The Healing Solaris Cleric-Chapter 362: Knight of Ruin (1)

A muscular man passed through a torch-lit corridor and entered a room filled with a musty smell.

“Damn, what a dump...” Grumbling as soon as he stepped in, the man spoke to someone reading a book in the room, “The preparations are nearly done. I’ve locked up the monsters near the temple.”

“Well done.”

“Well done? I’ve thought this for a while now, but do you think I’m your sidekick or something?”

When the muscular man growled, the man reading the book snapped it shut and replied, “Of course not. Who would dare disrespect a Mythic-grade player of the Church of Muldine?”

“Hmph. Always you and your smooth talk. Some of us are running around to death while others just sit here reading books—so yeah, I wanted to say something.”

Goliath, who had been busy capturing Dark Zone monsters lately, was on edge. Naturally, he wasn’t pleased with Sting, who sat around reading leisurely in the room. Of course, Sting had already sensed Goliath’s thoughts.

“Saying I’ve just been reading is a bit hurtful. I’ve been busy in my own way.”

Pulling over a chair and sitting roughly, Goliath asked, “Busy? Then let’s hear what’s been keeping you so busy.”

Sting responded with a lazy voice and a calm smile, “First, I've been using the Demon King’s followers out in the field to spread rumors.”

“Rumors?”

“Yes. A fairly credible rumor about new clues to the main quest being found in the Dark Zone. I even took the risk of mobilizing high-ranking figures from each kingdom to make it work.”

“So that’s why top-rankers and members of the top eight guilds have been coming recently?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s all thanks to me, but it likely had some influence.”

“You didn’t leak everything about what we’re planning, did you?”

Sting smirked at Goliath’s question. “Of course not. But if you want to hide a tree, you need to hide it in a forest. I mixed truth and lies cleverly, so they had no choice but to bite the bait.”

“Cunning bastard. Well, thanks to you, it’s the Mafia guys who must be profiting.”

“Is that a problem? Whether it’s them or anyone else in the Dark Zone, they’re all just sacrifices in the end.”

“That may be true... but is your plan really viable?”

“Of course. In fact, Cardinal Atroc liked the plan so much that he reached out to Zirukan to form a joint front.”

“Hmm...” Goliath swallowed and spoke again, “Then isn’t it time we start executing the plan? We’ve caught enough monsters, so once we wipe out the rankers...”

“Sorry, but we’re still short on monsters. What happened with the Dark Lizardman tribe I mentioned last time?”

“We lost them. But I gave them a heavy blow at the end, so the leader should be dead. I’ve released the Dark Knights, so capturing the rest without a leader shouldn’t be a problem.”

“That’s good news. In that case, we should start cleaning up the rankers.”

“Unfortunately, we’ll have to step in personally.”

“Of course.” Sting rose from his seat with a big grin. “Looks like I’ll be seeing some familiar faces again.”

***

“They’re capturing monsters?” Kai asked Blizzard as he watched Yoo Ha-Rin hand out food to the Dark Lizardmen.

“Yes. The captured monsters are being taken to the temple at the center of the Dark Zone.”

“Well, that’s not surprising. Probably another weird experiment using the essence of darkness again,” Kai muttered, recalling creations like Aosa, Harley, and even Blizzard.

“However, something feels off this time. Do they really need thousands of monsters just for experiments?” freewebnøvel_com

“I wouldn’t know. But if it’s not for experiments, then why else would the Church of Muldine be capturing them?”

“That’s true, but... I just have a bad feeling about this.”

Seeing Blizzard’s uneasiness, Kai furrowed his brow.

This guy usually has good instincts. Seeing him this worried, I'm starting to feel anxious.

As Kai wore a troubled look, Yoo Ha-Rin approached and asked, “You don’t look well. Is something wrong?”

“No, I’m just concerned that the Church of Muldine might be planning something again.”

“Don’t worry too much. Whatever they’re up to, we’re here to stop it.” With a beautiful smile that put him at ease, she took a lunchbox out of her inventory. “You haven’t eaten yet, right? This one’s been really popular lately. Try it.”

“They package food in lunchboxes now?”

“Yeah. They have a decent shelf life, and they taste pretty good. Lots of variety, too.”

Kai, who sat down beside the food-savvy Yoo Ha-Rin, opened the lunchbox and started eating. “Wow, this is good.”

“Right?” Yoo Ha-Rin smiled in satisfaction and asked, “So what are you planning to do about them?”

“The Dark Lizardmen?”

“Yes. We can’t keep taking them around with us.”

“You’re right.”

Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin were planning to head to the temple in the Dark Zone. Naturally, bringing the Dark Lizardmen along would be far too dangerous.

There are just too many of them to protect while on the go.

And with hundreds following them, they would obviously stand out.

“I wish we had someone we could ask for help in times like this...”

As Kai muttered, Yoo Ha-Rin, already unwrapping her third lunchbox, said carefully, “The Cheonhwa guild was nearby. What if we asked them for help?”

“The Cheonhwa guild? Hmm...”

Indeed, both Kai and Yoo Ha-Rin didn’t have a bad relationship with Cheonhwa. If anything, it was closer to friendly.

But they must be acting according to their own plans, too.

He didn’t want to cause them trouble over something personal. Moreover, once he asked for a favor, he would have to return one eventually. The world ran on give and take.

While Kai groaned over that sense of burden, Yoo Ha-Rin had just scraped her third lunchbox clean, but suddenly shivered. "Huh?"

"What’s wrong?" Kai asked.

