**Chapter 15: The Faceless Ones**
Soren left only after he was completely prepared this time.
Before departing, he mapped out further plans for the Overseas Islands. According to his initial layout, the population cap of Modo City is around fifty thousand, which is quite a respectable city by current standards. The port area is still operated by the Church of Wealth and the Ocean Church; Soren values land more. The future focus will also be on land. Once his strength accumulates to a certain level, he might directly turn to Treasure Island, where the wealth can easily replace overseas trade.
After all, no matter how profitable trade is, it cannot compare to mining gold. If he wants to transition from being a pirate to a higher class in the future, a gold mine to back him up is quite necessary.
**[Note: The previous text has mentioned Treasure Island, which is rich in mineral resources.]**
………………
Traveling alone is much more convenient.
Soren set off on The Requiem, sailing along the overseas route to Shipwreck Bay. He didn’t need to replenish supplies on the way, and after a brief inspection of the slave black market offshore, he proceeded to the Northern Region.
The Northern Region is located in the northwest of the continent.
The Frozen Kingdom is located at the farthest north, so Soren’s sailing route this time is quite long. To gather the other three elemental crystals, he nearly needs to traverse half of the continent. From south to north, then from north to east, and finally cross the d*ath Desert into the Underdark since the last elemental crystal is located somewhere in the Underdark.
A place where he might encounter Eye Demons.
Upon returning to the Northern Region, Soren’s mood was quite different. He landed at Deep Water Port, leaving The Requiem in the nearby waters.
The port was still bustling with activity.
However, among the crowd, there were many people bearing weapons, including some teenage boys, who had daggers hidden at their waists.
Soren couldn’t help but frown slightly.
He walked along the road and, as he approached the gates of Deep Water Port, saw many wanted posters.
There were humans, dwarves, and even lizardmen.
The security here seemed to have deteriorated significantly compared to his last visit, with dozens of wanted posters of various sizes plastered on a bulletin board. The patrolling guard squad was also much tenser than before, a stark contrast to their previously laid-back demeanor. The Adventurers’ Guild was busier than before, and there were even bulletin boards outside with large red letters announcing many tasks.
For example, these few in front of him:
—— “One hundred miles south of Deep Water Port, Ancient Tree Town has been attacked by Dark Scale Lizardmen. The enemy’s numbers are small, danger level C, task reward is 1,200 Gind. Urgent task. An extra reward for completion.”
—— “Fakna Town is experiencing a spree of missing persons due to roaming ogres. The mayor wants someone to investigate and ascertain the number and location of the ogres. Task reward is 300 Gind, an additional reward for assisting the town guards in killing the ogres.”
—— “Yesterday, a strange mist was discovered in the neighboring waters of Deep Water Port. Some merchant sailors reported sightings of a ghost ship. This task is a special task, anyone with clues can receive a reward, task difficulty level B.”
………………
Perhaps because the timeline is approaching a time of turmoil, the tasks issued by the Adventurers’ Guild have increased significantly compared to the past.
However, Soren found it somewhat amusing that among the more than ten bulletin boards standing outside, the task difficulties ranged from F to C level. The only B level task was investigating the strange mist that appeared yesterday at Deep Water Port. It goes without saying that this was definitely due to Soren’s arrival, as he activated the Requiem’s mist summoning ability just before nearing the area, and it was surprising that the nearby sailors caught a glimpse of it. Hence, there was today’s B level special investigation task.
Thinking about it was truly unexpected.
Soren had once accepted tasks from the Adventurers’ Guild too. But he never imagined that after so much experience, he one day would become a high-difficulty investigation task himself.
There was a gathering of teams outside the city gates.
Before Soren left the town, he saw a training militia, most of whom were adult men, and among them were quite a few fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys. In past years, they wouldn’t train the militia during March, which is the busy farming season. Training would only happen after the wheat harvest during the slack season. So anyone paying attention could guess that the local security situation was problematic. Emergency militia training must mean some major issue had occurred nearby; otherwise, how could they find the time during the spring planting season?
Soren did not linger here.
In fact, he was mentally prepared for the arrival of chaos long ago. A catastrophe is far more than what is visible right now. When real chaos descends, that will be the true disaster.
Unless something unexpected occurs.
Soren should arrive at the Frozen Kingdom tomorrow, but just after he left Deep Water Port, a small incident happened.
