“Hmm. That’s odd.”

  Levi and Liliya were combing through the village, searching for any clues that might reveal what had happened. They had split up from Qorbin and Syto, who were on the other side of the village conducting their own investigation. The village wasn’t very large, but time was of the essence, and Levi had assured Qorbin he knew a thing or two about supernatural detective work.

  “What is?” Liliya asked. She was kneeling down next to a broken window, using a thin mana thread created from her Conceptual Skill to measure the trajectories of the glass shards.

  “The magical residuals,” Levi answered, examining their surroundings intently with his True Sight. “They don’t look right.”

  By peering into the deeper layers of reality, he could detect not only the minute traces of mana that were left behind by magic usage, but also the spectral emotional imprints produced by said magic usage.

  Places where a tragedy had occurred were typically drenched in sorrow and despair, the negative emotions almost tangible to those who could sense and perceive magic. This village was no exception; every square meter was covered in a dark foreboding aura that seeped into the earth and permeated the very air.

  Liliya glanced at him in surprise. “You can see magical residuals?”

  Levi nodded. “I have a skill called True Sight that grants me the ability to perceive magic in its rawest form.”

  Liliya stared at him. “Right. Of course you do. You do realize you could probably auction off that skill for thousands of iridium coins…”

  Levi blinked, suddenly looking very interested. “Wait, I could?”

  Liliya ignored him. “What do you mean by they don’t look right?” she squinted at their surroundings, as though by focusing hard enough she could also gain the ability to see the residuals. Obviously, it didn’t work, and she seemed a little dejected. Levi’s lips quirked.

  “I see plenty of trace residuals left behind by destructive skills,” Levi said, gesturing to the ruined buildings around them. “I can detect all the spells that were used to obliterate these buildings. However, I don’t see any trace residuals left behind by defensive techniques.”

  It took Liliya only a moment to connect the dots. “There should’ve been guards and adventurers stationed here.”

  “Exactly,” Levi nodded. “Judging by all the destruction around us, it looks as though a terrible fight had taken place. However, if that were the case, there should be residuals left behind by defensive magic used by the people of this village. As it stands, the only residuals I can detect are from the skills that were used to destroy this village.”

  “Implying that whatever, or whomever, attacked this village had intentionally destroyed it afterward to fake as though a fight had occurred,” Liliya said, her expression growing pensive. “But why? What purpose could they have had in doing that? Did they want to throw us off the trail somehow? Or did they wreck the buildings for fun–?”

  She suddenly froze as a thought occurred to her.

  Levi nodded grimly. “You realize it too, huh.”

  Liliya looked at him, her eyes slightly wide with confusion and a tinge of dread. “If a fight didn’t happen, then what happened to all the villagers?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know? What about the magical residuals?”

  Levi shook his head. “There’s nothing.”

  “Ah,” Liliya looked disappointed. “I guess it makes sense that the culprit was able to conceal their residuals–”

  “No, you misunderstand,” Levi said. “There’s nothing. Not even the natural ambient magic of the world. All I see are tiny lines of void running through the air leading into every house, as though something unnatural had carved its way through the ambient magic of this place and left behind a permanent scar. It’s…”

  “Hollow.”

  “Yes,” Levi nodded. “That’s the word. It feels hollow…” He trailed off slowly when he noticed how pale Liliya had become, how tense she was. “What’s wrong?”

  “... Okay, I know you lack common knowledge, but there’s no way you haven’t heard of the Hollow before.”

  “What are you–” Levi suddenly recalled what he’d read in the library. “Ah…”

  In this world, it was said that the Goddess was the one who created and breathed life into existence. She was viewed by her believers as the absolute, unchanging, and ultimate truth. Unlike the gods, who were considered to be natural divine personifications of their respective Concepts and domains, the Goddess was a divine being who existed unto herself. The Church of the Goddess was established in her name, and they were able to draw upon her divine power to act in her name.

  However, all things existed in balance. For the Goddess, that balance came in the form of the Hollow: an anti-divine being that was her direct antithesis. He was a being of wickedness, chaos, and falsehood, and it was said that all the evil in the world stemmed from him. While he could not act directly in the world, just as the Goddess could grant her priests and priestesses her power, so too could the Hollow grant those who forged a contract with him his own power.

