Chapter 21: Chapter 21
After finishing their wager duel in the plaza, Roden and Shan spent every day at the Explorers’ Guild.
It was to use their rapidly elevated renown to recruit companions on better terms.
While Roden met and interviewed various people through guild members, Shan performed his own mission in his own way.
That was to mingle with the explorers he had beaten up, soothing them and fostering camaraderie.
Of course, he lacked Roden’s eloquence and clever skill in manipulating people, but people showed goodwill merely from having a genius swordsman stronger than most knights mix among them.
Naturally, there was also the calculation that the friendship built here might become an occasion to save their lives later when they encountered each other in the Demonic Realm.
Even the fact that Shan was an Altoan acted as a not-so-bad factor in mingling with them.
If an ordinary Western boy possessed such swordsmanship skills, they would have suspected he came from some prestigious knight family or nobility and would not have been able to act without reserve.
Of course, there were those who found the presence of an Altoan unpleasant, but having been shown his skill, they could not express it openly in front of him.
“That’s why I’m saying, just join our explorer party! With you, even deeper regions are more than enough!”
“You said Roden can’t come along.”
“Well, of course! A large warrior like him is more than enough with just me!”
As the drunk Bear Hunter Pakan slammed the table with his hand, the liquor glasses sitting atop it sloshed wildly.
Since their last fight, he took a liking to Shan and frequently called him out to include him in his companions’ drinking sessions.
Although Shan did not like alcohol and only pretended to drink while devouring the pub food served as snacks, Pakan was of a hearty nature, heartily laughing it off as cute and childlike.
“Then I’m good. I’m going to go with Roden.”
“Kuehk, the leader got rejected again!”
“Think about it seriously! I’m not someone who says things like this lightly!”
Amidst the noisy clamor, Shan stood up from his seat upon spotting Roden waving his hand from afar.
“Huh, why are you getting up already?”
“Because my friend is calling me.”
“Damn it! I feel like I just got dumped by a pretty woman!”
After waving back to the complaining men, Shan approached Roden, who was sitting at a table with three other people.
One of them was a guild member he had encountered over the past few days, while the other two were unfamiliar faces.
“Is it Mr. Pakan again?”
“Yeah. He keeps asking me to join their explorer party.”
“Anyway, everyone tries all kinds of tricks to scout anyone rumored to be skilled… This is Shan, you’ve heard all the rumors so there’s no need to explain, right? These two here are Mr. Vent and Mr. Zerpo. Say hello.”
“Hello.”
As Shan bowed his head slightly, the two men looked at each other and clicked their tongues softly.
“Really this young friend…?”
“Looking with my own eyes, I can hardly believe it. However, since so many people saw it all, there should be no need to doubt it.”
The man named Vent was a middle-aged man a little over forty years old, while Zerpo looked about ten years younger than him.
According to the following introduction, Vent was a priest from a New Sect monastery who worked as an explorer to solve the monastery’s financial problems, while Zerpo was a descendant of a small-to-medium magic school who worked as an explorer to cover his research expenses.
Having heard the explanation, Shan looked at Roden and asked.
“What about a guide? You said you wanted to find a guide too.”
“There was no good candidate right now. It seems we’ll have to go to a small city near the Demonic Realm to look for one.”
“Actually, Zerpo or I could replace a guide to some extent. Both of us are fairly experienced explorers.”
“Hmm, then should we proceed with just the four of us for now, and supplement later if it seems necessary…?”
The reason why individuals who were a priest and a mage, capable of at least self-defense even if not first-rate warriors, were not already attached to any explorer party was simpler than expected.
It was because both were the type who worked literally on a side-job basis only when they needed money at the moment, rather than working themselves to death until they gathered enough money to retire.
That was also the very reason Roden chose them.
Because Vent had roots in a monastery, and Zerpo had roots in a magic school.
Unlike vagrants who could just run off with treasure, such people could not betray others carelessly out of fear of retaliation.
If they were to betray them, it would only be in a scenario where they could kill and bury them so they could not retaliate.
“Then I look forward to working with you from now on.”
“Likewise!”
Since discussions regarding the distribution of byproducts obtained during exploration and operational leadership were already completed, the two soon decided to join Shan and Roden’s explorer party.
Beer overflowed from the beer mugs clashing roughly together.
