Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

Three people were standing before this altar on the higher ground and were looking down at their people with approving gazes... a gaze which definitely was anything but human.

These people looked like humans, but they had pale skin and pure black eyes without any whites. And just that much was enough to tell they were the infamous Rakshasas, the enemies of all the beings in this grand nature.

There were nearly fifty of them and the three standing before the altar were even more sinister, with a sticky dark aura covering their bodies.

But more than their sinister look, more than the whole dark place with only red lights, more than the unconscious humans stored in the back room, or the alter with still beating human hearts on top of it... the heinous looking statue all of them were standing before was enough to make any normal creature to throw up or faint just at its sight.

But the lunatics with black hoods covering their heads were respectfully standing before them, some even feeling in awe of the greatness of the statue... which was definitely insane.

The whole setting of this dark underground place was one thing, but the way the three people standing beside the altar were smiling warmly at these people was...

< "Our brethren. The time is approaching." >

< "WHHHHHHH!" >

The people below the altar cheered up and shouted in a voice that, though spoken in normal human language, sounded disgustingly fearful...

It was filled with demonic power and induced oppression of all natural beings.

< "Just three more prayers! Three! Just a few more offerings! Few! And then... then! We will finally reunite with the master!" >

< "WHHHHHHHHHHHH!" >

They were shouting and hugging each other at the thought of seeing a creature of hell that they hadn\'t even interacted with in their entire lives.

< "Yes! We need more pure creatures... masters love young souls, so let\'s collect some pure young blood!" >

< "PURE BLOOD!" >

They were shouting in such precise unity that it would seem that they were one soul in multiple vessels.

But that wasn\'t the exact case... they all were just connected to one single demonic entity, so they were practically one being.

The three \'presets\' beside the altar were just like them, but they had more intelligence than the people on the ground... as well as more strength.

Probably the demons that they were contracted with were different, but still, the people below the altar treated them as obvious superiors.

Anyway, they all were ultimately psychopaths.

< "We will need more eyes and hearts. More mana hearts of mages. One elf\'s if possible. And lastly, we need the core of some high-energy beasts.

Prepare them, brethren! We shalt delay no longer!" >

< "FOR THE MASTERS!" >

< "Indeed. For the master!" >

They started moving after that. But their destination wasn\'t the closest human habitat: the capital city, but some human villages situated some distance away in the other direction.

They had already tasted one defeat when they moved last time, but they had no wish to repeat the same mistake once again.

Their new base was also in a normal-looking, deep place. Unlike the guessable house on the edges of the capital, this one had a door that only they can open.

There was no way for the people that harmed their other brethren to find this place or to interrupt their noble work.

They would do the thing they couldn\'t do last time at this time\'s big festival!

The lives their masters could take would also be greater!

Just thinking about how the insignificant humans would scream...! Ahh~. That bliss was as rejuvenating as a drink of holy water for normal injured humans.

And the scarier thing was… their dream was mostly going to come true this time...

***

"So Rein. Aside from that painting and that big chunk of Mana crystal, this box is the only unsorted thing...

And surprisingly, there\'s something in there."

[[ Yeiiii~! There\'s someone in there~! ]]

She was thinking deeply for a while now, sitting in the middle of this now clean room, pressuring her forehead with her fingers.

She was trying to remember where did she get this particular good-looking box.

\'A big box that most definitely has something or someone inside it...\'

Well, we could be wrong as we were just speculating about it from the faint soul energy we could feel from inside the box, but it would be unknown until we opened it...

\'And there\'s no key to open the box...\'

The strangest thing was that it was dwarven craftsmanship. And there were countless protection spells on this one-by-one-meter box.

There were some spells that would cause a wide-range explosion close to (tier-6) spell if we tried to forcefully open it...

Thankfully, I had the universal key so we can actually open it, but I gave her time to remember where the hell she picked up such important-looking stuff...

\'There is nothing written on it too, so I can\'t tell much from just the structure aside from how it is made to protect the object stored inside the box.\'

It was a strange and sudden situation after we almost finished sorting almost everything.

And there were close to three thousand important things in this room. At least that much she could recognize.

There was a lot of junk in this room too, but the last three things… we couldn\'t just put them in any category. They were treasures on their own and their values could be unimaginable if they were revealed to the world.

One was a big chunk of Mana crystal with a very great purity that she says she found in a \'normal\' old mineral mine.

A historical painting of some of the greatest artists of known history, which she gained as a spoil of some war...?

And lastly was this strange box that she-

"Ohhh! Yes! I remembered!" thankfully, after an hour-long thinking, she finally remembered something and looked at me with new excitement and a smirk on her face.

"Would you believe me if I say I once fought a very young [Golden goblin]?" She asked with a bit of hesitation, but... my reply was instantaneous.

"I would believe you even if you told me you have met a dragon, dum dum."

She smiled and nodded at me. And I understood what she wanted to say.

And if we were talking about, though young, a [Golden goblin], some of the very few creatures who could move between space and sometimes even realms, and were called some of the greatest thieves, the origin of this mysterious box was understandable.

It must have been stolen by that thief, then she fought it as they don\'t actually have many physical powers and tried to just run away, and got this box from the sack they always carry.

Anyway... it was her strange luck this time too.

"Haaa… so? Should I open it?" I asked with an interested expression but, she was already tired from doing all the sorting and cleaning so she wasn\'t much excited about this box and just shrugged her shoulder.

\'It\'s like we are opening a sure-win mystery box, Rein!\' I wanted to shout in excitement but didn\'t. I understood her position... which was now my lap.

"Be careful. If there\'s some creature inside it, as you say, it would be dangerous," she said with genuine worry, but still just continued her rest on my legs.

"At least say that after getting up. How will I even protect myself if you\'re like this?"

I took out the white key that reminded her of her very first total mental drainage. But she had overcome it long ago already.

"Just create some barriers. Or, well, we have Celes anyway, right?" she asked, and the butterfly floating just before us circled in excitement.

[[ Yeiii~! I will always protect my master and sister~! ]]

"See... no need to worry. Just open the box already~."

Her voice was cheerful, at least. So I didn\'t hesitate and just inserted the key and opened the box.

-Click.

It also opened with a refreshing clicking sound, but the thing inside the box was... even more interesting than any actual creature or the soul essence that I was thinking about. It was...

[[ An egg~!! ]]

"Wow. That\'s a big one... but..." she became speechless as soon as she used her eyes on the big green egg.

Now, there was a horrified expression and an absurd smile on her face.

The reason for that...

\'Three eyes.\'

============

[Wyvern egg]

-Well, it\'s a draconian egg... something too absurd for us to comprehend so bye...

============

Yup. It was something very, very, very unexpected. Enough that she and I just stood up in shock as soon as we saw the egg.

And there was clear soul energy inside it as well as the energy fluctuations were subtly changing with each passing second, indicating the creature inside was still perfectly fine.

But this matter...

"What should we do now...?" she asked, and I was in my own train of thought.

\'A draconian egg... a wyvern\'s egg...! Holy mother of goblins!!\'

I was expecting something but... not this!

It was just too... mind-blowing.