by Michael Sisa
Lark mounted his horse.
Everyone looked at him, relieved that the young man had no intention of fighting back. For a moment, they had worried that several lives would be lost tonight.
The villagers thanked the Gods above.
“A-As promised, we’ll let you go,” said the leader of the group.
They both knew that it was actually the other way around. This young man was simply being benevolent to the pitiful bunch.
Lark smiled and lightly bowed his head. “Thank you.”
Lark looked in the direction of the nearby forest. “I saw some burdock on my way here to the village. You can make some soup with its roots. Walk about ten minutes east of this village and you should see it. If I’m not mistaken, it’s near a large boulder.”
The villagers were thrilled to hear this. Burdock was not only edible, its roots also tasted meaty, with some sweetness, when cooked properly. The children would surely love it.
The villagers looked at each other as shame and guilt started creeping in. The young man not only gave them all of his food, he also told them about the root crop he saw on his way here.
“Y-Young man,” said one of the villagers. “You came here to find an inn, isn’t that right? I know this sounds preposterous coming from me, especially after we robbed you of your rations, but you can stay the night in my house.”
Lark pondered for a moment.
It was a good offer, but he decided to reject it. “No, thank you. It’d be better for me to be on my way.”
Lark deemed that this was the best course of action right now. If he stayed here, the villagers would be reminded that they’d mugged an innocent young man.
He didn’t really resent them. Even weak people like them would do anything to live, to ensure their loved ones’ survival. They were just unlucky that they had been struck by the black famine and hadn’t managed to recover before winter arrived.
Without uttering another word, Lark spurred his horse forward and left the village.
That night, he ended up using his mana to create a small shed made of earth magic. Although he could tolerate the freezing snow, it seemed that his horse was approaching its limit. He ended up staying the night inside the shed, right in the middle of the forest.
His stomach also grumbled from the lack of food, but Lark simply ignored it, thinking that the emaciated villagers had it far worse. He’d reach Boris County soon anyway.
When morning came, Lark immediately resumed his journey. And finally, after almost two days, he reached Boris County. A vast territory composed of the City of Daxton and its three surrounding towns.
The City of Daxton was nearest the Forbidden Region, and it served as the regulating body stopping unruly people from entering that death zone.
It was noon when Lark entered the city.
Unlike the dying villages he encountered on his way here, this place was bustling with life. Its population was almost comparable to the capital.
The City of Daxton had no walls—Count Boris never saw the need to have them built, since the Forbidden Region formed a natural barrier preventing the United Grakas Alliance from invading.
The beastmen race would have to cross a monster-infested area before they could even reach this city. It would be a foolish move, and the beastmen never even attempted it.
No wonder the county was flourishing. Despite being next to the Forbidden Region, this was one of the safest places in the entire kingdom.
Lark’s first destination was the nearest tavern. He felt so famished that he no longer cared about the bland taste of the meat in such a place. He ordered two plates full of meat and a tankard of juice.
Although it was only noon, a couple of tables around him were already full of men drinking to their hearts’ content. The lively atmosphere was a stark contrast to the dying villages Lark had encountered.
“Hey, did you hear? It seems that Lord Arzen started reorganizing the army.”
“Idiot. Are you living under a rock? That’s old news. He started reorganizing the army before autumn even ended.”
Lark heard the familiar name, he continued eating and listened silently.
“Lord Arzen really has changed ever since he came back from that war, huh?”
“My old man works in the army and he’d never seen the lord so desperate to improve his swordsmanship skills. My old man said it’s like the lord became an entirely different person.”
“Well, he became a commander in the previous war. You’d be surprised how much war can change someone.”
“Wait, don’t tell me… the reason he ordered all those priests—”
“Yeah. That’s the reason he hired all of the best healers in the county to cure the captain of the royal knights. I heard that Captain Symon promised the lord that he’d teach him the Marrozo Swordsmanship once he’s fully healed.”
“Wow! As expected of our Lord! So, he’ll soon learn the swordsmanship of the Sword Saint!”
“But I heard that the captain lost an arm during the incident in the Forbidden Region? Can he even teach the lord in such condition?”
Lark had heard that the captain of the royal knights, the one who survived an encounter with the Scylla, was recuperating in this county. He didn’t expect that Arzen Boris was behind the quick response of the priests and magicians to heal the captain.
Lark smiled as he remembered the commander of the Second Army.
Arzen was still young. It was good that he was striving for greater heights and wasn’t complacent in what he’d achieved so far. In the near future, these young sprouts would become this kingdom’s pillar.
Lark finished both plates, paid the bill, and went straight to the armor shop.
He’d heard that the Forbidden Region was dangerous, not only due to the monsters roaming the ruins, but because of the flesh-eating poison gas oozing out of the cracks in the ground. Surely, the armor shop would have items capable of protecting against the gas. It wouldn’t make sense, otherwise.
And Lark was right.
The armor shop in this city was vastly different from those in the other major cities of the kingdom. Not only did it sell chain mail and plate armor, but also clothes and armor made from the skin of monsters living in the Forbidden Region.
