The Dark Spider Gang's hideout appeared to be a single-story building on the surface, but beneath it lay hidden underground floors.

According to the information provided by Jubel, they rented temporary buildings every time they conducted their slave trade. Once they disposed of all the slaves, they would vacate the building and move to the next hunting ground.

The first floor would likely appear ordinary, where the slave traders resided. Based on Erica's memory, the slaves were most probably imprisoned on the second underground level.

Leon, after checking in with Erica and Ria, carefully opened the door.

Creak—

Contrary to his expectation that the door would be locked, it opened with surprising ease.

As the door quietly swung open, the slave traders inside, who were drinking, turned to look.

Ten pairs of eyes focused on the door, but none of them could see anyone standing there.

“What the hell?”

One of the slave traders, Ered, set his glass down, puzzled.

“Why did the door suddenly open?”

A colleague, drinking next to him, also set down his glass and stood up.

He approached the door, inspecting to see if anyone was there. Just as he sensed something odd and was about to speak, a strange sword, glowing a dark crimson, pierced his chest.

Before he could even scream, he collapsed to the floor.

Thud—

At that moment, the door shut, and only then did the intruders reveal themselves.

They had been standing right in front of the door, invisible until now, as though appearing out of thin air with a mysterious magic.

There were three of them, all dressed in robes typical of southern nomads.

The small man at the front held an extinguished lantern in his hand. After surveying the surroundings, he tucked the lantern back into his spatial pocket.

The traders standing near Ered were shocked.

“Damn it, we’re under attack! Alert the boss!”

Ered, momentarily stunned by the scene, snapped back to his senses only after his companions shouted.

Ered quickly cast a detection spell to gauge the intruders' strength. However, what he discovered was alarming—their level was immeasurable to him. As a third-class apprentice, Ered was no match for them.

“Who are you?”

One of his colleagues, who had been urging them to warn the boss, approached the intruders, attempting to maintain a calm voice, hoping to buy some time.

But such a feeble ploy ended quickly.

The sword lodged in the fallen trader's chest rose telekinetically, flying toward the approaching man and embedding itself in his body.

“Pierce.”

The soft murmur of the small man could be heard.

“A sorcery! It’s a sorcerer-class mage!”

Ered, realizing that the man had cast a spell, immediately shouted.

In the next instant, the sword pulled from his fallen colleague split into ten, all of them flying towards the remaining traders on the first floor.

They had no time to resist.

Most of the slave traders, being apprentice-level, were ruthlessly slaughtered amidst a scene of pure carnage.

Instinctively, Ered stepped back, terrified.

Before his eyes, six of his comrades were butchered without mercy, two of them dying with swords embedded in their chests before they could even speak.

It was only natural that fear would grip him.

Ered glanced towards the stairs leading to the basement, looking for an opportunity to escape.

He envied the colleague who had already gone down to alert the boss.

Meanwhile, the three intruders approached him.

Ered’s legs trembled as he collapsed to the floor.

The man in the robe, his hood pulled up, asked him:

“Where’s your boss?”

Ered was too frightened to even think of hiding his terror.

“H-he’s below…”

“Below where?”

The intruder asked shortly, with ten swords floating menacingly around him. Blood dripped from the tips of the blades, staining the floor.

Ered gulped as if he couldn’t breathe at the sight of the terrifying scene.

“He’s… training on the first underground floor.”

“Is that where you train, too?”

“N-no… above that…”

Leon understood from Ered’s words and nodded. The first underground floor was used by the sorcerer-class mages for training, while the apprentice-class stayed on the ground floor.

“Where’s the other exit?”

“There’s a stairway from the first underground floor that leads directly outside.”

“…”

Leon pondered for a moment.

The fact that there was a stairway leading directly outside from the first underground floor was not good news for him.

After a brief consideration, Leon glanced back at Erica and Ria, saying something to them, before immediately heading for the stairs to the first underground floor.

Of the two remaining intruders, one, a woman with sky-blue hair spilling out from under her hood, stepped forward.

She took out blue shackles from her waist and fastened them tightly to Ered’s legs. These were the lightning shackles Leon had given her.

“The slaves… are on the second floor, aren’t they?”

“Y-yes… they are.”

Ered didn’t resist the shackles, unaware of their exact ability but smart enough to know they would likely prevent any rebellion. Even a fool could figure that out.

Ered decided to comply without resistance.

The blue-haired sorceress, Erica, silently gestured for Ered to lead the way.

Ered stood up and began guiding them to the second underground floor, while Ria followed behind, summoning a massive gargoyle golem from her spatial pocket.

The golem Leon had transferred to her obediently guarded her as she moved.

Ered glanced at the gargoyle golem but quickly looked away in fear.

 

Leon swiftly descended the dark staircase leading to the first underground floor. The ten floating swords continued to circle him, along with auxiliary magic crystals orbiting nearby.

His goal was to quickly eliminate all the slave traders on this floor. If there were any opponents stronger than him, he might have moved more cautiously, but here, there was no need. A swift clean-up was the priority.

After dealing with the traders, he planned to store the corpses in his magic orb and escape the city. While he wouldn’t be able to erase all traces of magic or blood, anyone who tried to track him down would waste time looking for bodies that no longer existed.

