Fyar shifted his gaze to Illya. "Are you alright, Illya?"
Illya, who was still panting for breath, turned to Fyar. She smiled and nodded gently. "I'm just a little tired from using two major spells at once."
Mages are terrifying. She's only level twenty, but she can already do something that dangerous. What are high-level mages capable of? I should probably start learning how to deal with the mage class, in case I have to face one someday, Fyar thought.
He felt a little horrified by the capabilities of mages after seeing some of Illya's spells. Even though she was only level twenty, Illya was able to do things that Fyar considered impossible, like making someone undetectable, healing wounds, creating a soundless area, teleporting, and even controlling the earth. If I met an enemy mage right now, I'd probably just give up...
In the valley below, the monsters that had been killed were now turning into dimly glowing, light-blue stones. Zaefal and Rasie were already securing the area to make sure there were no other monsters hiding.
Fyar walked over to Illya and stopped in front of her. He crouched down slightly, his back to the girl. "Get on, Illya. It'll be tiring for you to walk down after using two big spells like that."
Illya was silent at the sight. Just as she was about to shake her head to refuse, Fyar suddenly turned his head and smiled at her. "Please don't refuse. It would embarrass me."
Hearing that, Illya gave a small laugh. "Thank you." She then stood up carefully and climbed onto Fyar's back. Fyar could feel the warmth and softness of Illya's body, as well as her breath, still slightly ragged, near his ear. Is she that tired? Fyar wondered.
They then began to walk down the hill, heading toward Zaefal and Rasie.
"I'll give you praise for your courage, purple hair!" Rasie exclaimed, giving a thumbs-up as she saw Fyar and Illya approaching.
"Good work, Illya. Good work, Fyar," Zaefal added with a smile.
I was able to think of that plan after learning about Illya's magic and considering the foxes' abilities. Their ability is to become invisible if they feel threatened. They're also smart enough to hide their numbers to fool their enemies, making their opponents underestimate them. If they aren't too threatened by their opponent, their hobby is to gang up and slowly kill their prey. My being alone and without magic was the perfect bait for them. Huh, I guess I should thank the person who first discovered their abilities and put them in that book, Fyar thought.
"Fyar, you can put me down here," Illya said, patting Fyar's shoulder gently.
"Alright," Fyar replied curtly. He looked toward Zaefal, who was holding one of the light-blue stones. "What is that stone?"
"A Hexa Stone. This stone can be made into jewelry or an artifact. It costs about thirty gold coins for one stone, and as an artifact, it can provide an invisibility effect for twenty seconds."
Four hundred and twenty gold coins. Divided by four, that would be one hundred and five gold coins each. Fyar's mind immediately focused on how much gold he would get. He wasn't too impressed with the artifact's effect.
They then walked over to the four corpses that were missing limbs. Among the four lifeless bodies, Fyar could identify one as male and two as female. What happened here? Fyar narrowed his eyes, observing the four corpses carefully.
"I can't believe those monsters could kill four adventurers so tragically," Illya said with a sad expression. "Maybe they were tired or in bad condition when they encountered the monsters, which is why they lost."
"That must be it! I agree with you, Illya!" Rasie supported her companion's theory.
Zaefal just remained silent, waiting for Fyar to conclude something.
"They weren't killed by the monsters," Fyar said softly.
"Huh? Didn't you see them eating the corpses with your own stupid face?" Rasie raised her eyebrows, not understanding.
"What do you mean?" Zaefal also raised an eyebrow and moved closer to the corpses.
Fyar turned to his party. "Did you notice that there are no weapons or adventurer cards on any of these bodies?"
"Huh? Try looking properly first!" Rasie snapped.
"Are you saying they were killed by a person?" Zaefal asked.
Fyar nodded. He then began to explain, "First, their weapons, artifacts, money, adventurer cards... basically, all their important valuables are missing. If they were killed by monsters, their belongings would still be here, right? Unless those monsters understand such things."
Fyar crouched down near a large claw mark on one of the corpse's chests. "There's no arterial bleeding. The blood that came out is only a little, a passive seepage. If this monster had attacked while the victim was still alive, blood would have sprayed due to heart pressure. A wound this large should have created a massive pool of blood, not just a wet stain around the wound. In other words, he was already dead when this monster started eating him."
Carefully, Fyar turned the body over. On the back of the neck, right below the hairline, he found what he was looking for. A small, neat, and almost invisible puncture wound, with blackened edges. "Here it is," he said. "Not a scratch, not a bite. This is a puncture wound from a very thin needle or dagger."
Fyar gently tried to move the corpse's jaw and eyelids. "No rigor mortis yet," he explained. "Stiffness usually begins in small muscles like the jaw and eyelids about two to four hours after death. Since the jaw is still limp, the death must have occurred less than three hours ago."
Fyar stood up and summarized everything. "What kind of dungeon monster can do this, my dear companions? They were poisoned with something either before or after entering this dungeon, I'm not sure. The murderer then left their bodies here to be eaten by monsters as a way to eliminate tracks and create an alibi."
Experience as an agent is really useful at times like this, Fyar sighed.
Rasie was dumbfounded, impressed and horrified at the same time. "Y-your explanation makes sense, purple hair." She put her hand to her mouth, observing the corpses with a serious gaze.
"Y-you know a lot, Fyar," Illya praised.
"Your theory is plausible. But also, where did you learn to read a corpse like that?" Zaefal stated.
"I told you, I just lo–" Fyar stammered, his tongue getting tied, not knowing what to cover up his lie with anymore.
Zaefal gave a small laugh. "Alright, don't worry about it."