## Chapter 1076 – Ancient Beings

I didn’t have high expectations, but the church didn’t have much information… The last record of any cultist activity was quite a while ago.

“Well, damn.”

No luck, huh?

Let’s focus on something else.

* * *

A few days later.

We explored the Kobold Dungeon and the Ossuary.

Except for a few people guarding the house, we moved at lightning speed to check everything out, but as expected, we didn’t find anything.

The Ossuary was completely empty, not even a bone fragment left.

We searched the entire massive underground area with the help of Andra and Hilde, but we couldn’t find even a hint of evil. No ancient beings or anything.

All that was there were lost monsters. Even the usual adventurers seemed to think it was tapped out, because we didn’t see any of them.

Still, we kept searching, hoping to find some kind of secret space. But I guess because it was a place to enshrine bones… no matter how deep we went, the Ossuary was just an ossuary.

Only facilities for enshrining bones.

But skeletons definitely spawned here en masse before… and the wands the Skeleton Mages were carrying matched the ones the cultists used. Circumstantially, it’s clear they did something, but there’s nothing left, so we just searched around a bit and moved on.

If there was anything, the cultists probably already took it all.

Maybe the bones themselves were the goal. This ancient ossuary enshrined the remains of ancient warriors and kings, after all.

The Kobold Dungeon was the same.

Unlike the abandoned Ossuary, this place wasn’t just lacking anything, it was like a cultural revolution had happened and everything was completely destroyed and closed off. Well, it’s a monster’s lair, so it makes sense to close it.

But that was just the entrance and the area close to the surface. It was nothing for us to dig, so we made an entrance and went inside.

Of course, there was nothing special inside either.

Still, we did have some success here. There were secret passages and secret spaces… or rather, it seemed like they had been closed off a long time ago, but there was something like that on the floor below where the Queen was.

There was definitely something there.

“Katt. But back then, when the Queen gave birth, the other kobolds moved them somewhere, right?”

Cloudy recalled the past as she looked around the space.

“Yeah, they did.”
“Could they have moved them to this room?”
“That seems pretty likely.”

After passing through the passage, we reached this space.

It was a hexagonal space that could be called a secret room. Inside, there were traces of an altar, a large stone basin… and traces of magical characters engraved everywhere, so it looked suspicious as hell.

Back then, the Queen gave birth to kobold pups, and they were all moved somewhere.

Circumstantially, it seems like they were moved here.

Why?

What were they trying to do here?

“Speaking of which, I struggled against the Kobold Queen here back then.”

Karin said.

“That was on the floor above us. And I couldn’t help it back then. I was a noob. Ugh, it was so hard to deal with.”
“That’s true. Cloudy?”

Karin, who was touching my head, looked at Cloudy.

Cloudy blushed slightly and said,

“Um… I used up all my mana back then. I used it all up catching Katt and Winia as they fell from the air and landing them safely. So I couldn’t help it?”

As a half-elf, she’s greatly affected by her condition, so it can’t be helped.

“I guess it’s a race thing. She’s good at landing the final blow… but she seems to lack decisive stamina.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”

We already knew that.

“Anyway, if Sis had come with me back then, it would have been a complete massacre.”
“Of course.”
“But back then, the cultists were doing something with the kobolds here, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Seeing as they were using these kobold bastards, they probably did something with them. What could it be?”

I imagined myself as a cultist and thought about it.

These bastards have absolutely no sense of ethics. They’d probably dance even if their own mothers were writhing in pain right in front of them, not giving a damn.

Those guys controlled the Kobold Queen in this space.

The controlled Queen became a birthing machine, and the pups were moved here.

What could be the reason?

“Could it be something like a sacrifice?”

Cloudy said.

“Sacrifice?”
“Yeah, a sacrifice.”

A sacrifice, huh.

“Since they’re easier to obtain than humans, maybe they were trying to raise kobolds as livestock for that purpose.”

Oh.

“That’s a good idea… uh.”

The hypothesis that they were farming kobolds to offer as sacrifices.

That makes sense.

“Wait a minute. I’ve said this before. You know, the first time I worked with Elise was about that. Kobolds suddenly crawled out and built an altar on the surface.”

It was a few years ago.

Back then, the kobolds crawled up to the surface and built some kind of primitive altar, and Elise received a mission from the Order to destroy it and came to the Adventurer’s Guild, where she formed a party with me.

The markings on the altar they made were exactly the same as the ones the cultists used. It’s clear that the cultists were trying to do something using the kobold, an uncivilized race. But that was to offer them as sacrifices?

It’s not an unacceptable explanation.

It actually seems pretty good.

“So they were controlling them to offer them as sacrifices…”

But was there a reason it had to be kobolds?

“No, but if they’re offering sacrifices, what for?”

Karin said.

“Honestly, if they were sacrificing humans, it would make sense. It looks like something those bastards would do. But is there anyone who would be happy to have farmed monsters sacrificed? Well, whether it’s an evil god or some ancient being trying to receive the sacrifice, I don’t think they’d be very happy about it. I’d rather they hated it.”

That’s true too.

Human sacrifices have value, but monster sacrifices are honestly a bit lower in quality.

“And it’s really weird that the kobolds built the altar. Sacrifice is a good hypothesis, but I think there might be something else. Or maybe there’s the purpose of sacrifice, and another purpose too.”
“It’s too difficult.”

