Chapter 398 (2/2)
He paused before adding, “If you do find the camp, you’ll be rewarded with ice cream bread for dessert after every meal this coming week.”
Maggie stretched her neck and said, “You can count on us, coo!”
…
Three days later, Roland received Lightning’s report. Out in the Barbarian Land, there was a place suspected to be a Demon’s Town, it was located about 130 kilometers away from Border Town.
After roughly mapping out its position, he noticed that it was right in front of the route that the Witch Cooperation Association used to follow. This was less than ten kilometers away from the place where the Association was attacked by demons.
“What do you mean when you say ‘suspected’?” he asked Lightning. “Have you not seen their black stone towers?”
The little girl shook her head, her expression perplexed, “I have only seen what appears to be… wreckage.”
“What?”
“What I saw was crushed black stone, broken fences pieces, and… a huge hole in the ground,” she continued while rubbing her forehead, “the place looks like the one where Agatha found the relic. I didn’t track any demons though. After surveying the destruction, I flew back here immediately.”
“‘Another hole?’ Roland was stunned, ‘Are there giant maggot-like beasts inside this hole too? Last time, there were maggot-like beasts with the relic and they devoured the stone towers remains, this time… did they swallow the demon camp as well?
Did I miss some important clue that links those two events?’
He shook his head and pushed aside the puzzling pieces and asked, “Did you find anything else?”
“No… the camp was deserted. There were no demons there.” Lightning replied.
“And no sparkling magic stones either, Coo!” Maggie added.
“I see,” Roland mulled over the information he had been given and then quickly began to make arrangements. He looked over at the white haired girl and said, “You take Nightingale and Soraya to the suspected camp site and get pictures of the scene. Then escort Nightingale and Sylvie there so they can check it out further.”
“Why not just let Soraya and Sylvie go there together?” asked Lightning.
“Just in case the demons have flying beasts that Maggie can’t get rid of,” Roland explained briefly. “Nightingale can use her Mist to help you escape. In any dangerous situation, you just get out of there as quickly as possible.”
…
Soraya’s “photo” of the scene was soon placed in front of Roland.
Just as Lightning had described, there was a massive crater in the ground, stretching five to six meters across, with broken debris scattered around its edge. The fringe of the hole looked almost like the earth and been churned from below. The snow and dirt were mixed, along with various pieces of the crushed black stone and that was exactly how it looked, like it had been crushed by a massive creature.
Sylvie’s findings made him even more uneasy—the underground passage there led towards the snow-capped mountains, the same direction as the one relic they found in the Misty Forest.
Both tunnels led to the same place.