Chapter 298: The Situation

Despite the overwhelming workload, the investigation had to continue, leaving no stone unturned. Every individual involved had to be questioned, and in some cases, searched.

With Seranthiel’s formal members alone, there weren’t enough hands to manage such a large-scale investigation. As a result, numerous related tasks were quickly issued.

It didn’t take long for many people to be recruited to assist with these investigation tasks.

Helag also joined in the subsequent investigations. With his abilities, he could easily gather information compared to others.

The investigation was tedious and complicated. Often, after spending a lot of time, you might not even find an Abyssal cultist.

Sometimes, the person might have bought a wooden sculpture and just left it to collect dust in the attic, completely forgetting about it, without ever being affected.

But you still had to spend time and effort tracking down when and where they bought it, who handled it in between, and so on.

You couldn’t act recklessly, either, because you didn’t know if the person was an Abyssal cultist.

Only when you had sufficient evidence could you use special interrogation methods; otherwise, you’d be infringing on the rights of Silvermoon City’s lawful residents.

Helag had an advantage over others—if he got close enough, he could clearly sense the Abyssal aura on cultists.

Once it was confirmed that someone was an Abyssal cultist, the investigation became much easier. All that was left was to gather evidence.

Helag didn’t have high hopes for the follow-up investigations. After all, he had already earned a significant amount of contribution points from this operation.

Two hundred and sixty points—enough to make many Seranthiel members drool with envy.

Helag had uncovered so much just by following the trail from a beggar who handed him a wooden sculpture. It was a significant achievement.

To others, it seemed like Helag had simply been lucky. They believed that anyone who stumbled upon such a situation could have uncovered the same things, given the right luck.

Pruis leaned back in his chair, took a sip of hot coffee, and let out a sigh of relief.

He was exhausted, having gone three days and nights without sleep.

Although he could still manage and his mind was sharp, he felt mentally drained.

There were too many things to worry about, and it was clear that the coming days wouldn’t be peaceful.

Pruis said to Helag, “You really got lucky this time. You handled everything well, and that gave us the chance to uncover so much. I can’t even imagine what would’ve happened if we’d discovered Max a few years later.”

“As a member of Seranthiel, it’s my duty to ease the burden on the organization,” Helag replied with a smile.

Pruis waved his hand dismissively. “No need for formalities with me. Here, these are some files on Max and Luchi. Take a look. There’s still more to uncover, so make the most of this opportunity to earn more contribution points.”

Helag chuckled and took the files, flipping through them.

The files contained detailed information on everything they had uncovered about Max and Luchi so far.

Luchi’s background wasn’t particularly noteworthy. He came from a commoner family and had no significant wizard potential—just an ordinary person.

Max, however, was a bit more unique. He came from the slums of Mozambi.

Max had shown a natural talent for wizardry from a young age. He had taught himself magic in the Mozambi slums and soon entered a small wizard academy nearby.

This academy was established by Seranthiel to provide free magical education to children with wizard potential but no background.

Most of the students had limited potential, and after graduating, they couldn’t join Seranthiel. Instead, they were recruited by other factions.

Max had joined a merchant guild and worked as a traveling wizard guard for the merchant caravans.

He worked there for over thirty years before leaving the guild and settling in Silvermoon City with the money he had saved.

Five years ago, Max opened a woodcarving shop in the Cavat Commercial District.

At first, business was slow, but as his skills improved, his business gradually picked up.

The inclusion of Abyssal creatures in his sculptures started two years ago.

No one knew what had happened to Max two years ago or why he had become an Abyssal cultist.

All relevant memories had been erased, leaving no clues.

Helag could tell that Max was hiding something, but there was no way to investigate further at the moment.

Growing up in the Mozambi slums, attending a wizard academy, and working for a merchant guild for over thirty years—it all seemed straightforward, but investigating it would be incredibly complex.

It was highly likely that Max had come into contact with the dark gods of the Abyss Plane during his time with the merchant guild, leading to his conversion into an Abyssal cultist.

The merchant caravans traveled all over the Land of Dawn, making it nearly impossible to determine when Max had become a cultist. Uncovering the secrets he was hiding would be even more difficult.

Helag silently memorized the information on Max and Luchi, then picked up a thick stack of files and prepared to start his investigation.

The stack contained records of people who had purchased Max’s wooden sculptures. The information wasn’t very reliable—most of it was hearsay—and Helag would need to verify everything.

Each member of the investigation team had been assigned a similar stack of files.

How many Abyssal cultists they uncovered would depend on their luck and skill.

Helag glanced at the stack of files. Even with Deep Blue, he couldn’t determine if someone was an Abyssal cultist just by reading the information. He would have to investigate each case individually.

The only advantage was that it wouldn’t take him long to check each person—he just needed to get close enough to sense the Abyssal aura.

With a sigh, Helag looked at the information on the first person in the stack and headed out.

***

In the Mozambi slums.

Franz lay on a bench in the courtyard, as usual, basking in the sunlight with his eyes closed.

A blanket covered him, and he peacefully slept under the gentle rays of the sun, his breathing steady and strong.

The courtyard was filled with flowers and trees, and under the sunlight, everything looked serene and beautiful.

However, the peace didn’t last long. Urgent footsteps echoed from outside the courtyard.

Franz slowly opened his eyes at the sound and saw a young man standing at the entrance. In a deep voice, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

The young man, Brown, hurried over to Franz’s side and whispered, “Max has been captured by Seranthiel.”

His face was filled with anxiety. If Max’s capture led to an investigation here, they would be in serious trouble.