The clothes and armor made from the skin of those monsters were naturally resilient against the poison gas. There was even a leather mask being sold, capable of neutralizing the gas.
Lark bought a complete set of leather armor made from the skin of a green desert serpent—a snake living in the inner parts of the Forbidden Region—and two masks capable of neutralizing the poison gas.
Thankfully, the shop owner didn’t ask why Lark was making the purchase. It seemed to be a normal occurrence for people to buy this same set of items before exploring the Forbidden Region. The shop owner looked at Lark for a moment and shook his head as though disappointed that another person would die soon, before accepting the payment.
VOLUME 6: CHAPTER 5
After leaving Boris County, Lark kept heading southwest, eventually arriving at a vast, dead plain. Everything was covered in snow by now. But had Lark arrived here before winter, he would have been met with barren ground filled with cracks, without a single plant in sight.
Despite the snow covering the ground, green smoke still wafted in the air. Using his foot, Lark cleared the snow on the ground below him, eventually revealing the cracks in the ground. Poison gas continuously oozed out of them.
“Corrupted willowroots,” he mumbled.
The dead land before him was a textbook example of a land infested by corrupted willowroots. Dead willow trees that had been corrupted after being exposed to vast amounts of ambient mana and miasma over the years. Some considered these underground plants as monsters, while some simply regarded them as large parasitic poison plants whose roots ran several hundreds of meters deep underground. Every time the trees breathed, poison gas oozed out of the soil and destroyed everything it touched.
The
vast barren plain was testament to that.
Although corrupted willowroots were commonly seen back in the Magic Empire, this was the first time Lark had seen an infestation of this scale. There were easily thousands of corrupted willowroots living underground the Forbidden Region.
Lark surmised that if they were left unchecked, in the next one hundred years Boris County would eventually be overrun by these underground plant monsters.
Clad with the leather armor and mask he bought from Daxton City, Lark ventured deeper into the Forbidden Region. He brought only the bare necessities with him—a few days’ worth of rations, an iron sword, the mithril cubes, and the leather set capable of neutralizing the poison.
The amount of poison gas became thicker as he went nearer the ruins. Worried that the armor and mask he bought from the city wouldn’t be enough, he cast a few layers of barrier spells on his body. This should prevent the poison gas from melting his skin even if, by some chance, the leather armor broke.
Lark stopped in his tracks.
He was almost inside the ruins when he felt something moving underground. A very large creature at that.
Without hesitation, Lark started to cast his spell. A five-meter large magic circle manifested itself beneath his feet, and the moment a worm-like monster shot up from the ground right below him, Lark activated it.
Lark leaped to the side, avoiding the gaping maw of the worm monster. It was at least fifteen meters long, its mouth large enough to swallow Lark whole.
Dirt and snow flew about as the worm monster roared in anger upon realizing that it had failed to devour its prey. At the same time, the wind spell Lark had cast beforehand swirled around the worm monster’s body, bisecting it into several pieces. Yellow blood splattered on the snow-blanketed ground as the worm fell helplessly on the ground, lifeless.
Another one .
Lark felt another worm moving underground. Just like before, Lark cast another wind blade spell and activated it the moment the worm monster shot up from the ground. The wind blade spell swirled around the monster’s body and also cut it into several pieces.
In less than a minute, two gigantic worm monsters had been massacred.
He was not even inside the ruins yet, but monsters as strong as these were already trying to kill him.
Lark pondered if he should use concealment magic to enter the ruins but decided against it. The worm monsters proved that the creatures living in the Forbidden Region had a way of detecting him even without eyesight. It’d be a waste of mana to use a concealment spell in this situation.
Then, the best way should be flight magic.
Lark was about to cast flight magic when he noticed several black dots moving in the sky. After amplifying his eyesight with magic, he saw dozens of monster beetles flying in the sky, forming a swarm. Each of them was twice the size of an adult human.
The swarm flew around, as though looking for prey. Lark ran inside the ruins and hid behind a large slab of stone. Large buzzing sounds were heard as the swarm flew past above him, eventually disappearing from sight.
Carrion beetles.
Back in the armor shop in Daxton City, Lark saw several shields made out of the carapace of those monsters.
They were annoyingly hard to kill, since their carapace were as strong as iron. Furthermore, they were extremely poisonous and moved in swarms.
If Lark used flight magic and encountered those monsters, he’d end up using vast amounts of mana to eliminate them.
On the other hand, he’d also end up expending large amounts of mana if he chose to move through land. Based on what he’d heard from Daxton City, the ruins were home to tens of thousands of monsters. And to make matters worse, each of them were poisonous enough to kill an average soldier with just a single scratch.
No wonder the kingdom abandoned this part of their territory and forbade anyone from entering this region. It was simply impossible to reclaim this land from the monsters.
After some thought, Lark decided to use flight magic to reach the labyrinth at the center of the ruins. Fighting against the swarm sounded much better than battling his way through the ruins while on land.
