’Should I rush back, or should I investigate this hidden place first? ...’
Rio only thought about it for a second and then swung his sword to shatter the door of the underground bunker.
*Shatter!*
The door was so fragile that Rio felt confused why that S-ranker thought that it might help him protect himself against Rio.
[Elemental Sword Art: Light Type: Glowing Orb!]
Rio raised his sword, and a glowing orb made of light elementals appeared around the tip of his sword and started floating around Rio.
It illuminated the area as Rio descended into the bunker through those crudely made stairs.
Although as an S-ranker, his eyesight is already extremely powerful, it’s better to illuminate the area anyway, so he didn’t mind doing that.
’This place is built so crudely, almost as if it was made in panic and hurry...’
*Step!* *Step!*
Rio’s footsteps rang loudly in the underground bunker as he reached the solid concrete floor below.
’Hmm... it’s much smaller inside than I expected... there’s barely enough space to fit an elephant here...’
The inner space of the underground bunker was circular in shape and was very small; there was a table in the middle, and several scrolls and odd-looking books were sprawled over it.
There were six seats around the table that likely belonged to Snegnar and his five companions, who got butchered one by one.
’I thought these people would have kept some captives or something like that here... but this more bizarre than I expected... weird even...’
Criminals like Snegnar and his five companions are not the type to sit around a table together and happily study books in peace.
They definitely had a bigger motive, a more dangerous plan.
If not for some kind of dangerous plan, there was no way Snegnar and his lawless companions would have been willing to cooperate to such an extent that they would even study together.
Rio went forward to grab one of the scrolls, but it suddenly caught fire on its own without a single spark igniting.
Similarly, all the other scrolls and books started burning at a crazy speed too, which startled Rio.
’An S-rank spell!?’
Rio was truly shocked by this scene.
S-rank magicians can cast powerful S-rank spells on their scrolls and books and make it so that only those authorized by the caster can read or touch those scrolls and books.
If someone with an unknown aura or soul fluctuation tried to read these scrolls or books, the self-destruct ability of the spell would activate.
The main reason why Rio was shocked was that someone actually spent his day’s worth of mana and efforts just to cast that high-level spell on so many books and scrolls.
Every spell has a rank, which determines how fast and powerful it will be. If the privacy protection spell was weaker, Rio could have interfered with its activation and would have stopped these scrolls and books from burning.
But to think someone went out of their way to cast powerful S-rank spells just to keep the contents of some scrolls and books secret is a very odd thing.
’These six were definitely planning something very sinister and big that they even had to resort to such high level of safety protocols...’
With them being a group of six S-rankers, their combined combat prowess was already off the charts.
There was no need for them to be afraid of anything in the world that they had to maintain such a high level of secrecy.
Unless it’s an SS-ranker or someone like Rio, these six could have easily dealt with most people in the world, and it wouldn’t have been so difficult to maintain the security of these scrolls and books.
’They still did it despite having such high combat prowess... which means they were planning something that could have gotten an SS-ranker involved and there was a risk of their plan getting exposed...’
’But how would they have prevented an SS-ranker from reading these scrolls...’
If Rio had more mastery over some powerful mana interference skill, he could have also managed to prevent these books from burning.
In fact, he could have just created new skills if he needed to; the only problem was that those books burned so fast that Rio couldn’t even properly react.
’This is very weird... the power of the spells on these books and scrolls was very unoridinary... it’s not at the level of SS-rankers, but it’s much stronger than S-rank...’
’Which means... several S-rank mages came together to enchant these items, which in turn means, that Snegnar and his companions weren’t the only ones that are planning something...’
’There are more of these people...’
Snegnar’s group only had one magician, and even that person was way too weak and pathetic; there’s no way he could have cast spells powerful enough to surprise even Rio.
’I need to report this situation back...’
Rio shook his head and then used his mana detection to search if anything else important was here. He even rummaged through everything in the bunker to find some clues, but it was futile.
There were just some clothes and food, etc.
Everything was just unimportant stuff; Rio could only shake his head in helplessness and leave the place.
He climbed the stairs back and flew up into the sky, then he pointed his sword towards the ground.
[Sword Intent!]
[Elemental Sword Art: Light Type: Light of Purification!]
Rio bombarded the entire area with light elementals to purify the miasmic corruption and completely erased every trace of miasma from the area to prevent any other problems from happening in the future.
Leaving miasma out in the open like this is not an ideal thing; some wild animal or someone else might come here and get corrupted by it, causing severe problems for the towns nearby.
[Elemental Sword Art: Earth Type: Sand Avalanche!]
After purifying the entire area, Rio used the earth elementals to completely destroy and bury the entire bunker along with every other trace left in the place to prevent anyone from using this place in the future.
Criminals always love camping in these abandoned places; it’s better to completely erase these structures to prevent future use.
After he was done with his work, Rio sheathed his sword and flew back towards the border town.
*BOOM!!*
His flying speed was so fast that it created powerful sonic booms in the air.
By the time he reached Sara’s house in the border town, the sun was starting to rise.
Rio used his authority as an S-ranker to summon the police officers of the town and told them about the situation.
All the police officers shivered after being pressured by Rio’s powerful aura and nodded their heads like chickens pecking rice.
"Seal the area and the house, deal with the dead bodies of the couple and bury them with proper rituals... the young girl has suffered severe trauma; I have already given her basic healing but it will take the mental wounds to heal..."
"Until she’s fit and fine, she will be in the direct care of the orphanage run by the government. She’s a talented individual and has a bright future ahead; make sure you keep an eye on her well-being..."
Rio gave some other instruction, like hiring a proper psychiatrist for her and other stuff, and then he flew into the sky and left for the capital city instantly.
He was being summoned urgently and didn’t have the time to linger around and care about the poor girl right now.
He had already done whatever he could do for her; the rest depended on how the authorities would handle this matter.