room wearing masks covering the upper half of their faces and black robes.

"My brethren!" The one who seemed like the leader spoke first, "Today we will finish our ritual and will be able to conquer the empire from the fake goddess! No longer will we be working for a fake; from this day onwards, we will rule the Empire! For Black Cloaks!" He shouted, raising his hand in the air.

"For Black Cloaks!" They chanted in unison.

I frowned. It's good I found them before they could finish the ritual; otherwise, we could have a small problem. Mom has told me things like this happen often, and she sometimes needs to deal with them, but if I'm already here, why not stop it myself?

"Black Cloak?" I asked, stepping out of the shadow, "Who came up with such a stupid name?"

They instantly got on guard, "He's a worshiper of the fake goddess! Kill him!" The leader shouted, and they all started casting their spells.

I sighed, "That's not a nice way to treat a guest." I said and dispelled their spells. Their magic instantly vanished while I continued walking towards them, "Now I only need one of you alive, and that guy looks like the leader, so he should know the most about this,"

"Impudent brat, you think you can stop us!" He shouted in anger.

Did he forget I canceled the spell of thirty people without a chant? Sometimes I wonder how stupid people can get.

That didn't matter right now. With a simple swipe of my hand, I cast the shadow spikes shot up from the ground, skewering and killing all of them aside from the leader.

[8,700 EXP Gained]

[Magicules increased by 8,700]

My eyes rose in surprise, seeing the amount I gained from killing them. Usually, I would get 100 EXP for killing them, but these guys gave me 300. I guess it's because they are mages, while the slave traders I usually fight are normal weak humans.

Mages would also be a good addition to my shadow army.

---

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter.

If you enjoy this story, remember to vote and leave a review if you haven't.