Chapter 578: The Pit

"Are you sure this food isn't poisoned?"

Loren looked at the several dishes on the table and spoke. The food here wasn't extravagant, but having fish and meat was already quite good—ordinary commoners could never afford such quality.

"You're joking, how could that be..."

The Attendant said with a flattering smile, but Loren didn't care about her words at all.

Indeed, it was unlikely the food was poisoned. Those pirates had been eating it for so long already—if there was poison, something would have happened by now. And if they really wanted to poison anyone, they wouldn't let Loren eat in the same place as the pirates.

Still, to be safe, Loren tasted it himself. Poison was essentially useless against him anyway.

Loren tried every single dish, and only after confirming everything was fine did he let the others start eating.

At the same time, Loren used Abundant Magic to create a wooden barrel and placed Melody inside it.

Loren's ability to conjure a merfolk out of thin air startled the others. The Attendant froze for a moment, then suddenly retreated into the back kitchen.

Meanwhile, the group of pirates let out a sigh of relief, grateful they had followed the Captain's decision to back down and not provoke Loren.

...

The Villagers didn't seem bothered by Loren suddenly producing a merfolk. They silently continued arranging accommodations for Loren, and even when Loren openly carried Melody in his arms, they found nothing particularly strange about it.

And that was precisely what made them even more suspicious.

The lodging they prepared for Loren was decent—not exactly luxurious, but certainly not shabby either.

"It's getting late. We won't disturb you any further. Please rest well."

Ever since Loren had produced Melody, the man who was previously a Sixth-tier Mage had returned to Loren's side, asking after him with apparent concern. He had originally been stationed at the village entrance, welcoming travelers, but now he was personally watching over Loren—which was quite the display of respect.

"Alright. Good night. Just don't drag me out in the middle of the night for a sacrifice."

"... "

Loren had said something like this several times already. He made no effort to hide that he had noticed something was off, but the man continued pretending nothing was wrong, chuckling awkwardly before leaving.

"What do we do? Rest directly, or kill them all first and then rest?"

After closing the door, Veronica raised the question. She wasn't bloodthirsty—she simply thought killing everyone would be safer.

But this time, Loren didn't refute her.

"Let's check things out first. Don't forget what I taught you—we don't kill the innocent...

"By the way, have you learned Sin-Burning Flames yet?"

"A little..."

As she spoke, Veronica showed Loren. A small flame suddenly appeared in the palm of her hand. The flame wasn't powerful enough to kill, but it was sufficient for judging guilt.

"Good. That's enough for now. Let's go take a look outside first. If they really are evil people, we can kill them then. There's no rush.

"Melody, get back into the bottle first."

"Okay..."

After Melody responded, Loren put her back into the bottle. Being held by Loren for so long had already made her happy enough.

"Let's go."

Loren took Veronica's hand and activated the Hermit card's ability. Their presence vanished from others' sight.

The moment he stepped out the door, Loren saw many people hiding all around him. They were crouched openly in the puddles near the house.

So Loren closed his black eye, shutting off the True Sight Eye. Only then did he see what they were actually doing.

There were only puddles here, no figures. They were using some kind of concealment ability, but the True Sight Eye had seen through it. With the True Sight Eye closed, this was just an ordinary post-rain village, without a trace of anomaly.

Loren ignored them and walked further away. He wanted to see what was happening with those pirates now.

...

"Captain, are you sure we should leave right now?"

"Something's wrong here. Every second we stay could be dangerous... Our arrogance during the day was also to lower their guard..."

The Captain led a group of pirates, crouching low as they made their way toward the sea. They deliberately avoided windows with light shining through them, but they clearly didn't notice the people standing right beside them, watching them—these people were holding harpoons.

And not all the pirates were here. The number here wasn't even half of those who had been eating earlier.

Loren understood exactly what the Captain was doing—abandoning most of his crew to save his own skin.

"Almost there..."

The sea was getting closer, and the Captain felt a surge of joy.

But when he saw the scene by the shore, his smile froze.

A group of Villagers were on their ships, busily dismantling them. At this point, only half of the two ships remained by the shore.

"Where are you going?"

The man suddenly appeared in front of the group of pirates. The pirates were startled... but in Loren's view, the man had been standing there the whole time.

"We... Attack!"

The Captain knew it was useless to make up lies now. He quickly drew the gun at his waist.

But by then, his hand was already pinned to the ground by a harpoon.

"Take them away. Along with the pirates left in the lodgings."

"Yes, Bishop..."

The man gave the order, and the Villagers immediately carried it out. At the same time, Loren heard what they called him.

He was the Bishop.

After the pirates were taken away, another Villager came to report to the man.

"We searched everywhere. There are only these two ships by the sea. That man who called himself Loren might really have come by whale... Could he actually be Loren? What do we do? Can we hide what we're doing from Loren..."

"Don't panic."

The man cut off the increasingly frightened Villager. The name Loren hung over their heads like a Sword of Damocles.

"Loren is already dead. And even if he could come back to life, he'd probably be too busy dealing with the Orthodox Gods to bother with us."

Hearing this, the Villager calmed down a bit.

"So... what do we do with him?"

"Leave him alone. Pretend nothing happened. Tomorrow we'll find a way to send him off.

"Even if he's not Loren, he's no ordinary man. He's already noticed something's off about us, and he keeps provoking us one time after another... The best outcome is to avoid conflict.

"Besides, there are only two of them. Even if we sacrificed them, there wouldn't be much benefit. It's not worth the loss."

They decided not to touch Loren. But that didn't mean Loren wouldn't touch them.

After overhearing all this, Loren followed the group of Villagers. They were escorting the pirates to a well at the edge of the village.

Everything here reeked of strangeness. Normally, wells were located in the center of a village, but this one was at the edge. And around it were all sorts of bizarre structures, like some kind of Altar.

The water in the well was black. It was only when Loren got closer that he realized it wasn't because the water was dark—it was because the well was too deep.

Looking down from the opening, it was like staring into the Pit.