I am the Enchantress!

Chapter 38 The Monster's Masterpiece

"Dead?"

Gru asked, stunned.

Cyrion got up from the ground, walked up to the Shark Lizard Beast, and plunged his one-handed sword into its shell.

Not moving.

"He's dead."

Joffrey walked over to Cyril and nodded: "No sign of life. He's dead."

Cyrion didn't say anything, but took out a tobacco pouch from his pocket, rolled a cigarette with dried birch bark, and put it in his mouth.

"Want one?" He handed the tobacco pouch to Joffrey. "Genuine Caratou tobacco."

"No, thank you," Joffrey declined with a smile. "Tobacco would make me less alert."

"All right."

Cyrion put away the cigarette butt and added, "But I like your alertness."

"Give me one!"

Gru took the tobacco pouch from Cyril and casually rolled a cigarette.

At this moment, Wilder came down the slope and walked to his teammates.

"You little rascal, you've learned another new spell!" Cyrion patted him on the shoulder, praising him sincerely.

"It's only a level one spell, so its power is limited. It's all thanks to your Heavy Strike that you laid a good foundation."

Wilder scratches his head in his signature way.

The tracking effect of the magic missiles was a great help; it seems the choice made back then was correct.

"Let's stop flattering each other," Cyrion said, then looked at Joffrey and added, "Joffrey's abilities are also very important."

Joffrey smiled and nodded.

Gru stood to the side, looking up at Cyril. He waited for almost half a minute, but the other man didn't even glance at him.

He took a puff of genuine Karathu tobacco and muttered to himself, "Dwarf, you did well too."

"We'll split the reward in a 2221 ratio, with Gru taking one share. Does everyone agree?" Cyrion said.

This time, all three teammates turned their attention to Gru.

"I have no objection!"

Gru grinned.

After all, aside from scratching the shark-lizard beast, he didn't really put in any effort.

Next, the four of them began cleaning up the battlefield.

Since the Shark Lizard doesn't have protruding ear flaps, the token for delivering the task is its two main teeth in its mouth, and this job was given to Gru.

Cyrion and Joffrey were in charge of cutting its leather armor, which was excellent material for making shields and quite expensive.

Wilder's job was to cut off the shark-lizard beast's razor-like forepaws, its primary tools for moving freely underground, which were suitable for being sharpened into daggers or spearheads.

Including the fixed reward, the total reward for this mission is around fifteen gold coins.

After packing their luggage, the team ate some dry rations and rested for a while.

Wilder sat with his back against the tree trunk, and while his teammates chatted, he quietly opened the system panel.

Name: Wilder

[Class]: Mage

[Level]: Lv3 (480/1000)

……

Like the Phase Spider, killing the Shark Lizard Beast grants 120 experience points.

However, the experience points required to upgrade to Lv4 have skyrocketed to 1000.

It seems that future tasks will need to be at least difficult to climb any higher.

He blinked, and the light screen disappeared.

Just in case, he spent another hour recharging a magic missile into the oak staff.

The spell he had just cast had a remarkable effect in the battle, and his teammates waited for him quietly.

Around 2 PM, the team prepared to return.

As usual, Joffrey went ahead to scout the way.

Gru walked beside Cyrion, and unusually asked him for advice on advancing to the intermediate warrior level.

Adventurers are not lacking in awareness of danger.

It's okay to earn a few less gold coins, but if you can't contribute in every mission, you're likely to fall behind and eventually become a lone wolf without a fixed team.

The mortality rate for lone wolves far exceeds that of squads.

Wilder followed behind them, not finding it boring at all.

"Er Ya, where are we flying to?"

"I'm planning to go and collect some bugs from that old oak tree later."

"You've misunderstood. I'm talking about the ultimate goal of our lives as birds: what is the purpose of living?"

"So we can go up the old oak tree and catch some bugs later."

"...problem."

Wilder looked up.

A wood pigeon was flying across the sky, leaving another perched on a branch, leisurely preening its feathers.

interesting.

This skill even has the function of relieving boredom during adventures.

After walking for nearly an hour, Joffrey's figure appeared in the distance under a tall oak tree.

This usually carefree wanderer now looked rather serious.

"What's wrong?" Cyrion strode over. "A monster?"

"Rather than monsters..."

Joffrey shook his head. "It's more like the work of a monster."

"masterpiece?"

"There are the corpses of adventurers."

"Where?" Cyrion asked in surprise.

"Come with me."

Joffrey led the three to another oak tree not far away, where, sure enough, three corpses lay at the base of the tree.

A tall, muscular man, he must be a soldier.

The one with the quiver hanging on his back is a wandering knight.

There was also a pastor with old book pages scattered around him.

Their leather armor was gone, and their weapons were nowhere to be found.

Cyrion slowly drew his longsword, his gaze sweeping across the dense forest around him as he went into a state of alert.

Gru took the long axe off his shoulder, gripped it in his hand, and whispered, "Damn it, who did this?"

"Relax, I've scouted the area, there are no monsters nearby."

Joffrey waved his hand. "The blood has dried. They must have died a few hours ago. The monster is gone."

Cyrion nodded, then squatted down and used his dagger to open the pocket next to the ranger's corpse.

The coins inside had clearly been looted, leaving only a brass badge and a crumpled piece of parchment.

"They are adventurers from the association."

He picked up the parchment and glanced at it. "Goblin cleanup mission, area D.4, around here."

"Isn't that the one we almost caught?" Gru leaned closer, wrinkling his nose. "But aren't goblins supposed to be one-shotted with an axe? How did it get like this?"

"They might not be just ordinary, highly capable."

Wilder sensed a trace of residual magic on the berserker, so he squatted down beside the corpse and turned his dagger behind his face.

Half of his face was burned, and one eye socket was hollowed out; his death was extremely gruesome.

"This is a magical attack; ordinary goblins shouldn't have this ability."

"You've got guts, little guy!" Gru laughed. "The first time I saw a human corpse, I threw up for a whole day!"

"Well……"

Wilder did not answer.

What is this?

You have no idea that I smashed someone's bones to pieces just a few days ago.

"What do we do now? Carry the bodies back?" Gru asked. "If you ask me, we should just wipe out that whole gang of goblins for them!"

"no."

Cyrion shook his head. "Things in the border forest are hard to explain. You think you've taken over their mission and completed it, but the association may not think so."

"What will they think?"

"The original squad killed the goblins, we killed the original squad and looted their spoils."

Cyrion said coldly, "We must leave immediately."