CHAPTER 478: 479. BLASPHEMOUS THIEVES

After entering the cave, Lann didn’t feel as if he’d ’set foot on sacred ground’.

It was just like every other cave he had entered before.

Strangely shaped rocks sculpted by geological activity, green moss growing on the stones, fungi in the dark crevices...

This was a long cave with an overall downward direction, and along the way, long pole torches were placed at intervals to provide light.

Lann followed the torches all the way down and eventually reached a culvert.

Above the culvert at an angle, there was an opening leading directly to the outside, through which sunlight streamed in, shining right onto the only statue in the culvert.

It was a nearly five-meter-tall, fully copper statue of Hermes.

Under the sunlight, it shone with a golden brilliance.

Lann had no words left to express his feelings about this use of material and carving.

In a normal historical timeline, this could be the annual revenue of several provinces of a feudal dynasty.

But in this world’s Greece before the Common Era, it was merely a statue in a cave of a poor little island.

The Spiritual Vision in his mind, just as Lann anticipated, was mildly stimulated, making Lann feel his progress.

A woman in a rough hemp long dress was bowing in prayer in front of the statue, looking focused and devout, completely unaware of Lann’s arrival.

Lann didn’t disturb her; his cat-like eyes, glowing faintly in the dim light, began to constrict and focus.

With the boon of Spiritual Vision, the tiny traces in this culvert were all laid bare before Lann’s eyes.

Demon Hunter Vision could observe traces of the material world, while Spiritual Vision allowed Lann to glimpse the profound truth of the world.

The statue of Hermes stood on a stone platform, and around the circular stone platform was where people placed their offerings.

There were burlap sacks of various sizes filled with flower petals or barley and wheat.

Also, there were some earthenware and bronze double-handled jars, judging by the smell, likely containing olive oil and wine.

There were some wealthier, more straightforward offerings, consisting of coins and jewelry.

Lann wasn’t concerned with these things.

"No traces of energy flow... uh, at least not with my current Spiritual Vision, no traces of energy are visible."

Following his professional habit, the Demon Hunter muttered to himself about the clues he found.

"But on the material level, hey, drag marks?"

Lann controlled himself well, crouching without making a sound from the collision of armor plates on his Grandmaster Bear School Armor.

With his upgraded steel-reinforced gauntlet, he touched the ground.

"Someone dragged offerings behind the statue?"

The Demon Hunter followed the traces behind the golden Hermes statue.

"Cold air is flowing in... there’s a crack here."

In a few moves, he pulled apart the vines that had been growing for who knows how long in this single ray of sunlight, revealing a large crack in the rock.

In the Demon Hunter Vision, vivid red drag marks on the ground extended inside.

Lann’s mouth curved slightly.

"It seems the one taking the offerings is not a god... found you."

He squeezed through the rocky crevice, behind which lay a deeper natural tunnel.

The voices of several people talking and laughing loudly echoed within the tunnel, barely audible from the entrance.

But within the senses of a Demon Hunter, these things were very clear.

Lann followed the voices inside, and this deeper tunnel had been well managed by the offering thieves.

They’d lit braziers here and even set up wooden racks and ladders, with a weapon rack holding several weapons also set up to one side.

When Lann appeared before them, the young man initially just wanted to intimidate them a bit and compel them to return the offerings.

However, he clearly underestimated the temperament of offering thieves of this era.

Those who dared to steal offerings in front of the statue; their crime was generally considered worse than murder across various city-states!

That was sacrilege!

So it was no surprise that their first reaction upon seeing Lann was to draw their knives directly.

Lann only realized when the first thief approached with a drawn sword and sulky face what ’sacrilege’ meant in this era and how severe the crime was.

Simply put: those who had committed a capital offense didn’t mind adding a few more lives to their hands.

The Greek short sword aimed for Lann’s waist.

The leading thief had clearly killed before, knowing the challenges faced when stabbing someone.

So when he stabbed, he braced the hilt of the short sword with his palm, pressing it against his chest.

Trying to prevent his hand from slipping while adding his body weight as part of the force of the thrust.

Thus the thrust was fast and vicious.

Such a thrust wouldn’t be a problem even to kill a wild wolf.

But before Lann...

"His hand was too short."

"It’s your arm span that’s too long, sir."

The exchange between biotic brain and consciousness occurred in an instant.

Immediately after, the steel-reinforced gauntlet rubbed against the sword’s edge, gripping the leading thief’s sword-wielding hand!

With a ’clang’, the force of the other’s charge was utterly negligible, as Lann’s hand forcefully twisted the direction of their held sword.

Twisting their hand, he placed the Greek short sword against the unguarded neck of its owner.

’Slash~’

The sweating skin was neatly slit open by the blade.

The blood that sprayed from the neck even splattered all the way to the opposite wall of the tunnel.

The sword-holding hand, already deformed from Lann’s grip, went completely limp.

Thus, the Demon Hunter easily plucked the short sword from the dead man’s hand and casually threw it.

With a ’thwack’, the sound of breaking through the air and a scream rang out simultaneously.

Another thief was knocked into the air as if hit squarely by a bull.

When he hit the ground, the short sword was lodged straight through his chest.

His gaze vacant, he hadn’t even realized what had happened; his body only responded with instinctive spasms, writhing on the ground.

A flash of white light passed through the dim cave as Lann’s arm lifted before him.

With a ’ding’, sparks flew from metal contact.

An arrow was deflected off the steel-reinforced gauntlet.

During the arrow’s deflection, the hand that had just blocked it caught it, then with a flick creating a whoosh through the air...

"Thwip!"

The archer standing on the wooden rack now had his own arrow sticking out of his unprotected throat.

His eyes bulged like a dying sea fish, trying to clutch his throat with hands that no longer had the strength to reach it, grasping at the air and then dropping to his sides.

When the cave transitioned from noise to silence, it all took barely the time for one complexion.

Lann gathered the offerings the thieves had stolen, at least the part they hadn’t spent, and took them out.

And as he was about to step out of the stone crevice, he happened to hear the woman outside, still praying devoutly to the statue of Hermes.