He saw a pile of corpses.
Strictly speaking, it was a pile of corpses that had been dead for some time, and they had already begun to rot. The reason Soren was disturbed was due to the foul smell emanating from the site.
Corpses are not uncommon in this era.
If it were just corpses, Soren wouldn’t have cared at all.
However, these corpses had a distinct characteristic that made Soren stop in his tracks: all their eyeballs had been gouged out.
To be precise, they had been removed!
Bloody eye sockets—every corpse had their eyeballs taken out. They bore signs of struggle from the fight, suggesting that some had their eyeballs gouged out while still alive before their throats were slit by enemies.
A very familiar method of killing!
Soren glanced at the corpses and murmured, “The Faceless Ones!? Have they already appeared?”
Faceless Ones.
A not very powerful but also not weak evil deity cult.
They worship a god with no eyeballs, and these people enjoy gouging out the eyes of their defeated enemies or conducting a massacre as a sacrifice to their evil god, ultimately using the gouged-out eyeballs of the slain as offerings. Soren recognized them because he had previously accepted a task to investigate another evil deity cult.
That cult was known as the **Blind Ones**.
The two degenerated evil organizations share certain similarities, and Soren encountered Faceless Ones’ cultists while investigating the Blind Ones.
“d*e, evil sc*m!”
Just as Soren contemplated leaving after observing the corpses for a moment, a very unpleasant spell light suddenly emerged, followed by the signature spell of a paladin, ‘Detect Evil’, casting upon him.
It felt as if a land mine had been triggered!
In an instant, a dense crimson glow erupted from Soren. As the most powerful Pirate King of the Southern Coast, it’s not an exaggeration to say his hands are stained with bl**d. Although he brought order to the Southern Coast, making the lives of ordinary merchants much more stable, it is also undeniable that he controls black market trade, slave trade, and extracts protection fees from other merchants. Therefore, the evil aura on Soren is extremely intense from any perspective!
In this world, the only people who throw ‘Detect Evil’ at others without asking are one kind of person.
That is a Paladin!
A trace of killing intent floated within Soren. If there is any behavior that he detests the most in this world, it is undoubtedly the Paladins randomly casting ‘Detect Evil’. They definitely rank within the top three!
So at this moment, he felt an impulse to k*ll!
But what he didn’t expect was that the first to shout “d*e!” would actually be the paladin before him.
He was a young and handsome man.
He looked like a noble youth because he wore magnificent full armor. After casting ‘Detect Evil’ on Soren, he wore a face full of justice and charged forward with his sword. This paladin clearly had little combat experience; even before closing the distance, he had already accelerated his charge. Soren could even close his eyes and track the trajectory of his attack.
This was a novice lacking experience!
Probably at a profession level around the third tier, most likely level 12.
From the color of the spell light reaction, Soren was undoubtedly perceived as a person guilty of heinous crimes! Therefore, after witnessing such a dense crimson glow, the paladin did not hesitate to launch an attack. In his view, Soren was an evil sc*m that could be judged directly!
“Don’t be impulsive!”
“Come back!”
“You’re insane! Don’t throw ‘Detect Evil’ randomly!”
A female voice accompanied by two or three mixed voices came from behind the young paladin. It appeared that this was an adventurer team.
The paladin seemed to have taken on the role of a warrior.
They looked like an adventurer team that had accepted some task, and the paladin in front, upon seeing that pile of corpses and Soren standing nearby, surprisingly did not inquire first but cast ‘Detect Evil’.
d*mn it!
With a clang, Soren instantly drew the Curved Blade “Ice d*ath”, then using a series of high-speed steps reminiscent of a monk, he parried the paladin’s attack and slashed towards his head!
“Stop!”
A chorus of gasps erupted.
Three figures burst out from the nearby woods, and among them, a female voice sounded somewhat familiar to Soren. There were very few people that he could feel familiar with, so after hesitating a moment, he reversed his blade and changed the edge to the back of the kn*fe.
Clang!
Thud.
The young paladin was knocked unconscious, collapsing to the ground like a rag doll.
Soren turned to look at the approaching four adventurers, and when his gaze swept over them, he immediately recognized a familiar figure.
Anya Lee.
The young priestess who once helped them in Amber City!
………………
**(PS: That’s all for today.)** (To be continued ~^~)