*
The four-man Demonic Realm explorer party was officially registered in the Shedil City Explorers’ Guild under the name ‘Green Eyes’.
It was named after the physical trait of Shan, the main pillar, as many explorer party names were decided simply like this.
It was exactly two days after their formation that they left Shedil City and began heading east.
That amount of time was sufficient to obtain a few more necessary items based on the advice of their new companions, and for the mage and priest to bid farewell to their acquaintances before leaving.
With four people, traveling certainly became more comfortable than before.
First, having more eyes meant each person only needed to watch one direction (front, rear, left, or right) and when cooking to eat lunch along the way, having extra hands made it easy to divide roles.
In fact, what was even better was the fact that he could watch magic being cast up close.
[“Kaleisblanaiorga…”]
As the mage Zerpo muttered in an incomprehensible language and reached out his hand over the firewood, a small ember formed and began to burn.
Watching this, Shan let out an exclamation of awe.
To think that the entire process of gathering flint and tinder, striking sparks with an iron piece to catch fire, and blowing gently to build it up could be so simply skipped!
“Woah…!”
Even though he had gone as far as the magic academy in the capital, he had rarely had the chance to watch such eye-catching magic there.
For that place was ultimately a venue for selling or demonstrating completed magic items and exchanging personal commissions.
At Shan’s reaction, Zerpo did not hide his proud expression and showed an arrogant smile.
He spoke in polite honorifics to Roden as well as Shan, but because his tone was so insolent, it strangely did not feel like respectful speech.
“Hm, are you interested in magic?”
“Yes. Though I know I can’t learn it.”
“Well, that’s unavoidable since those who have awakened spirit energy have had their spiritual body fixed, taking the physical body as a vessel.”
Magic was a technique that drew upon the power of one’s own soul to distort reality with the help of various elements such as meditation, incantations, and catalysts.
Therefore, it was the exact opposite of spirit energy users who forged their souls through harsh training and clad their bodies with it.
For unlike liquids or gases, a solid object could not easily alter its shape freely.
Shan, who had possessed only superficial knowledge like ‘if you awaken to spirit energy, you cannot use magic,’ nodded repeatedly in wonder at Zerpo’s explanation.
Honestly, he understood less than half of it properly, but perhaps because it was a field of interest, just listening to it was enjoyable.
Shan was reminded of Celina by this mage.
The fact that he liked to show off by blurting out the knowledge he possessed to ignorant people was particularly similar.
Just as in the past, Shan was the type of listener such people loved most, so the two became close before long.
In contrast, Priest Vent always wore a good-natured smile, but it was strangely difficult to become close to him.
Should it be said that he seemed to have erected an emotional wall against others?
At least, he did not seem to be a bad person.
The explorer party ‘Green Eyes’ entered their first actual battle exactly a day and a half after leaving Shedil City.
Around the time they gradually entered a desolate area close to a wasteland instead of forests and plains full of vegetation, Priest Vent, who was guarding the left, was the first to spot an approaching enemy.
“Look over there, something is coming.”
What caught their eyes first was a group of five or six people, presumably explorers, who were injured and showed clear signs of exhaustion.
They were running as if pursued by someone, and behind them, monsters with faces similar to wolves that walked on two legs were giving chase and howling.
About ten of them were armed with everything from primitive clubs and stone axes to fairly well-crafted iron weapons.
Recalling the general education lessons he had learned from Sir Darkal and Roden in the past, Shan uttered a name that came to mind.
“Werewolves?”
“Those are larger and don’t use weapons. Those are gnolls.”
“Aha.”
The mage Zerpo beside him corrected his mistaken knowledge.
The fact that they had wolf faces and walked on two feet was certainly similar, but gnolls were much smaller and weaker in comparison, while being clever instead.
Clever enough to craft simple clubs or arm themselves with weapons taken from slain humans.
The fleeing explorers spotted Shan’s party and urgently waved their hands, calling for help.
Priest Vent groaned softly and looked at Shan.
“It seems we ought to save them.”
“I’ll go ahead first, so everyone follow slowly behind.”
Shan spoke as if making an announcement, then immediately mounted his black horse and dashed forward.
Controlling his speed appropriately, since sprinting at full strength right from the start would leave him exhausted upon arrival.
Their joy at rescue was short-lived; upon realizing that the approaching figure was a single boy on horseback, despair settled onto the explorers’ faces.
