The story of the black silk female knight

Lika took a breath:

"Since the incident in Bedek Town broke out, I've run into that guy three times. Although he got away every time, I'm sure I can tell whether he's a man or a woman; he's a man."

So if the victim you encountered wasn't lying to you... tsk.

"This means that the bastard didn't act alone; he probably had accomplices."

Valensa took over the conversation, and then thought for a moment:

"It's also possible that he has some means to disguise his true image. Whether it's the man you see, Sister Lika, or the woman the victim sees, they are all fake."

“That’s right, this makes things very complicated… At the very least, the physical characteristics I uploaded to the database will most likely be invalidated. It will be difficult for us to actively search for him; we can only wait for him to pop up on his own.”

Lika sighed, feeling very unwilling:

"By the way, did the victim mention where his hometown was at the end? If we could know that, we might be able to find some new clues."

"It's a pity he couldn't hold on until the end."

Valensa shrugged with a wry smile:

"He only managed to utter the word 'East,' and before he could finish, his soul was completely exhausted... If only I had arrived two days earlier."

"...Don't overthink it. The fact that you found this place in time is already a great achievement."

Lika patted Valensa on the shoulder to comfort her, then pondered for a moment and said:

"East... there are so many places that this word can point to."

"Yes, just looking at the big picture, there are three targets."

Valensa nodded and extended her fingers one by one:

"First, the eastern part of the Kingdom of Fran. Second, east of the Misty Mountains. Third, the most mysterious eastern continent beyond the sea."

"Hmm... it's probably unlikely to be east of the Misty Mountains."

Lika thought for a moment and said:

"As you know, the natural environment east of the Misty Mountains is a paradise for monsters, and basically only humans of the Radiant Rank or above settle there."

In other words, those whose ancestral home is east of the Misty Mountains are either Radiant-rank experts or relatives or disciples of Radiant-rank experts. That bastard can't even beat me; he wouldn't dare cause trouble in the Witch's Forest and the Council of Sages.

"Makes sense."

Valensa expressed her approval.

"So the most likely locations are still the eastern part of the kingdom and the eastern continent."

Lika continued:

"I will focus my investigation on this lead from now on. If you have the chance, you can also keep an eye on news from the eastern part of the kingdom and the drifters from the eastern continent."

"Understood, Sister Lika."

From then until it got dark, Valensa discussed the direction of the investigation with Lika, awaited the research team's preliminary conclusions, and provided protection for the research team.

Why don't you go back first?

When the moon reached its highest point, Lika stopped the conversation and advised Valensa:

"Don't you have class tomorrow?"

"...Let's wait a little longer."

Valensa hesitated for a moment, then gently shook her head:

"Given my physical condition, going without sleep for one night isn't a big problem. What I'm more interested in is what that bastard's point was in doing something so cruel?"

"It's very simple, he wants to mass-produce human souls as high-quality research material."

Just then, a figure dressed in flowing Hanfu emerged from the goblin cave; it was none other than Linglan, whose face was chillingly cold.

"Have you gotten any results from your research?"

Valensa quickly went to greet her.

"Well, at least the initial conclusion is there... tsk."

Linglan seemed to be feeling very bad too; she spat hard before continuing:

"Your guess is absolutely right. What that bastard did here was indeed to cut out human souls piece by piece and then forcibly seal them into goblin bodies."

Most of the goblins here only have a small fragment of human soul inside them, which is why they completely lose their minds when they are hungry.

The goblin you encountered at the end was likely an earlier and more successful prototype; it once contained a complete human soul.

"I knew it! This guy is such a pervert!"

Valensa stomped her foot in anger, then quickly asked:

"You said before that he did this to mass-produce human souls?"

"Yes."

Lily of the Valley nodded:

"Although human research on the soul is still in its early stages, one thing has been proven by many researchers: the soul, like the body, can also grow."

Most souls grow alongside their bodies... Just as the human body grows from an infant to an adult, the human soul also acquires more and more emotions and knowledge.

For practitioners who delve into forbidden practices, human souls are extremely valuable material, proving highly effective whether used for sacrifices to evil gods or in necromancy.

But the act of arbitrarily seizing another's soul will surely incur public wrath, and Her Majesty the Sun Goddess will not allow such evil… Just like what you did to me, those who manipulate other people's souls with forbidden magic can be unconditionally purified.”

"understood."

Valensa pondered for a moment and said:

"That guy needed a lot of human souls as material, but he was afraid of the power of the Church of the Sun, so he came up with such a cruel way to create souls himself?"

"Yes."

Lily of the Valley gritted her teeth and said:

"Although goblins are very weak creatures, their reproductive capacity far surpasses that of other creatures. They can go from pregnancy to giving birth in less than seven days, and the larvae can reach adulthood in a month at most."

What that bastard was after in goblins was their powerful reproductive ability... He used dark magic to forcibly seal fragments of human souls into goblin bodies, allowing the soul fragments to grow rapidly along with the goblin's body, thus obtaining a large number of human souls, much like raising livestock.

Of course, in terms of quality, human souls rapidly matured using goblin bodies are certainly inferior to genuine human souls, but their advantage lies in their large quantity, making them perfectly suitable as a secondary substitute.

Chapter 214 This is how games should be played!

The human soul is cut into fragments and then sealed into the body of a goblin to be rapidly cultivated, thus achieving the mass production of human souls.

Linglan's words not only made Valensa gasp, but also greatly shocked Rika.

"I suddenly realized..."

Lika sighed with a complicated expression:

"Compared to you humans, I, the former dungeon monster lord, was far too naive."

