Chapter 25: Chapter 25

As if cheering on the second expedition of Green Eyes, winter was slowly coming to an end and the weather began to thaw.

It was not entirely a good thing.

While it was nice not having to walk with red, frozen cheeks and blowing hot breath onto one’s hands to warm them up, as the weather grew warmer, one would sweat a lot and need that much more water.

Because of that, the worst season for exploring the Demonic Realm was not winter, but summer.

After all, the hardest resource to secure in the Demonic Realm was water.

At least if there was a priest, dirty water could be purified with a miracle of purification, but unless the team was exceptionally elite, supplying enough water for everyone to drink was difficult.

Even while slaughtering the monsters they encountered several times while entering the Demonic Realm, they did not collect any byproducts.

It was better to keep their bodies as light as possible on the way to the ruins, and since they would clear out items to their limits there anyway, it was obvious they would have to discard any miscellaneous goods obtained here.

If there were an expedition team following behind, they would have cheered while picking up a lot of free byproducts.

After moving along the same path as last time for several days, a thick fog began to settle before their eyes.

It was clearly an area where the compass had broken down last time, but the terrain characteristics seemed to have changed in the meantime.

Fortunately, Roden performed his role as a guide navigating the fog zone excellently, based on the information recorded last time.

Along the way, most attacks by annoying monsters, including giant spiders, were resolved by Shan’s hands.

Still, it was inevitably slower than passing through an ordinary wasteland, so it was three days later when the four of them arrived back at the mountain city of Delepon.

As they entered the city through a narrow alley, they saw a few horses tied to a nearby building.

“That’s…”

“It seems there are other guests already.”

It was not particularly surprising.

The watchtower of this mountain city not only offered a panoramic view spanning tens of kilometers in all directions, but for some reason, even monsters were reluctant to approach it.

As such, many of the expedition teams taking this route used to stop by to plan their exploration strategies or take a rest.

However, because their encounter with the Altoan expedition team last time had not ended very well, it was just somewhat unsettling.

Tense as they went to check the opponent’s identity, an unexpectedly familiar face came into view.

A giant with a physique as massive as a mountain waved his hand with a welcoming face and shouted.

“Oh, isn’t it the genius boy who rejected me? To run into you here of all places!”

“Mr. Pakan?”

The ones who had arrived first were none other than the expedition team of Pakan the Bear Hunter, the giant man they had met several times in Shedil City.

They were warming themselves around a fire in the ruins of a building whose former purpose was unknown.

“Seeing your light gear, you must have departed not long ago. Did you go back to rest in the meantime and set out again?”

“Yes. It looks like you’re returning now, Mr. Pakan.”

From what he heard, Pakan’s expedition team ‘Giant’s Footprint’ had set off not long after Shan set out on his previous expedition, which meant they were returning after wandering through the Demonic Realm for a considerably long time.

As if proving this, their appearance was utterly wretched.

As though they had no clothes left to change into, they wore tattered garments soaked in monster blood, along with chipped armor and weapons.

Looking closely, two of the members who should have originally numbered eight were nowhere to be seen.

“Mr. Yojo and Mr. Marinak are…”

As Shan spoke, he stopped talking upon seeing the smile fade from Pakan’s rugged face.

Unable to speak for a moment, the giant man soon slumped his shoulders.

“…Well, that’s how it turned out.”

No matter how experienced an explorer was, it was difficult to swallow the grief of losing comrades as if nothing had happened.

Even more so if they were people who had spent a fairly long time together.

Shan, not knowing how to react at a time like this, hesitated for a moment before slowly patting Pakan’s broad shoulder.

“Cheer up.”

“Thank you.”

Still, whether the consolation helped even a little, Pakan tousled Shan’s hair with a large hand and grinned.

“In that sense, do you really have no intention of joining our expedition team?”

“I’m not joining.”

When Shan shook his head, Pakan laughed loudly, saying it was a pity, and gestured for him to move along.

After tying the horses at the entrance and climbing the tower, Shan recalled the sad expressions he had seen on their faces just a moment ago.

‘Losing a comrade…’

The experience of losing a precious person was not a particularly unfamiliar concept.

During the bandits’ raid, two people in Willow Village who had taken pity on him lost their lives, and he had even seen one of them die with his own eyes.

But at that time, their deaths did not feel all that sad.

Why was that?

Was it because it was something that happened more than half a year ago? It was hard to understand why he hadn’t felt sad at that time.

Perhaps it was because the pleasure of exerting violence against someone for the first time filled his brain, or perhaps he did not like Priest Ador and Celina as much as he thought.