  The lines of void in the air… That must’ve been the residual traces of the Hollow’s magic being used to instantly kill all the occupants within the buildings and streets.

  That was somewhat disconcerting.

  “That explains why the corpse was drained of all their blood,” Liliya murmured. “Blood is a natural conduit for mana, it’s quite literally a person’s life force. The Hollow is rather fond of blood sacrifices; it’s one of the primary methods to forge a contract with him.” She paused, her brow furrowing. “But you don’t need to sacrifice a lot of people for that, certainly not multiple villages’ worth. There’s only one reason why someone would need to kill this many people…”

  Levi got a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Don’t say it,” he said slowly. “Please don’t say it.”

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  Liliya nodded solemnly “In addition to granting people his power, the Hollow is also capable of summoning entities from beyond this world, most often a daemon of some sort. The cultist responsible likely did this to power a summoning ritual. The more blood that is offered, the greater the summon. I imagine the culprit desires to call forth a daemon, or perhaps even an archdaemon, into this world.”

  Levi resisted the urge to groan. Of course. Of course it was a summoning ritual.

  Fuck him sideways.

  They quickly regrouped with Syto and Qorbin and told them what they’d discovered. The two older veterans had listened to them in stony silence as they recounted their observations, deductions, and conclusions. When they finally finished, Qorbin and Syto had twin dark grimaces on their faces.

  “Fuck me sideways,” Qorbin groaned. “Of course it’s a summoning ritual.”

  Levi snorted in amusement at how Qorbin had unintentionally echoed his thoughts from earlier.

  “Loathe as I am to agree with you,” Syto said, his nose wrinkling in disgust, “this does prove to be rather problematic.” He looked at Levi. “You can see Hollow residuals? Impressive, that typically requires specialized Church training. So, what, the Hollow cultist used some skill to instantly kill and drain the blood of everyone in the village?”

  Qorbin nodded. “Likely so. They must’ve retrieved the bodies manually, but missed the one underneath the bed. A bit sloppy, but eh, their mistake, our gain. Though…” He pressed his lips together tightly. “Channeling the Hollow’s power isn’t exactly a harmless feat. There’s only so much of the Hollow’s magic the average person can handle. Considering these were border villages, there would’ve been Iridium, Mithril, perhaps even some Orichalcum-tier adventurers assigned to these posts. For the cultist to be able to wield enough of the Hollow’s power to kill them all instantly… they must’ve already been a high level to begin with.”

  Syto’s eyes sharpened at the implications. “You think it’s a rogue adventurer?” He smiled, looking like the cat that ate the canary. “Oh my. Another mark on the Adventurer’s Guild’s record, I see.”

  Qorbin scoffed. “Hardly. The cultist could be a vampire as well; humans aren’t the only ones who can contract the Hollow’s powers.”

  “Hmm. Fair enough, actually,” Syto inclined his head. “I guess I’ll stick around for a little while longer to confirm the cultist is actually a human – if only so I can see the look on your face as I’m proven right.”

  “Should we investigate the other villages that were hit?” Liliya asked. The three turned to her, and though her eyes flickered slightly as she suddenly found herself to be the center of attention of a Mythmaker, a Mythmaker-equivalent vampire, and an archmage, she didn’t falter. Instead, she met their gazes evenly. “It might be helpful to attain some more data points.”

  “Good question,” Qorbin said. “No, we’ll be wasting too much time. Instead, we should try to determine when and where the cultist will next appear.”

  “There’s another town not far from here,” Syto said. “Shall we head over there to see if the cultist appears?”

  Qorbin became silent as he mulled over it, his eyes becoming sharp with concentration as his mind spun into overdrive. “No, that would be relying entirely on luck,” he finally said. “I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t exactly trust my luck like that.” Levi snorted; he had to agree on principle. “Instead… Syto, can you conjure a map of the surrounding region?”

  “I’m not your personal cartographer,” Syto said, but complied anyway. He began tracing lines into the air, blood trailing from the tip of his finger to form the image of a map. He marked the villages that had been attacked so far, circling the one they were currently standing in.

