Chapter 331

Chapter 331 Strongest Sage, Disregarded

Boseil isn't that big of a town .

Its inhabitants would immediately notice a stranger among them .

Zadokilgias might have chosen to kill and take someone's place, but mingling among adventurers is a better way to stay unnoticed .

After all, it's normal for adventurers to travel between towns, so they're outsiders by nature .

It's also not unusual for adventurers to wait around idly until they find a good quest, so even those who don't take on any quest won't raise suspicion .

Which means anyone can slip in .

On top of that . . . Guilds are a good place to gather information with their heavy foot traffic .

They will be the first to know about a large-scale demon suppression unit .

Heck, members of the suppression unit might even come to the guild to report .

There's no better place to lurk around .

Adventurers didn't exist during the era Zadokilgias thrived, thus it might have no idea about adventurer guilds . . . . but finding out that much should be a simple matter even shortly after its revival .

With that in mind, I decided to investigate the guild last .

Since we're up against Zadokilgias here, it wouldn't surprise me if the demon had anticipated us thinking 『The demon is lurking in the guild』 .

So we're going to check it last after exhausting all other possibilities .

"I'll go see things inside the guild . You girls wait here . "

"You're going alone?"

"Yea . There could be an ambush waiting for us . . . I'll get back right away unless our opponent makes its move . "

Then I went to the guild .

Our biggest problem is Ruli and Alma getting hit by a surprise attack if all four of us go inside together .

Against Zadokilgias, protecting Ruli and Alma would be tough .

Hence, we need to choose when and where to fight proper .

I'm confident I could handle it if I'm the only one ambushed .

Since it's so much easier to protect myself than others .

Disqualified Crest has a very good compatibility against ambushes due to its speedy casting time with evasion and defense magic .

(Quest board . . . Over there . )

I went straight for the quest board once inside .

I'm not actually taking a quest, it's just that adventurers usually come to a guild to take a quest .

I'm trying to avoid raising suspicion by acting like your average adventurer .

And while pretending to scan over the quest board–I probe for nearby adventurers' mana reactions .

Then . . . I found Zadokilgias right away .

(That's the guy . )

I zeroed in on a tall man reading a strategy book in the corner of the guild .

His mana reaction is undoubtedly that of a human .

Absolutely nothing demonic about it at all .

As a demon, his disguise is perfect .

There would be zero chance of the suppression unit uncovering him through detecting mana .

However . . . It's final . That's Zadokilgias .

The tall man's mana is clean, with no hint of anything demonic .

However . . . It's clean, way too clean .

Mana of a human who hasn't trained enough should have had much more noise on it .

Mana noise gets lower the more one trains .

Because it's directly proportionate to one's ability to control mana .

As such, you can hazard a guess of a mage's capability by looking at their mana .

This is more to do with the fact that Zadokilgias didn't realize the average level of this era's magic . . . Than its failure at disguising itself .

Zadokilgias's mana noise is adjusted to the average level of previous era's magic combatants .

Which is a monstrous level in this era .

. . . I know full well Zadokilgias's feel on this though .

You wouldn't normally believe the world's level of magic could fall this low after being reincarnated from death .

I have fully mastered this world's common sense thanks to Second Academy . . . However Zadokilgias had only been revived recently .

No surprise it made a mistake at disguising its mana level .

As I looked at the quest board while thinking that . . . Zadokilgias turned its line of sight at me .

Looks like he's observing my mana .

However, he seemed to have lost interest in me after a few seconds .

He's back to reading a book .

(Well, figured . . . )

My current mana is weak compared to an average mage in previous era .

Which is normal considering my age . There's a limit to how much you can temper your mana and physical strength in a short amount of time no matter how efficient the training .

From Zadokilgias's point of view which is based on previous era standard, I'm just like a kid aiming to be a magic combatant .

At the very least, I must look nothing like a member of suppression unit dispatched to subdue a powerful demon .

With that in mind, I returned the quest tag I took back on the board and left the guild .