Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

"Crazy... What the hell is this place?" Aaron's group looked around, tied up with ropes.

Clean buildings, organized streets, and a fountain in the center of the square. Everything was entirely different from the village they had been in.

While the rest of his group looked bewildered, not knowing what to make of it, Aaron was the only one who realized the source of these changes.

"Is this the territory reform mentioned in the development options? But it costs forty thousand magic stones to do that. Did these guys manage to gather forty thousand magic stones during this time?"

Aaron's mouth went dry. He had known there was a difference in power between them, but forty thousand magic stones? This wasn't just beyond expectations; it was unimaginable.

Now, it was almost impossible to think of any way to oppose them.

"No, let's think positively. This might actually give us a chance to survive," Aaron thought, swallowing his nervousness.

If he had come here as an invader, they would have easily wiped him out. However, he was here to seek assistance. Whether they would accept it or not was another matter, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing that his opponents were strong.

"Boss, if this goes wrong..."

"Shut up!" Aaron shouted, glaring at his subordinate.

"What are you trying to say right now? Don't you realize we're being watched from all sides? Keep your mouth shut unless you want us all to get killed!"

"..."

Terrified, the subordinate clamped his mouth shut. They were already tied up with ropes because the others didn't trust their surrender. If they made their captors angry, they might end up beaten to death without even a chance to resist.

"That damn coward. We're doing all of this to survive, but instead of cooperating, he's just making things worse," Aaron thought bitterly, cursing at his subordinate under his breath.

At that moment, a familiar voice called out to him.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"...!"

Aaron looked up at the voice, meeting a cold gaze that sent a shiver down his spine. Just looking into those eyes, he could tell that the other person was debating whether or not to kill him.

Almost reflexively, Aaron raised his voice in a more polite tone.

"O-oh, long time no see."

"What's with the formal speech? Didn't you drop that last time?" Justin retorted.

"..."

Aaron clamped his mouth shut at Justin's pointed remark. Initially, he had planned to speak informally and confidently, but when faced with Justin, he found he couldn't do it. Since things had come to this, Aaron decided to humble himself.

"About last time... I apologize. I got carried away."

"I don't care whether you got carried away or not. Just explain why you're here to surrender. Why are you suddenly offering to surrender?" Justin's tone was almost commanding, making Aaron's face flush with embarrassment.

Humiliation and anger surged within him, but Aaron had no choice. He was the one in need.

"Well... The other territories found out about our location..."

"What? Other territories?"

"Yes."

Aaron continued in a heavy voice.

It all began with a dungeon exploration quest. Recently, Aaron had just begun hunting in the Gnoll territory. Of course, the Gnoll habitat had already been swept by Justin's group, so Aaron could only hunt in the corners, and the progress was slow.

Still, things had recently become somewhat stable.

"If we keep this up, we'll keep leveling up steadily, right?"

"Maybe we can even catch up to those guys eventually."

The clear signs of growth were enough to give Aaron and his group baseless confidence. That confidence also showed in their attitude toward quests. As soon as they received a dungeon exploration quest, they immediately decided to take it on.

"We can handle Gnoll groups easily now, right? That should be enough."

"Exactly. Those guys are still playing around in the Gnoll hunting grounds. We're not that different from them."

"If we back down out of fear, the gap between us will only widen. Let's go right away."

With unanimous agreement, Aaron's group set out to explore the dungeon, heading toward the hilly region. At first, everything went smoothly, up until they found the dungeon. They didn't encounter any hobgoblins or even groups of gnolls, allowing them to conserve their strength, and the dungeon was nearby.

But that was where their luck ended.

"Graaah! Humans! Halt!"

"Damn it! Run! If you stop, you're dead!"

The moment they encountered an orc, Aaron's group was terrified and ran for their lives. Miraculously, none of them died, but they had lost all will to challenge the dungeon again.

It would have been better if they had given up and retreated at that point. But Aaron's group refused to back down. More accurately, their pride wouldn't let them. They had thought they were among the top ranks of the pioneers, yet here they were, running from the first group of monsters they encountered.

"This place must just be unusually difficult. Maybe other dungeons are more manageable."

"Yeah. Didn't the system say there were multiple dungeons?"

"Just bad luck, that's all. Let's find another dungeon."

It was a blatant excuse, but it was the only way to soothe their wounded pride. Aaron's group wandered around the hilly region for a long time, but of course, they couldn't find another dungeon. The brass compass wouldn't reveal another dungeon unless they cleared the one they had already found.

The problem was that they discovered something else instead.

"...Who are you guys?"

While running around looking for another dungeon, Aaron's group encountered another group of pioneers. There were twelve of them, and they had just cleared a dungeon, complete with new items.

Aaron stepped back, flustered, and stammered, "W-we were just passing by."

"Yeah, right. You think we're just gonna let you go? Grab them!"

"...!"

Unfortunately, the quality of these pioneers wasn't great. Realizing they'd all die if they resisted, Aaron's group gave up and got captured. The leader of the pioneers, grinning with satisfaction, approached Aaron, who was now on his knees.

"Where do you live? Lead the way."

Aaron had no choice but to reveal the way to his village. Upon seeing the village, the pioneers from the other territory were delighted at the sight of the commoners.

"A jackpot, a field of slaves just waiting to be harvested," they said, barely concealing their desire to invade.

Before leaving, they gave Aaron one final order.

"Hey, you. Come to the same place tomorrow, and bring ten commoners with you. We've already set the trap, so this works out perfectly. You'll make excellent meat shields."

"So, you figured it'd be better to surrender to me?" Justin asked, looking down at Aaron with a mocking smile.

"Yes."

Justin let out a snort of laughter as he gazed down at Aaron.