Chapter 763
Simon slowly drew up Darkness to the fingertips of the hand he had hidden behind his back, in an instant, he formed a magic circle in front of his index finger, drew out a droplet of blood, and mixed it with Darkness.
<Cloud>
Then, as he thrust his arm out roughly, an emerald flash burst forth, but the distance was too far, Cloud narrowly missed the ‘suspicious figure’ and struck a tree behind instead.
Ssshhk–
That person immediately turned his back and ran away.
“Who’s there!”
Simon shouted and swung his arm forcefully, Cloud whipped around a tree trunk, Simon pulled on it, and launched himself forward.
“Uuhm– wh, what’s going on?”
There was no time to answer Dick, who had woken up from the commotion, Simon let go of Cloud and landed, the suspicious figure was fleeing into the thick brush.
“Stop!”
Simon also stirred Darkness in his legs, gritted his teeth, and chased after him.
A sudden chase in the night, the man moved in a strange way, dodging rocks, trees, and obstacles with inhuman agility, his movement was closer to a wild animal than a bipedal human.
Simon also made his move.
‘Internal Darkness Divergence!’
A Magical Combat technique that exponentially raised physical abilities for a short time, Darkness surged throughout Simon’s body, oil-like beads of Darkness dripped from his pores.
His speed increased, he was almost upon the suspicious figure, Simon leapt from the ground and reached out for the man’s nape.
Crrkk–
The man twisted his head at an impossible angle to look at Simon, then bared his gums and grinned eerily.
Whoom!
Simon’s hand passed straight through his face.
‘What the–?’
Ssshhhhaaaa–!
Simon hastily landed with both feet, the force of his leap dragged his feet along the ground leaving long marks before he finally stopped.
When he ran back to where the figure had been…
“........”
…There was nothing.
As if he had been an apparition, he had simply vanished.
‘That man, definitely.......’
His clothing looked crudely woven from natural materials, a sight rare in towns or villages, even for someone living on the grasslands, it was excessively primitive.
Simon quickly scanned the area where he had vanished.
‘Ah.’
Something hard caught his hand, Simon reached down and pulled something buried in the mud.
It was a skull.
So old it could no longer even be raised as undead by a necromancer, it was more artifact than remains now.
With a grave expression, Simon set the skull down on the ground.
After scanning the area once more, Simon returned to the temporary lodging, and chaos had erupted.
Startled by the earlier noise, Maelyn and Kamibarez clung to each other, their faces pale with fear as they looked at Simon, Dick, still half-asleep, was flailing a branch left and right with a hoarse voice, shouting ‘Wh, what! What is it!’
“What happened?”
Maelyn cautiously asked.
Simon scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed smile.
“Sorry, just a deer, must have mistaken it.”
“Whaaat–! Geez!”
Maelyn stomped her feet like whining, then sagged limply as the tension drained from her, Kamibarez placed a hand on her chest and sighed in relief.
“Th, that scared me, but I’m glad you’re safe, Simon.”
“Sorry for shouting so suddenly, I must’ve been too sensitive.”
Simon returned to his seat by the campfire reserved for night watch, reassured, Maelyn and Kamibarez quickly dozed off again, still clutching each other tightly.
Simon added more firewood to the dying campfire.
“Yop.”
Then Dick, who Simon thought was asleep, plopped down beside him.
“It’s not your turn for watch yet, get some more sleep, I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
“Eh, it’s fine, I’m wide awake now anyway.”
Dick yawned long and wide, then turned to Simon with suddenly sharp eyes.
“Simon, what did you see?”
“........”
“It’s fine, just tell me.”
Dick checked again that Maelyn and Kamibarez were sleeping soundly before continuing.
“Something’s strange about this place, we need to know how these grasslands really work.”
Simon had planned to tell everyone once morning came anyway, so he quickly explained the situation.
A suspicious figure had been watching them, Simon gave chase, but the figure vanished like an apparition, and beneath the ground where he disappeared Simon found an ancient skull.
