Chapter 98 (1/2)
Burglary
I continued to follow the direction that the devil’s sword led me to.
I also took care of the monsters that attempted to block my path.
“Kaaaaaaaaah!”
Piercing the Orc’s throat, I asked the devil’s sword.
“What, come to think of it, aren’t you drinking their blood?”
In my previous life, Randy regularly fed the devil’s sword with monster blood.
He also often held it in his hands.
Those two conditions kept the sealed cognition awake and maintained the special ability of the devil’s sword.
‘I don’t need it yet. I had some mediocre taste of human blood last time, which caused me to lose my appetite.’
It was uncommon to be fed with human blood when Randy carried it around, or as I was carrying it around at that moment.
“If you say so. How about the directions?”
‘Keep going in this direction.’
After passing through a ruined, ownerless city full of monsters, a thick forest came into view.
“Ah, there it is.”
The devil’s sword grumbled.
‘… Damn it. The energy is getting stronger.’
“It means we came to the right place.”
I crossed the boundary of the forest with the sword in my hand.
I penetrated the dense forests made of woods that didn’t exist on Earth and proceeded as the sword guided.
Walking while using my clairvoyance as far as I could, I noticed that something had quickly changed.
“Those who were rushing in had completely disappeared.”
It was completely different from the trend of them rushing one by one every time I took a step.
None showed themselves, and there was no ‘living monster’ within the range of clairvoyance that was yet to be seen.
“Do they not even dare enter this forest?”
‘It seems like the area around here has already progressed into a sacred land. Most of them won’t be able to step a foot in. They’re overwhelmed by the aura.’
Was it that bad?
Unable to detect the thing called the sacred energy that the devil’s sword was feeling, I could only nod.
The forest, which had no life energy, gave a different feeling from the ruins outside where the original inhabitants disappeared, and only monsters roamed.
It had a rustic feeling of a different level.
There wasn’t even a trace of small creatures that made up the dungeon’s ecosystem.
“I’m beginning to see them one by one.”
What stood out was the monster carcass left on the ground.
It was a Flying Lizard, a monster with a special ability to disguise itself according to its surroundings.
The devil’s sword spoke as if it found it strange.
‘What, why is that thing dead in the woods? They don’t live in places like this.’
The forest, which was complicatedly intertwined with trees, was an environment in which it was inconvenient to fly freely and hunt. Therefore, it preferred open fields over forests, and instead of nesting in trees, it lived by digging a hole in the ground.
A species that couldn’t walk in on its own was found in such a dense forest.
If it didn’t come in on its own will, there was only one answer.
“They hunted and killed them at the ruins outside, and the guys who hunted and occupied this place dragged their bodies here to dispose of them.”
‘Why do you have to…?’
But the devil’s sword soon understood what I meant.
‘Oh, for that reason. It must have to do with the thing that gives off bad energy from deep down there.’
“Exactly.”
The more I made my way in, the more abundant the monster corpses became.
It was opposite to the lack of corpses among the traces of battle in ruins outside.
Although there were no traces of battle, there was a large number of corpses.
Parts of their bodies were cut, burned, divided, crushed… They but a certain pattern was noticeable in them.
‘They are all half-buried in the ground.’
At first glance, as I passed by, it looked like they’re half-buried in the soil full of moss.
Simply put, it might be considered a natural phenomenon caused by rain and wind, but…
“Look, a certain level of mummification had progressed. Like the monsters whose blood you drained.”
Corpses abandoned in hot and humid forests were bound to decay, but such laws didn’t apply there.
All their hair had fallen out and turned into a dry-bark-like form.
Also, the ones that had many parts remaining that helped identify its form were twisted into bizarre shapes.
It was unlikely that the Matap Guild would have done such mischievous deeds on their bodies because of their strange taste.
The forest itself had some sort of power.
‘S-stop! I can no longer go on!’
After walking for a while, the devil’s sword fired an urgent mind wave.
I nodded.
“Yeah, since we reached a place where we can already see it right in front of us…”
I stopped my steps for a moment and put the devil’s sword in the air with my psychokinesis.
It was so I could bring it back into my hand, if ever.
After fixating it like that, I moved on alone with an ordinary sword in my hand.
After a short moment, I finally stopped in front of it.
‘This must be it.’
It was a small pond that appeared out of context in the middle of the forest.
It didn’t look naturally formed.
Wherever my gaze landed, the silver-gray stone shone with a strange glow. Even when the sun could barely shine a ray through the trees’ dense shadows, the stone still reflected and spread the specks of light brilliantly.
The pond’s depth was taller than my height, but the water that filled it was only a handful of shallow water collected.
However, there was one thing that caught my attention more intensely than those incidental elements.
‘That’s hideous.’
Decorating the grand finale of the artificial traces was a statue located at the pond’s twelve o’clock.
The overall shape was like a giant furry spider, but only seven legs extend symmetrically from side to side.
At the end of its long neck, six tentacles bloomed like starfish, all of which seemed to serve as its head instead of actual eyes, nose, and mouth.
I recalled its name in my head.
‘Igras-sho.’
A great being called in various names according to dimensions.
There were several names that they called it.
A reciter of forgotten spells.
The first wizard.
The forefather of all traitors.
On the other hand, according to how the devil’s sword described great beings, it should be the following:
‘The one that governs magic.’
The statue of a cow that the Botarch High Priest considered a treasure was just a fake without even a handful of sacred power.
However, what was in front of me was a true godly being.
‘The Divine Spirit at the apex of all magic.’
Its seven legs were said to refer to the seven properties of magic.
On the right frontal side, where the eighth leg would’ve been, were only blunt marks as if it had been torn off.
If there were a leg on that space, there would be eight that symmetrically existed in left and right.
It must not be purposely ripped off since there were only seven magical properties, but it was strangely shaped.
‘I should get going.’
I shook off my thoughts and took the card out of my arms.
Judging from the devil’s sword’s reaction, it was almost certain, but it needed verification.
[Fire Mastery (Rank: S)]
It was an S-Rank card that I received as a reward from a dungeon.
As soon as I approached the pond and stepped on the edge stone, I confirmed that no system message came up.
It was different from the instances when it gave explanations whenever I came into contact with an item.
‘Showing this kind of reaction must definitely mean…’
I threw the card into the pond without hesitation.
The card submerged into the shallow water collected on the bottom.
As I did so…
Boosh!
The transparent water quickly turned black like ink.
But only for a moment.
All the black energy was sucked into the card.
After a while, as I first saw it, the water regained its transparency. A locked card was in it.
Shhhhhh!
When I clapped my finger, I pulled the card out with psychokinesis, then checked the card in my hand.