Valensa and Suzuran both smiled wryly and remained silent on this point.

Although most humans are kind, the very few bad people can be so evil that even monsters and natural disasters would be terrified.

"correct!"

After a brief moment of reflection, Valensa suddenly thought of something else:

"Since this goblin cave and the abandoned mine from last time belong to the same bastard, and that bastard has the technology to mass-produce human souls, could it be that... the soul crystal I accidentally ate didn't actually have that many victims?"

After she finished speaking, she looked at Lily of the Valley:

"How many fragments can a complete human soul be divided into and sealed into a goblin's body? Have you figured that out yet?"

"Not yet... How could this kind of research produce results so quickly?"

Lily of the Valley shrugged, then thought for a moment before saying:

"However, judging from the experimental device left in this goblin cave, it is no problem to cultivate hundreds of mass-produced souls from a complete human soul... The exact number will only be more, not less."

"At least a hundred times... In that case..."

Valensa then turned her gaze to Lika:

"The soul crystal I found in the abandoned mine last time probably only involved a few thousand victims... The Kingdom of Fran has a vast territory and many cities. If the disappearance of thousands of people over three years is scattered in multiple places, it might not attract much attention... What do you think, Sister Lika?"

"...I understand what you mean."

Lika hesitated for a moment:

"Next, I will formally request, in the name of the Church of the Sun, that local police forces cooperate with us to compile and organize all the missing persons cases from the past three years. Perhaps we will find new clues."

"Yes, especially those cities in the eastern part of the kingdom, they should be investigated more thoroughly."

Valensa added.

"I know."

Lika nodded, then hesitated for a moment:

"There's one more thing... Valensa, you were able to give an accurate warning about the Grey Rat last time, so you must have had intelligence sources from the Revelers, right?"

Perhaps you could try asking around to see if any new revelers have joined in the last few years.

"Lika, you suspect that bastard is the new reveler?"

Valensa frowned slightly, then nodded after a moment:

"Indeed, that bastard is a dangerous individual of the Revelers level in terms of his methods, skills, and madness... I'll try to find out more about him."

"Okay, then I'll leave the intelligence here to you."

“I’ll try my best… but don’t get your hopes up too high, Rika. The last time I was able to get information about the Grey Rat, it was under special circumstances,” Valensa added.

Miss Phantom Thief, Valensa's step-sister, is quite fond of her, but she is also very principled.

The reason Gray Rat's information was leaked was because Gray Rat had violated the unspoken rules of the revelers, and there was a great personal grudge between the two.

But Miss Thief might not easily tell Valensa the specific details about the other revelers.

More importantly, Miss Thief is elusive and has no way of contacting anyone, making it very difficult for Valensa to even find her, let alone actively seek information from her.

After learning about the research team's initial results from Lily of the Valley, Valensa didn't stay any longer and returned to the college to continue being a good student.

As Rika had predicted, the Church of the Sun quickly launched a new wave of large-scale searches, with the cooperation of local police forces and adventurers, to hunt down the extremely dangerous and cruel necromancer.

As a result, there were indeed quite a few achievements.

First, several strange goblin caves were discovered within the Kingdom of Fran, and they were all eventually confirmed to be the necromancer's testing grounds. They were all abandoned, and the abandonment time was the same, right after Valensa and Fran destroyed the abandoned mine.

Secondly, regarding the victims, many of them have finally been identified.

Just as Valencia guessed, there were many disappearances that looked like young people eloping, which were not taken seriously by the local police force, but the victims were very likely the work of that necromancer.

However, in the past five years, there have only been about a thousand such missing persons, which is still far from the estimated number of victims. The origin of the remaining victims remains a mystery.

The investigation is ongoing, but it has little to do with Valencia now.

After all, she was still a student, and daily life on campus was the main theme of her life. At most, she would learn about the latest developments of the necromancer's affairs through Fran via Little Bat, and she no longer participated personally.

And so winter passed and spring came, flowers bloomed in abundance, and two months passed in a peaceful yet fulfilling way.

During this time, Valensa invited Vivi to Frenoia three more times. Vivi was still the same as before. On two occasions, she got so into the Pink Rose Garden that she disappeared. On only one occasion, she went with Valensa to explore the capital of France and sampled many local delicacies.

But Vivi never summoned Valensa to her world again.

Firstly, the old man of the Lofiside family is still actively hunting Valensa, and if Valensa shows up in the Dark City, it could cause a lot of trouble.

In those cyberpunk-world metropolises, surveillance cameras are everywhere, making it difficult to completely evade the eyes of a large corporation.

Secondly, since the sudden death of the programmer at Arasaka Corporation, Wei's paranormal occurrences have increased, and she really needs the help of that little shrine maiden. So Wei gave all of her two months' worth of friend summoning opportunities to that little shrine maiden.

Valensa was slightly disappointed about this, but it wasn't a big problem.

Anyway, she can call Wei to her world, and the long-term trade of exchanging magical items for technological weapons has never been affected. Wei also brings a lot of portable power banks for playing game consoles every time.

That night, in Tia's room in the girls' dormitory of the Command Department, Valensa and Tia took a shower together but did not rush to sleep. Instead, after putting on their camisole nightgowns and black and white stockings, they sat side by side on the bed, playing a racing game together with a controller.

"Speed ​​up! Speed ​​up! Press here to speed up!"

"No! You're doing it wrong! The jet system isn't activated like that; it should be rubbed like this."

"Oh dear...you're so clumsy! Come here, let me teach you..."