After listening, Dick wore a grave expression.
“Hm– if you even chased him down, then it’s not just your imagination.”
He tapped his knee with his fingertips, then abruptly stood up.
“You said there’s still a while until my watch? I’ll take a walk, check things out.”
“Alright, be careful.”
“Where exactly was the skull?”
Simon told him, and Dick went to see it for himself.
* * *
The next morning.
Simon’s group once again boarded the boat and rowed upriver.
The mana engine was working properly, so there was no need to paddle, they simply floated forward along the current.
“The fog’s thick.”
The early morning grasslands had turned eerie, the sky dark as if rain would fall at any moment, the surroundings cloaked in mist.
The atmosphere was completely different from yesterday’s grasslands.
Whether from waking so early, or from the poor night’s sleep, everyone seemed fatigued, they decided to take turns napping or resting, Kamibarez fell asleep right away.
Flap–
Of course, Simon did not rest, he had opened a book to read.
“What are you reading?”
A sweet fragrance drifted over, Maelyn came up beside him, tilting her head curiously, her eyes blinking with interest.
Simon replied,
“A book on the history of the grasslands.”
“Mmhmm–”
Maelyn narrowed her eyes at him, then suddenly chuckled.
“Didn’t think you’d be into history, doesn’t suit you.”
“......Then what suits me?”
“You’re a Summonology nerd, I thought you’d be studying what undead you could make out of grassland monsters in your book.”
‘Ah.’
Why didn’t he think of that.
Next time, he’d have to bring books on materials and special undead suited to the geography.
“But this sounds fun!”
Maelyn scooted closer, fascinated by an illustration in the book, Simon stiffened, lifting his chin high.
“Who’s this ‘priest’ here?”
“Ah, well, to explain that I’d need to start from the beginning.......”
Simon summarized what he had just read, it was said there had once been an ancient civilization on the grasslands, now people only lived on the upper grasslands, but in the past they had lived in the lower grasslands too.
The people of the lower grasslands had built a radiant civilization here, though the environment seemed unlivable, the population back then had exceeded hundreds of thousands, they worshipped their own god, and followed the will of priests who received that god’s revelations.
But, they had a custom that any civilized person would find horrific.
“Hu, man, sac, rifice?”
Maelyn trembled, her arms shaking.
“So they actually offered living humans as sacrifices?”
“Yeah.”
“No way, those guys were evil! How could they do that?”
“Since it was the command of the god they worshipped, I suppose they kept such customs, being such a closed civilization, the atmosphere must have been one where no one could defy it.”
Usually, the sacrifices for human offerings were slaves or foreigners, the people of the lower grasslands would frequently emerge from the forest, abduct the people of the upper grasslands, and offer them as sacrifices, so of course relations were poor.
However, the main force of the upper grasslands was ‘cavalry’, cavalry was useless in the densely forested lower grasslands, no matter how many troops they sent, they suffered repeated defeats.
Moreover, the lower people wielded a mysterious power called the ‘power of god’.
A colossal serpent that could encircle the grasslands, an eagle spreading its wings to cover the sky, and even crocodiles that caused floods over the entire grasslands.
Led by the priests of the lower grasslands who wielded these powers of god, powers akin to natural disasters, the upper people faced defeat after defeat, on the brink of losing their cities.
“.......”
Hearing up to this point, Maelyn folded her arms.
“This isn’t history, this is like mythology, total nonsense!”
“......I don’t know either.”
Simon shrugged and continued the tale.
The reason why this civilization, which wielded god’s power and practiced human sacrifice, collapsed is unknown, according to the people of the upper grasslands, that astounding ancient civilization perished in a single night.
But they said this,
–Their god became enraged, and judged them.
And at the end of history there was the story of the civilization’s last priest, the sole survivor of the night of death, that priest was plunged into despair, lamenting that it was all his fault.
He eventually took his own life, but his resentment was so strong that even in death he rose as a wraith, seeking to revive the civilization that had perished by his mistake, even to this day.
