The rumor refused to leave Con's mind.
A demon.
If it was real, ignoring it would only make things worse.
So instead of returning to the inn, Con stayed at the mercenary guild for another hour, quietly listening.
Mercenaries talked more than scholars.
And if something strange was happening, they would know first.
Con approached a table where two older mercenaries were drinking.
"Excuse me."
One of them looked up.
"The blind kid again?"
Con smiled faintly.
"I heard there were… unusual deaths near the outskirts."
The men exchanged glances.
One sighed.
"You're curious about that too?"
Con nodded.
The mercenary leaned back in his chair.
"Three deaths in the last week."
"Farmers?"
"Two farmers. One butcher."
The second mercenary added,
"Bodies torn open like something crawled out of them."
Con's expression tightened slightly.
"Were they connected?"
"No."
"Different districts."
"Different professions."
"But…"
The first mercenary lowered his voice.
"They all lived near the northern quarter."
Con bowed slightly.
"Thank you."
That was enough to start.
The northern quarter was quieter than the markets.
Narrow streets.
Small homes.
Families who worked fields or simple trades.
Con began asking questions.
At the first house, a grieving wife answered the door.
Her husband had been the butcher.
Her voice shook as she spoke.
"He collapsed at night… then his body started breaking…"
She started crying before finishing.
Con stood silently.
He bowed deeply before leaving.
The next home belonged to a farmer's brother.
The story was similar.
Convulsions.
Bones cracking.
Something moving under the skin.
The more Con heard, the heavier his chest felt.
Death was never distant in the world.
But hearing it from people like this…
It felt different.
A child clung to his mother's dress as Con left one of the houses.
The boy whispered,
"Is my father coming back?"
The mother's shoulders trembled.
Con stopped walking for a moment.
In his mind—
He imagined Harun disappearing.
The small cottage empty.
The brook running quietly with no one beside it.
His chest tightened painfully.
"…no."
He clenched his fist.
Everyone around him was precious.
Harun.
His friends.
Even Jorin and Elara.
Losing any of them…
The thought alone made his heart sink.
Con exhaled slowly and forced himself to focus.
Emotion wouldn't solve anything.
He continued asking questions.
Listening.
Tracing the pattern.
After several hours, one detail began repeating.
Strange sounds at night.
Near abandoned buildings.
Especially around the old underground storage tunnels beneath the city.
Con followed the clues.
Eventually he reached a deserted alley near the edge of the district.
His hearing spread outward.
Silence.
Too quiet.
He walked deeper into the alley.
Then paused.
"…there."
Behind a collapsed wooden structure, stone steps descended underground.
The air below smelled faintly of iron and something else.
Rot.
Con stepped down carefully.
The staircase ended at a heavy iron gate.
Locked.
But the lock had been broken recently.
Someone had forced their way inside.
Con pushed the gate open.
It creaked softly.
The tunnel beyond was dark and damp.
Water dripped somewhere in the distance.
But two other sounds echoed clearly.
Breathing.
Heavy.
Monstrous.
Con stepped forward calmly.
The creatures noticed him immediately.
Two enormous shapes moved in the darkness.
Their bodies scraped against the stone floor as they approached.
Boss-class monsters.
Even without seeing them, Con could tell from the pressure of their presence.
"…guards?"
That was strange.
Monsters didn't guard places.
They destroyed them.
Yet these two were positioned directly in front of the deeper tunnel.
As if protecting something.
The first creature lunged.
Con stepped aside.
His hand rose slightly.
"Ignis Pierce."
A thin spear of compressed fire shot forward.
The monster's skull exploded instantly.
The second roared and charged.
Con didn't even move.
"Graviton Collapse."
The air around the creature suddenly compressed.
Its massive body slammed into the ground with crushing force.
Bones shattered.
The tunnel fell silent again.
Con lowered his hand.
"…too easy."
He had memorized several spells during the brief period he could access the system through his hand mirror.
Even without seeing the system now, those spells remained in his memory.
But boss-level monsters guarding a location…
That meant something far worse lay ahead.
Con continued deeper into the tunnel.
After several turns, the passage opened into a hidden chamber.
The air inside felt different.
Heavy.
Old.
And filled with mana.
Con knelt and touched the stone floor.
His fingers traced the grooves carved into the surface.
Complex patterns.
Symbols layered over symbols.
Runes.
His expression darkened immediately.
"…rune magic."
That knowledge didn't come from the system.
It came from memory.
Long ago, when he had been the Divine Mirror, many scholars had visited him.
One old scholar had studied ancient forbidden magic.
When the man spoke about rune magic, Con had copied every word.
Rune magic was banned across every kingdom.
Not simply illegal.
Erased.
Anyone caught using it faced a punishment far worse than execution.
Their entire bloodline would be burned alive.
Rune magic didn't summon demons.
Demons were merely monsters from the lower realms.
Rune magic summoned something far worse.
Ancient entities.
Royalty of the Netherworld.
Beings so powerful they were closer to living disasters than creatures.
Cities disappeared when they walked.
Kingdoms collapsed beneath them.
You didn't hunt such things.
You ran.
Con slowly stood.
"…if someone activated this…"
His chest tightened.
"…then something far more dangerous than a demon is coming."
Just then—
Footsteps echoed from the tunnel entrance.
Multiple people.
Their voices followed.
"Something's wrong."
"The guards should still be here."
Another voice cursed.
"…they're dead."
Con's head turned slightly.
The newcomers had reached the monster corpses.
"…someone got here first."
Con stood silently in the darkness of the chamber.
Listening.
The people approaching sounded alarmed.
Whoever they were—
They clearly hadn't expected anyone to discover this place.