Anyone could see that three adult men, who looked like they could fight far better than him, were standing quietly behind, so what on earth was this supposed to be?
Unbothered by such a reaction, Shan raised and aimed the spear tied to his horse.
Even while his body bobbed up and down as the horse galloped, the tip of the spear remained unnaturally fixed without shaking.
“To the side!”
The moment they drew close enough, Shan shouted, and the explorers threw their bodies to the left and right despite being half-doubtful.
If that boy failed to stop the gnolls, they who had lost their speed would become prey before long, but they could not just let themselves be rammed by a charging cavalryman either, so there was no choice.
They could only pray that it would at least halt the gnolls’ advance.
Charging through the gap created to answer that hope, Shan thrust his spear with all his might toward the gnolls who were panicked by the sudden charge of a cavalryman.
Imbuing intense spirit energy into the spear tip, just as the knights he had seen on the battlefield in the past had done.
‘Not piercing, but pushing back.’
Piercing and impaling with a spear was a technique suitable only when attacking a single enemy at the very front.
Even if one skewered multiple foes with a long spear, that number would be at most two or three people.
However, the moment he imbued the intent of impact rather than penetration, that momentum was conveyed intact to the enemies behind through the first target.
When a lance charge packed with spirit energy and sufficient acceleration converted into blunt force, its destructive power was enough to overturn more than a dozen heavy infantrymen.
Bang! As he thrust the spear, with a deafening boom, the body of the foremost gnoll crumbled and bounced backward, knocking down six or seven of its kin.
That sight, looking as if they had been rammed by a massive wagon, was in no way inferior to the knights who rammed through soldiers on the battlefield in the past.
Having dealt a crushing blow to the enemies with a single charge, Shan immediately turned his horse and charged at the unscathed ones.
Having already collapsed the dense crowd, this time he held the spear short and thrust repeatedly, piercing through the thick pelt and muscle unique to monsters to target vital spots and take their lives.
Stabbing the spear deep into the back of the last monster’s head as it tried to flee before pulling it out and turning around, the surviving explorers bowed their heads deeply.
“Th-Thank you! Sir Knight!”
“Thanks to you, we survived!”
It was a title he had also heard from the people of Leaf Village back in Libert, but hearing it from these people made him feel good anew.
Perhaps it was because he knew that what he had accomplished just now was truly something only a knight could pull off.
His companions who arrived belatedly rendered simple first aid to the survivors.
As Priest Vent placed his hand over the wound and offered a prayer to the Goddess, the wound could be seen gradually healing alongside a divine glow.
“Aigo, ugh…”
“How did you get injured like this?”
Gnolls were monsters with intelligence high enough to use weapons, but their physical abilities were not particularly impressive.
Though stronger and more agile than humans of a similar build, they were creatures that could easily be repelled if faced with a proper formation.
Someone so weak that they could not manage even that would not even have the capability to travel in Pendia, which was teeming with monsters.
At the priest’s question, the surviving explorers hesitantly confessed their circumstances.
They said they originally came down from the Fales Earldom in northeastern Pendia, where individuals confident in their own fighting skills joined forces to come explore the Demonic Realm.
Still, since over a dozen men who knew how to wield weapons and fight banded together, their results had been fairly good and everyone was riding high on excitement, until unfortunately encountering a banshee not long ago.
“Ah, a banshee… was a monster without a physical body, right?”
“They are commonly referred to as ghost-types.”
In the face of the banshee’s scream, an enemy that could not be defeated with spears and swords, internal strife broke out among them, resulting in several deaths and severe injuries.
Even after barely escaping with their lives out of the Demonic Realm, this time they were even attacked by gnolls that caught the scent of blood.
Had their bodies been fine, they could have easily repelled them, but in their exhausted and injured state, it was utterly impossible to fight back; only after several more died did they flee and get rescued.
The weapons held by the gnolls were also those owned by the ones among them who had died first.
“Sigh, really…”
Listening to the story, Roden let out a sigh without realizing it.
One of the reasons explorer parties tried to include at least one priest or mage was precisely to prevent situations like this.
Explorer parties composed solely of warriors might have high combat power, but they were often unable to cope with such situations, falling into crisis.
After collecting a small fee for their trouble from those they saved and sending them on their way, Shan looked at Roden and spoke.
