"May I briefly interrupt you?"

 

The ax fighter came to me.

 

"You want something from me?"

 

"Um, yes, I still wanted to give you this."

 

He was holding a yellowish crystal ball.

 

"And this is?"

 

“That is the magic core of the pack leader. I had heard that you triggered the explosion, so the core should be yours too. Here!"

 

He let the core drop into my hands.

 

I caught the core and took a look at it.

 

It flickered in various yellows, and sometimes the yellow was more intense and sometimes paler.

 

(Core Eater wants to eat the “Alpha Irsh-wolf core.” Y/N?)

 

Not yet!

 

"Everything OK? You just pulled a face like something was disgusting you!? ”

 

It was Dario who was worried.

 

“No, everything is ok. I was just a little surprised. ”

 

"Then, it's good."

 

The sun sank, and the surroundings suddenly darkened.

 

"We have to light the torches!"

 

Viktor and Sarna both lit their torches. Viktor had a simple torch, but Sarna took out a torch occupied with runes. The flames were white with a slight bluish tinge.

 

Uh?

 

(Presence Sense) showed three presences approaching us.

 

"Something is approaching us."

 

"How many?"

 

"Three."

 

"Draw your weap-!"

 

Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted.

 

"STOP! Please help us!"

 

A woman, a man, and a boy appeared in the light of the torches.

 

Huh? Something is wrong here.

 

Everyone lowered their weapons, but before the three people reached us, I shot (Phoenix fire) at them.

 

"Eris! What are you doing!?"

 

The (Phoenix) hit all three and set them on fire.

 

All three started to scream terribly and tried to detach themselves. They were about to succeed, but I summon a second phoenix. I wanted to shot it at them, but...

 

"Eris"

 

Dario jumped next to me. He flung my arm in the air so that the phoenix flew up to the sky.

 

"What are you doing!? Why are you holding me up! ”

 

I kicked his shin with all my strength.

 

"Kuh!"

 

With a groan, Dario went down, and I was able to fire another phoenix on these three.

 

I put significantly more mana in this phoenix, which made it bigger and stronger than the one before.

 

Terrified by what I had done, Daria and the axeman looked at me. Sarna had leaned over to Dario and helped him up. Lars was about to draw an arrow and aim at the three people.

 

"I put out the flames!"

 

He let go of his arrow, but I guessed its trajectory before and chased a phoenix on his arrow.

 

When the two collided with each other, the arrow exploded, and a water bubble appeared. The water bubble fell to the ground.

 

"Wah!"

 

"HEY!"

 

Viktor and his brother reached us, and he saw what I had done and grabbed my shoulder, and forcefully turned me around.

 

"You!"

 

He grabbed my collar and lifted me a good meter above the floor.

 

"Why did you do that!"

 

"I... do... ge... ir!"

 

I tried to say something, but I couldn't breathe and gasped for air.

 

He didn't lighter his grip, and it was getting harder to breathe, so I decided to use Golden Spark.

 

I reached for the dagger with my left hand, and before I pulled it, I let my mana pour into it.

 

(Boltport - 1 charge available)

 

And let's go.

 

I teleported to the three burning people.

 

"Bon voyage!"

 

At the same moment I appeared between them, I cut off the man and woman's head.

 

"You can explain everything, "boy"!"

 

I grabbed the boy by the collar and threw him at the feet of the others.

 

“You asked me why I did this? You all ask the wrong questions! What do a woman, a man and a child do in the middle of the forest at night?”

 

Nobody answered.

 

“We could see the tower from afar before the sun went down, why didn't they stay there?”

 

Again nobody answered me.

 

"Simply because these people aren't what they pretend to be."

 

I cut the man's chest open, and something was on the right side of his chest right next to his heart.

 

Urgh! How disgusting!

 

I reached with my right hand in and pulled out the orb. It shimmered grayish in the moonlight.

 

“Since when have humans a magical core?”

 

I raised the orb demonstratively so that others could see it in the light of Sarna's torch.

 

"A magical core!"

 

The others looked shocked, and Daria reacted fastest. She drew her sword and pointed it at the boy lying on the floor.

 

I targeted the core and used (appraisal) on it.

 

<Appraisal>

 

Name: N/A.

Make: Magical core

Origin: shapeshifter

 

<=====>

 

That explains a lot!

 

"Shapeshifter."

 

"Hehehe!"

 

The "boy" started laughing spitefully.

 

"Your friends are already dead. What do you want to do now?"

 

"Friends? Do you think there are only three of us.”

 

I symbolized Daria that she should chop off the head.

 

She just nodded in return.

 

"Thanks, that's enough."

 

She cut its head off its body.

 

"How so? We could have squeezed something out of him!”