  “In the past few weeks, five villages have been massacred so far,” Qorbin said, rubbing his chin as he fixed a piercing stare onto the map. “The Guild assumed it was random, but…” He tilted his head in thought. Then he jolted, and a look of understanding flashed across his face. “Ah, of course. I see it now. If we take the date of the first village’s massacre and assign it ‘day 0’, then we begin counting in–”

  “Magical prime numbers,” Liliya said suddenly. “That’s it, isn’t it? The first massacre was on day 0, the second on day 3, the third on day 7, and so on. That means the sixth village would be on day 23.”

  Qorbin blinked, surprised that Liliya had deduced it as well, before smiling. “Indeed. And the location?”

  Liliya hesitated. “I wouldn’t know how to determine–”

  “You do. Just look at the map. Isn’t it obvious?”

  Liliya studied the map intently. Then her eyes widened. “Mr Syto, can you please draw lines connecting the midpoints of each affected village?”

  Syto raised an eyebrow but did as asked. He flicked his finger and crimson lines appeared on the map, forming a crude, near-completed geometric symbol. The vampire swore softly under his breath, and even Levi cursed internally.

  The symbol was the third convergence sigil, one of the most powerful magical runic symbols. It wasn’t completed yet; one more line was needed.

  “There are three villages in the final area,” Qorbin said. “Two of them aren’t very big, but the third, Elysia, is a relatively medium-sized town with a population of around six thousand people. If I were a betting man, and I am, I’d say the cultist will end up there to gather the most amount of blood possible for his ritual. Today is day 22; we have one more day until the cultist strikes. We’ll have to track him down and stop him before he does. Liliya, Levi, cover your ears. Syto, mind leaning in real quick?”

  Liliya immediately covered her ears, while Syto snorted as blood filled his ear canals, plugging them up – Levi shuddered, that was a little disgusting. Qorbin raised his fingers to his mouth and let out another ear-piercing whistle, summoning the giant falcon back to them. It awaited them, preening under their gazes.

  “Hmm,” Syto said. “Looks tasty.”

  “Back off, fiend,” Qorbin said. “We’ll meet you there.”

  Syto inclined his head. “I do hope the bird throws you off.”

  “Hah, you wish.”

  “Alright,” Qorbin said once they were high in the air. “I’ve been putting this off for long enough. It’s time to formalize your apprenticeships.”

  Levi blinked. “They haven’t been formalized yet?”

  At the same time, Liliya breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten.”

  She and Levi looked at each other.

  “He hasn’t established the System apprenticeship contracts with us yet,” Liliya said. “It’s a link that grants immense experience benefits, especially if the level gap between the master and the apprentice is extremely large…” Levi gave her a meaningful look. “Oh…”

  She slowly trailed to a stop as she suddenly remembered what he’d told her in the cavern.

  “That’s right,” Qorbin said, continuing her explanation. “While I’m not going to tell you guys what level I am, no offense, suffice to say you’re going to be leveling up fast. I don’t remember the last time a Mythmaker took on an apprentice that was below level 300. You two are, what, level 50, 60 at most?” He whistled. “Man, you’re gonna be in for a wild ride. The only issue is, ah…”

  He coughed. “I, err, I forgot that I’m only allowed to take on one apprentice at a time.”

  Silence. Levi and Liliya stared at him.

  “It’s a pretty stupid rule,” Qorbin hurriedly continued. “Most classes are permitted to take on multiple apprentices. But Grand Assassins, for some reason, are only allowed one by the System. No idea why. Maybe ‘cause we’re meant to be more of a solo class? Who knows.”

  Even more silence.

  “But wait,” Qorbin said even more frantically. “I actually did think of a good idea. We can do a three-way apprenticeship. That is to say, one of you becomes my apprentice, then the other becomes their apprentice. I don’t think it’s ever been done before, and I don’t know if it’s even legal in terms of Guild rules, but I’m pretty certain the System would allow it.” He paused, wincing slightly as the silence continued to stretch. “Alternatively, I guess you two can just decide with rock-papers-scissors–”

  “My System is locked,” Levi said with amusement, deciding to spare Qorbin any further awkwardness. “I don’t think I can form a contract with you even if I wanted to.” He nodded at Liliya. “It’s all yours.”

  Liliya smiled. “Thank you.”

  “Oh thank the Goddess,” Qorbin said, chuckling. “Say that sooner next time–” He froze. “Hold on. What do you mean your System is locked?”

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