[Mission Accomplished!]

  [Congratulations on passing the mission. You have successfully led your acolytes to uphold justice and punish the slavers.]

  [The reward (1,000 academy points) has been issued.]

  Victor ignored the mission prompt and instead checked the Headmaster’s Journal for a new mission. Just as he anticipated, a new side mission had appeared.

  Mission: Save the Girl

  The butler of House Brightmoon has pleaded for you to save their last remaining heir.

  Type: Side mission

  Reward: 1,000 academy points

  “Sir, what are you planning to do with the captives?” Brown inquired.

  Victor glanced at him before replying, “I intend to return them to their villages if that’s what they wish. But for those who have nowhere else to go, I’ll send them to Thornwood Village. It is short on manpower after a recent attack, so it’s a fitting solution.”

  Brown seemed to ponder Victor’s words, as if realizing something. “If I may, sir, I believe it would be wiser to send all of the captives to Thornwood Village. Most of them were sold by their own families to lessen the number of mouths to feed. If you send them back, they’ll likely just end up sold to another group of slavers.”

  Victor nodded thoughtfully. This had been his intention from the start. There were about fifty people in the camp, including the slavers and the guards they hired, with more than half of them being captives. A lot of them were hidden from above.

  Brown hesitated before adding, “There’s one more thing, sir. Among the captives, there’s a slave marked with a slave seal, and… he’s not human.” He stared steadily at Victor.

  Intrigued, Victor signaled for him to continue.

  “He’s a therianthrope. Apparently, he was forced to work in an illegal mine nearby but was sold off after contracting an incurable disease.”

  An incurable disease… Victor stroked his chin as a slow smile formed. This was precisely the lead he’d been looking for. As such, he instructed some nearby players to search the camp for the therianthrope and bring him forth immediately.

  It didn’t take long for the players to locate the therianthrope as the small camp had been mostly reduced to ashes, leaving little cover. Furthermore, the captives, bound in heavy chains, had been frozen in confusion during the attack, unable to escape the chaos.

  A commotion soon arose.

  “Whoa! There’s a beastman over there!” one of the players shouted, his voice echoing through the camp. “This game has demihumans!”

  Several others gathered around, their faces a mix of shock and excitement. These players had heard rumors about non-human races in the game, but seeing a therianthrope, or a beastman as they called it, in the flesh left them stunned. Murmurs spread quickly through the group, with some players looking as though they were activating their in-game chat feature to spread the news.

  The therianthrope was a wolf-like beastman, with a heavy shackle weighing him down. Sinister reddish-brown crystals jutted from patches of his exposed skin, as though afflicted by some dark curse. A black seal coiled around his neck. His eyes darted between the players gawking with a fierce, unyielding gaze before locking onto Victor. Rebelliousness was clearly emanating from him.

  This time, Victor made no effort to talk in private, ignoring the stares of all the players surrounding him, who were treating this as a cutscene; this was too important for the “main storyline” to be hidden in the shadows.

  “You must be the one in charge,” the therianthrope growled, filled with ferocity. As if to punctuate his words, he tugged at his chains. “Another master come to enslave me?”

  The players gasped audibly, surprised.

  “Wow, the beastman is so fierce!”

  “This must be a key part of the expedition’s storyline.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Whispers buzzed among the players, but Victor calmly held his poker face.

  “No,” he replied smoothly, his voice cutting through the murmurs like a blade, “I’m not here to break you. In fact, I’m offering you something far more valuable—a chance at freedom and perhaps a cure for your ailment.”

  The therianthrope’s eyes narrowed, suspicion flashing across his face. “Freedom? Cure? From a Magus? You’re all the same, no matter the promises. What do you want from me?” Despite knowing that he was a powerful Magus, he showed no shred of fear—truly a sign of a cornered rat.

  Victor’s lips curled into a faint smile. “I want information about the mine you came from, the one where you were enslaved.” With a snap of his fingers, the slave seal—the black mark encircling his neck—was removed.

  “So what if you remove the seal?” The therianthrope scoffed, his chains rattling as he shifted his weight. “You think I’d willingly tell you anything? I’d rather rot in these chains than help another Magus.”

  “Then rot if you must.” Victor’s eyes flickered with intrigue. “But don’t mistake me for those who enslaved you. I have no interest in subjecting you to the same thing. I seek knowledge, power—things beyond your imagination. You were forced to mine aetherite, weren’t you? That’s why you were marked.”

