Chapter: 616

It sounded so far-fetched that he thought it was a lie at first, so he continued his vile practice on Viladore for much longer than it needed to have gone on for.

“He lasted longer than I thought he would have,” Lieutenant Marsh said, cleaning the red traces left on his tools; as thorough with cleaning them as he was at extracting the information.

Marsh had already reported the news to his commander as soon as he believed Viladore’s information – and then came more of his own investigation.

So far, he had connected a few dots successfully:

– Sullivan was sympathetic to variants, allowing a human necromancer to exist and grow.

– Viladore wanted the human necromancer for an experiment, which is why he reported Jay as a thief.

– The rebels had come to recruit the necromancer – admittedly, Marsh wasn’t sure how the rebels came to know of a human necromancer.

While it was troublesome, it did mean that the country-wide search for the necromancer was over, and now it could be focused in the south-west regions of the kingdom.

As for the news of a human necromancer, it seemed that it must have troubled the upper echelons as they sent another two divisions to the region, totalling five divisions – 35,000 mage hunters.

Clearly they wanted this problem dealt with before it grew bigger, and perhaps they feared a human holding grudges.

As Marsh went back to his office he began to calmly go over the details and the timeline he had constructed of Jay.

– Jay was at the guild, and he left the guild, but Losla was quickly surrounded by mage hunters after the thief report, so how could he have left Losla? There was a possibility he went around Losla – but then how did the skeletons get into the town in the first place?

– The mage hunters left their posts – surrounding Losla – to investigate the signs of the variant rebels with his own approval. The rebels were a bigger threat than a petty thief anyway.

– The portal disappeared, and the skeletons appeared after it had shut. But why would the skeletons suddenly appear if the necromancer made it through the portal?

There were some possibilities:

– Perhaps the portal teleported them far-west and the skeletons were running to rejoin their master: but that failed to explain the strange skeleton turning around.

– The necromancer was fucking with them for the sake of it.

But in any event, the skeletons would have had to have been placed in the town, and he simply didn’t believe that Jay, a human, had enough foresight to place the skeletons there before he even visited the guild that day.

The last option remained: the necromancer didn’t make it to the portal.

The other outcomes seemed too improbable, and if the necromancer didn’t make it to the portal, then Jay was either still in Losla or was running away at this very moment.

Realising this, Marsh said, “the skeletons were most likely a diversion…”

He immediately got onto his communication crystal.

“Surround Losla. No one leaves. Search the forest for any signs of life,” he quickly said, “I want every building, basement and attic searched and everyone’s class checked. I want every barrel opened and every rock turned over for a dangerous fugitive: The name is Jay, Level nine – and I want him alive.”

Marsh looked back at his papers, realising there were only two level nine adventurers in this year’s records: Jay and Anya.

“Such fast growth…” he glared over the records, “only people who are power-levelled are faster than this…”