169. Lifeless Village
“Isn’t the atmosphere strange?”
“I will…”
Tracotti was eerily quiet.
It was strange that the Spencers’ mansion was a little far from the center of town, yet there was no sound of conversation or noise of life.
“What happened? Not mute.”
“I can’t even see smoke in the chimney.”
Kang Seung-hyun looked at private houses all over Tracotti.
As it is a village of clay and pottery, the chimneys of Tracotti private houses were always blowing smoke, but now there was no smoke from any chimneys.
“I can see people, but what happened?”
“Ummm….”
Kim Ho-jeong opened her eyes and looked around the village.
Although it was blurry from a distance, I could tell that there were human-like objects roaming the streets of the plaza.
“Is everyone keeping their mouths shut and practicing silence?”
“…Let’s go to the plaza first.”
bruise bruise bruise.
Kang Seung-hyeon and his party came down to the village square, wondering.
‘It sure is quiet.’
Kang Seung-hyun looked around while drinking a stamina potion.
The town square was crowded with wandering adventurers just two days ago, but now it was empty.
Although there are people who roam infrequently.
‘It doesn’t feel like the whole village is alive at all.’
If an outsider had visited Tracotti today, they would have thought it was an abandoned village.
“What happened?”
“It’s not normal for a village to change like this in just two days…”
What the hell happened to the village during the two days spent in the basement?
“Let’s grab someone and ask them.”
Kim Ho-jeong caught a resident passing by.
“Hey, let’s ask something.”
“Ah…”
“What happened to the village? I don’t know because we haven’t been out of the house for two days.”
“…”
Instead of answering, the villager looked at Kim Ho-jung with a blank face and
said, “He will come. he will come He will come He is He is coming. come will come He…”
“Eh.”
It repeated the same sound like a broken tape recorder.
Kim Ho-jung was disgusted and stepped back.
“What is this child!”
“It’s not just this person.”
As he looked around, other residents nearby also began to roam around the three with similar nonsense.
“He is He”
“For Tracotti.”
“Infinite trust in my mother…”
But they just roamed around and didn’t approach, touch, or threaten the three.
“What happened…”
“Everyone is out of their mind.”
“Ah, this is someone I know!”
Rebecca pointed to the woman with ponytails in the corner.
“You are the owner of the restaurant over there.”
“Why is the restaurant owner doing this without making food?”
“And… one of the followers of an unknown religion…”
muttered Rebecca, her face pale.
As she was working in cooperation with the Adventurer’s Guild, she knew some of the members of the unidentified followers.
“At first glance, it seems like everyone else is the same.”
Apparently, all the people muttering nonsense here are Wismel followers.
“But you were fine until two days ago, so why did you become like this…”
“That bastard must have done something.”
Seunghyun Kang activated [Eye of Observation].
Information floated over the bodies of the gathered people.
[Poisoning] [Confusion]
[The subject
is in a state of being poisoned by ‘ethanol sizing.’
“You know what?”
“Did you use any skill?”
“He seems to have a hobby of giving medicine to others.”
Wismel followers were addicted to ethanol.
“Ser, is it Lecacotesin again?”
“This is a drug with a dulling effect.”
Ethanol is a hallucinogen that weakens the mind of a normal person, even if it is used in very small amounts.
“You don’t eat and die, do you? I’m glad.”
“It is mainly used for brainwashing.”
“That’s not good, then!”
Circumstances, it seems that Pengrill used ethanol hose to easily deal with Wismel’s followers.
Because the faith of the followers is very important to resurrect Wismel.
“I think they administered drugs because there will be believers who will think it strange if half of the villagers disappear.”
In fact, followers who were addicted to ethanol hose were just wandering the streets doing nothing.
while waiting for their god.
‘This was also one of the more expensive drugs.’
To plan a ritual by drugging the followers.
It is an aristocratic idea full of rotten money.
“I’ll scrape one piece of faith with a pitchfork.”
“Now I’m doing it, but really…”
Kim Ho-jung looked at the followers as if they were fed up. They shut up again and started wandering around the town.
“Is there a cure for this?”
“There is nothing.”
“Well then, should I continue to live like that?”
“It’s not like that, just wait until the medicine wears off your body.”
If you really have to do something, all you have to do is give them water or feed them so they don’t get dehydrated.
“I’m glad it’s not poison.”
“If these people die, Pengrill’s plan will fail.”
So, in theory, the easiest route to stop Fengril is to deal with all the followers.
Because a god would perish if there were no beings who believed in him and followed him.
‘Of course, Rebecca would hate it if I did that.’
Seunghyun Kang looked at Rebecca.
She was looking around with a worried face.
“That Healer… doesn’t it seem like someone keeps looking at us from before?”
“Aren’t they followers?”
“But they aren’t looking at us.”
“Surely…”
muttered Rebecca, very anxious.
As she said, I felt something like an intense gaze from somewhere.
‘Not one or two, but at least dozens…’
Kang Seung-hyun sensed something ominous and pulled out his weapon.
Chick-kick-geek.
Snuggle Geek!
