Forbidden Region

by Michael Sisa

  The Scylla, who’d been watching from afar, was surprised upon seeing several dozen ancient elven oaks come to life.

  After destroying all of the lightning serpents, the ancient elven oaks started moving toward the Scylla. With dozens of colossal ancient trees approaching it, the Scylla started to look like an average size monster.

  Lark stood on the branch of one of the moving elven oaks and started drinking a middle-grade potion. The effect on his torn muscles was instantaneous. He sighed and tossed the vial on the ground. He looked at the Scylla, who even now, refused to move away from the statue.

  Lark grinned.

  Although he’d used up almost all of his mana, he was now in a far better situation than before. These elven oaks had been living here for over a millennium—they’d been absorbing the vast amounts of ambient mana in this labyrinth—and were almost as hard as iron.

  The moment the elven oaks had surrounded the Scylla, Lark spoke, “Hey, lizard.”

  The heads of the Scylla looked at the Lark in bewilderment. The human had definitely spoken in draconian language.

  “Don’t you agree that that statue is an eyesore?” said Lark. “It’d be great if it breaks once you and these stupidly large trees start fighting each other.”

  As though adding more provocation, the elven oaks moved their roots and branches threateningly. The Scylla growled. It moved closer to the golden statue, as though desperately protecting it with its body.

  Lark found this sight amusing. He didn’t know how that disciple of his had done it, but it was clear that this seven-headed monster was incredibly protective of the treasure stored in this floor of the labyrinth.

  Under normal circumstances, this Scylla would win in a fight against these elven oaks. But with it clinging desperately to the statue, Lark knew that it would not be able to put up a proper fight.

  “Human, if you make even a scratch on the statue of God Evander, I’ll chase you out of here! If you somehow manage to escape this labyrinth alive!” the Scylla finally spoke and spouted threats using draconian language.

  Lark chuckled. “How cute. Let’s see… Should I destroy the head of the statue first?”

  The eyes of the Scylla grew wide from rage. It roared, “Just try it, human! After I kill you, I’ll also destroy your Empire! Your family, your friends! I’ll burn them all alive!”

  As expected of a prideful monster, it got riled up after just a few words. It seemed that taunting it using the statue was a very effective tactic.

  Lark decided to make use of this to make an opening.

  “The statue,” said Lark. “Destroy it.”

  The ground trembled as the roots of the elven oaks started shooting toward the golden statue. Fear was evident in the eyes of the Scylla after realizing that the human was really trying to destroy the statue it had been protecting all its life.

  The Scylla roared and started biting and destroying all of the roots and branches shooting toward it. It spread its two pairs of wings wide and covered the statue, shielding it from the attacks. Even its tail moved to block the roots and branches of the elven oaks.

  The Scylla started accepting several blows from the elven oaks using its body, just to prevent even a single strike reaching the statue of Evander. The way the seven heads moved and desperately intercepted each attack was amazing. Despite the relentless attack from dozens of elven oaks, not even a single one had landed on the golden statue.

  As the Scylla desperately fought to protect the statue, Lark quickly analyzed the flow of mana as he tried to find the entrance to the treasure room.

  Unfortunately, the message of Wisgarus before his death did not indicate where the entrance was. Lark ended up expending a bit of his mana to find the hidden entrance.

  After some time, Lark found it.

  Without hesitation, Lark jumped from the branch he was standing on, and using flight magic, shot toward the direction of the statue’s mouth.

  The Scylla’s heads immediately moved to devour him, but the elven oaks used their branches to protect their master. Using this opening, Lark landed on the statue’s mouth and pried it open. He immediately entered.

  Upon entering the statue, Lark cast an orb of light. He saw an already opened bronze door with a complex magic formation carved on it. Judging by the overlapping runes in the magic formation, this door used to contain a very powerful defensive spell, which unfortunately vanished after the passage of time.

