Guardian Giant (1)
The next day, morning.
Reed, Adonis, and Dolores got up before sunrise and gathered for a meeting.
"It seems like the tribal integration is going well."
"Tribal integration is important, but that's not why we came here, is it?"
"That's right."
Adonis had come to pursue interests as the spokesperson for the Huper Kingdom.
She came to obtain conditions for developing mines, rare crops, and trading monsters, etc., that the Huper Kingdom could develop and trade.
"When the tribes gather, let's build roads, cut down mountains, and find out the location of minerals."
Adonis nodded her head.
They wanted to move on to the next step now that the tribal integration was complete, but.
"It's impossible to build roads. Mining is also impossible."
Larksper'sresponse held them back.
They had been running smoothly until now, but they were a bit taken aback.
"What do you mean? It's impossible to mine and build roads?"
"The giant here blocks everything. They hate digging up rocks. They hate making roads. Even if you do it secretly in a place that is not visible, the giants will notice everything."
"They notice everything..."
"The shamans say that the giant is the guardian spirit of this place. If you do not respect nature while it exists, you will surely suffer."
It made sense.
They already knew what they did in Gransia without the Guardian Giant in the future.
'As expected, the problem wasn't the tribal integration itself.'
The original reason for coming here was to help Larksper defeat the guardian giant.
All they were supposed to do was explore the base.
That's what should have been done originally, and what should have been blocked.
"If it appears anytime, anywhere... is the guardian giant a wandering existence?"
"No. The guardian giant is always in one place. The orc tribes know where it is."
"Do they know the location of the guardian giant?"
"They know where the guardian giant is. They can guide you."
"It seems a bit hasty to go into battle right away."
At Dolores' concern, Larksper shook his head.
"There is no need to fight. The guardian giant only moves when it gives 'punishment.' It doesn't move if you don't do anything to deserve punishment. If you perform a specific action, the guardian giant will come to that place. And then it kills the orc. Larksper has seen it once."
"What were you doing at that time?"
Reed asked just in case.
"We were digging the ground. Ignoring the adults' words, we were digging deep holes to bury bones. That's why one of our brothers lost his life in the hands of the giant."
"Don't dig the ground too deep... Anything else?"
Larksper recalled the other warnings passed on by the shamans.
Fortunately, there was no room for any problems reaching the guardian giant.
"I think we should do some reconnaissance before we get rid of it."
"I agree, but what if that mysterious golem rushes at us, knowing that we have hostile intentions?"
"As long as we don't do something deserving punishment or attack, the giant won't do anything."
The opinions of being careful and going to see it were intertwined.
Only Reed's opinion remained, and he replied.
"Let's trust Larksper."
As an experienced warrior who had lived here, he would have some insight into the guardian giant's behavior.
He may have a rough personality and enjoy challenges, but he wouldn't put his party in danger.
With that belief, Reed put Larksper in the lead again.
The magicians who had come with them had initially come to observe the orcs, so they left the six magicians, including Kaitlyn, at the Cliffrock tribe and moved to where the guardian giant was.
A moment later, they heard the sound of footsteps from a distance.
It was the orcs.
Larksper greeted the orc in the lead, touching his forehead to theirs.
While the two were talking, Reed looked at the tribespeople who had followed behind.
Women and children were all carrying burdens, and the men were standing on the outskirts to protect the group.
'They're full of wounds.'
Whether they had been attacked by monsters on the way, there were scratch marks, and they had wrapped plant stems tightly to compress the wounds.
After a while, Larksper returned and warned Reed and his knights.
"Be careful. If you move forward from here, Garuda will appear."
"Garuda? What kind of monster is that?"
"It's a monster that looks like a bat. It sticks to the wall, then comes down and attacks one by one."
"I think I know what kind of monster it is. We'll proceed in a circular formation."
Adonis and his knights understood immediately and took up the appropriate formation.
Although it was a slow march in a position that surrounded all directions, it was the best tactic for escorting.
While they had become safer by walking with enough preparation, the effect of safety due to the formation could not be considered.
"It's quiet."
"It's unbelievably quiet."
The monsters that had exhausted and injured the orcs they had met earlier had disappeared without a trace.
Dolores tried to use detection magic just in case, but there was not a single monster within her detection range.
She wasn't particularly skilled in detection magic, but she could confidently say that her accuracy was reliable for identifying miscellaneous monsters.
"Come to think of it, we came safely when we arrived, right? I don't think there was a single monster attack."
She suddenly recalled the feeling when they first entered.
At that time, they hadn't even felt threatened, let alone attacked.
"Does this kind of thing happen often?"
"When going to another village, one always risks their life. It's not common."
Larksper also found this situation unusual.
As Reed was wondering what was going on, someone tugged at his collar.
When he lowered his head, he saw Rosaria walking with him.
"What's up?"
"Look! There's a pretty flower over there."
"Yeah, it's really pretty."
Rosaria, who had been holding Reed's hand tightly while walking, smiled, and Reed replied with a faint smile.
Seeing her face without a single worry, he felt as if he were carrying her share of the burden as well.
"We've arrived."
At the end of a three-hour mountain march.
They found a hidden place in the Kalton Mountain Range without any monster attacks.
The plain that emerged from the grassy forest was enough to captivate the eyes of humans.
Pillars made of stone.
Large stone tiles laid on the ground.
Although they were split by moss and weeds and corroded, there were traces of civilization there.
'I never thought there would be such a place.'
It was a place that even Dolores, the owner of the Wallin Tower, didn't know.
"Doesn't it feel like a temple?"
"That's right."
Even Adonis, who couldn't properly sense mana, could fully feel that reverent atmosphere.
Despite thousands of years having passed, despite being left unattended, an overwhelming holiness that could not be hidden or destroyed remained.
"Enter through here."
The place Larksper pointed to was a cave that looked like the entrance of a temple.
There was no humidity, and they could feel the wind blowing from inside.
Reed carefully touched the gauntlet he was wearing.
He hadn't used mana to maintain the same condition since entering the ruins, but he was prepared to fight in case of an emergency.
Larksper took the lead and began walking through the square-shaped cave.
At the end of the long corridor, a circular dome-shaped space brightened by the intermittent sunlight emerged.
An empty place.
In the center of it, there was a statue.
At first glance, it felt like a human, but the abnormally large right arm and hunched back made it feel like a gorilla.
Reed looked up at a human made of stone.
