Chapter 210: Hey, wait a minute… (2/2)

But Roland was not the usual adventurer, with the help of his rune knowledge he had thought about this probleeon There were various ways of creating air filters for his helht be actually able to go through the top part

It was not impossible and the h as the ones in the underground The difficulty was in lasting through the ma-covered wastelands and the toxic air coet over that bueable This was so out the secret connection to another dungeon With that in place, he could hunt tier 3 monsters from a safe distance

‘I wonder if there are some secrets that weren’t discovered in those lava e if they had to abandon any deep exploration atte soain After getting through the first bump in the road it was time to move towards their next destination

The next stopping point would take theh which hidden attacks could be launched It was fah a narrow bridge after which they would be at about the halfpoint of the journey

Thus the trip continued with Roland being forced to use his spider drones at each stop to further his scanning range It didn’t see much sleep, at each stop, there were some troubles What would normally be a trip with perhaps one deadly encounter turned to a slog

First ca for them at the usual ambush spot They were unlucky with their placement as Roland was able to pelt thee than bows or crossbows

Then after routing them there they were in for round two The bandits didn’t appreciate losing so their first a

Roland had to give it to thee If the caravan went through the bridge they would have attacked theether with Roland’s radar and some of the adventurers they were able to discover the eneroups With soht Luckily the robbers on the other side of the bridge decided to abandon the fight

…

“Finally it’s over…”

“Good job everyone, be sure to get a good night's rest after we reach the village as ill be going towards out last destination withoutany further stops afterward”

What Roland saw in the distance was a e that was surrounded by a forest area This was considered a waypoint and an indication ofthe journey It had been hard on him but noould be able to finally rest

‘So this is the village of Holden, there should not be any surprises froh of relief he placed the map back into his backpack He had faced bandits, monsters, and vast nue was a safe zone for their journey It was an object close to the duchy’s core lands Bandits knew to stay away as the Valerian household would actually send out their soldiers to regularly clear out any pests living in the area

“Finally I can have soood mead here!”

Grisalde nodded at Dalrak as just sloalking behind their wagon Orson was not far behind as the iirls filled his lint in his eye as she knehat he was planning

“Hey, unless you plan on getting irls just keep it in your pants What if you leave and they have to bring up your bastard alone?”

“Hah, that only happens to amateurs!”

“Are you sure about that? Or oing through so rinned at Orson who just tried to ignore the halfling The whole group tended to throw insults at each other but for some reason, they could not have been better friends There was a danger in this line of work, so the adventurer types had their way of getting over the stress and this was one of them

‘Wait, is that e Roland started hearing the tunes produced by a lute This was the sae in the distance There his eyes were drawn to the large tree in the ht of a watchtower

It seemed that the branches and leaves blocked out the sun which didn’t let any other trees grow under it This left a large spot under which this village was constructed It was reasonable to believe that this huge tree could help block strong winds and rain while the settlers settled in

“Welcoon so he was able to hear soed to a wolance he saw several youngwhite dresses They all had crowns made from flowers on top of their heads that looked fresh

‘Are they having some kind of festival?’

The other people fro out their heads at the sound of thefor their lives, everyone was tired The majority of the combatants here were irls that were s at the when looking at one of the curvier girls fro towards the village square that was large enough to contain all of the carts and wagons While passing through he noticed that everyone was cheerful and full of vigor The girls were frolicking around and waving while the men played various instrue tree that was also occupied by the dancers The people were holding their hands together and yrated their hips Alroup arrived the people started waving theirls up on their offer to dance with thee of Holden, you have arrived at a most pleasant time as we are in theto the side and wondering what this was all about an old uards were the ones to greet him and soon it was explained the nature of these festivities

“We will be holding a feast for the next three days to show our gratitude to Phidona the Goddess of harvest and fertility, now come please relax and join us”

This Goddess was one of the lower-tier Gods worshi+ped by farmers and others that cultivated their lands Fro siht in the e

The her tier Gods But there were various lesser and roups of people Roland wasn’t sure hoorked but people related to God worshi+p did receive blessings fro certain acts

It was also one of the reasons forThis see as it only required bloody sacrifices One of such cults he had witnessed o and for so around, he was getting a bad feeling

‘Is this normal?’

Their faces were filled with s off that he couldn’t put his finger on The other adventurers that were truly born into this world didn’t see around with that girl he was eyeing, Grisalde was at a table eating on

While everyone see hi paranoid Cohim bad vibes

Yet even when he used all kinds of detection skills he couldn’t find anything that was out of place The other roup that had better senses didn’t see with this place as they just went along with the festivities But even after hours passed he did not get rid of this bad feeling, there was soht here

‘Is it this tree… there is solanced towards the e People were still dancing around with saze focused on it, theWith the help of hisit out and to his surprise there was so intently at the tree for a fraction of aIt flashed there before him for a fraction of a second in the place of the tree It had a strange shape of a double helix covered in strange patterns It was soo

“It can’t be…”

He retreated a step while shouting and al skill on the object before him…