One’s own heart was unexpectedly something harder to grasp properly than imagined.

However, one thing certain was that losing Roden would make him immensely sad.

If someone were to kill Roden, Shan would kill not only the party responsible, but if there was someone who gave such an order, he would kill all the way to the very top.

Even if that were the king of a country.

“Roden.”

“Why?”

“Don’t die.”

At Shan’s out-of-nowhere words heard from above, Roden wore a baffled expression before snickering softly.

“I shall be careful, sir.”

*

As a result of checking from the rooftop of the watchtower, the north where a sandstorm had raged last time was now awkwardly mixed with swamps and snowfields.

After a short discussion, the decided destination was toward the snowfields.

This was calculated on the basis that, unlike the swamp directly to the north, the snowfield to the northeast was closer to their destination, and since the clothes they were currently wearing were winter garments, it would be easier to endure the weather.

However, before long, Shan began to doubt whether that decision had been wrong.

The cold of the snowfield region surpassed imagination to that extent.

“Ugh…”

The chill seeping through the overcoats intentionally worn in layers, and the biting wind that felt like cutting his face.

Just walking a few steps made his body shiver uncontrollably and his bones ache with cold.

He thought he was well accustomed to cold because Willow Village where he lived was also quite a cold region in winter, but this place was truly on a different dimension.

Compared to this place, the winter weather of Libert and Pendia could even be called spring.

Seeing that even the horses were appalled by the cold and could hardly walk a few steps, Roden pulled out potions from the luggage and distributed them to his companions.

“Drink some of this.”

“What is it?”

“Cold resistance potion. If it were a tolerable cold, I was going to push through while saving them, but not a chance… At this rate, we’ll freeze to death in less than an hour.”

It was because they had brought this in the first place that they intentionally chose the snowfield region rather than the swamp.

Taking a sip, Shan marveled that it was indeed worth its high price.

The sensation of warm blood circulating through his entire body and driving away the cold was wondrous beyond measure.

“Wow…”

“As expected, it sure is nice to have a lot of money.”

“Indeed. To think a single bottle of this medicine costs dozens of gold coins.”

Vent and Zerpo, who had likewise drunk the potion, brushed off the fine snow clinging to their fur clothes.

Afterwards, Green Eyes continued to drink cold resistance potions whenever the effect wore off as they advanced through the blizzard zone.

Fortunately, perhaps because it was too cold, even ice spirits or yetis, which were said to appear frequently in such regions, were nowhere to be seen.

Moving by day while taking the potion, and warming their bodies by burning plenty of dried cow dung in the ruins of ancient Altoan structures by night, took about a day and a half.

They succeeded in breaking through the distance that had previously taken about three days in almost half the time.

Part of it was because they were somewhat familiar with the route having traveled it once, but it was also thanks to conducting a forced march at a near-running pace.

Upon completely escaping the snowfield region, Shan looked back behind him and clicked his tongue.

“Let’s never go toward snowy places again in the future.”

“It’s usually not to that extent. That place was particularly cold.”

Zerpo pointed that out, but he too wore a fed-up expression all the same.

Half a day after passing through the snowfield like that.

Passing through the buffer zone between the changing areas, it was not long before the compass broke down once again.

However, unlike last time, Shan and Roden actually breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.

“What a relief…”

“If it’s a compass area, there won’t be anything else.”

Only when one could feel relieved by the fact that the compass failed to function properly could one be said to have become a true explorer.

Fortunately, finding the way without using a compass was not difficult.

From here on, it was literally unknown territory, but it was thanks to cross-referencing the log of the Altoan expedition team with the gift received from Count of Shedil to estimate their path.

Afterwards, the expedition team continued to push forward through all kinds of twists and turned.

Fighting monsters, making a wide detour around the area they originally had to pass because the stone bridge had vanished due to environmental changes, spending half a day shooting down a flock of dozens of harpies one by one with bows…

Around the time they crossed a high and rugged mountain, Zerpo spoke in an exhausted tone.

“Those Altoan fellows, I knew they were skilled, but they were better than I thought… I’m amazed they managed to come all the way here and return. Though luck probably played a big part as well.”

Since they had all been sliced down in a flash, it wasn’t easily felt, but it was clear that they were fine warriors and explorers.

Indeed, since even an ordinary knight could barely endure a single exchange in front of Shan, wouldn’t it be cruel to use them as a comparison?

It was after a whopping twenty-five days had passed since leaving Shedil City that they finally reached their destination.

The food and water they thought they had brought abundantly had exactly half remaining.