  Lark entered through the door and went down the long, winding staircase. The moment he arrived at the bottom of the statue, Lark was momentarily struck speechless by what he saw: Mountains of gold coins dating back to the Magic Empire, dozens of high-grade and pinnacle-grade mana stones, adamantite ores, mithril ingots, pinnacle-grade healing potions, bloodstone fragments, heart of a Frost Dragon, High Demon cores, blood emeralds, Tears of Ubroxias, fangs of Cerberus, tears of dryads, mandrake roots. Lark also saw several weapons—spears, swords, and shields—made of adamantite.

  Each of these treasures were worth tens of thousands in gold coins. But as though they were insignificant, they were simply scattered among the piles of gold coins.

  Lark looked at a sword held by a golden pillar.

  White, translucent blade. Platinum hilt made of adamantite, with five gemstones embedded in it—all of which were made from the cores of Elementals.

  It was the Sword of Morpheus, without a doubt.

  His most prized possession back in his previous life.

  This sword had accompanied him through numerous life-or-death situations back then. Without this sword, he probably would have died when he fought the demon lords in his previous life.

  Lark’s gaze moved to the words written on the golden pillar. It was written in the language of the Magic Empire.

  To our beloved master. We believe you’ll come back to us someday. Definitely.

  Lark felt a squeezing sensation in his heart. His disciples had stolen almost half the treasure from the Forbidden Tower and moved it to this labyrinth. Although it sounded foolish, those two believed in him until the end.

  Lark looked around him. Despite the urge to grab the Sword of Morpheus, he did not take another step forward. He was sure that his disciples had placed a trap in this treasure room to deter unwanted visitors.

  And he was right.

  Carved on the wall was a small, almost inconspicuous magic formation. Despite its size, it was far more complex than the one carved on the bronze door near the statue’s mouth. Lark stood in silence as he studied the magic formation. After some time, he arrived at a conclusion.

  Hand of God.

  A pinnacle-grade spell was currently protecting this place. Had Lark taken several more steps, the spell would have activated and crushed his body in an instant.

  After he’d taken a careful look, Lark noticed the disfigured bodies half-buried in gold coins a few steps away from him. The two bodies had been reduced to nothing but torn, rotting flesh and crushed bones. They were probably the corpses of the two royal court magicians who’d entered this room a few months ago.

  They probably died without even knowing what kind of spell struck them.

  “Let’s see,” mumbled Lark. “The source of the pinnacle-grade spell’s mana.” He scanned the treasure room. After some time, he found the pinnacle-grade spell’s source of mana—the heart of a Frost Dragon.

  Lark doubted that a lot of intruders had managed to reach this treasure room, which was probably why the heart of a Frost Dragon had managed to maintain the pinnacle-grade spell for over a millennium.

  Judging by the amount of mana left in the heart of the Frost Dragon, it should probably be able to maintain the pinnacle-grade spell for a hundred more years at a minimum.

  “They didn’t kill a Frost Dragon just for this, right?”

  Lark rubbed his brow. Kubarkava had killed a few dragons before. Lark wouldn’t be surprised if that kid had killed a dragon living in the Frost Mountains of Yleonor just to protect these treasures. He wasn
’t heralded by historians as the ‘Dragon Devourer’ for no reason.

  Lark sighed.

  There was no use in thinking about these things now. As long as the pinnacle-grade spell was protecting this treasure room, there would be no way for him to obtain these treasures.

  Using almost all of his remaining mana, Lark shot a disintegration spell toward the Frost Dragon’s heart. It wasn’t enough to destroy the heart, but it was more than enough to disrupt its flow of mana for a couple of seconds. Without its source of mana, the Hand of God spell wouldn’t activate.

  Lark used this opening and immediately ran toward the Sword of Morpheus. He climbed the mountain of gold and grabbed the sword from the golden pillar.

  “It’s been a while.” Lark grinned.

  The sword fit in his hands perfectly. Lark pressed his thumb on the sword’s blade, making a deep cut, and smeared his blood on the hilt of the sword. Using a predetermined flow of mana only the creator of the sword knew, he activated the core of the Elementals embedded in it.

