'As long as I can escape this place alive, I can still have my revenge.' That was the thought that passed through Mara's head when the trespasser gave them the opportunity to leave with their lives.
Ever since she became the leader of their branch guild in Oakwood Town, she painstakingly worked hard in order to achieve the mission that had been entrusted to her by her superior.
After nearly a year of trial and error, she and her subordinates had finally developed a serum that had the ability to mutate foreigners into Lycans. Although the serum was still unstable and the latest version was able to meet their standards. To achieve this, several members from the first batch of experimental subjects died.
Mara thought that it would be smooth sailing from that point onwards since they would've been able to increase their Lycan army secretly within the territory of Oakwood Town. Unexpectedly, they happened to target the wrong Dwarf party, whose members seemed to be friends with the same person that sabotaged their project in the Territory of Norria.
'If only you never appeared,' Mara thought through gritted teeth.
Yes, if only Lux hadn't appeared, then their operation in Oakwood Town wouldn't have been jeopardized. Unfortunately, the red-headed teenager was already here. Their organization first got wind of his information after their spy in the Royal Capital managed to overhear the discussion among some of the Ministers who were headed towards the throne room.
They were discussing the Half-Elf who was bestowed an Honorary Knight Title by the King of the Dwarves, which made waves among the ministers of the palace.
This was how they knew of Lux's existence. Unfortunately, their Boss decided to lay low for the time being after the consecutive raids on the other Beginner Villages. Their operations on the outskirts of the Gweliven Kingdom had been uprooted, so they were forced to take it slowly for the time being.
Unfortunately, Mara got too full of herself, overestimating her ability of avoiding detection. She was confident that she could cover her tracks by issuing a Quest about a monster sighting in Oakwood Forest with a reward that was tempting for Adventurer Parties.
She didn't expect that instead of only attracting sheeps, she would accidentally invite a wolf to her own base, who was now currently in the midst of extorting them of their valuables.
"Give your valuables to my Skeleton minions. Make sure you don't do anything funny or, else, all of you will regret it."
The tresspasser's voice sounded from the distance, his words making Mara grit her teeth in frustration.
She and her subordinates handed over their belongings, keeping only their clothes.
"Oi, I said hand everything over. Do you think that I wouldn't notice the item you're hiding inside your mouth? Spit it out or I'll cut off your head! The rest of you better not do the same or I'll have your heads!"
The two Dwarves, who attempted to hide something, immediately spat out storage rings from their mouths upon hearing Lux's command and handed them over to the Skeletons that were collecting their possessions.
The Skeleton didn't have any expression on its face, but the way it looked at the two Dwarves made the latter feel like it was disgusted with them.
Mara and her other subordinates had no idea how the trespasser had been able to see the items they hid inside their bodies. However, after being discovered, none of them took any more chances and honestly gave all of their belongings to the Skeletons, while cursing the trespasser inwardly.
Lux, whose real self was hiding in the distance, chuckled internally when he saw the Dwarves take out the items that they had hidden inside their bodies.
He was just bluffing when he said that he saw an item inside one of the Dwarves' mouths.
Back on earth, he had watched a show where certain agents hid tracking devices in their teeth in order to evade detection from the criminal group that they were trying to infiltrate.
'Diablo, I'll leave everything to you,' Lux conveyed via telepathy.
Diablo, who was beside him, nodded his head as he walked towards the Dwarves who had their arms raised in the air in surrender.
"All of you move in a single file and exit this place," Lux ordered. "The first one to do something funny gets stabbed. No questions asked. Now, start moving!"
Diablo prodded Mara's back with the tip of his sword, leaving the Dwarf leader no choice but to walk towards the exit.
Her subordinates followed behind her as they were escorted by a legion of the Undead.
Lux had already hidden himself in another room and was just waiting for the Dwarves to leave the base through the exit.
He had no plan to let the Dwarves escape for real. It was a trap planned to capture them with the help of the Adventurer's Guild after he had ransacked the entire base.
His minions had already found the nursery for the cocoons of mutated Lycans. According to the Dwarf leader, Mara, the antidote could be drunk or poured into the mutated Lycan's body to undo the mutation.
He had already sent one of his minions to test this method earlier by pouring one of the antidotes over one of the cocoons. The cocoon melted and a Dwarf boy, who was in his birthday suit, appeared.
Although the boy was unconscious, there were no problems with his body, so Lux was assured that the antidote had worked perfectly.
When Mara's group had safely left the base, Lux cured the other Dwarves, who were in the midst of their transformation, reverting them to their original forms.
Among the Dwarves, two were girls so Lux covered them with capes and ordered Eiko and her slimes to look after them. As for the boys, the Half-Elf's skeleton minions carried them to a different room to ensure that nothing untoward would happen when they woke up.
After the Dwarves were separated, Lux personally shook the Dwarf boys to wake them up. He was afraid that if the Skeletons were the ones to do it, the Dwarves would wake up screaming upon realizing that it was an Undead that had been shaking them.
"Thank you for saving us!" one of the Dwarves said as he gazed at Lux with a grateful look. "If you hadn't come, we might have all been turned into one of those Monsters."
"I only did the right thing," Lux replied. "The people that have captured you guys have already been defeated and are tied up near the path that leads to Oakwood Town. The Adventurer's Guild has already been called, so they will probably arrive soon. Make sure to tell them about your experiences so they can make a detailed report about this incident."
The Dwarves nodded their heads and left the laboratory to help guard the researchers who had almost turned them into Lycans. Lux could see anger in their eyes, so he wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly decided to attack their captors in order to exact revenge.
Just to be on the safe side, Lux gave a mental order to Pazuzu, Ishtar, and Orion to prevent the adventurers from killing any of the researchers. They were important leads to the whereabouts of the organization, and the Half-Elf didn't plan to let them off scot free.
'Now, all that is needed is for the rats to lead me to their sewers,' Lux thought. 'I think I'll need to contact Nevreal. I don't know if he's considered a high-ranking noble or not, but it would be best if I leave the cleanup to them.'
Lux was a little worried about an unknown organization adding him to their blacklist.
If possible, he wanted to deal with them as soon as he could to eliminate future troubles. However, he wasn't delusional enough to think that he alone could take down an entire group that had remained at large while hiding inside the Gweliven Kingdom.
He needed helpers, and Nevreal seemed to be the best person for the job.
