"What in the world?!"

It was obvious that something was wrong about them, but it didn't seem to be bad enough for them to actually do this stupid act which was no different than just committing suicide…

'How did this start exactly…?'

Thinking back to Sean's explanation about his information source of what so ever, I started to slightly get a hunch of what might have happened…

'So there was something wrong with the earthen set?'

The Earthen set was undoubtedly the legit key that needed to be used to gain entrance to the 'Trial of Vegetation', so the item itself should have nothing wrong with it, especially with how the crossbow I had didn't act out of the ordinary in anyway, as I was still in full mental health…

'The source must be the seller.'

At this point, it was no longer just a theory to doubt the information that Sean has told me to this point, it didn't make much sense to obtain an information from some sort of information broker in the middle of the auction itself, I did think about that before but everything seemed plausible enough till now…

So, the potential scenario would be that the one who put these items in the auction might be one of the demon seeds that are active in the Nature Domain who added something to the items somehow, causing them to act as they acted till this point…

Of course, there was the possibility of the trio themselves being the demon seeds, but if that was the case, then they shouldn't have acted that strangely, they would have tried to cover up their strange mood changes that made no sense at all.

'Why didn't I notice anything?'

Not only did I check their status when I started getting the slightest bit suspicious, but I also checked their conscious mind space to check if they were somehow influenced by the demon possession art, and all of these checks had given me negative results, which was more or less why I reached this point without expecting what they have had done a few seconds ago, thus not being able to stop it…

'It's either that they managed to come up with another Technique or…'

It would be terrifying enough if the demons actually managed to improve their possession and bewitching abilities to a higher or a newer stage when compared to the ones I experienced in the Light Domain, as that just meant that it would be hard to predict or thwart their plans without realizing that it's going on from the beginning like I did back in the Light Domain as well…

However, when taking in mind the fact that I wasn't even notified about the mind attack coming towards me after coming into contact with the crossbow, I came to an understanding that it wasn't a normal technique, it was likely to be something more hidden!

'Like that mark that was supposed to attack me back then when I helped the village chief…'

Maybe they used such an insidious method that wouldn't normally be tracked, possibly even by the system, as it could have only been repelled due to my Intelligence and Wisdom stat just like 'Illusory Light' was…

"Arghhhh…"

I got a bit irritated about how this whole venture was filled with nothing but riddles, as the 'Adventurous Quest' turned out to be some sort of a planned lure and catch…

'Calm down…'

It didn't take me more than a few seconds more before I cleared my mind as I ignored the messed up facts that have been filling my mind as of now, trying to focus on what to do next.

'Let's just head down there…'

In my current situation, I was given no other choice but to go down and fight if I wanted to get out of here, sure, I could just use the brown crystal and leave, but that would just be straight giving up and that wasn't my way of dealing with these things…

Not to mention that while the strangely influenced trio were quite annoying at some points, it wasn't actually their fault, they had just been acting according to what the strange possession told them to, they were still innocent people in the very end so it was worth trying.

'Worst case scenario, I will just take out the corruption core as I leave the trouble of cleaning the demons for the sects…'

As this place wasn't far from Battle City, it was actually quite simple to have the sects that were concentrated in a great number there take care of it with some clever planning but for now…

'I don't plan on letting some potential leveling go away without proving it's impossible just yet, I'm the one that has the brown crystal anyway…'

With the brown crystal, the key to outside, being in my own possession, it wasn't that hard to to grab the last black crystal and crush it to head down to the demon base with a steel heart…

`~~`~~`~~`

"Sir Overseer!" a purple skinned buff horned demon shouted outside a small shack.

"Did the guests we anticipated arrive yet?" coming out of his shack, a proper clothed demon who had a somewhat slim body when compared to the earlier demon asked as he closed the book he had in hand.

"Yes sir, they have arrived just now, although it seems like the ancient bewitching mark seems to have left quite a toll on their minds as they are acting in a very weird way at the moment…"

"Hmmm, lead the way."

"Yes sir!"

Moving in a straight line away from the shack, it didn't take long before the two demons arrived before three humans…

"What is happening, wasn't I the sect leader of the Brilliant Earth sect just now, why am I in this weird cave?!"

"What the… where are all my loot and weapons, I'm sure that I had just finally taken care of the piece of sh*t sect head! What…"

"There's also something else that I have to report sir…"

"Hmmm?"