  Under Lark’s command, the five gemstones immediately started sucking in mana from the sword’s blade. The translucent blade—a crystallized form of mana from the dragon vein below—still held a terrifying amount of mana even after millennium had passed.

  The mana the sword’s blade held was so astronomical that it made the amount stored in a Tears of Ubroxia seem trivial.

  The heart of the Frost Dragon finally broke free from the disintegration spell and the Hand of God was immediately activated. An invisible force started wrapping around Lark. The same invisible force which crushed the two royal court magicians.

  Using the mana stored inside the Sword of Morpheus, Lark started casting several barrier spells one after another. Whenever the Hand of God broke the barrier, Lark simply cast another one.

  It’d been a long time since Lark could do this. It’d been a long time since he could cast several spells without caring about his mana.

  After almost a minute of relentlessly casting dozens of barrier spells to resist the pinnacle-grade spell, Lark finally decided to get rid of it. He shot several disintegration spells at the Frost Dragon’s heart, disrupting the mana stored inside it completely. Immediately, the pinnacle-grade spell stopped working and the Hand of God vanished.

  Lark fired another spell at the Frost Dragon’s heart, cutting it into pieces.

  Lark looked around him. He could probably buy a kingdom with this fortune.

  “It’d be nice if I could take all of these with me to Blackstone Town.”

  He heard a loud thud outside and the statue momentarily shook. It seemed that one of the elven oaks had managed to land a hit on the golden statue.

  Lark heard a furious roar.

  “These uselessly large trees! You dare harm the statue of God Evander!”

  The ground shook and Lark heard the flapping of wings, followed by roars and several loud explosions. It seemed that the Scylla had finally lost it after the elven oaks managed to land a hit on the statue it had been protecting.

  “Burn into ashes! Die! Die!”

  The Scylla even started cussing at the elven oaks.

  He heard several more explosions. The mountain of gold coins clanked as the ground continued rumbling and quaking.

  A broad smile formed on Lark’s face.

  He’d just thought of a way to transport all of these treasures back with him to Blackstone Town.

  VOLUME 5: CHAPTER 8

  The Scylla continued its rampage outside the treasure room. Lark started to feel the links binding him to the elven oaks vanish one after another. Judging by the powerful explosions and the rumbling of the ground, the Scylla had started using magic to destroy the colossal ancient trees surrounding the giant statue. The seven-headed monster had become desperate after Lark had managed to slip inside the treasure room.

  “Human, come out!” the Scylla’s roar reverberated even inside the chamber. “If you don’t come out, I’ll destroy all of these toys, go out of this labyrinth and destroy your puny Empire!”

  Another shockwave shook the giant statue. The Scylla continued firing several powerful spells, and it showed no signs of stopping until it had eradicated all of the elven oaks controlled by Lark.

  “This is the safest place on this floor, huh?” mumbled Lark.

  It was clear that the Scylla couldn’t do anything to him as long as he was inside the treasure room. It must have been utterly frustrated right now, knowing that the treasures it had been protecting all of its life were currently being ransacked by a human.

  Lark still had a few days’ worth of rations with him. He decided to expand his mana pool where he was, safe from the fangs of that seven-headed monster.

  Although there were several high-grade mana stones scattered around the room, Lark ignored them and went straight for the pinnacle-grade mana stones.

  A high-grade mana stone was precious enough to be part of Lady Ropianna’s family heirloom. Lark could probably buy a small city using a single pinnacle-grade mana stone. And he could see at least eight of them half-buried in this mountain of gold.

  Lark stared at the azure gemstone he held in his hand. It was a bit larger than his fist, with silver and crimson dust floating inside. Judging by the pattern, Lark was sure that this mana stone had been taken from the corpse of a Gryphon, an apex monster capable of annihilating an entire army on its own.

  The magicians of this era normally pulverize these mana stones and use them to create a magic formation, before slowly absorbing the mana and essences flowing out of the magic circle. Although it was a far safer method than the one used in the Magic Empire, the amount of mana you were able to absorb from the ritual was a mere fraction of the total amount. It would be akin to throwing tens of thousands of gold coins away, considering the fact that he could probably buy a small city if he sold this pinnacle-grade mana stone.

