Chapter 51.2: Hallmenta (2)
A few days had passed since we entered the demonic land.
The landscape unfolding in my sight was a repetition of endless black land and bushes, and there was nothing special about it.
The only thing that changed was that the deeper we went into the demonic land, the stronger the monsters we encountered.
【Lv. 64]
【Lv. 68]
【Lv. 71]
The ones we met this time were swarming around us.
There was a monkey monster, there were also some that looked like a mixture of a lion and a rhinoceros, and some giant spiders with countless disgusting eyes.
What are these?
I couldn’t help but tilt my head at the alien sight.
It was because they were not of the same species, instead, it was a group of monsters that didn’t fit together at all.
Waa!
I told Asher after thinking about it, because we needed to take care of this first.
“Take care of that monkey.”
“Yes.”
Asher rushed towards the monkey monster that had the highest level, which was separated from the rest of the crowd.
The remaining monsters rushed towards my side with ferocious momentum.
I stretched out my hand and popped the drops of blood and shot them towards the incoming monsters.
All monsters were at a level where it could destroy a small city alone, but that level was meaningless to my abilities. I wiped them out in the blink of an eye.
Whoa!
Shortly thereafter, Asher also killed the monkey with no difficulty.
She turned to me and saw all the other dead monsters, cleared her breath and drew her sword back.
After that, we often encountered a group of monsters with such a heterogeneous combination.
As we continued to slay them, an idea came to my mind.
··Oh, could it be because of that?
There were a lot of monsters with all kinds of tricky and bizarre abilities in the demonic land.
Starting from those that could evoke fear, there were those who fired powerful magic cannons, spit out fire or electricity, or those who could cause hallucinations. They were mostly classified as named bosses.
And among them, there were also very rare monsters with the ability to control and control other monsters.
Seeing the ferocious monsters, that were often eager to eat and kill one another, suddenly became friendly with each other… I thought that maybe a monster with the power of dominance might be in this land right now.
But as I remember, there was no boss with the ability of the dominant type in Hallmenta…
Well, this was at a point in the past of the game’s background that I played, so there may be boss mobs I didn’t know about.
I didn’t take it too seriously.
Even if there was a guy with real dominance, it wouldn’t pose a huge threat.
A few more days passed as they turned all the monsters that attacked like that into corpses.
Seeing the dark red mist that spread faintly in the air, I wondered if we had slowly entered the center of the demonic land.
That’s why I prepared in case we got lost.
I buried one of the compass that showed the mutual location of each other, which was used in the Elrod Forest, at the entrance to the demonic land. And, on our way here, I also sprinkled the guide powder I had brought along.
I stretched my field of vision to the max with my super sensory, trying to find the rock.
It’s a huge rock that looked like a tower, so it would be easy to spot from afar…
And just as I thought, after wandering around the area for about half a day, I was able to finally find the rock.
··That’s it.
Beyond the fog, I approached the huge rock that looked like a tower at first glance. There were no monsters nearby.
Arriving right in front of it, I circled around the rock to find the entrance to the cave.
And I soon found it.
One wide passage opened in the middle of the rock.
This was the place where the last mystery I seek was hidden.
“Wait for me here.”
Saying that to Asher, I walked alone into the dark cave.
I didn’t feel any presence inside. It’s like everything was still.
I moved inside for a while.
The straight passageway was much longer than I thought, and even after walking for several dozen minutes, there was no sign of it ending.
When will I reach the end?
I got tired of walking slowly, so I just ran. I did not feel tired anyway, so why walk?
How many more minutes would I have to run?
Finally, the straight passage ended, and a huge cavity appeared.
I looked around the joint.
Now, there seemed to be no more passage to the inside.
Then this was the end… it was just dark with nothing in the cavity. There were no brightly shining mysterious patterns.
I thought I came at the wrong place, but I was sure that this was definitely it.
There could be no other cave inside a tower like rock formation like this other than here. That being said, that was…
“···”
I approached the center of the cavity with a hardened face.
There was a faint stain of dried blood on the floor.
A sign that someone else had been here before me, and the traced showed that it had been a very long time since that happened.
There were enough traces to understand why there was no mystery pattern here.
“Had that person already taken it?”
I muttered in despair.
Apparently, that bastard had already discovered this place a long time ago, and eventually absorbed the mystery.
It was a failure to get the last mystery.
***
Asher was waiting in front of the cave, vigilantly waiting at the command of the Seventh Lord.
She stood with her hand on the hilt of her sword, staring intently into the cave.
How did the Seventh Lord come to know these places? And what was he doing every time inside?
··Useless thoughts.
She brushed off her curiosity and refocused her attention.
Although she was an escort by name, she has always been of no help in battles with powerful enemies they had met.
At least she had to prevent monsters from entering the cave to not interfere with whatever the Seventh Lord was doing.
“···?”
Asher, who had stood like a stone statue for such a long time, suddenly recognized a sense of alienation.
It was because the fog around the area seemed to have gotten a little thicker.
An instinctive feeling of discomfort creeped up.
Her hand, which was about to draw the sword, with her forehead wrinkled, stiffened.
Then, slowly, her eyes closed, and he staggered dangerously and fell to the floor.
In the place where she fell, a disgustingly tangled plant stem appeared.
The stems wrapped around her crawled to the ground and disappeared somewhere in an instant.
***
“···?”
I came out of the cave in deep thought and looked around me with puzzled eyes.
It was because the figure of Asher was nowhere to be seen.
I stood with my arms crossed and waited, wondering if she had temporarily gone somewhere, but she did not appear even after I waited for a long time.
“···”
I looked around again with a hardened face.
Where did she suddenly disappear to?
