-----

Manationia's Undead flew inside of her shadows as she made her way into the Inn, and spent the entire night sleeping, completely exhausted.

The Duke of the Duchy was quickly reported that the ten elite soldiers they sent to the girl were all slaughtered.

"W-What?! You're serious? Is this not a bad joke?

"

"Yes…

"

"It is like that…

"

"We apologize in their regard!

"

The servants kneeled before the Duke, as the Duke sighed.

"Damn it, the Dark Lord of the Depth's Cult is going to kill us if they know we are failing so much!

" sighed the Duke.

"How about using their gifts, my lord?

"

Suddenly, a mysterious woman with black feathers emerged behind the Duke.

"Huh? You're… aren't you a member of their cult?

" asked the Duke.

"Yes, don't worry, I will not tell them… yet. But my lord Duke, you should use the gifts they had given to you, right? They're sitting there only gaining dust… They're the power of our Dark Lord of the Depths! If you unleash it, it will bring demise to anyone.

" Said the woman.

"…Hm, certainly. That girl's troublesome… Alright, let's just do that then.

" Sighed the Duke.

"But my lord those artefacts are…!

"

"They are bad news!

"

"And they require vessels… living vessels…!

"

The three advisors of the Duke asked him to reconsider. However, he only glared down at them.

"Hm, guards, take them, you three have been useless vermin for a long time, it's time for you to be of some use for your Duke!

" he laughed.

"W-What?!

"

"Unhand me! I am an aristocrat! You can't…!

"

"No! Duke, stop!

"

"Fufufu, you've done the right thing, Duke Yggdrann…

" laughed the woman at his side, her eyes shone with bright red color, as her entire body emanated a strong black aura…

…

Manationia woke up rather energetically.

She now wanted to quickly sell a few of the corpses she had not risen as Undead to make some money and have a better capital.

She was still against the idea of making money out of magic, that seemed wrong to her.

She moved to the nearest store and ended selling an entire Titanosquid and several other little critters for around four thousand gold, Titanosquid in specific were very expensive as they were harder to kill than even most low to mid-level monsters.

Everyone looked at the little girl with eyes wide open and beaks wide open too, they couldn't believe such a simple little girl had actually defeated the powerful Titanosquid so easily! Who was she, really?

Nobody could really tell! She was a mystery amongst mysteries…

"The mysterious girl that easily defeated a Titanosquid by herself! That's a nice story.

" Said Octo.

"Agh, shut up…

" sighed Manationia.

Manationia decided to move towards a shop and buy herself some new equipment, which was rather expensive, only often used by Singers and Adventurers that explored the Labyrinth.

There were things that were way too expensive, and she couldn't afford them, but she asked for loans and promised to bring the money at the end of the day, and got herself a full set of light-weighted magic armor, a few accessories, and even a wand.

"Hm! You look so cute! Like a little and colorful bird with clothes!

" said Octo.

The race that Manationia was all bird like, despite how many would think these beings would look like as they descended from snails, they were actually very pretty, almost as pretty as the most beautiful birds in Earth, Manationia in specific was a young girl with colorful feathers, she was stunning to most of the rest of the people.

"What's even a bird?

" asked Manationia while raising an eyebrow.

"Agh, never mind that.

" Sighed Octo.

At the end, she decided to interrogate the souls of the guys she killed last night while going around the wilderness trying to hunt anything that moved.

"We are part of the Organization of Assassins, the Assassin Guild that works for Aristocracy…

"

"We worked for the Duke, he send us to kill you!

"

"He said that the Cult of the Dark Lord of the Depths wants you dead because you're dangerous!

"

"They say they detected a lot of power from you, Manationia-sama, you're way too powerful!

"

"Your magical power might intervene with their plans, so they want you out of the picture.

"

"They seem to already have their hands full by dealing against the other four Sages that are currently residing in the city, so you're the last of their problems.

"

"However, in fear that you might grow strong as a Sage, if not more, they want you dead before you can develop.

"

"And about Blood, yes, he was related to us and also to the cult, there is an entire clandestine organization that deals with bets and they got angry when you won…

"

"That ended catapulting everything until it spiraled into this situation.

"

"Agh… Sucks to be me.

" Sighed Manationia, she was really disappointed with everything in life at this point. She really just wanted to not have more problems, but not only the Duke himself wanted her dead, but this shady Cult too!

"Hmmm… The Dark Lord of the Depth? This sounds like the

"Hivemind

" guy that my creators told me about… So… could it be that he's really intelligent and actually seeping his evil influence in the people of this planet? These are bad news… I have to quickly report this to them.

" Thought Octo, as he quickly sent a direct mental message to Ervas and Veronica.

"Now what do I do?

" sighed Manationia, asking her only friend, Octo.

"For now we'll practice more spells, I want you to be as strong and ready as possible, Manationia. You'll be able to wreck them all if we prepare well enough, so we'll do a lot of daily grind, get some money, get better equipment, and so on and so forth!

" said Octo.

"Ugh, that's a bit repetitive, but fine. I trust your judgement a bit.

" said Manationia.

"Only a bit?!

" asked Octo.

"Yes, only a bit…

" giggled Manationia.

-----