After parting ways with Cherry and her escorts, they stepped on a 10-mile-long road that was inclined upwards.
As they moved upwards, the atmosphere slowly changed from cold to room temperature.
It took them four hours to reach its top.
What greeted them was a wonderful sight.
On the horizon was a rising sun.
Colored by the sunlight, the sky was picturesque, like a wonderful painting.
Opposite them was another mountain.
What connected the two mountains was a bridge.
Only its entrance could be seen.
The rest of it was covered in clouds.
In front of them was a grassy cliff. It was connected to the bridge. If one were to stand at its edge and look downwards, they would see a valley.
The twins were awed by the view.
"This is like a reward."
Taking in their surroundings, Roy and Julian felt their hearts move.
"Wonderful."
Delilah and Amelia couldn't help but admire their surroundings.
Looking at them, Arlo laughed heartily.
"It's quite a sight, isn't it?"
Arlo smiled wistfully, remembering how Badulf had brought him here and told him his dreams.
"Yeah, it is,"
Roy had to admit that this was the best view he had seen in both lifetimes.
Back on Earth, except for the safe zone, everywhere was dangerous and infested with monsters.
Mountain climbing was a dream.
It might be possible to search for a similar view online, but how can it compare to the real deal?
"That bridge will lead us to the warm lands. I think it will take us around ten minutes by foot to cross it." Arlo guessed.
"Let's get going then," Roy said.
They moved towards the bridge.
After seeing the bridge, Roy started to go through his memories, remembering the plot of the novel.
The novel had many villains, but the most disgusting of them all was the armored Knight.
He was not only a dual mage that could cast fire and mind control magic but also a soul herder.
When the northern frontier was getting pincer attacked by the chaotic being and the undead, he deserted the army in order to survive and escaped to the warm lands.
But… by tracing his footsteps, chaotic beings arrived there and started a massacre, killing everyone in the village.
Because of him, thousands of innocent died.
Of course, he was one cowardly bastard.
Although he was a full-fledged dual mage and a soul herder, the thought of helping the villagers didn't cross his mind, and he ran into the forest to save his own hide.
The chaotic beings chased him to a cliff.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he decided to curse heaven and jump to his death after saying that at least falling to my death is better than getting eaten alive.
But that was all an act he put up to fool the chaotic beings.
He knew that right below was a river that led to the forbidden ruins. That's where he found the soul shard of absolute defense, which like its name, granted him absolute immunity against all damage for a certain amount of time every week.
"Plop!"
He didn't die as he fell into a river.
It was filled with monsters, but not a single could harm him as he activated his soul herding ability.
The fierce water current swept him to the outskirts of the forbidden ruins.
He was familiar with this place, and it took him just a few days to escape it with his life intact.
Rules and laws were out of place in the northern region of the empire.
Many lost their homes and were out in the open, struggling to survive.
He came across a family of five. They were mere merchants who were escaping towards a safe haven. They didn't stand a chance against an awakened like him. The man's daughters were beautiful, but his wives were unbelievably gorgeous. He felt jealous of the man and lusted after his wives. They, of course, shot down his advances, but seeing that there was no one to judge him, he acted on his evil intent and raped the beautiful mothers of the two daughters.
He was caught in the middle of the act. So what did he do?
He killed the man, burning him to death.
The Merchant's wives immediately committed suicide. Learning from his mistakes, he corrupted the minds of the startled and horrified daughters, taking control of their consciousness and making them strip naked, lie down on the ground and open their legs for him.
Setting the two corpses on fire to warm up the environment, he raped them while strangling them.
That's when he accepted the evil inside him fully.
That eventually led to him breaking their necks and killing them, and that's what helped him realize that he could fulfill the condition to level up his mage class to the third rank by destroying the minds of humans. Before, he thought it was only possible to meet the condition to level up his class by destroying the mind of ten thousand beasts.
It was easier to destroy humans mentally. Thus, he targeted many such families on the road, taking unfair advantage of them. Eventually, he caused so much despair that he attracted the attention of Chaos.
He joined hands with chaos thereafter and used his hypnotizing and fire spellbook to sneak into the settlement mind control guards and have them turn down the magic barriers and open the gates blocking the enemies at night when the majority of the people were sleeping.
No less than ten million people died because of him.
And… no less than ten thousand women lost their innocence to him.
In the end, he was tired of women and targeted the handsome protagonist, planning to top him.
Yes, the protagonist was so handsome that the armored knight's straight tail bent!
He went full-on gay!
He mind-controlled the protagonist and made him willingly fall into his embrace. But it just so happened that the protagonist was a poison master. He was one poisonous monster. From head to toe, he was covered in poison.
His poison trigged automatically when his mind was controlled and excreted out of his pores, filling the air.
The dumb pervert sniffed the protagonist and slowly took off his clothes before doing anything to him and, in turn, inhaled the poison in large quantities, getting poisoned without even realizing it.
And thus, before he could enjoy the protagonist, he died!
'Beneath the bridge is a deep, wide valley that connects to the forbidden ruins. It houses many dungeons, including the goblin grotto. I should go there when night arrives and take the soul shard of absolute defense for myself! Fuck you, armored knight. In this life, you wouldn't exist!' Roy thought as he moved towards the bridge.