His body hovered up, then shot toward the direction of the labyrinth. As expected, the carrion beetles quickly noticed him—the intruder. It seemed the beetle monsters were quite territorial, they angrily screeched as the entire swarm flew toward him.
Lark used more mana to increase the speed of his flight, but to his surprise, he failed to shake off the pursuing carrion beetles. The insect monsters were terrifyingly fast despite their size. Their wings flapped several times each second, creating an ominous buzzing sound.
Below, Lark could see a horde of giant scorpions crawling on the snow-covered ground. And not only giant scorpions—Lark also saw monsters resembling cacti, giant serpents, rock golems, and poison wisps.
The ruins were like a giant monster breeding ground.
Left with no choice, Lark started casting his spell. A medium-sized magic circle appeared in the air, and from it, over a hundred lightning arrows appeared and rained down on the swarm.
As expected, the lightning arrows weren’t enough to kill the carrion beetles, but they were more than enough to stop the swarm from chasing Lark any further.
The insect monsters flew around in a daze after being hit by the lightning spell. Lark used this opening to fly further away and eventually, he reached the labyrinth at the center of the ruins.
Lark landed right in front of the entrance.
The labyrinth was even larger than the king’s castle in the capital. Its walls were plated with bronze, and at the entrance, two statues stood majestically.
When the royal knights arrived here several months ago, they thought for sure that those two statues were knights.
But Lark was different.
He stared at the two gargantuan statues, his heart filled with mixed emotions—longing, sadness, amusement. The two statues bore a striking resemblance to his two disciples. Without a doubt, these were the statues of Kubarkava—The Dragon Devourer, and Qeurvanu—The God of Poison.
Although they had aged quite a bit compared to the time Lark last saw them, he was sure that the two statues were made in the image of his disciples.
“Those kids.” Lark smiled wryly. “Don’t tell me… they made this labyrinth?”
It explained why the Forbidden Region was infested by corrupted willowroots—a parasitic monster plant which produced flesh-eating poison gas. It also explained why poisonous monsters were thriving here, why the Forbidden Region became a breeding ground for poisonous monsters.
“The Scylla guarding the treasure in the labyrinth…” Lark sighed. “As I thought... It was the kid who brought it here.”
Before coming here, he already had a hunch that that kid was involved in this. And after seeing the statues, everything had been confirmed.
That brat—Kubarkava—tamed a Scylla and tasked it to protect his master’s treasured sword for several years.
For a moment, Lark felt a squeezing sensation in his heart. He knew how prideful a Scylla was, and how hard it was to tame one. His disciple must have gone through a lot of hardship just to tame one.
And all of it was to guard the sword of his beloved master.
Really, he didn’t have to go to such lengths just to do that.
Lark looked to his rear. Several giant scorpions had surrounded the entrance of the labyrinth, but for some reason, none of them dared attack him. It seemed that he’d be safe as long as he stayed near here.
After another look at the statues of his two disciples, Lark entered the labyrinth.
The first floor was surprisingly well kept, as though it had never been touched by the passage of time. The pillars were plated with bronze, and on the walls were various murals.
Using an orb of light, Lark looked at all the murals on the walls and couldn’t help but be moved by the sight.
To the royal knights, these were mere drawings from an ancient era, but t
o Lark these murals held several years’ worth of history. The murals conveyed the history seen by Kubarkava and Qeurvanu before their deaths. History their master never witnessed.
The murals depicted the death of the Emperor of the Magic Empire, shortly after Lark’s death. It also depicted the separation of the disciples after the death of their master.
Dantes, the Ruler of Fire, was the first to leave. He went to search for a certain mythical creature and never returned to the Magic Empire.
Loumen went on an expedition into the land of demons and just like Dantes, never returned. His fellow disciples did not know exactly what happened to him, but according to history, Loumen fought the demon lord and lost his life in the process. All of it was probably mere speculation, Lark knew, since even this mural did not depict his exact fate.
Leonard went to the Land of Savages and founded his own school. Uurvesk, on the other hand, started waging war with several nations and tribes. Although it was not written in the mural, Lark knew that based on history, Uurvesk—that problem child—eventually founded the Great Empire.
The story shown in the murals stopped at this part of the history. It didn’t tell Lark the history of Leanne founding the White Stream Oasis. A paradise in the desert where food and water never ran out. It didn’t tell the history of Pollux, who later on became known as the Millennium Magician.
The reason was simple.
Qeurvanu and Kubarkava were probably already dead during this time, after their failed attempt to revive their master.
The fact that those two disciples died in their attempt to revive him left a bad aftertaste in Lark’s mouth. He leaned on one of the pillars and sighed.
He said in a low, solemn voice, “You should have lived your own lives. Why did you attempt to revive your master? Fools.”
Lark clenched his fists.
He already knew what happened to his disciples, after reading about it in the library of Lion City, but seeing the murals in person had a far bigger impact. It felt as though his two disciples themselves were telling him what happened after his death—what his disciples had accomplished after their master was gone.
