After a quarter of an hour, the three subordinates soundlessly appeared in the central room of this hideout. Lucy and Arthur followed right after, waiting for the detailed information.

Today, Arthur wanted clear answers about the kidnapping of the past. Although they weren't directly involved with the past torture, they still contributed thus they can only be considered enemies, people who shouldn't be left alive or else his thirst for revenge will never be quelled.

"Report."

Lucy's emotionless voice resounded in this dark and cold room, where the only source of light is a few hanging lamps that illuminated only a small part of this awfully sinister place.

"Yes, Mistress! The BattleCrawler is a medium-sized mercenary group. Notorious for handling dirty jobs and tricking their employers to gain more money.

Since the appearance of the System, they gained more power thanks to their leader, who obtained a special set of skills. They usually operate in the Middle-East or Central Africa, however, we've found a few cases where they took jobs in Asia."

When the first one finished speaking, the woman on the right proceeded to report right after:

"The group has over fifty members with two vice-leaders who are a bit weaker than the chef.

Sadik Saad is the leader of this mercenary group, it is known he is Lv156 but the truth is that he surpassed the 200 boundary around three months ago.

He is also nurturing a young talent he accidentally found in Libya, North of Africa. Her potential is proclaimed to be unmatched, with the exception of the beast child, Saly.

Sadik is trying his best to hide her existence but many powers already have their eyes on her. We even received many requests to kill her or capture her."

When the second 'shadow' finished her report, the one at the middle initiated the last but not least report:

"Currently, they are residing in their main base situated South of Russia, a few miles away from a hidden dungeon that has not been discovered yet."

A bit curious, Arthur asked:

"Don't they operated in Africa and the Middle-East, what are they doing South of Russia."

Although it was pretentious for an unknown stranger to ask them directly, the woman at the middle answered after a slight hesitation:

"We haven't confirmed it yet but there's a rumor that they were secretly contacted by the Russian Government to carry out a mission. There's also another rumor about the possible existence of a massive gold mine under the dungeon."

Arthur nodded his head and spread his sense, with the approximate location in his mind, it would be a piece of cake to find their target, as for the possibility of being facing some resistance? There is no way such a thing would happen unless a God Monarch was hiding on Earth for god knows why.

After a bit more than five seconds, the mercenary group was found by Arthur.

Surprisingly, they were living in a large villa with tents spread out in the massive garden.

twenty-five presences were sensed and amongst them, there were two who are slightly stronger than the rest.

Although, it's 'slightly', that's only from Arthur's point of view. In reality, the leader of this group is significantly stronger than his subordinates, in fact, he could slaughter them all by himself if he wished, but for Arthur, they were all mortals who can be killed with only his aura.

"I found them."

In response to him, Lucy nodded and signaled for the subordinates to leave. Contrary to her expectations, the woman at the middle hesitated for a second before she said

"Mistress, do you want us to dispose of them? You do not need to dirty your hands with the fool's blood."

Her words seemed pretty sincere, unfortunately, the subordinate didn't receive the answer she yearned for. She wanted to properly serve Lucy, who recruited her and trained her to become this powerful, where she's afraid of no one.

"No need, we'll do it personally."

"...Yes!"

The woman replied respectfully and was about to leave when Lucy stopped her and said

"Oh and by the way, from now on, treat him the same you treat me. If I see anyone disobeying him then you know what happens, right?"

Lucy's eyes turned sharp for a split second before she waved her hand dismissively, causing the cloaked woman to nod and hastily leave this place.

To create such a secretive and loyal organization without any spies in it, Lucy had to hand-pick all of them, nonetheless, some annoyances managed to split in, unfortunately, they were discovered by Lucy sometime later and, to say the least, their fate wasn't merciful.

It only took Arthur one teleport to arrive at their destination. In a planet as small as Earth where there's no restriction on Space Magic in comparison to worlds like Green Leaf, teleporting around it doesn't even cost a high amount of Mana, it's actually negligible.

....

Currently, Sadik Saad was enjoying a back massage inside his spacious mansion. It was situated in a place devoid of life but that was beneficial for him as to not grab the attention of the Russian Government.

He started sending his subordinates to explore the hidden dungeon and scavenge as many gold as possible. Unfortunately, they need to delve deeper to acquire more gold, which isn't possible as the monsters hidden inside are more fearsome than he expected

'Tch! Who would've expected gargoyles to lay a fucking nest in the 2nd floor!'

Sadik clicked his tongue and threw this problem to the back of his mind and proceeded into enjoying this relaxing massage and eat some of the grapes a few centimeters away from him.

He wasn't the lazy type but with his subordinates already busy with the dungeon and a sufficient amount of funds acquired in the past years, he managed to gain a bit of time for relaxation.

Including the young lady who's massaging his back, there were three people inside this luxurious room. Sadik, the attendant, and his most trusted guard, Hal.

Hal is none other than the young girl he found in the desert a year ago, she almost died from thirst and starvation so he pitied her and gave her some food and shelter.

Who would've thought she was a strong warrior who's almost unstoppable. It only took her one year to grow from a weak and helpless girl to a fully fledged warrior, one who can even beat him, though he would never admit such a fact.

The room was only filled with Sadik's moans of pleasure, the massaging expert was truly good at her job, but that only made her fate worse as Sadik had marked her so she'll never be released from this place.

Although they are called mercenary and they take many contracts, most of their actions are similar to bandits, from plunder to theft and murder, though they keep it a secret so that their reputation remains unscathed.

Sadik wasn't aware of the appearance of two individuals, who suddenly appeared out of thin air at the entrance of the room. He only reacted when Hal grabbed her two-handed ax and darted toward the invaders with unstoppable momentum.

Sadly, Hal's figure was sent flying like a kite before she even crossed half the distance separating herself from the enemies. She crashed into the wall, causing destruction and alerting the rest of the subordinates, who were busy doing miscellaneous jobs.

Arthur didn't care, he focused on the tanned burly man, who swiftly got up and held two big axes in both hands.

The man didn't even ask questions, his eyes turned red and his aura increased by one fold, turning him into a literal berserker.

Unfortunately, his enemy wasn't someone he could threaten with his aura or physique, even the four Divine Beasts didn't faze Arthur, much less Sadik.

"Chill."

Arthur raised his hand and clutched it into a fist, this led into the destruction of both of Sadik's axes, which turned into dust. The man in question wasn't in a favorable situation, his skill was forcefully deactivated and he was immobilized without knowing what was binding his body.

He could only stare with confusion and anger at this mysterious grey-haired man.

Ignoring the incoming subordinates, who already rushed from downstairs and were preparing to attack, Arthur walked up to Sadik until only a few centimeters were separating both of their eyes, and said with a cold tone

"Sadik, look carefully... don't you remember me?"