Earlier that morning, Kael completed a system quest tied to an underground passage beneath Gesture Village and unlocked a new skill: Pet Summoning. Using it, he summoned and controlled a cat familiar, which he later used to spy on the village chief. The underground discovery itself was horrifying—over 129 corpses were found hidden below the village, confirming the scale of the disappearances.
As an undead necromancer, Brown summoned the souls of the dead, manifesting them as bound shadows. With Elian leading the interrogation, all the shadows gave the same testimony: the village chief was already dead, replaced by a low-ranking demon specializing in mimicry, capable of perfectly imitating human appearance but lacking raw combat strength. This confirmed that the village leadership had been compromised from within.
Earlier that same day, Kael had also noticed a muscular man leaving the village chief's house, further deepening suspicion. Brown absorbed the 129 shadows into his undead army for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. One shadow lingered while watching a woman and her young daughter. When Kael questioned him, the shadow reluctantly revealed that they had been his family when he was alive. Though he claimed to have no remaining attachments, he wished them happiness. Moved, Kael approached the woman and gently told her that her husband was at peace and happy to see her smile.
The woman was shocked, as she and her daughter had been shunned by the villagers, who believed she was responsible for the disappearances. Kael reassured her that the truth would soon be revealed and that she no longer needed to fear isolation.
Recognizing the growing demonic threat, Kael summoned Luminor, a Keeper-class mage, and Arra, a halfling magic engineer, through the system-linked magic communication towers spread across the continent. Upon arriving, Luminor warmly greeted Kael and Elian and asked about the investigation into the missing elves of the Ever-Flowing Blackwood Forest. Kael admitted they had yet to make a breakthrough. Arra, surveying the village, immediately sensed demonic presence in the area.
Kael explained that he had called them to help erect a protective magic barrier around Gesture Village, ensuring the villagers' safety while the investigation continued. Luminor immediately began preparations, while Arra agreed to construct a small teleportation circle near the village for rapid movement and emergency evacuation. With their allies at work, Kael, Elian, and Brown resumed focusing on exposing the false village chief.
Before Luminor began casting the barrier, Kael fully briefed him on everything that had happened. During the discussion, Kael noticed a change and confirmed it using his identification skill—Luminor had acquired a new magic ability: Cloning. Luminor calmly confirmed it, unsurprised that Kael already knew, signaling that their combined strength was quietly but steadily growing as the conflict deepened.