 

"He told us the most necessary thing. I have a question Sarna, how long have the guards started their shift in the tower? ”

 

“They change every five days, so at the beginning and in the middle of every week. So tomorrow is a shift change. ”

 

Five days? So is a week ten days long? Well, not important for now.

 

“That means in the tower are the same guards as when the noble's escort passed. That makes them suspected of being a shapeshifter, so we have to find out if they are human or not.”

 

"It sounds so easy to you, how are we supposed to do it."

 

“I can distinguish them, their presences are similar to that of humans, but a slightly different. I'm interested in how the default form looks like.”

 

"Funny curiosity, you have there."

 

We walked on, and it wasn't long before we reached the tower with no further incidents.

 

Several torches came into our sight out of the tower and approached us. I hid in the shade and sneaked over to Lars.

 

"Hey, can you do a favor?"

 

"And what did you think of?"

 

"There are five people. Two are human, one elf, and two are shapeshifters."

 

"And you want me to shoot them down?"

 

"Would be good."

 

"Which of them?"

 

“The second person on the left and the person on the right outside. The left one would be enough.”

 

"Alright, I'm repositioning myself for a clear shot."

 

I nodded and turned to Viktor.

 

"You were listening?"

 

"Yes."

 

“Well, that makes it easier. I want you to distract the guards, don't let them know what we're planning, so hold them back! With words! Also, don't mention anything about our mission. Lie if you need to.”

 

"Sarna, Daria, Dario, did you listen to everything?"

 

"I did."

 

"Me too."

 

"Dito."

 

"Good, because your job will be to put the normal guards out of action."

 

The lights came closer and didn't stop far ahead of us.

 

“Miss Sarna? I knew that the white blueish torch looked familiar to me.”

 

"Huh? Yes, that's right."

 

It didn't look like Sarna recognized the guard.

 

"Sorry to bother you, but we're looking for something."

 

Victor interrupted the talk and let the guard turned there, focus towards him.

 

"And what is it?"

 

“We are looking for a tree dragon. Do you have any clue about this? ”

 

Viktor distracted the guards, and I got my plan rolling.

 

The two were nervous from the start, but when Viktor mentioned that we were looking for something, they became even more nervous for a short time, so I can assume that they know about the others.

 

I whispered to Lars.

 

"Get ready."

 

"Aye."

 

I activated the spell of Golden Spark.

 

(Boltport activated - 2 charges available.)

 

“All right! 3… 2… 1… fire! ”

 

(Boltport)!

 

I teleported behind the said "guard."

 

"Your ruse ends here!"

 

I whispered in the shapeshifter's ear, and at the same moment, I cut his throat with Golden Spark.

 

*Pfsch*

 

The arrow whirred through the air and landed in the middle of the chest of the shapeshifter.

 

"What! To the weapons!"

 

"We are sorry."

 

Sarna apologized, but at the same time, she knocked the elf guard out in front of her.

 

Daria did the same, and Dario used a sleeping spell.

 

"We shouldn't wait long. Otherwise, the shapeshifters in the tower know that they have been exposed."

 

"Right! Take the torches and let them swing so that from a distance, it looks like we're still talking.”

 

Since each of the guards carried a torch, everyone except me now had a torch in hand.

 

We had tied all three guards back to back.

 

"Dario, can you wake them up with a water spell?"

 

"No problem."

 

He summoned a water bubble over the guards and dropped them on them.

 

"""Wah!"""

 

All three woke up startled.

 

"Good Morning."

 

"W-who are you?"

 

"Huh? Very rude not to recognize the persons who overwhelmed you."

 

The three guards looked around.

 

“Why are you doing this? Miss Sarna?”

 

Sarna just looked at me.

 

"An excellent question, but before I answer you, were there any unusual things about these two "gentlemen" over there, in the past few days or hours?"

 

"No, why?"

 

“Were you close to them? By that, I mean whether you share some of your private concerns.”

 

"Rather less."

 

"Hmm, so we have two bodies, none of them were conspicuous before, which means that they either have the memories of their victims or our three prisoners are simply not intelligent enough to tell the difference."

 

"Memories? Victim? Difference?"

 

Yup, definitely the latter one.

 

"They're not your comrades."

 

I pointed to the bodies.

 

"These are just a few shapeshifters. Your comrades are probably already dead."

 

"Lie!"

 

"Daria, please."

 

Daria cut through the chest of the corpses and cut out the magical core and showed it to the guards.

 

“Funny to find something like that in a "human” don't you think so too?”

 

"Huh? A magical core.”

 

"Correct! As already mentioned, you have been infiltrated by shapeshifters.”

 

"And now?"

 

"We will get information from those shapeshifters who stayed behind in the tower."

 

"What about us?"

 

"You will stand guard with these gentlemen out here."

 

I pointed to Viktor and his group.

 

"So, shall we?"

 

I looked at Daria, Dario, and Sarna.

 

"""Yes!"""