Fennelis and others glanced at each other and hurriedly ran towards the next room. Within seconds, they arrived in front of the next room's entrance door and noticed the whole corridor was engulfed in darkness. In a second, Fennelis took out a magic lamp from her spatial ring and lit it.
Meanwhile, Hooper violently kicked the wooden door and opened it with a loud creak.
Inside, they saw a similar horrific scene. The victim was a middle-aged man with black hair. Like before, his body was cleaved open in two, and his eyes were wholly dug out while his body was placed in the same ritual circle. But their expression turned grim because they couldn't see any monster inside!
'Did the murderer escape somewhere even before we could arrive?' Everyone felt eeriness creep up to their spine.
"Mama, it's there!" While others looked around the room cautiously, Umi spoke loudly and pointed her tiny finger upward. Everyone got confused by her words and soon looked up at the ceiling. But they couldn't see the monster at all. Even if it were invisible, Fennelis would still be able to sense using her spirit power.
'Wait a minute! It's not invisible; it shrank into a small rat.' At that moment, she noticed a small living creature was hanging onto the ceiling like a lizard and widened her eyes in shock. The next instant, she aimed her sword at the small creature and threw it at full strength.
Swoosh!
Like a bolt of lightning, her sword pierced through the air like a bullet and directly attacked the small rat. But before her sword could deal with any damage, the shrunken rat started to expand and soon formed into an iron golem.
It blocked the sword with its tough body, leaving a clanging sound behind.
A second later, the sword and the shape-shifting golem fell with a loud noise. Due to the large ruckus, the nearby rooms' guests also gathered outside and soon looked at the monster with wide eyes.
Slowly, the iron golem stood up and started to change into a black humanoid form. The iron skin turned blackish, and its height grew two-meter tall with a pitch-black tail. It had white-colored eyes, a humanoid appearance, elongated black ears, and a sharp grey nose.
After its transformation, that strange creature looked in their direction, revealed its white teeth, and vanished from there.
'Is it teleported? Or is it turned invisible? Or shrunken again?' Fennelis scanned the surrounding area with a vigilant expression. A second later, she noticed the creature's presence appeared right behind them and became startled.
She turned around and looked at the entrance.
"Watch out!" Fennelis instantly squinted her eyes and shouted while pointing her finger at one of the four guests. Meanwhile, Roysia and other adventurers shifted their gaze towards the front and noticed a small transparent humanoid line appeared behind a young man.
"Run-" Roysia shouted to warn them, but something incredible happened before she could finish her first words. At that moment, the guests' bodies split vertically and painted the surroundings red. Thudding sounds echoed as the guests' cleaved bodies fell in an eerie manner. A second later, those blood droplets moved on their own and formed a large ritual circle-like appearance under those cleaved bodies.
But that was not the end. Another second later, the fallen guests' eyes popped out of the sockets, floated in the air, and were soon sucked into the invisible creature's body. Before Fennelis and others could understand what the hell was happening, the creature was long gone. All of them stood there with shocked faces and shivered.
"It can turn invisible, teleport, change its body size, and even attack invisibly. We still have no idea about this creature's other abilities." After a long silence, Fennelis said with a solemn tone.
"I never faced an enemy like this in my past experiences," Roysia said with a nervous tone, while other adventurers also started to nod in approval.
"I have encountered one. Although it was not a shape-shifter like this, that creature gave us a hard time." Fennelis said while grabbing Umi's hand in anxiety and started walking towards the staircase hurriedly. Meanwhile, others glanced at each other and followed after her with fast steps.
"What type of creature was that?" Selma asked while sheathing her sword.
"It was an undead creature with teleportation skill. It was half corrupted being. Due to an elf's help, we managed to defeat that creature. Although we even faced more deadly creatures later, these types of sneaky creatures are the ones I'm most afraid of." Fennelis replied with a heavy sigh and went downstairs through the spiral staircase.
