Chapter 876: The Lifeforce (1/2)
Way back where Krune's group had passed through...
”Once upon a time, long long ago.” The man with the crown paused as he saw these words on the ground, reading it aloud.
”Interesting,” he smirked while muttering, watching how the font used to engrave the words on the ground conveyed the feeling that the person who wrote it had been pressed for time.
The man with the crown then skipped over the words and continued to jog over the path, unconcerned if he could catch up to the people he was chasing after.
”There lived a man fatter than fat and a woman thinner than thin.” He read aloud the next sentence, smirking as it seemed strange. He wished to understand why his target had written such words.
A kilometer later, the man with the crown came upon two arrow marks and another set of words, reading them aloud, ”Follow the arrow on the left if you wish to read the fat man's fat tale. Follow the arrow on the right for the thin woman's thin tale.”
The man with the crown paused after seeing that and actually contemplated over his choice, eventually deciding to follow the arrow on the right. He proceeded in the direction it had pointed towards, returning an hour later as his eyebrows twitched by the time he came back.
He then walked in the direction pointed by the left arrow, similarly returning after an hour had passed, grunting as he kicked the ground, erasing the set of words engraved on it. He soon muttered to himself, ”I had hoped for a story. It would have made the journey better.”
The man with the crown continued to jog further, trailing after the path Krune had traversed on. A voice from the pouch dangling on his right would remind him from time to time, pointing him in the right direction.
Soon, he came across another set of words on the path, skipping it without a glance. Though, once he passed it by a bit, curiosity got the best of him, prompting him to return to the spot and read the set of words on the ground. ”The following is a story about the prodigy demon beast grown by the fat man and the thin woman. Their fat and thin tale combined resulted in the prodigy demon beast's peerlessness. If you want to see their story instead, follow the respective arrows for 10 kilometers.”
”…Damn, this guy is cunning.” The man with the crown was shocked, pausing as he continued forward, muttering something along the way. A couple of hours later, he returned to the area, grumbling, ”The story actually continues further in this path. I should read the stories of the other two first.”
Saying so, the man with the crown backtracked until he reached the previous set of words, frowning as he noticed his earlier kick had erased all the words. He then looked around, retracing the path of the fat man based on his memory before traversing in the respective direction.
”It's probably Krune's effort to waste your time. Don't follow them.” A voice from the pouch hung on his hip resounded. Its tone was one of caution.
”I'm quite curious to know the full story, though,” the man with the crown said in response. ”Besides, we can always catch up to Krune when we need to. He's traveling on foot while I have you guys to give me a ride.”
”In that case, use us to travel, then. Don't waste your time on foot,” another voice resounded from the pouch.
”I don't wanna.” The man with the crown chuckled. ”This is fun. I don't want to catch up to Krune that soon. It seems he has sensed my approach. With that, I just plan to pressure him like this…for a month or two.”
”…” All the voices that wished to speak next from the pouch turned silent. The man with the crown continued to jog his way, returning after four hours had passed as he plopped on the ground. ”There's no story further in that direction.”
”We told you. Krune's getting farther away from you as we speak. He wouldn't have the time to run everywhere without reason just to what…set up a story for you to read? This is probably just his attempt to delay you from catching up, without any guarantee of its result,” the voice from before rambled on and on until the man with the crown shut it up.
He then faced the other direction, the one that apparently led to the story of the thin lady, before muttering to himself, ”I better check that out.”
”Oh god!”
”No!”
The voices from the pouch groaned and cursed in protest as the man with the crown began to jog once again.
…
Krune and Yulian continued to run through the Lawless Plains, passing through the massive carcasses of demon beasts scattered everywhere. The ones that survived had escaped long ago. So, all Krune and Yulian came across were scenes of death everywhere.
”That actually worked?” Krune was surprised for a moment when he felt the looming threat on him decrease. As he was sensing it through the Calamity Laws, he was able to determine whether the one pursuing him had closed in or moved farther away.
In any case, he was surprised when the chaser moved away. It meant that the set of words he had placed actually worked. 'That's quite surprising.'