The fastest spell Leon currently possessed for ending combat was the Thunderclap of Glory. However, since it was his primary spell in Astellia, he decided not to use it here.

Aside from the Thunderclap of Glory, his most aggressive spell was the Sword that Shatters Moonlight.

The sword, with its crimson-glowing surface, looked eerie, but since it was stored in a pocket dimension, it would remain unseen until necessary.

Leon summoned a giant earth-elemental turtle familiar to protect him, using the Principles of Harmony.

The staircase leading to the first underground floor was even darker and gloomier than the decadent atmosphere above, with only sparse lighting along the walls to guide his descent.

As he reached the bottom, a desolate interior came into view.

Waiting for him were ten mages.

As soon as Leon revealed himself, they unleashed their magic.

Leon immediately deployed the ten swords to form a defensive formation and used his earth-elemental turtle to raise a solid earthen wall behind the swords. This way, any shock from the spells, which the swords couldn’t deflect on their own, would be absorbed by the wall.

Of course, none of their spells could pierce his magic swords.

Boom—

The traders seemed to anticipate that collapsing the building was a risk, so they refrained from using large-scale spells. The incoming attacks consisted mostly of common offensive magic, such as water spears, fireballs, and chunks of rock, all of which were blocked by Leon’s sword defense.

As the smoke from the blasts cleared, Leon could see the stunned faces of the slave traders.

Of the ten mages, nine were sorcerer-class, while the last one was the person who had gone to alert the boss.

The strongest among them seemed to be mid-tier sorcerers, but the boss hadn’t shown up yet.

‘Did he run?’

Had the boss abandoned all his subordinates and fled on his own?

Either way, Leon needed to act quickly. If the boss had indeed escaped, things could escalate.

Leon was currently prepared to use the second-tier spell of the Sword that Shatters Moonlight. After mastering the basic first-tier spells and their combinations, he had moved on to second-tier magic.

The “Wyrd” spell, which fired sword waves, and “Morph,” which allowed him to change the shape of the sword, were both second-tier offensive spells.

As for the sorcerer spell, “Moonlight Frenzy,” he hadn’t yet obtained the “Upper” chapter of the Sword that Shatters Moonlight and thus couldn’t use it. The “Middle” chapter only contained half of the techniques for the sorcery.

However, the power of the spell combined with his magic sword was sufficient at the second tier.

Leon infused the ten swords with the moonlight energy.

This energy was incredibly destructive, and unlike dark magic of similar strength, it didn’t emit any malevolent aura, which intrigued Leon.

“Wyrd.”

With a soft whisper, Leon fired the condensed energy from the ten swords at the enemy.

The silver energy slashed through the air in the shape of a sword wave, crashing towards the mages.

The enemy mages quickly cast defensive spells.

Since they had been briefed on the fact that they couldn’t measure their opponent’s strength, they weren’t foolish enough to attempt a counterattack.

Boom—

The clash of the sword waves against the layers of defensive barriers sent shockwaves throughout the room.

The barriers shattered one by one as the silver sword waves relentlessly broke through, pressuring the enemy.

Even the mid-tier sorcerers, who were trying their hardest to hold on, began to lose their defensive spells, fear slowly creeping onto their faces.

At that moment, Leon drew in more of his energy and whispered:

“Pierce.”

After launching the sword waves, the ten floating swords tilted, their tips now aimed at the remaining mid-tier sorcerers struggling to maintain their defenses.

There were five mid-tier sorcerers.

Each of them was about to be struck by two swords when—

Bang!

The door burst open, and something was launched towards Leon.

It was a black thorn.

The thorn, sharpened at both ends, sped towards Leon with incredible speed.

In an instant, the massive earth-elemental turtle opened its mouth.

An earthen wall sprang up in front of Leon.

The thorn slammed into the wall with a force that suggested it might pierce through, but eventually, the pressure subsided.

“…”

Expecting it to break through, Leon had begun calculating another defensive spell, but when the thorn quieted down, he held his breath for a moment.

Then, one of the sorcerers, who had been moving behind his barrier, spoke.

“The boss used the scales.”

“Huff… Huff… are we alive?”

Leon didn’t know what the scales were, but soon, he felt something strange surround him.

Suddenly, Leon’s mana began to flow into the black thorn, seemingly beyond his control.

He tried to stop it, but the mana drained from him regardless of his will.

The force pulling his mana into the thorn grew stronger.

At that moment, someone stepped out of the dark room behind the door, their footsteps echoing.

“Heheh… Foolishly walking in alone. Did you think we were that easy? You shouldn’t assume you’ve taken over the Pyrein slave market without proper preparation.”

The man exuded a high-level sorcerer’s aura, standing confidently.

Leon immediately recognized him as the boss.

What was strange, however, was that the man’s mana, like Leon’s, was also being drawn into the thorn.

“Let’s see whose mana runs out first… Get ready.”

“Yes, sir.”

Excluding the mid-tier sorcerer who had already been killed by Leon’s sword waves, the remaining survivors quickly moved behind the boss, leaving their dead companions behind.

They placed their hands on the boss's back.

Standing there, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the boss sneered at Leon and said:

“You seem useful enough… I’ll make you my slave for life. Keh heh heh…”