“That’s all.”
Simon closed the book.
Maelyn frowned and covered her forehead.
“What an absurd story, it only leaves me with a bad feeling.”
“Now then, everyone.”
Dick, who was steering the boat, looked over at the three.
“Looks like we’ve got a problem.”
Simon and Maelyn widened their eyes, Kamibarez also woke from sleep and came closer.
Dick unfolded a map.
“Look at this map, this is the river of the grasslands.”
The river, though winding, stretched steadily upward, if they followed it upstream, they should have long since reached the upper grasslands.
“We’ve been following the main branch of the river the whole way, if you calculate the length and distance, we should’ve already left the lower grasslands, so why are we still circling around?”
Kamibarez tilted her head.
“Could we have taken a wrong path?”
Maelyn shrugged,
“Or maybe the map’s wrong, it’s not some village map, you can’t expect an accurate chart of this kind of terrain, rivers do shift a little bit over time.”
“That may be true, but still, it’s strange.”
Dick scratched his head irritably, Simon looked around.
“I agree with Dick, stop the boat for a moment.”
“Hm? For what?”
Dick halted the boat anyway.
“Before the rain comes, I need to climb up high and look around.”
Simon bent and stretched his knees a few times, then used the rebound to leap up, grabbing a nearby vine and swinging forward.
<Cloud>
He stuck Cloud to a tree, released the vine, and landed firmly on the trunk.
It was the tallest tree in the vicinity, Simon focused Darkness into his toes, then began climbing with astonishing agility.
Dick, watching, exclaimed in awe.
“Wow, seriously, how is he from Summonology?”
“Be careful, Simon!”
Simon swiftly climbed the tree, by the time his legs began to ache, the surrounding trees looked small, he reached the top and scanned below.
All around was still the dense jungle of the lower grasslands, Simon turned his back, and saw the sea. After entering from the sea and traveling so far inland, it was unbelievable that they were still only here.
‘Something’s strange.’
Simon carefully surveyed again.
“!”
He witnessed a bizarre phenomenon, his mouth fell open, unable to believe his eyes, he rubbed them again and again, but it was real.
“The grasslands......!”
The grasslands were moving.
Rrrrrrrrrrr–!
As if the ground itself were rearranging like a puzzle, or like a serpent crawling along the earth, the terrain kept shifting, an area became thick with trees, a new river branch appeared, something strange was happening here.
Simon’s gaze sharpened.
‘Could it be…’
The most plausible explanation was a dungeon anomaly, by coincidence, perhaps a dungeon had opened nearby after they entered the grasslands, causing this phenomenon.
And there was one more possibility.
–The last trace of the Ancient Undead, Myurr, who once belonged to the Legion, was discovered in the grasslands 15 years ago.
There was more than enough reason to suspect it.
‘I need to join Feer as soon as possible.’
* * *
At the same time.
[Khhuhuhuhuhu!]
Countless monsters of the grasslands lay dead, tongues hanging out, corpses piled into a mountain, their number beyond counting, the nearby valley had turned red with their blood.
And among them, an Undead carrying a massive white greatsword strode forward.
It was none other than the Legion’s Master, the Ancient Undead, Feer.
As he slew the monsters and advanced, suddenly the terrain shifted, dense trees sprang up to block his path like a barrier.
[So you were here after all, Myurr!]
Feer gave a sinister laugh and swung his sword of destruction with full strength, the surrounding trees all revealed white rings as their upper halves soared into the air.
Boom–
Thud!
Boooom–!
Deafening crashes resounded everywhere.
Feer, cutting through the trees and pressing forward, was soon blocked again, this time by cliffs shifting to close off his way, while the grasslands’ river encircled him like a moat around fortress walls.
[You don’t welcome my visit, do you?]
Light gleamed in Feer’s pupils as he gripped his greatsword tightly.
[I had better join the boy as quickly as possible!]
The war had already begun.
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