  At the mention of aetherite, the therianthrope’s boldness momentarily faltered. His eyes widened slightly as he clenched his jaw and spat to the side. “How do you know about the aetherite?” he questioned.

  Indeed. The moment Victor saw the reddish-brown crystal that covered the therianthrope’s body, he was absolutely certain that it was an aetherite mine. After all, ordinary mortals who couldn’t wield magic and didn’t practice meditation techniques would be corrupted if exposed to aetherite. It was common knowledge he’d obtained back at his former academy.

  Victor shook his head. “I have no need to answer your question. All you have to know is that I plan to raid that mine, and I need concrete information and not some vague rumors and guesses. If you want your freedom and cure, you’ll give me what I need.”

  For a tense moment, the therianthrope glared at Victor in silence. The players held their breath, the air thick with anticipation. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the therianthrope’s shoulders sagged slightly. His rebellious spark dimmed, replaced by a grim sense of pragmatism.

  “If you’re really planning a raid, then I’ll tell you what you want,” he said grimly. “That mine… it’s more than just a small aetherite mine. The acolytes controlling it are part of a cult, and they’ve been siphoning the essence from the aetherite to use it to power some kind of sinister ritual.”

  Some kind of cult?

  Almost immediately, Victor recalled the Armageddon Cult, the one that Graviel was a member of. If this was the same group, it could lead him to valuable clues about its operations. However, engaging directly would be like poking a hornet’s nest. He’d have to tread carefully. He considered it may be a wiser course of action to let the players handle the raid while he took care of saving the Brightmoon family’s heir.

  “This disease…” The therianthrope lifted an arm, revealing patches of skin encrusted with reddish-brown crystals, and spoke with a voice full of hatred, “It’s the result of prolonged exposure to the corrupted aetherite. A lot of my kin are being enslaved there.”

  Victor nodded and ordered him to divulge everything he knew about the mine. Apparently, no official Magus was overseeing the mine, but it was heavily guarded by several acolytes and ordinary guards. Victor’s guess would be that they were second to third-stage Initiate Attunement rank. Formidable, but not something that the players couldn’t handle with their numerical advantage.

  Satisfied with the information, Victor said, “Good. Then you’ll have your freedom and the cure—after we raid that mine.”

  The therianthrope held Victor’s gaze. “You better hold to your promise.”

  The players around murmured excitedly upon realizing that another raid was imminent. So far, the raids had been rewarding, as the loot they got from this group of slavers was quite a lot.

  Victor, however, had another focus. He would be going after the old Magus who was chasing the Brightmoon heir, so he told the players to finish clearing the camp and return to the dirigible. Before leaving, he sent a message to Eleanor, assigning her to oversee the players in his absence. He believed she was more than capable.

  He also entrusted Brown with leading the remaining House Brightmoon guards to escort the freed captives to Thornwood Village. Fortunately, the slavers’ carriages were still intact, though many of the horses had either fled or been injured during the chaos. These players certainly didn’t understand the idea of “holding back” inside their brains and instead cast magic with reckless abandon while shouting weird names.

  With everything in motion, Victor set out to do his mission.

  William, meanwhile, could hardly contain his excitement at the prospect of another raid as he eagerly ransacked the camp alongside other players, hunting for loot. This raid felt like a throwback to the classic games he used to love, like “Clash of Clans.” Only this time, instead of directing troops, he was one of the troops, taking part in the action firsthand. Then an amusing thought crossed his mind: what if the headmaster was the player controlling them from above…

  His wandering thoughts were interrupted by a nearby voice. “Can you imagine if you could have a slave in this game? I wouldn’t mind having a beast girl maid serving me…” It was Locktekei, grinning as if he’d just cracked a clever joke.

  William snapped his head in the direction of the voice, almost going to say another follow-up joke, but managed to hold it inside his mouth—other players weren’t nearly as amused. Before Locktekei could react, Chicken and Butterfly both smacked him on the forehead, sending him crashing to the ground.

  “Ouch! It still hurts, even with the pain shielding!” Locktekei groaned, rubbing his temple.

  “You’re lucky there’s pain shielding,” Chicken snarled, fists clenched in barely restrained anger. He expelled a sharp breath, resisting the urge to hit him again. The others weren’t any more forgiving, especially the female players, whose glares spoke volumes.

  William shook his head disapprovingly, though a small part of him couldn’t help but imagine a beast girl companion for himself. Maybe not a maid, but a beast girl as a wife? The thought brought a grin to his face—it would be like a childhood fantasy come true. Still, he kept the thought to himself, knowing full well how the others would react if he were to say it out loud.