“Shall we go hunt it?”
“What?”
“The banshee. I heard the crystals obtained from killing them sell for a pretty high price.”
“That’s true. What do you two think?”
At Roden’s question, the priest and the mage also expressed their agreement.
Monsters like banshees were dangerous opponents only to ignorant fools who merely knew how to swing weapons; to elites like them, there was nothing particularly to fear.
Above all, having directly witnessed Shan’s skill that they had only heard about in rumors, trust was bound to grow even further.
While moving toward the location they had heard from the explorers rescued earlier, Priest Vent spoke softly to Shan.
“Young Shan.”
“Yes?”
“Your charge earlier was truly magnificent.”
“Ah, thank you.”
When Shan chuckled foolishly at the unexpected praise, the priest wore a gentle smile and nodded.
“However, next time, I’d appreciate it if you could match our pace just a little before charging. Roden is here too, and above all, I would be able to cast a blessing on you.”
“Ah…”
“If nothing else, the Blessing of Vitality will be of great help. Even if you suffer exhaustion from a mistake in controlling your spirit energy, you can recover quickly.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
As if he truly only wished to request that point, Vent turned his head as though he had nothing more to say once Shan nodded.
Listening to the conversation from a short distance away, Roden wore an awkward expression.
In fact, the reason Shan had recklessly charged in was that the gnolls were holding weapons.
For if he tried to go together with Roden, Roden’s fear of bladed weapons would surely be exposed as it was.
The reason he had not yet disclosed Roden’s secret was that it was far too fatal a weakness.
Of course, although they had recruited people unlikely to betray them as much as possible, if even one of the two were to leak this information, it would mean creating a major weapon for enemies targeting them.
Approaching Roden quietly, Shan whispered softly.
“When are you going to tell them?”
“Hmm, after observing a bit more…”
“For now, I’ll try to block it as much as I can. Well, monsters that use weapons aren’t common anyway.”
“Sorry.”
Shan responded to Roden’s apology with a grin instead.
That was truly an unnecessary apology.
*
Walking in an altered direction for three days.
After passing two small settlements, the color of the land spreading out before them finally began to change.
Instead of the reddish-brown wasteland split with cracks, pitch-black stained earth greeted them.
A land entirely different from that of commonly called fertile black soil zones, looking as though it were composed of leftover burnt ash.
Clouds hanging in the sky blocked the sunlight, which was the Goddess’s grace, and a stuffy, unpleasant odor wafted through the air.
This was one of the reasons why this place was called the Demonic Realm and regarded as an uninhabitable land.
‘How on earth did the ancient Altoans live in a place like this?’
No matter how much he thought about it, it did not look like a place where a magic empire could have flourished in ancient times.
Though perhaps back in those days before receiving the Goddess’s curse, the Demonic Realm might not have looked like this.
While he was lost in thought, the mage Zerpo looked around and snorted, “Hmph.”
“From now on, it is the Demonic Realm in earnest.”
Hearing those words, Shan and Roden tensed up without realizing it, stiffening their shoulders.
Seeing the two of them on their first journey here, Priest Vent beside them laughed heartily and spoke.
“Don’t be too nervous, everyone. It is true that the Demonic Realm is dangerous, but our strength isn’t easy to push over either. At the entrance, there are no major terrain threats.”
Furthermore, if the words of the people they met earlier were true, the vicinity was a banshee’s territory, which meant there was a high possibility that no other threatening monsters were nearby.
For to most monsters specialized in physical attacks, a banshee would be an uncomfortable existence.
Shortly after lightly resolving a meal, they succeeded in discovering their target, the banshee.
To be precise, it should be said that the banshee came searching for prey.
High in the dark sky, something whitish could be seen swooping toward them.
‘So that’s a banshee.’
At a glance, the banshee resembled a noble lady draped in elegant, old-fashioned attire.
Had its body not been translucent and flying about while shedding tears of blood from both eyes, it would have appeared that way.
“Priest?”
“I understand.”
The priest immediately cast the Blessing of Vitality he had mentioned earlier onto Shan’s body.
He felt his blood heat up warmly as vitality spread throughout his body.
As if feeling repulsion toward the sacred light, the banshee grimaced with its blood-tearing eyes and descended at high speed from the sky.
Then, at a height of about four meters, it opened its mouth wide and emitted a tremendous roar.
