"How can Morak be in a safe place like this?" Infori, still confused after defeating the Morak, asked why they were there.
Infori then returned his sword to its sheath, which was still hanging from his belt; the sheath wouldn't fall out while Infori was fighting.
He then looked in every direction, his eyes scanning his surroundings. However, he found nothing. Only a stretch of grass with a few standing trees.
At times like this, Infori became a little more alert than before. Because what should have been a safe zone had instead become a zone teeming with monsters.
"What exactly happened?" he muttered softly, thinking about the fight. "If Morak appeared in a safe zone, then it should..."
A monster wouldn't appear once the zone was already a safe zone accessible to people, so the chances of a monster appearing would be very slim.
However, this case was clearly very strange.
A monster like Morak suddenly appeared without any indication of its presence...
"That's it! Morak wouldn't have appeared without someone summoning it, so their summoning place isn't far from here!" Infori muttered.
He was simply using classic Orleans logic, where something wouldn't suddenly appear without any logical explanation.
However, Infori was still at a dead end. He didn't know where or where the Morak had appeared, which was why he was trying to find his bearings first.
"Okay, I have absolutely no idea now," he muttered, then turned back to the path Infori was supposed to be following.
His eyes focused on the path in confusion.
"..."
He thought for a moment, wondering what was odd about the sudden appearance of the Morak from the left side of the path. After a long moment of silence, he finally realized something.
"...?!"
His eyes, previously focused on the path, now shifted to the expanse of grass that swayed quietly, but seemed to provide a clear clue.
Without further ado, he immediately headed down a path he wasn't supposed to take. This wasn't an official road made by humans.
This was a path created by Infori himself.
This path was to the left of the one leading to Storm Queen City. However, Infori temporarily turned left.
After a while, he, having been walking for about two minutes, discovered something that should have been extraordinary, but was quite dangerous.
Infori found the place where the Morak had appeared. It turned out not to be a particularly large place. Instead, it was a camp inhabited by monsters—Morak.
They—the Morak—had built the camp in a safe zone. A zone that should have been impassable to monsters, even high-level ones.
That was a rule of this world, unbreakable by any creature.
However, somehow they had managed to build a camp in a safe zone. This clearly confused Infori, who crouched down to hide behind some bushes not far from the camp.
"What the hell...? How did they set up camp here?" Infori whispered.
Then, one Morak showed Infori something familiar. It was a black dagger with asymmetrical green patterns on each side. A kind of energy snaking along the blade, symmetrically, from the tip of the blade to the top of the hilt, followed the blade's direction.
"Those... Blades of Mirage!" he muttered softly. "Did they fall off while flying towards the world tree? Plus, they weren't emitting the aura they should have. But now they're not. What's going on?"
Infori then exhaled, quite relieved to see the artifact returned, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to expectations.
"Haah... How am I supposed to get it back?" Infori asked, then tried to count the Morak. Only about seven. "There are only about seven of them... Outside. I don't know how many there are inside."
"Damn..." he said, his jaw clenched.
Infori watched the movements of two of them, who were only patrolling below, and two Morak were also watching from atop the wooden tower, while the rest were focused on the Blades of Mirage carried by one Morak.
(Fighting them might be foolish... But, I can't let them have the artifact unchecked. They didn't even pay. Well, who are the Morak who can afford artifacts?)
Infori paused for a moment, completely unmoved.
"..."
Next, he drew his sword from its sheath. His sword was imbued with wind magic. He still wore the ring-shaped artifact that controlled wind.
Infori gripped his sword tightly and swung it, creating a wind slash at a Morak patrolling below.
WOOSH!
The Morak didn't have time to move; it was hit by the wind, sent flying backward, crashing into a wooden tower, where it lay helpless.
This unexpected event startled the other Morak, who became wary of their surroundings.
"...?!"
"Grrrhh!"
Unexpectedly, the wind slash struck another Morak. It was thrown backward and knocked unconscious.
"That was an opportunity! But... someone could be shooting at Infori from above." Infori thought for a moment, then quickly came up with the answer. "That's not a problem!"
Infori immediately emerged from his hiding place, revealing himself to the Morak.
"Grrrhhh!"
"...?!"
Without further ado, Infori ran towards the Morak. In one powerful movement, he swung the sword in his right hand, its massive blade slicing through the air and aiming directly at the Morak without hesitation, vanishing instantly.
It didn't stop there.