Cloudy shook her head, and Karin nodded.

“We have to purely speculate.”

Still, the fact that we discovered this secret space here is a gain. It’s half-proven that the lich is involved in most of the incidents that happen in this backwater.

That grave robber doesn’t leave anywhere untouched.

From the time I first met Elise and worked with her, he was plotting something and continuing to carry it out.

“Katt-nim!!! It seems like there’s nothing over there.”
“Yes. There’s nothing special here.”

Soon Hilde and Ari came over and told us that there was nothing over there.

“Then let’s go back.”

The investigation here is over.

* * *

“Now, let’s begin!”

ㅡClap clap clap clap.
ㅡClap clap clap clap.
ㅡClap clap clap clap.

Risha shouted confidently, and applause erupted.

The presenter was Risha, and the audience was all of us. The day after we finished the external investigation, she finally said that the results of the brain surgery on the jewel skull were out.

“Behold!”

Risha, who was quietly savoring the applause, pulled the chain on the curtain, revealing the jewel skull a little behind it.

“Ggrrr…”

The state of the jewel skull was, to put it nicely, a mess, and to put it badly, a complete and utter mess. The jewel skull and the brain were separated, connected only by a long spinal cord.

The end of a long, pink, muscular spinal cord-like thing was attached to the inside of the jewel skull’s skull.

The massive brain was in a transparent glass bowl with brain fluid. Anyway, the brain and the jewel skull were connected, so the jewel skull was groaning with its mouth wide open.

That crazy bitch…!

“It’s too gruesome!!!”
“It’s really disgusting. Risha-unnie has a strong stomach.”

Hilde exclaimed in horror and hugged Winia next to her, and Winia just frowned and shook her head.

“Ugh… it’s really disgusting.”
“Yes. It’s not normal.”

Liztina and Ari had similar reactions.

“It may look a little grotesque, but this being is an evil ancient being anyway. It’s not someone to consider ethics with.”
“That’s right!!!”

Hilde immediately changed her expression at those words.

“Wow, a real witch is a witch. Seeing this, you really look like a witch.”

Karin was admiring.

“You’re saying that I enjoy this kind of thing.”
“Wasn’t that it!”
“Have I ever shown such a side of myself!”
“Anyway, Witch-nim. Explanation. Explanation.”
“Ah! I understand!”

Risha’s explanation began immediately.

“Now, I’ll explain. Here. As you can see, I’ve been directly touching its brain and touching the knowledge stored inside.”

There were various tubes and tools embedded in the brain. No matter how you look at it, it looks like Frankenstein’s brain was taken out… If you boil it like this, it’ll feel like cod roe stew.

“There was some success, but it’s not perfect yet. To unlock this knowledge, a huge amount of energy is needed. In other words, it seems clear that human blood is needed as it demanded.”
“No way!!!”

Hilde, who was surprised by those words, grabbed her head and shouted.

“Hilde. Let’s be quiet?”
“Yes!!!”

Cloudy immediately calmed her down… No. Did Risha use blood?

“I don’t know what you meant by saying ‘no way’, but since I can’t use blood, I resumed the experiment using artificial energy that I synthesized myself. There were a few failures, but I finally succeeded.”
“Oh! As expected of Risha!”

She created energy to replace blood.

This is all something only Risha can do.

“Therefore, although limited, it seems that I can start questioning it from now on. I’ve already tested it. It answers very well.”

Risha, who said that, had a very refreshing smile on her face.

“But… is it still alive?”

Liztina’s question,

“Ah, it’s in a state of suspended animation now. After all, you can’t just believe what this kind of being says, can you? So I’m going to proceed with the interrogation in this state of suspended animation. I have to examine the brain’s reaction every time it speaks to distinguish between truth and falsehood, so it’s better to be unconscious.”

In other words, she’s going to interrogate this jewel skull that’s been put into suspended animation, and when it answers something, she’s going to examine the brain’s reaction to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

It’s really scary.

“Risha-unnie is so amazing.”
“Huhu, it was definitely an amazing thing. Then let’s begin.”

Like that.

The interrogation of the jewel skull began.

“Now, come and speak. It’s in a state of suspended animation, but it will answer questions.”
“Okay.”

ㅡThud.

I stood in front of the skull.

“Uh. Risha. Do I have to stand in front of the brain, or in front of the skull?”
“It doesn’t matter where.”
“Then I’ll do it here.”

What should I ask?

“Then I, the Demigod of Heaven and Earth, Kim Katt, ask you to reveal the identity of the skull!!!”

That was the moment I shouted.

ㅡWhirr!

The black liquid in the glass tubes placed here and there in the basement drained out, and the magic circles drawn everywhere began to glow. Risha stood in front of the brain, stretched out her palm, and directly cast some kind of black magic on the brain.

“I am…”

Soon, an inhuman voice that could not be called normal flowed out.

“Oracle… I am a being called Oracle…”
“Oracle!!!”

This bastard’s identity is Oracle!!!

But damn it.

What exactly should I ask this bastard?

“Risha. I’ll ask first, but I can’t ask a lot, right?”
“That’s right. So ask carefully. Don’t you have anything in mind?”
“Hmm.”
“Of course, there will be opportunities even if it’s not now, but there’s also the risk of a rampage, so you should use it when it’s as normal as possible.”