Anti-Dungeon Organization

The second floor of the Adventurer's Guild.

After Jack left, Leon stared at his retreating figure from the window, lost in thought.

"What's wrong, Boss?" Tel asked. "What are you thinking about?"

Leon withdrew his gaze, smiled, and said, "Tel, you've been tricked again."

"Huh?" Tel scratched his head and asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"It's simple, that Mr. Jack is a fraudster whose tricks aren't very skillful," Leon said with mild boredom.

"Black Fist" Betang nodded in agreement.

"I knew that old man was acting strange from the start. He was trembling the whole time. Anyone would think he was having a heart attack," Maru shrugged, a mischievous smile on her face. "Only a big oaf like Tel would be fooled."

"You!" Tel glared at her, and she giggled and hid beside Leon.

"Alright Maru, stop teasing Tel," Leon stopped the dispute and looked back at Tel. "Didn't you notice anything strange?"

"I did have a feeling, but..." Tel sat down on the sofa huffily. "Jack's knowledge of the Dungeon didn't seem fake. Didn't he answer all your questions? He even noticed the mistakes you deliberately made."

Leon chuckled lightly, stroking his sun-bright golden hair. "Yes, his knowledge of the Dungeon can't be faked. But the more genuine he acted, the more suspicious I became of one thing."

"What is it?" everyone asked in unison.

"Behind Jack, someone might be guiding him," Leon smiled proudly, his golden hair seeming to sense his mood and become even more radiant.

"My eyes are going blind! Where's my hat? Hurry and put a hat on the Boss!" Maru covered her eyes and shouted. "Didn't we agree to wear hats indoors?"

"Wearing a hat while meeting guests would be too lacking in dignity," Leon said helplessly.

"Black Fist" Betang nodded in agreement.

"In short, I'm very interested in the person behind him. If we can invite him to join the Strategy Group, I'm sure our progress will be much faster," Leon's eyes flashed with the light of ambition. "At the very least, we won't fall behind other Strategy Groups currently tackling other mutated Dungeons!"

"Maru!"

"I'm here, I'm here," Maru said, still covering her eyes and not daring to look this way.

"Go track Jack. If there really is someone guiding him from behind, remember to be polite to them."

"Okay, okay, I really can't stand being in this room any longer."

Maru said this and prepared to leave. With a bit of Night Catman blood in her veins, she couldn't stand strong light at all.

However, something unexpected happened.

"Ah—murder—" Screams echoed from below the guild.

In the resurrection chamber of the Holy Light Church in Bed City.

Dozens of priests specializing in resurrection magic were on duty around the clock. Once an adventurer's corpse was teleported to the resurrection chamber, they would immediately begin the resurrection process.

For those who had just died, it took less than ten minutes to be resurrected. If they had been dead for a longer time, it would be troublesome. If more than a day had passed, no resurrection magic would be effective.

Not all resurrection chambers were contracted by the Holy Light Church. In fact, churches of all sizes vied for the business of contracting resurrection chambers. Outside of Bed City, other resurrection chambers might be contracted by the Forest Church, or perhaps the Nightglow Church, the Necromancer Church, and so on.

After all, resurrection chambers were a big business. Adventurers had to pay a resurrection fee each time they were resurrected. It wasn't too much or too little, just enough that everyone could grit their teeth and accept it.

In a study within the resurrection chamber, a young-looking, small divine priest asked the old man beside him, "Teacher, as long as the time of death is within a day, resurrection magic can save them? Won't the legendary Death God be angry?"

"Why would he be angry?" the old man asked kindly.

"Because," the small divine priest hesitated, "resurrection magic is a form of blasphemy against death, isn't it?"

"Haha, the Death God isn't that petty. Besides, not all deaths can be resurrected by resurrection magic,"

The old man affectionately stroked the small divine priest's head and explained:

"Only deaths in the Dungeon can be resurrected in such a simple way. This is because the Dungeon locks the soul within the body. Since the soul hasn't left the body, as long as the body is repaired and the soul is awakened, the person can naturally be resurrected."

"Once dead outside, except in special circumstances, the soul will be immediately pulled into the Underworld. At this point, the body is just an empty shell. To resurrect this empty shell, a complex and expensive soul-summoning ritual is needed to pull the soul back from the Underworld."

The old man said, "That is the true blasphemy against death. The person who casts resurrection magic will be marked by the Death God."

The small divine priest said fearfully, "Marked? What will happen?"

The old man said sternly:

"He'll be noted in the Death God's little black book."

"?"

The small divine priest blinked in confusion, then pretended to suddenly understand, saying, "Oh, oh! So he'll be noted in the little black book. That's terrifying."

The old man's mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

The atmosphere in the study subsided, and the small divine priest's voice rang out again:

"So, the old gentleman who was sent over just now can't be saved, right?"

"He can be saved, but he can't be saved."

"?"

The old man sighed and slowly said:

"He couldn't afford the price of being saved."

Inside the morgue, Jack's body lay alone.

The morgue was the least-used facility in a resurrection house. Most corpses sent here were from dungeons, and the vast majority could be resurrected. It was rare for a situation like Jack's to occur.

"His heart was shredded by a sharp blade, dying on the spot. Please accept my condolences," the priest said to Leon, his eyes downcast and filled with sorrow.

"I am not his family," Leon replied, his face expressionless.

"Oh, then it's nothing," the priest's expression changed in an instant. He stretched and asked, "Do you know where his family is? If they can't be contacted, he'll have to be buried in the ground. This old man was an Adventurer, right?"

"Yes," Maru was shocked by the priest's lightning-fast change of demeanor.

The so-called burial in the ground was the final resting place for lonely Adventurers. If they had no relatives to handle their affairs and hadn't purchased a grave before death, their bodies would be sent into the dungeon.

Aside from surface adventures, exploring dungeons was an indispensable part of every Adventurer's career. Most people accepted this method.

"The killer was truly brutal," the priest continued. "The recent Anti-Dungeon Organization activities have become increasingly outrageous. They even dare to kill people in broad daylight. This old man was just unlucky."

The person who killed Jack was from the Anti-Dungeon Organization.

This was a mysterious organization that strongly opposed dungeons. They preached that ancient evil gods were hidden within the dungeons and believed that people must destroy the chaotic dungeons and all things obtained from them.

Everyone treated this organization as a joke, but unexpectedly, in the past two years, the Anti-Dungeon Organization's actions had become more and more extreme, starting with protests and marches, and now they even dared to kill people in broad daylight.

There were even rumors that the organization possessed a way to permanently destroy dungeons.

Perhaps Jack's act of selling ingredients yesterday had attracted their attention, or perhaps it was because Jack led people to conquer dungeons. In any case, he had indeed become a victim.

"Boss," Maru suddenly said, "Should I stake out here for a day or two to see if anyone comes to collect his body? If someone does, perhaps that person is connected to him."

Leon was silent for a moment, then nodded.