CHAPTER 24: AMONG THE CORPSES

Under Viscount Roster’s shouting, the throwers and mage apprentices who seemed to have developed muscle memory finally snapped back to reality.

Looking at the completely devastated land below, everyone’s breathing grew heavy. Frigid Moon’s bone-chilling winds entered their lungs, stimulating every sense and making them realize this was all real!

Those magic bombs could actually give apprentices instant spell-casting abilities!

Even a group of low-level mages—no, even mid-level mages—probably couldn’t accomplish what they’d just done!

"What are you all standing around for? The magical radiance is almost gone—go search for our spoils of war! Knights! Warriors! We’ve created a war miracle! Those who wanted to occupy our lands and seize our property—after this, they’ll probably never have the ability to enter Roster territory again!"

Viscount Roster looked at the scene below the castle and shouted excitedly to the warriors around him.

Such massive casualties would definitely hurt even if this was a coalition from multiple neighboring nobles!

After everyone went down from the walls, Roster looked at the remaining magic bombs and couldn’t help murmuring: "God of Technology above! Your creations are truly magnificent!"

Though magic bombs bore the name of magic and were purchased from a convert of the Goddess of Magic, considering that Magic Net Rings required prayers to both deities, and these magic bombs differed from any magical items he’d seen before, Roster made a reasonable and bold guess—these special magical equipment came from the God of Technology!

Nobody knew what the word ’technology’ actually meant. Many people discussed it in Magic Space but never reached a conclusion.

Roster felt like he’d found the key...

The last trace of magical radiance disappeared.

Outside the castle returned to white emptiness, like the most ordinary snowy ground under Frigid Moon.

Viscount Roster’s guardian knight led soldiers in searching through the night.

Knight skill ’Danger Sense’ fully activated—even though he believed nobody could survive such bombardment, he chose to be cautious.

"Watch those fallen guys. If their bodies are still intact, definitely finish them with a sword. Absolutely can’t let our guard down! Anyone who could survive such bombardment would be among the elite of supernatural beings!"

The guardian knight reminded loudly, eyes warily scanning the surroundings.

But everywhere he looked, all enemies were thoroughly dead.

Take the guy in mercenary light armor in front of him—in life, he’d been at least a mid-level knight, but now his face was unrecognizable. Burns and frostbite appeared on the same body, countless puncture wounds complemented each other, looking so bizarre and striking.

Magic canceling each other out was perfectly normal, something almost everyone took for granted. But under magic bombs’ relentless bombardment, these spells seemed to show no signs of cancellation, instead creating effects of ice and fire on enemies’ bodies.

After long exploration, in the enemies’ ’rear area,’ the guardian knight found where mages had suffered most catastrophically. Fragile mages under such bombardment were even more miserable than knight squires.

Near these mage corpses hid several fully armed, plate-armored mid-level knights. They’d apparently stayed back to protect the magicians, preventing infiltrators or suicide squad types. Unfortunately, they never even got a chance to draw their swords before being bombarded beyond recognition by the magic bombs.

Barely a good spot left on their bodies.

The throwers knew this was their biggest threat, so they’d paid special attention to this area during free throwing.

Viscount Roster’s guardian knight’s eyes flashed with strange emotion.

Fully armed mid-level knights could claim several villages and mills in any territory, having entered high society. But now they’d died so helplessly, not even knowing who killed them...

Perhaps these were the most pathetically dead guardian knights in the world!

War’s situation seemed to have changed just now... the guardian knight thought, though he felt no pity. These were invading enemies—however miserably they died was their own choice.

Besides, his master, Viscount Roster, was a respectable man. How could he die at the hands of these filthy enemies?!

Collecting his emotions, he continued careful investigation.

Actually, by this point, he knew very clearly that survivors were almost impossible here.

Even powerful, fully armed mid-level knights had died so miserably—who else could persist?

Soon, the corpses were gathered together. Mercenaries, knights, mages... every enemy had fallen under magic bomb bombardment. Whether ordinary people or supernatural beings, facing such attacks, there seemed only one path—death!

Even escape wasn’t possible!

These piled corpses would be handled by corpse carriers tomorrow.

Unfortunately, even now they hadn’t found any remaining clues. These people didn’t even seem like mercenaries—more like sewer bugs without even travel permits, let alone evidence they belonged to some noble lord...

"Doll! Doll! I feel something’s wrong!"

After watching Gray Fort Empire’s ’TV program’ and preparing to rest, Ren suddenly felt something amiss. After careful observation, he suddenly shouted loudly outside.

"Lord Ren, what’s the matter? As the Goddess’s advisor, I possess knowledge and wisdom far exceeding Betty’s. You can ask me directly about any problems—no need to call Betty over. Besides, she’s still researching how to create mid-level magic bombs and has no mind to pay attention to you. But I’m different..."

"...It’s about faith. You sure you know?" Ren rubbed his temples somewhat helplessly: "I just received a strange faith. I can clearly feel it came from one believer, but this single believer actually produced a drop of faith equivalent to a regular mage apprentice praying 100 times! No, at least 200 times!"

"Oh my! I never thought you’d gain such a huge amount of faith on this late night—what great news! Congratulations on getting closer to godhood! But regarding faith power reception, you should ask Lady Betty. She’s more knowledgeable in this area..."

Book, have you noticed your forms of address keep changing?

Is this your bottom line? Fluctuating with the questions asked?

Ren really wanted to complain but didn’t voice it. He was more concerned about what this faith influx was about... He knew that once he said this, the book would definitely give him a 1000-word essay.

After Ren’s second summons, Betty instantly appeared in the bedroom: "I was conducting experiments. If the experiment fails, will you compensate my materials?! Didn’t you say there were no more tasks today and you were resting?"

"I just suddenly received strange faith from one person—at most a mid-level magician in strength, but they produced a drop of faith equivalent to a regular mage apprentice praying 200 times. Do you know what might cause this?"