Dozens of beasts could be seen climbing up a mountain. It was the border between the warm and the icy, cold realms. It doesn't only separate the two lands but also connects them. Its steep slopes were almost vertical.
A human couldn't possibly climb such slopes, and experts would face immense trouble climbing them, but these beasts were moving up these slopes as easily as taking a walk in the park.
Roy, sitting cross-legged on the back of one of the monsters, was inspecting all of them shamelessly. He forgot that there was a thing called privacy.
Why was he inspecting them? Well, he wanted to compare his basic stats with them to understand how strong he had physically become. That's why he was inspecting them!
『You failed to inspect aura monster A.』
『You failed to inspect aura monster B』
『You failed to inspect aura monster C』
As his information gauging skill had limitations, and because he couldn't inspect anyone 15 levels above him, he failed to inspect nearly all of them. They were 15 levels above him,
Just when he was about to give up, the system's notification sounded in his ears.
『You succeeded in inspecting the aura monster, Cherry!』
『You gained her status screen and character screen』
He succeeded in inspecting Cherry because she was 14 levels above him.
She had become an aura monster six years ago and was still at its fourth level.
『Cherry』
Rank: Aura Monster
Level: 4
Stage: 3rd
Hp: 5600
Strength: 140
Agility: 120
Stamina: 190
Intelligence: 10
'I am equal to her in terms of raw strength, and my agility stat is ten points higher than her. I can leave her in my dust if I so desire. Maybe she is so slow because of her immense size. That must be it.
Roy scratched his chin, his eyes narrowing down thoughtfully.
'One thing is for sure; I can't look down on her. Her stamina and HP bars are ridiculously higher than mine. Her stamina stat is 60 points greater than mine, and her HP bar is 350 times bigger than mine.'
He went through her character background, and his face turned beet red. She was married to Ganesha. He married her because she had an excellent sex drive and stamina and could fulfill his every need in bed. He pampered her a lot, and she was rumored to be pregnant with his child. The thing is, she only desired to be of service to him and didn't dare call herself his wife. Their relationship was an open secret. Everyone knew she was his woman, but no one said anything. They were waiting patiently for their lord to announce that she was his wife, and Ganesha planned to do that when she gave birth to his child.
Anyway, they have spent many spring nights with each other night.
When Roy reached the pages which described how they did that and this, he closed shut the damn background screen, not daring to read it lest his mind become filled with filth.
He looked around, taking in his surroundings.
Surprisingly, Arlo was frowning hard, his face was extremely dark, and creases filled his forehead.
"Why is your face scrunched up like that? Do you have a stomach ache? Or are you feeling ill?"
Arlo relaxed and stopped frowning when he heard what Roy said, and then he turned to look at him before speaking.
"None of that. I am just afraid this trip might end up being more than what we bargained for."
Hearing what he said, Roy raised his eyebrows in interest.
"Oh, why do you think so?"
"The Lord of the wetlands, or dumb mutt as I like to call him, found out that his son was missing three months ago. For three months, he did nothing, and only now is he going around in search of him and forcing others to submit to him and brainwashing them to become his weapons. But why would he do that unless he needs an army to attack to invade other realms? But his target might not necessarily be a realm." Arlo mentally transmitted his worries to Roy.
Roy was so shocked to hear what he said that he completely overlooked that Arlo had just mentally communicated to him like an alien.
"Y-you don't mean-!" Roy gaped, his eyes wide open.
"The dumb mutt might be planning on attacking Constantine County, but let's keep it a secret from Julian, ok?"
Roy nodded.
'He is right; there is a high chance that that dumb mutt's target is Constantine County.' Roy thought.
Constantine Count, unlike Baldwin County, wasn't mentioned in passing.
The novel "Battlefield of the Ancient Gods" starts with the latter getting destroyed, followed by the Northern Frontier getting attacked by all sides.
Their food supply was cut, and their water supply was poisoned.
Thus, Northern Frontier, a huge wall stopping the undead of the uncharted land, eventually fell, and hordes of undead invaded the northern region of the Empire.
It was overrun by chaotic beings and undead monsters.
That kick-started the protagonist's journey.
The first book was about how the protagonist broke out of the monster-infested northern region and his struggle against fate.
The counties that got destroyed were barely mentioned.
Only the Northern Dukedom was explained in detail.
Roy initially thought that Constantine County might have been destroyed after Chaos invaded the empire, but now it seems like that might not be the case!
…
The monsters climbed up the mountain, passed through hundreds of trees to reach an open area that was similar to a clearing in a forest, and dropped them off next to a road that seemed to be stretching into the horizon.
"We can't go any further as that would be disobeying the rules of the house of lords," Cherry said in human language.
"What do you mean?" Julian asked, "Why can't you just take us to the warm lands?"
"Monsters serving a lord aren't allowed to enter the realm of another realm without prior permission," Cherry explained.
She didn't mind his ignorance.
"Go straight ahead, and you will see the entrance to the warm lands."
"Get home safely." Arlo patted her belly and moved away.
"Thanks for bringing us all the way here." The twins bowed to them and moved away.
"Bye!" Roy and Julian waved them goodbye as they caught up to Arlo with the two maids.
With that, Cherry and the other aura monsters reluctantly parted ways with the humans and the half-elves.