“We’ve arrived!”

“Finally…”

The faces of the expedition members were haggard without exception.

Starting from monster attacks, it was natural since they had traveled for a long time while breaking through all sorts of bizarre environments.

However, the joy of finding the target ruins was strong enough to suppress even that fatigue.

Shan immediately stepped onto Roden’s shoulders and looked ahead.

“It’s a city!”

“That’s right, that’s the place those Altoans said they found.”

In the Demonic Realm, old buildings and ruins left behind by Altoans could be found very commonly.

But most of those buildings had long since been looted by explorers in the distant past, leaving literally nothing but skeletons.

In contrast, a city in such deep, deep depths had not yet been touched, leaving various relics behind.

Naturally, most were junk damaged by the passage of time, but some items that received the help of special preservation environments or magic were called relics and traded at astronomical prices.

After catching his breath for a moment, Roden shouted energetically.

“Alright, let’s head in!”

The size of the nameless city was quite large, more than expected.

Since the diameter of the fortress itself was on the scale of kilometers, the resident population must have been at least in the tens of thousands.

It seemed similar to or slightly larger than Shedil City, where they had come from.

“Could this place be Asilub…”

“That cannot be.”

Zerpo firmly interrupted Shan’s words.

His eyes looking around were filled with deep interest, unlike his usual cynical self, but even amid that, he did not lose his composure.

“The capital of an empire larger than the entire Arman Alliance combined couldn’t possibly be this small and humble. No matter how much time has passed, it would have been a size where at least hundreds of thousands of people could live.”

The statement that perhaps over a million people could have lived there felt utterly unrealistic, but come to think of it, the same had been true when he first went to the capital, Hasra.

Since cities where a hundred thousand people lived existed, wasn’t it plausible that a city where a million people lived could also exist?

Food and other necessities could just be resolved roughly with magic anyway.

Shortly after, Green Eyes entered the outskirts of the city while maintaining a strict state of alert.

As expected, before long, monsters hiding throughout the city realized that new prey had arrived and sprang out.

[Hiss-!]

“Wow, this is no joke…”

Snakes large enough to easily swallow a young child crawled out from buildings here and there, surrounding the expedition team.

Monsters that did not just have a few fangs like ordinary snakes, but possessed saw-like teeth to chew up prey.

Rarely appearing near the edges or outside of the Demonic Realm, these creatures did not even have proper names, and their numbers easily exceeded dozens.

According to the log, the Altoan expedition team could not enter through the main gate because of those beasts, so they had to enter through the sewers and collect relics like petty thieves only along the outskirts for days.

Naturally, that was a method one had no need to use if possessing overwhelming force.

“Wait there!”

After confirming that Roden and the other two men had formed a defensive formation with the horses in the center, Shan immediately launched himself forward.

Holding a one-handed sword in each hand.

The snakes immediately responded with attacks to the prey’s behavior of charging out of nowhere, but to Shan’s eyes, those movements were excessively linear.

As both eyes rolled left and right, confirming all attack trajectories, the two swords moved independently, slicing off the necks of the rushing snakes.

Originally, dual-wielding swords could hardly be considered a very practical technique.

Naturally, it was slower and weaker than holding a sword with two hands and swinging it, and structurally, a human’s brain and body found it difficult to utilize two swords organically.

However, as if he possessed two brains, Shan’s mind divided perfectly to react differently to attacks from left and right.

With his left hand, he cut off the head of a snake dropping from above, and with his right hand, he thrust into the jaw of a snake extending in a straight line.

Meanwhile, his spare feet kicked the heads of snakes approaching from below, or used their heads and torsos as footholds to leap repeatedly in midair, moving as if flying through the sky.

Watching this from behind, Roden struck away the head of an approaching snake with his flail and burst into a hollow laugh.

Had he charged in like that, he would have killed one or two and then been torn apart to death.

“Honestly, no matter when I see it…”

“I can’t even fathom who in the world could do such a thing.”

Perhaps having similar thoughts, Vent and Zerpo also chuckled in disbelief.

Because it was a martial prowess that felt utterly unrealistic despite having seen it several times already.

The time the snakes finally decided to retreat was around when their numbers had been reduced to less than half.

The four of them looked down at the dozens of snake carcasses strewn across the city entrance.

“Do we get anything useful from these guys?”

“Well, since they are ones I’ve never seen before… we’d have to take one back and research it properly to get anything.”

“Then let’s just leave them and go.”

At Zerpo’s words, Vent shook his head and suggested.

