Chapter 68

Lambert followed the aura of the dead black crystal and made his way to the "Resting Place of Nameless Heroes," the cemetery for adventurers in the city of Baraira.

This cemetery was under the management of the lord, and adventurers who had joined the Adventurers' Guild could be buried here in exchange for the assets they left behind, as determined by the guild.

Many adventurers are drifters from far-off places.

Also, many have no family.

Therefore, many such adventurers are buried in this "Resting Place of Nameless Heroes."

However, adventurers, who do not know when they might die, rarely save money.

Moreover, there are many fellow adventurers who secretly take the deceased's belongings.

This "Resting Place of Nameless Heroes" is not for profit but rather to ensure that the bodies of adventurers who fought and died for the peace and development of the territory are properly buried, out of a sense of compassion.

Lambert did not know this, but from the statue of a brave warrior carrying a sword at the entrance, the cheap material of the graves, and the many unkempt and dirty graves, he vaguely sensed the background.

At the back of the cemetery, there was one unusual, large grave.

This was the grave of the hero who was the reason for the creation of the cemetery.

Hildias Armgrain, a hero of the city of Baraira, who forty years ago contributed to protecting the city from an invasion of monsters and is said to have died in the process.

Around the grave, nearly twenty men and women were lying, bound with ropes and with burlap bags over their heads, and several of them had died with their chests gouged out.

A large magic circle, apparently made from the blood and flesh of the killed people, was drawn around the grave.

Lambert deduced that the people brought here were for the activation of some kind of magic.

In front of the grave, two men were standing.

One was a gaunt man in a pitch-black robe, sitting in front of the grave, with a suspiciously glowing dead black crystal in his hand.

The other was a large man with earth-colored skin, standing as if guarding the first man, with no sign of life in his eyes.

The gaunt man licked his lips and looked at Lambert.

"Indeed, as Lady Adamaria said, you appear as if stalking this one."

Saying this, the man stood up.

"But coming here was a mistake. Look at this presence. From the fact that Lady Adamaria, who had been investigating for a while, did not know about this, you must be a drifter, right? But you must have heard the name. The hero, Lord Hildias. Hee hee, even a great hero like him, in this state, is just a tool for us. I heard you were exceptionally strong... let's see, which one is the exceptional one, the legendary hero or you?"

As the man spoke, the large man—Hildias, the past hero of the city of Baraira—raised his mouth in a terrible roar and lifted his axe.

"Whoa... Whoa... Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!"

"Come on, let's see the legendary hero's skills! Let's do a test run! Hahaha! Using the hero's corpse to desecrate the grave and destroy the city... what a fitting irony!"

Hildias, with a speed unimaginable for his massive body, charged at Lambert.

He kicked the ground and leaped, flying low towards Lambert.

Just as it seemed he would pounce, Hildias' massive body twisted in mid-air, and he swung his large axe with precise movements from an unconventional direction.

This was a technique designed to catch the opponent off guard and make it difficult to read the axe's trajectory, a deadly move for a first encounter.

Moreover, the centrifugal force from the rotation and the weight of Hildias' massive body made this a powerful strike that fully utilized his advantages.

The axe, moving at a terrifying speed, aimed for Lambert's head.

"Hahaha! Good, good!"

The man's laughter echoed.

In the next moment, Hildias' shoulder and above were severed.

The arm still holding the large axe plunged into the ground.

Then, Hildias' body, split in two, collapsed in front of Lambert.

"Huh...?"

Lambert looked down at Hildias' corpse.

The pseudo-flesh created by magic peeled off, revealing Hildias' thick bones, which had almost turned to earth.

The man, with a look of disbelief, stared at Lambert and trembled.

"I won, didn't I? Rest in peace this time, Hildias."

The hero of the city of Baraira from forty years ago was far inferior to the hero of the Eight Nations Unification War from two hundred years ago.

"And you, the tasteless grave robber, too."

The dead black crystal fell from the man's hand as he was glared at by Lambert.

"Why... why...?"

To the man, it made no sense at all.

In the attack on the city of Baraira, the resurrected undead Hildias was undoubtedly the strongest warrior.

For him to be so easily and instantly killed was too unreasonable.

The only explanation was that there was some error in the necromancy.

Even so, Hildias' movements were undoubtedly those of a top-tier warrior.

The man, though inexperienced in close combat, could not help but feel excited by Hildias' bold and precise movements.

"Why... why..."

The man staggered to his feet and looked at the people lying around, thinking that taking a hostage might give him a chance, and twisted his mouth.

In a frenzy, he grabbed the neck of a nearby person and thrust a blade into it.

"St-stop! No closer!"

"Ah, there's no need to get any closer."

The voice came from right behind the man.

In the instant the man tried to take a hostage, Lambert had approached him from behind with his swift steps.

"Help!"

Lambert's greatsword cleaved the man from the top of his head, killing him instantly. The man fell, blood spurting from the cut.

Lambert lightly swung his greatsword to shake off the blood and returned it to its sheath.