[Kyaaahhh-!]
The cry spewed forth by the spiritual creature raged in shockwaves, disturbing the minds of all living beings.
A powerful curse useless to block even by covering one’s ears.
However, none among them passed out or fell into confusion to attack their allies.
Because the priest had already bestowed a protection guarding the minds of the other people and horses, while Shan, who had not received the protection due to receiving the Blessing of Vitality, had his mind protected by the formidable power of his spirit energy.
This was also one of the reasons why an explorer party’s size should not be excessively large.
For depending on skill, there was a limit to the number a priest could protect at once.
‘Shall I go?’
Shan bent his legs and straightened them out, leaping up with the repulsive force.
With the help of spirit energy, his sword, leaping over four meters high in an instant, cleaved the banshee’s body precisely vertically.
The banshee’s body, which shed all physical attacks like water, was torn apart helplessly by Shan’s sword imbued with spirit energy.
Unlike the leap, he did not bother borrowing the power of spirit energy when landing.
Curling his body to shed the impact throughout his frame with breakfall technique, Shan was able to touch down softly like a cat.
When he checked his condition afterward, he felt the vitality consumed once during the leap and once during the slash rapidly returning.
‘This is really nice.’
If knights could continuously receive this Blessing of Vitality on the battlefield, their exploits would have been far greater.
Since the Goddess Church, spanning both the Old Faith and the New Faith, strictly prohibited using the Goddess’s grace in war, it was an impossible thing.
Perhaps a second Religious War would have to break out to see such a sight again.
Before long, the banshee’s spiritual body was transformed into the alchemical material ectoplasm by Zerpo’s spell.
Had there been no mage, they would have had to discard this precious material and leave after hunting it.
“That was really simple.”
“That’s precisely why kings do not send armies into the Demonic Realm, as creatures like this can repel armies of thousands if conditions align.”
Zerpo answered boastfully to Shan’s somewhat anticlimactic remark.
Having harvested their first loot more smoothly than expected, they looked around their surroundings and set up a campsite beneath a cliff.
Having finished their meal and lounging casually, Shan looked at Roden scribbling something on paper beside him and asked.
“What are you doing?”
“A map. Since it’s a place we’ll visit multiple times in the future, I ought to record it well. They say the terrain changes sometimes, but at least the general framework seems to be maintained.”
Of course, near this entrance, finding their way with just the help of Vent or Zerpo was sufficient, but since there was no guarantee that they would remain in the explorer party in the future, Roden also had to pay attention to such aspects.
Watching the map Roden was drawing, Shan voiced a thought that suddenly crossed his mind.
“Come to think of it, Roden, do you know how vast the Demonic Realm is? My master only said before that it was extraordinarily vast.”
“I don’t know either. Probably no one knows… By any chance, Sir Mage, do you know?”
“I do not.”
Zerpo, who was sitting across from him, answered proudly to Roden’s question.
As expected, a boast of knowledge followed afterward.
“However, the recent view is that the Demonic Realm is wider than all the territories of the Arman Alliance combined. It is even said to be connected to the Selim Republic in the south.”
“That’s something I’m hearing for the first time.”
“Well, that’s because it was only made known a few months ago. A few explorers who headed south reportedly met people from the Republic. From what I heard, they departed via overland routes from that side as well.”
The Selim Republic was a nation ruling the southern continent that Celina used to mention occasionally.
A land of elephants, deserts, and spices.
Shan and the others had also perceived the southern continent where the Selim Republic was located as a place separated from their continent until now, so the story that the two continents were actually connected through the Demonic Realm sounded quite fascinating.
“If it were not that vast, Asilub would have been discovered long ago.”
It was a name Shan had also heard during his general education lessons.
The capital of the ancient Altoan Empire.
The place where, according to the Old Faith believers, the entrance to the hellhole from which monsters poured out was located.
“According to documents uncovered so far, the Altoan Empire was a country that started from a city-state, so that place was the cradle where all the knowledge and culture of that era bloomed.”
The mage’s voice explaining that finding that place was the cherished wish of all explorers and mages was not in his usual boastful tone.
Rather, should it be said that it was closer to longing for a land he had never visited as if it were his homeland?
Considering that Shan, who was actually an Altoan, did not feel this land to be like a homeland, it was quite amusing.