If they had obtained such creatures under normal circumstances, they would take them back even for research purposes to sell, but wasn’t a city almost untouched by explorers right in front of their noses right now?

*

Whether the snake pack defeated earlier was something like the representative faction here, no other monsters appeared as they walked around the city.

Occasionally, a few snakes hissed and glared at them, but once Shan pointed a sword at them, they immediately lost heart and slithered away between the buildings.

“Fellows, they’re scared stiff!”

Whether that sight was amusing, Vent muttered in an unusually flippant tone and then coughed self-consciously, feeling embarrassed.

Roden, who was looking around here and there, turned back and asked.

“Do you have any sense of where we should start looking, Mr. Zerpo?”

“Let’s go further inside first. Usually, there aren’t many particularly valuable items on the outside.”

Just as it was nowadays, the edges of a city were usually where the poor or ordinary citizen classes stayed.

Of course, there were places like Shedil City where the Count’s castle was located on the edge, but generally, the farther from the city gate, the nobler the residents were: that was the typical city style.

Naturally, precious items were bound to come out more from places where noble people resided.

For four people to search a city even larger than Shedil City would take weeks just loitering around the building entrances, so in a state where they could move freely like now, pushing straight into the innermost part was the surest way.

“Wow…”

Shan constantly uttered exclamations of admiration as he looked left and right on the broad street.

The appearance of this place was completely different from the mountain city of Delepon or the several Altoan buildings they had passed along the way.

Even though most of it was rotted and decayed, display stood and flowerpots remained inside the buildings, allowing one to feel that people had once lived here.

Other cities where such items had already been completely drained away were no different from places where only building mock-ups had been placed compared to here.

After entering the central district, they had to go through a few more battles similar to the one fought earlier at the city entrance.

However, this time the danger level was higher, because unlike before when the snakes gathered in one place and Shan could just jump in, there were times when those creatures rushed from all directions.

Whenever that happened, Roden drew attention in the most dangerous position to protect Vent and Zerpo, and during that time, he was bitten once on his forearm and once on his shin by snakes.

“Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Ugh, this much is…”

At Shan’s worried words, Roden tried to show off somehow and stand up, but the sharp pain he felt was far from ordinary.

Their bite force was so fierce that even though he was bitten through chain armor, his bones throbbed and black bruises were formed on his skin.

Had he been bitten on bare skin, it surely would have been severed cleanly.

“Wait a moment. O Goddess, here is an injured one, so I beseech your mercy…”

Fortunately, not long after Vent’s prayer, the condition of the bitten arm and leg noticeably improved.

It was not to the extent of a complete cure, but the black bruises faded in color as if a long time had passed, and his limping gait returned to normal.

“What a relief…”

“Thank you, Priest.”

“What thanks! Rather, I should apologize. You were hurt while protecting me. Let me see… fortunately, it seems there is no poison.”

Vent, now in his early to mid-forties, was not yet old enough to be called elderly, but it was an age where one inevitably declined as a warrior.

Not to mention he wasn’t even a warrior who constantly honed martial skills and trained his body, and his main profession was even a priest.

After resolving such minor issues and moving forward for several hours.

When they finally entered the center of the city, they felt the atmosphere change dramatically.

Buildings became even taller and more magnificent, and mysterious objects such as a fountain still working properly or trees whose left glowed faintly made their appearance.

“We can’t detach that fountain, right?”

“Presumably…”

After feeling disappointed like that for a short moment, they finally arrived at a massive mansion that appeared to have been inhabited by someone like the master of the city or a person similar.

“Let’s check this building first, and explore clockwise starting from here. For buildings someone has already searched through, make a mark at the entrance…”

Listening attentively to Vent’s instructions alongside Zerpo, Roden saw Shan, who was right next to him, tilting his head.

“Pay attention without getting distracted. If you don’t guard us properly, we could all be in danger.”

“The snakes are gone.”

“What?”

“Until a moment ago they kept lingering near the buildings, but once we entered here, they aren’t visible at all.”

The eyes of the murmuring Shan narrowed.

As was customary when encountering enemies or facing dangerous situations.

As if hearing those words, a thundering boom resounded from inside the mansion.

“That’s…?”

“No way.”

Boom, boom, the loud noises gradually grew louder.

As if something was coming toward this place.

Shortly after, what peeked its eyes over the wall of the mansion was something that looked like a giant, elongated mass of rock.

Considering that the height of the wall exceeded at least five meters, it was a dizzying entity whose size was unimaginable…

Seeing its face, Zerpo screamed and shouted.

“It’s a Cockatrice!”