Then, with the creaking of joints, mannequins appeared from all over town.
They were all bisque mannequins made from baked clay.
“What are those other things?”
“It’s a mannequin….”
“It looks like that bastard released the pen grill.”
Despite the strange dolls roaming the town, the Wismel followers showed no reaction.
I’m going to go to the middle of the day!
The bisque mannequin also ran towards Kang Seung-hyun’s party, not caring about the followers at all.
“What can I do?”
“What! You have to beat it!”
Kim Ho-jeong took out a golden glory and hit the mannequin that was attacking.
Fast!
The head was smashed by the impact, but the mannequin rushed and attacked Kim Ho-jung without stopping.
“Quaaaaagh!”
Pagakak!
Kim Ho-jung swung a golden glory with a scream.
The second attack blew the mannequin’s upper body away, but both the upper body and the remaining lower body continued to attack.
Close by!
The upper body crawls on the ground with its arms and the lower body walks on two legs, so it was a scene that is not unique to horror music videos.
Kim Ho-jung cried half-crying.
“Why are you still moving! Are you immortal?”
“Not just a mannequin!”
“Then what is it?”
Pagakak!
[Eye of Observation]
Kang Seung-hyun, who was behind, cut out the mannequin’s spine using silver glory.
“It has a nucleus inside.”
Took.
A very small marble popped out of it.
It was very small, about the size of a pea.
“It’s not a normal doll, it’s a combat golem.”
“Hiller is right. To bring these children to a complete halt, they must be denuclearized!”
“what?”
I’m going to go to the middle of the day.
Geek.
Only the visible bisque mannequins surrounded the three were covered by dozens, so including the invisible ones, there seemed to be hundreds.
“Even the number of nuclei deployed in the body is quite high, 10 on average.”
“About 10?”
“You have to find 10 pea-sized nuclei?”
“…It seems like it was made by a talented puppeteer.”
These mannequins will not stop moving until all the cores are destroyed.
‘Of course, thanks to the [Observation Eye], I can figure out the location of all the cores in my body, and I have a weapon specialized in digging, so it’s not difficult to break it, but…’ Even though there were a lot of mannequins flocking, there were too many
.
This is because new clay dolls appeared while the three of them were destroying the mannequins.
Some mannequins were even repairing broken comrades.
“Dealing with these guys is a waste of time. It would be better to break into Spencer’s studio.”
Kang Seung-hyun’s gaze turned to the Spencer workshop building.
Looking at the mannequins walking out of the entrance of the building, it seems that they are also being produced there.
“But we were surrounded? Shall we sell a tunnel?”
“You can make a road.”
Kang Seung-hyun checked the inventory.
‘Let’s try this sparkling potion.’
He took out a potion, shook it lightly, and
[thrown]
threw it at the crowd of mannequins crowding around.
Papabababang!
As the potion bottle shattered, refreshing gas and bubbles burst out, pushing nearby mannequins away.
The power isn’t great, but there’s nothing like it when it comes to pushing back monsters.
“Now!”
“run!”
The three of them ran out without missing the chance.
Caught in the explosion of the sparkling potion, the dolls staggered to their feet and chased the three.
“I can’t believe… did my brother notice that we escaped?”
“It won’t be.”
Whiik!
Kang Seung-hyun threw a second sparkling potion at the group of mannequins pursuing him.
Papabababang!
An exhilarating explosion toppled the crowd of mannequins like dominoes.
“If he had found out, he would have taken control of one of the mannequins out here to piss us off?”
“That’s right.”
“Then these kids…”
“They must have spread it to deal with intruders.”
There was such a mess going on in the middle of the town, but there were no adventurers, not even union staff.
“It seems that the Adventurer Guild has been promoted.”
“I can’t…”
Apparently, all the outsiders unnecessary to the ceremony were dealt with by Pengril.
“More than that, these guys aren’t like normal dolls.”
Even if it is not an ego golem, a golem is a difficult doll to make.
These are things that cannot be made unless you are a puppeteer with considerable skills.
“Pengrill won’t have time to make dolls like this because he’s preparing for the Wismel Festival… Oh, could it be Harvey?”
Kim Ho-jeong snapped her fingers and shouted.
At this point, Harvey was the only puppeteer capable of producing dolls of this size.
If he was his disciple, he would have cooperated with him to get the lecacothecin cure, even though he hated it.
“It’s been two days already, so the medicine I gave you must have run out.”
“Then let’s beat it up and ask where to draw the pen.”
Seunghyun Kang and the others headed to the Spencer studio.
Originally, it was a space full of customers and puppeteers, but now only bizarre mannequins were visible.
“What is it, there are no people at all?”
“The dolls keep appearing, though.”
Even though someone was obviously making dolls, I didn’t feel any presence at all.
“What happened?”
“First, let’s go in the direction where dolls are produced.”
The three of them got rid of the crowd of mannequins and went inside the studio.
It was true that Harvey was there.
“That’s…”
“That’s Harvey!”
However, it was not in a normal state, but was in a state where it collapsed on the floor and did not move.