Yoo Ha-Rin tapped her interface and replied, "I had the regional chat alert set to vibrate. It just went off."

"Oh, I turned that off."

He hadn’t expected it to be useful. Still, he was curious now that it came up.

"What’s it say?”

"Um..."

Yoo Ha-Rin’s gaze trembled as she read the chat. Seeing that odd reaction, Kai didn’t ask again and instead opened the chat window himself. The first thing that he saw was a panic-struck message.

[Church of Muldine's Dark Knights spotted in the east—requesting support. Coordinates are...]

[What? Church of Muldine?]

[There was a rumor about the main quest being linked to the Dark Zone... Was it true?]

"The Church of Muldine..."

The ones he thought would be hiding quietly in the temple had come out leading a knight order. Not fully understanding the situation, Kai continued reading the chat with a serious expression.

[Wait, the sender is from the Warriors?]

[It is. They did help me out once before...]

[Ugh. But it’ll take a while if we’re heading from here to the east.]

Like most games, top-rankers inevitably got to know each other. That world was always smaller than it seemed. The Warriors, one of the world’s top eight guilds, was especially well-known for their honorable image. Naturally, quite a few players in the Dark Zone had received their help.

But there’s no one nearby who can help the Warriors right now.

That seemed like a massive opportunity to Kai.

Kai stood up and boldly called her name. "Ha-Rin."

"Y-yes?" Yoo Ha-Rin stammered, overwhelmed by his unexpected intensity.

"Let’s head there together."

"By ‘there’ you mean to the east? Where the Warriors are?"

"Yes. After helping them, we explain the situation and have them assist in raiding the temple. As we get closer to the temple, the lizardmen hiding here will become safer."

"Is it okay to leave the lizardmen here? Shouldn’t we at least escort them to a safe spot..."

"The situation has changed. I don’t think there’s any safe place in this chaos now."

"That’s true..."

The forces of the Church of Muldine were on the move, and the monsters had been pushed to the outskirts. To make things worse, swarms of players would soon flood in to deal with both. So relatively speaking, leaving them here might actually be the safest option. They at least wouldn’t run into other players while on the move.

"And there won’t be much to worry about if we leave Blizzard behind."

Blizzard not only had the skill to rival rankers, but could also communicate with players.

"If it comes down to it, just drop my name. Tell them messing with you means making an enemy of me."

"Understood, Master." Blizzard nodded, eyes gleaming.

"We should hurry," Kai murmured as he looked toward the east. "We need to arrive faster than anyone else."

There wasn’t any complicated reason. It was simply because the faster they arrived, the greater the gratitude the Warriors would feel.

***

"New Dark Knights incoming from the left!"

"The rear’s blocked too! These bastards really set this up properly!"

"Shit, when did this plan even start?"

Vulcan of the Warriors furrowed his brows and swallowed hard. "Hm..."

We had already heard that the next main quest clue was hidden in the Dark Zone.

That intel came directly from the Warriors guild's intelligence division. Vulcan had gathered elite members from within the guild to form a special operations unit as soon as he heard that report. After all, a small elite squad was far more efficient than leading a large army in a place like the Dark Zone.

Everything was going smoothly. So when did it all start to go downhill?

He didn’t feel like they were being hunted at all. No, the hunting in the Dark Zone had been boring if anything. The monsters hadn’t even put up a fight in front of Warrior’s elite unit. But before he knew it, the Church of Muldine’s knights had completely surrounded them on all sides.

Snapping back to his senses, Vulcan hurriedly said, “How many Dark Knights are there?”

“Counting all directions, at least over four hundred.”

“Four hundred...”

That was an overwhelming difference compared to the fifty guild members he led.

But... it’s not impossible.

They were the elite, handpicked from the guild. They would undoubtedly be stronger than the Dark Knights.

Time is on our side.

Vulcan believed now was the moment the seeds he had sown would begin to sprout. The Warriors had saved the lives of dozens of players in the Dark Zone alone. In fact, the regional channel was already filled with messages from players abandoning their hunts to rush over.

“Reinforcements are coming—”

As Vulcan drew his sword, the guild members surrounding him drew their weapons as well and took a battle stance.

“So don’t die until then and fight!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s show them why we’re called Warriors!”

“It’s actually better that they came to us. We’ll definitely get at least one main quest clue if we take them all down!”

After boosting his allies' morale, Vulcan didn’t stay back. He rather charged forward first and easily sliced the neck of a Dark Knight. Drenched in the blood that spurted out, Vulcan drove his sword again and quickly finished off the knight.

As expected. These Dark Knights aren’t that strong. We can do this.

The Dark Knights’ average level was around 400. They were manageable opponents for guild members equipped with high-grade gear and skills.

It’s possible.

Vulcan’s blade moved like a storm and showed no mercy, cutting down Dark Knights like bundles of straw.

It is.

Just as that thought began to solidify in his mind, a scream suddenly erupted from the behind.

“Aaaaaargh!”

It was a voice he recognized.

“That’s... Royce?” Vulcan turned around at the sound of his subordinate’s scream, and his eyes widened in shock. “What the...”

With each swing of the giant man’s arm, his guild members were helplessly flung aside. That alone was shocking, but what stunned him even more was the butcher’s identity.

“You're...”

It was Goliath. The former master of the now-vanished Titan guild.

The one he thought he would never see again had returned.

"Judging by your healthy complexion, it looks like you’ve been doing well."

And this time, he wore a relaxed smile—something that had never been seen on him before.

Follow current novels on freewe(b)novel.c(o)m