"Why are there no guards responding to this ruckus today?" Roysia suddenly said with a frown.
A few seconds later, the group reached the ground floor and noticed the receptionist girl was also killed in the same way.
"We should go and check what is happening outside," Hooker spoke and walked out of that Inn while others followed him with stern expressions.
The group left Border Street within a few minutes and entered the street road. No street lamps were lit in the commoner's Borough, making the surrounding areas look gloomy and dark.
"Shall we go to the City Lord's residence and report the situation to him?" Hooper suggested in a low tone.
"Good idea. At least we can find out more about the current situation." Fennelis also nodded her head and approved his suggestion.
After that, everyone entered the left side of the street road and went northeast, where Nobles Street was. After a few minutes of walking, they finally arrived in front of a 3-meter tall entrance gate guarded by two soldiers.
Nobles Street was completely isolated from the other streets in every small town, making it hard for any commoners to even get near it. The most annoying thing was that they even needed permission from the government employee to enter.
As they moved closer to the entrance gate, Roysia noticed that the guards stood like a statue at the sides of the gloomy dark gate and appeared motionless.
"Something is wrong." Roysia frowned and quickly approached the person on her right side while holding a small magic lamp in her hand. Once she arrived closer to the guard, she raised her and moved her lamp closer to the guard's face to get a clear view.
A second later, she subconsciously trembled and took a few steps back with horrified eyes. At that moment, Fennelis and others also noticed her odd behavior and went closer to her.
"What happened?" Selma asked and slowly shifted her gaze towards the guard's face. Soon, others followed her gaze and noticed two metal arrows penetrated the guard's forehead. But what made them shiver in fear was that the guard's both eyes were dug out.
"Look closely." Fennelis maintained her calm expression and pointed her finger towards the guard's cheeks. Others looked at the guard's face and noticed small blood trails dripping down his forehead.
The blood trail multiplied around the guard's neck area and continued spreading towards the metal gate. All those complex blood trails entered the metal gate and formed a strange ritual circle.
"His body also deeply cut down vertically," Roysia muttered nervously.
"Does that mean the monster came from Nobles Street? Or is it entered this street just now?" Smith asked while suppressing her voice.
"I sense no danger up ahead. But I don't think it is a good idea to go to the city lord's mansion." Nadine's words made everyone from the adventurers' team flinch in surprise.
'It seems this girl has an ability of a diviner. Hmm, her unique ability must be bestowed by Lady Nyara.' Fennelis made a judgment and thought of what to do next.
'I can tell there is a danger up ahead. But if we don't inform the city lord about the current situation, the whole town might fall prey to that creature... If things become more dangerous, all I have to do is escape quickly with Umi and Lady Roysia.' She sighed inwardly.
After pondering for a moment, Hooper pushed the slightly opened gloomy metallic door and walked ahead.
A second later, everyone stared at the street in surprise as they saw multiple lights illuminating the whole road from the surrounding houses. At the end of Nobles street, they also saw a tall building encircled by a two-meter tall concrete wall.
"It must be the city lord's mansion," Selma said while glancing around the surroundings with a curious look.
"You haven't been here before?" Fennelis gave a surprised look and asked her.
"No, ma'am. We are just commoners and don't have any position in this town. Although all of our strength is 4th tier, these nobles in the Keris kingdom are very proud and won't allow us near any Nobles' districts." She paused for a second, noticing the confusion on Roysia's face, and muttered slowly. "Here is not like your Peral kingdom, miss. If someone wants to walk into the Nobles' street, they must be a Light believer and holds a governmental position. It has been like that for the last few decades."
"Oh? But with your current strength, you guys can get a high position under some noble, right?" Fennelis asked while she continued walking towards the city lord's manor.
'I don't think there will be a lord who is foolish enough to reject them even if they are commoners. Moreover, why haven't I heard of anything about the strong influence of the light church in this kingdom?' Fennelis thought inwardly.