  Using the Sword of Morpheus, Lark cleanly cut the pinnacle-grade mana stone into eight pieces, then put one of them into his mouth.

  The moment he swallowed the mana stone fragment, a torrent of mana immediately surged inside his body. His bones creaked and his muscles started tearing apart as the torrent of mana coming from the mana stone forcefully passed through his mana circuit and meridians.

  It felt as though a raging river was trying to pass through a small pipe. His heart pounded loudly and his blood vessels bulged from the pressure, almost bursting. Had Lark done this a year ago, his body would have immediately exploded from the turbulent mana in mere seconds. Thankfully, relentlessly training his physical body had paid off.

  As the massive amounts of mana inside the pinnacle-grade mana stone forced its way into his mana circuit, Lark’s mana pool slowly expanded. Lark skillfully guided the overflowing mana into the various parts of his mana circuits and meridians, preventing them from bursting at the very last moment, before moving to the next part.

  This was a method that would usually be considered suicide in this current era. A single mistake would be fatal, and even if by luck the magician somehow managed to survive the ritual, there was a very high chance of irreversibly destroying one’s mana pool and meridians.

  Seconds quickly turned into minutes, and several hours passed by without Lark realizing it. The moment Lark swallowed the pinnacle-grade mana stone, all unnecessary thoughts vanished in his mind as he guided the overflowing mana with a single-minded focus. He no longer noticed the curses and roars of the Scylla as it annihilated the elven oaks outside. He no longer noticed the trembling ground, the clanking of gold coins, and the deafening explosions.

  After a full day, he finally managed to expand his mana pool and assimilate the mana contained in the pinnacle-grade mana stone fragment into his body.

  Lark opened his eyes and stretched his body for a bit. His body ached and his stomach grumbled from hunger.

  “The lizard’s quiet,” said Lark. He could no longer feel the link binding him to the elven oaks. All of them must have been destroyed by now.

/>   How many hours did it take him to absorb that fragment? He’d lost track of time. Judging by his grumbling stomach, at least several hours must have passed by now.

  Lark opened his bag, grabbed some meat jerkies and tossed them into his mouth. He drank some water, rested for a bit, and slept for a couple of hours.

  He woke up after several roars were heard outside.

  “Human, I know you’re still alive!” growled the Scylla. “Come out, you damn thief! You maggot! If you don’t come out, I’ll go outside this labyrinth and lay waste to the nearest city I can find!”

  Lark scratched his ears and sighed.

  Lark ignored the Scylla, who kept spouting curses at him one after another. Those were empty threats, Lark was sure. If the Scylla really did have that much freedom, it would have left the labyrinth by now.

  “Insect! Pile of shit! Bastard! Thief! I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

  “For a monster with seven heads, that lizard really has a foul mouth.” Lark chuckled.

  Historians would have probably been struck speechless by now had they heard the words the Scylla was spouting in draconian language. It did not befit the image of this mythical monster.

  Lark grabbed another piece of the pinnacle-grade mana stone and swallowed it. Just like before, a torrent of mana flowed into his body. For hours, Lark guided the overflowing mana and expanded his mana pool once again.

  He repeated the same method for several more days, and by the time his body had reached its limit, he’d already consumed two pinnacle-grade mana stones.

  In his current state, any more forceful expansion of his mana pool would be detrimental to his health. His body needed to be accustomed to the sudden increase in mana capacity first. Moreover, he’d run out of food a few days ago.

  Lark finally decided stop. He decided to take the treasures and leave the labyrinth.

  It was time go back to Blackstone Town.

  ***

  The Scylla was trembling with rage as it waited for the intruder to come out of the statue. Although the human didn’t deserve a quick death after all the sacrilegious acts it had committed, all seven heads agreed to kill him immediately once given the chance. There was something eerie about that human, and the Scylla’s instinct was telling it that the human had the ability to escape the labyrinth alive.