Tracking

The trouble in the town beneath the Tot Mountains had been discovered a month ago. Remote as it was, the town had not been cut off from the outside world. Even setting aside its residents, the local branch of the Mercenary Guild had plenty of outside contacts.

But all those contacts had gone silent two months earlier. Everyone sent to investigate had vanished after reaching the town, without passing back a scrap of information.

The place seemed to have become a bottomless pit, swallowing anyone who entered...

Only after the Holy Church took notice had an investigative team of this size been assembled. Whatever had disposed of most of the previous investigators without a sound, leaving not one behind, had made it clear that something was deeply wrong here.

Perhaps some cult had taken a liking to the town and turned it into a hideout.

"This world's efficiency is too low." Watching the teams enter the town, Zheng Yichen could not help muttering. It took them over two months to notice something was wrong? In the real world, they'd have spotted it within a week.

Lolise promptly smacked him on the head.

"Stop looking. They'll notice."

"How could they? We're several kilometers away!" His dragon eyes let him see what was happening there, but a human probably could not even make out their position without binoculars.

"Don't apply the rules of your world to this one."

Zheng Yichen nodded, though an odd feeling lingered. Come to think of it, I might be the quickest transmigrator ever to get found out.

It made sense. The people of this world were not fools. If he encountered someone powerful, it would hardly be surprising for them to sense that something was off—especially if that person was an ancient monster. What they had seen over a long life alone might be enough to give him away.

Lolise might have said he was special, but when the gulf in strength was too wide, that would do little to conceal his identity.

"What is it?" A muscular man in knight's armor noticed the robed Mage beside him looking in a particular direction.

"It feels as though someone is watching us..." The Mage frowned slightly. A glimmer of magical light appeared on his fingertip, faint patterns visible within it. He shook his head. "Tell the others to stay alert."

"Hm? What was that just now?" As he walked, Zheng Yichen glanced around suspiciously. Something strange had swept through the area a moment ago, yet it had passed around them.

"A detection spell."

"...That's ridiculous." Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue. Damn, that works even better than radar. "Did they find us?"

"No."

Once the Holy Church's team entered the town, they immediately began gathering useful information. What they found left the team leader frowning in thought. There was no trace of human activity anywhere. More than that... time itself seemed to have stopped here. After two months, those empty rooms should have gathered dust.

Instead, they looked untouched, as though time had lost all meaning here.

"Did you find anything?"

"..." Several Mages in the team shook their heads, their expressions grim. Some power had to be causing this, yet they could detect no trace of it. That meant whoever was responsible was far beyond them. "They may have already left."

"Split up and search." After a moment's thought, the captain gave the others their orders. "Don't spread out too far."

The search went quickly. When they found the town's only unusual spot, everyone regrouped around the Mercenary Guild branch. They opened its tightly shut doors, and a thin film of light appeared before them.

"Don't touch it. It's dangerous." A Mage stopped the captain from reaching toward the film. "It's a seal. Touching it without care could trigger a backlash."

"Can you remove it?"

"We'll need a day." The Mage was puzzled. The seal was not especially strong, but it was troublesome. The slightest misstep could set it off. At best, the entire Mercenary Guild branch would be blown sky-high. At worst... the whole town might be wiped away. Until they broke through the seal, only the person who had placed it knew what it was connected to.

"Then get started." The captain nodded. He left most of the team to protect the Mages, who would be unable to stop once they began breaking the seal. Then he took a small squad to search the surrounding area himself.

The Tot Mountains were their first destination.

After learning that everyone in the town had disappeared, he had done his homework. The town was ordinary, and the Tot Mountains were nothing special either. They had resources, but nothing remarkable. Over the past six months, however, the town had enjoyed an extra boost in growth, mainly because a young dragon had appeared in the mountains.

Had the townspeople gone looking for trouble with that young dragon, provoked an older one, and gotten the whole town silenced?

On entering the forest, they encountered another change. This forest had once been unremarkable, with few even large wild animals, but now dangerous beasts prowled everywhere. They were unusually ferocious, too, attacking the squad the moment they entered.

"Captain, I remember this forest barely had any powerful beasts. It didn't even have Magic Beasts." One member of the squad looked down at a wolf they had killed. Its fur was faintly blue, and even in death, traces of magic still emanated from it. It was a Magic Beast capable of wielding wind power!

Its level might not have been high, but finding it here was strange enough!

"First, confirm whether that dragon was ever here." The captain surveyed their surroundings and gave the order to the squad's best tracker. They did not find the young dragon they were looking for. Instead, they found an area bearing traces of a battle.

"Heavy crossbows... and ballistae!?" The captain stared at the fragment in his hand, his frown deepening. It had not been broken in battle; some force had crushed it outright. Fragments lay scattered all around, yet there was no sign of anyone. Even the ground differed from its surroundings. As though cursed, it was barren, sharply divided from the lush growth beyond it.

Apart from that, no traces remained. The place had been thoroughly cleaned.

"Captain, I found a cave... I think it belonged to the young dragon."

"There really was a dragon? Let's see it!" He dropped the useless fragment, sprang to his feet, and hurried toward the suspected dragon's lair.