Wizard: I Add Points and Hunt Monsters

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After leaving the small building that housed the City-State Array, Wei’en looked around but couldn’t find the motor carriage he had arrived in. It seemed Minister Yegor had commandeered it.

"Tina, did you find anything back there?"

"Tina found nothing."

Tina’s expression remained unchanged, but since leaving the Secret Investigation Department, she had been swinging her clown doll much more often.

Both of the clown doll’s button eyes were coming loose from their threads...

Wei’en nodded. ’Even my panel only detected the Desire Origin,’ he thought. ’It seems there are no other anomalies here.’

"Let’s go."

Just then, a carriage stopped in front of them.

A coachman in a cheap suit looked at the two, doffing his hat in a bow. "We meet again, Investigator."

"Oh, it’s you."

Wei’en recognized the familiar figure on the carriage. It was the same coachman who had taken him to Ceres Manor before. Oh, right, and he was a Vasquez man.

"Glad to see you again, Investigator. Do you require my services?"

"As it happens, I’m heading to the Dumitru District."

"The Secret Investigation Department?"

Wei’en pulled Tina onto the carriage and smiled. "That’s right. Please hurry, I have something urgent to attend to."

"No problem."

The coachman gripped the reins with both hands and glanced back. "Hold on tight, Investigator. And you as well, silent lady."

With a flick of his reins, the two stocky horses set off, their powerful short legs carrying them toward the Secret Investigation Department.

With things on his mind, Wei’en was not in the mood for conversation.

The coachman, as it happened, was also focused on accelerating and decelerating the carriage, so for a time, the only sound was the CLIP-CLOP of hooves on the cobblestone street.

[You have been targeted with killing intent by Maciej Koli. Evaluation: Another poor soul infested by a Bone-Eating Worm. Reward: Survival Points +1.]

[...]

Oh?

’They even have those parasites here?’

Wei’en checked the new information on his panel. After scanning his surroundings, he extended his spiritual perception outward.

A person in armor, 30 meters away.

A woman with stiff limbs, 100 meters away.

...

’There are parasites inside the nobles’ manors, too?’

Just within the range of his perception, Wei’en discovered more than ten of the parasites, some of them just over the wall in an adjacent manor.

’I didn’t expect to find parasites even here in Natali. The situation in other places must be even worse.’

Wei’en withdrew his spiritual perception. He looked thoughtfully at the coachman ahead of them and asked, "Have you, or your friends, encountered anything unusual recently?"

"In what sense, Investigator?"

"In every sense."

The coachman fell silent for a moment, then slowed the carriage. His voice was laced with bitterness as he spoke. "Yesterday, three people I knew died in their homes."

"The day before yesterday, there were two. Three days ago, there was one..."

"Stop," Wei’en had to cut him off. "What did they die from?"

"Oh, my apologies. So much has happened lately, and it’s taken a toll on me. I know full well that to survive, I have to stay clear-headed and optimistic, but..."

"It’s alright, please continue."

"The three from yesterday lived in Ruer District, not far from Laos District. They had only just moved there. I even gave Little Harry a quill pen..."

"By the time I got there, all three of them had been smashed to pieces by the City Guard. There was that corrosive slime that eats through people everywhere..."

As Wei’en listened to him ramble on, he thought with a sense of helplessness, ’Compared to most people in the Caster City State, the living conditions for the Vasquez People are just awful.’ But he’d figured out that most of these people had died after being corrupted by the red moon and turning into monstrosities.

"What about people who look normal, but whose behavior or way of speaking is clearly different than it was before?"

"Their speech, their behavior?" The coachman thought for a moment. "There are a lot of them..."

"A lot?"

"Yes. It seems to have started in the last ten days or so. A lot of the people who just moved to Laos District from the northern villages... they’ve all... they’ve all changed a little."

Wei’en’s eyes narrowed. "How many?"

"I don’t know the specifics, but every day, dozens, maybe hundreds of people pass the city-state’s screening."

At this, the coachman turned to look at him. "Investigator, you asking all this... is there something happening?"

"...There is," Wei’en said after a moment’s hesitation, offering a simple explanation. "For the time being, try to stay indoors as much as possible."

"...Even during the day?"

"Yes, even during the day."

The coachman looked troubled, but he nodded with a wry smile. "I suppose you’re right. A few people did go out during the day and came back... changed."

"They won’t say anything if you ask them. They just look at me like I’m a piece of raw meat. It’s terrifying..."

"And try to avoid contact with them," Wei’en added.

He was now fairly certain that most of the people who lived in or frequented the slums had been infested with Bone-Eating Worms.

And based on the coachman’s answers, that number was at least a thousand people.

Add to that the workers in Yidrisu District and the parasites in other districts... ’Two thousand? Three thousand? Or four?’

In any case, they weren’t far from the five thousand sacrifices Clelia had spoken of.

A chill went down Wei’en’s spine at the thought.

’If the Abyssal Sect actually pulls off this sacrificial ritual, a terrifying Abyssal Creature comparable to a level-three catastrophe will appear. The entire city-state could be transformed into the Abyss... And what was he supposed to do then?’

"Investigator, thank you so much for the warning. I’ll hide out at home for a while. It’s a good thing I found a house with a basement when I left Laos District."