Anor Kingdom, Leyndell, Roald.
They say that in the royal city, the king's son was still the king's son. Every day, all he did was eat and sleep. Nothing else!
Places like Bed City, those backwater towns, weren't even worth his notice!
It had been four hundred years since Anor I established the kingdom amid the chaos of the age.
Wars, civil strife, powerful maternal relatives seizing authority, premature deaths, sudden deaths. Under the influence of all these factors, the bloodline of the current King, Anz III, had long since become muddled. Perhaps the legitimate royal bloodline had already been lost, but bloodline was merely a title. Only strength truly mattered.
Anz III was very fortunate. His father had subdued the surrounding nations, leaving him a country with a powerful military and stable order. The four border Dukes were all paragons of loyalty to the King and love for their country, so he had few troubles and lived happily every day.
But the gods seemed determined to let this fortunate King experience what it meant to suffer.
Four things troubled Anz III.
The first was the Demon Race's resurgence.
A hundred years ago, all the peace-loving races had driven the Demon Race into the Badlands of the Western Continent. Those sinister and cunning creatures had lain dormant for nearly a century, finally baring their fangs a few years ago.
Anz III still remembered it. It had been a night of thunder and pouring rain when the Grand Court Mage had stumbled into the castle and stared at him with panic-stricken eyes, bringing the dire news that the Demon Race had slaughtered several border cities.
Damn it, those stinking country Demon Race bastards came to the Anor Kingdom begging for food!
Yet by the time the country had prepared an army for a campaign, the Demon Race had vanished without a trace, as though they had calculated the date in advance.
Since then, scattered members of the Demon Race had frequently harassed the border cities. Some people had even discovered traces of them inland. The same was true of neighboring countries. No one knew how deeply those creatures had infiltrated the continent.
People had also considered counterattacking the Demon Race, but the terrifying miasma of the Western Continent made them lose their nerve.
Fortunately, the Demon Race's massacres had stirred the people's bloodlust. Enlistment rates had risen sharply, the number of adventurers had skyrocketed, and among them were even Demon Race hunters who specialized in hunting demons. The Demon Race's momentum was visibly being suppressed day by day.
However, news had somehow spread that the Demon King was about to be resurrected.
The second was the dungeon mutations.
This had happened earlier this year. A dungeon called Sain had undergone a mutation, and it was said that previously unseen monsters had appeared inside.
The dungeon's layout and other aspects had also undergone earth-shaking changes, greatly increasing its danger and bringing it close to the level of the top dungeons.
The matter spread quickly among adventurers and aroused enormous interest. Nearly half of the adventurers had originally planned to go take a look, but what happened next stopped them in their tracks.
More and more dungeons began undergoing mutations!
On the third day after Sain Underground City's mutation, Aomori Dungeon and Echo Dungeon underwent mutations.
On the fifth day, White Blood Dungeon, Puppet Dungeon, Water Dragon Dungeon, and Onion Dungeon underwent mutations.
The sixth day, the seventh day.
To this day, news of new mutations continued to pour in without end, keeping the Adventurer's Guild frantically busy.
The adventurers surged toward the nearest mutated dungeons as if they had been injected with stimulants. Most of the people who had originally planned to go to Sain Underground City were instantly diverted elsewhere.
No one knew whether the mutations were good or bad, or perhaps the harbinger of some major event.
The third was Anz III's own Strange Illness.
"Gah, hiss."
A strange, inhuman, inhumanly bestial hiss echoed through Anz III's bedchamber. It sounded as though he was desperately suppressing his pain, but the chaotic thoughts and murmurs in his mind still forced him to roar.
Despite the bedchamber's enormous size, not a single servant was there to attend him. They had been dismissed by order of the King, and even without that order, no one would have dared remain here.
Because the King had contracted a Strange Illness. When it flared up, he really would kill people. It was even said that he would eat human blood raw.
Even the most learned Grand Court Mage was helpless against this Strange Illness. The Holy Light Church was preparing a ceremony to create a Site of Grace, hoping that Holy Light could dispel the King's disease.
But right now, Anz III could ease his suffering with only one thing.
Blood Healing Potions!
From within the heavy curtains, a monstrous hand covered in tangled, coarse hair suddenly reached out and grabbed a handful of scarlet Blood Healing Potions. Moments later, a relieved groan came from behind the curtains. A dozen empty bottles were casually thrown out, along with a syringe.
"It's not enough. I need more."
The relief lasted only a little over ten minutes before Anz III's voice was once again filled with pain.
"Arghhhhhhh—"
The fourth was that Anz III had no heirs.
Or rather, no heirs "with a legitimate status."
As a result, at a time like this, there wasn't a single person he could trust to care for him.
It was utterly tragic.
Bed City was peaceful and serene.
The Adventurer's Guild was deathly quiet, having completely abandoned its usual noisy atmosphere. Everyone craned their necks in anticipation, listening carefully to the sounds coming from upstairs.
The fireplace burned quietly. The crackling of firewood and the ticking of the wall clock—sounds usually ignored—could be heard clearly at this moment.
Occasionally, someone unaware of the situation would enter and loudly call out. They would immediately receive the angry stares of the crowd, then join them in bafflement.
They were acting this way because of one major event—
Someone had discovered the Hidden Map of Sain Underground City!
It was the area that produced special ingredients. No one had expected it to be discovered so quickly. The vast majority of people were still completely unaware.
The discoverers were currently upstairs speaking with the guild's person in charge, selling the information to the guild at a suitable price.
Once the guild verified whether the information was genuine, it would make it publicly available to all adventurers for a fee. The price was not expensive, equivalent to the cost of a single meal.
Quite a large number of adventurers were willing to pay for it. This not only meant learning the news at the earliest possible moment, but also represented something else—
A show of respect to the discoverers.
Adventuring had never been a journey for one person alone.
It was a story everyone embarked on together.
In this story, some people obtained information others had not discovered and gained an early lead in developing strategies. These discoverers shared the information with everyone else. Regardless of their motives, and regardless of whether they did so for payment or for free, as long as the information was correct and allowed everyone to gain something from it,
They deserved respect!
Smart people knew that once the information was publicly sold, everyone would know it within a few days. By then, they could enjoy the information without spending a single coin.
But did that make the people who bought the information fools?
Absolutely not.
"Tap, tap, tap."
A round of footsteps came from the stairs. A slender man with half-elven features walked down from upstairs, and someone recognized him.
"It's 'Shadowless' Zeroth. They say he possesses the one-in-ten-thousand 'Unique Talent' that lets him run more than a thousand meters in an instant!"
"Whenever the guild needs to verify map-related information, they call on him. Wonderful, it looks like we'll have the results soon."
"Run, run faster! Go, go!"
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Zeroth turned into a blur and vanished, speeding toward Sain Underground City.
Time trickled by. Everyone's eyes remained fixed on the wall clock as they counted every second.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes.
Half an hour, one hour.
"Bang!"
The guild's doors were violently kicked open. It was Zeroth!
Everyone held their breath and looked at him, drenched in sweat. Yet the veteran adventurer looked somewhat strange.
"Burp."
Zeroth rubbed his swollen belly while wiping crumbs of food from the corners of his mouth.
Then he revealed a sinister smile and gave a thumbs-up.
"Ooooooh!!!"
The crowd erupted!
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