Inside the mountains cave...
The wall that Danzel had raised was soon destroyed and cut into small pieces.
With the wall crumbling down, the zombies that waited from the other side howled upon taking a glimpse from one of the living.
Abiding by their lieges command and their own instincts.
The first zombie to take the lead of a malnourished zombie with all the other zombies following closely behind him.
The man responsible for cutting down the wall stared solemnly at the horde that was about to run him down.
"So he said the truth, huh..." As he finished his words, a small glow was to see in the elderly legs.
And the next moment, the zombie's target had vanished from his original spot.
Before the zombies knew, the body of the horde was split into several pieces. Creating a scene out of a horror movie.
The worst was that although many of the undead had died, the few zombies who had their heads still unhurt were still able to move...in what little they had of their bodies.
"Sigh, that undead are really handful ones..." The elder said as he finished the remaining crippled zombies by destroying their heads.
As destroying the body without the head would kill an undead.
Weaken them, yes.
As destroying their body essential removes a large amount of dead mana from the undead.
Cleaning his sword with a cloth that he kept on his clothing, he walked away from that gruesome scene and went towards a small girl with a group of women wearing rags.
"Grandpa! Have you finished your job?" The small girl Shiro said as he run towards her grandpa.
The elderly showed up with a warm yet bitter smile that was hidden behind his mask.
`I made her see something she shouldn´t have...´
Going on his knees, he gave the small girl a hug, which made the girl confused.
"Grandpa?"
Touching her shoulders lightly to not hurt her accidentally, he made her stare into his eyes.
"Shiro, forgive this Grandpa of yours for showing such a sight. Your mother would probably never forgive me for showing such sights..."
Shiro who was staring at her grandpa becoming serious suddenly went quiet and stared at him with silence.
"You know, Shiro? I know that you are a genius and I know that you don´t like seeing such sights...but because of your condition you have to- No, you have to try to get used to such sights from now on." The elder said to the small girl as he could see the littered blood on the floor and corpses on the ground.
It pained him to say such words.
He tried to prevent her condition, but as she was the daughter of his daughter. Shiro had it much worse.
And as she grew bigger, such grew her condition for the worse.
As it was more of a racial trait from being one of `them´, he could only try to earn the few silver coins from side jobs, while hiding who they were.
And now, the elderly finally wasn´t able to provide for her condition.
Forcing him to fall as low as going to steal from some mere bandits.
`I guess I have to meet that person once more...´ He thought to himself.
Seeing Shiro's thoughtful expression the elderly gripped her and raised her to the air.
"Ahhh, Grandpa! Let me to the ground!" Shiro yelled surprised with giggles escaping her mouth from time.
"Hahaha~Now Shiro, How about Grandpa Agares takes you to eat another one of those fishes that you like so much yesterday?"
"Really!?"
"Would your grandpa ever lie to you?"
"Yay!" Shiro raised her hands in celebration while her grandpa, Agares put her down.
"Mhmm, let´s get that nice lady back to the city and have our Shiro have her feast. After all, we will be leaving towards a faraway place tomorrow." Agares said, mentioning the girls to follow him and Shiro.
"New place? Where are we going, Grandpa?" Shiro asked while walking down the mountain.
"It´s a faraway place, much further to wherever we had gone before. Where only sand was to see with the sun looking down. We are going to meet an old friend of mine that I owe him my everything..." Agares said as he put his hand at top of Shiro's hood.
"Grandpa! I can´t see~"
"Hahahaha~"
While the duo was laughing heartily followed by the group of women not far behind, Agares stared at Shiro with a determined look.
`To think that a time will come where I would go out of my way to accept the `mans´ offer after all those years...´ Agares though aggravated, but staring at her loveable granddaughter, his determination burned once more stronger.
`For the sake of Shiro...my daughters...and my everything that I swore to protect.´
"Now, let´s go get that fish of yours, Shiro."
***
Few hours after Danzel left the cave.
Having already passed the Mountain, Danzel sprinting through the forest was to be seen with incredible speed.
While most beasts of the forest who saw such a maniac running towards them would turn tail and find a hole to hide their heads in.
Out of the few of them, was it because of ignorance, confidence, or right of stupidly had decided to try their chances to gnash their teeth at Danzel.
Once they decided that choice their fate was sealed.
"Wooof!"
From the same species as the wolf that he once killed their Alpha, a pair of three such wolves decided to jump at him.
"I don´t have time for you guys." Danzel said as he swung his blade to one of the wolf's heads, effectively splitting him in two.
The other one fell by having his skull crushed by bashing his shield on their head and the remaining one just beheaded with his sword.
[You received 5000 XP]
[You received 5000 XP]
[You received 5000 XP]
Ignoring their bodies, Danzel continued dashing forward towards his destination.
Though he guessed that those wolfs were being mind-controlled by an Alpha like the ones he had fought, Danzel wasn´t interested in hunting the Alpha who send him those XP bags.
As the current, he was in a rush.
All that was in his mind was to leave this damn kingdom that continuously brought him bad luck.
From being threatened by Kayns group to reveal his identity to later be killed by a damn Archmage from the woods, only to survive by sheer luck, be placed to work for two whole damn years by Hanson and his merchant Union.
Heck, this time he found another guy who could potentially cut him in pieces in a damn cave!
He just wanted to earn some XP by killing guys who wouldn´t be missed by anyone!
If it wasn´t for that small girl being there, then this end could very well be on that cave.
Now he was just relieved that the old man wasn´t going after him and just let him go.
Maybe he lost him and he was still looking for him or he alerted those annoying guys from the Union.
Nevertheless, Danzel wasn´t going to push his plan of getting out of the kingdom back anymore.
"I should be pretty close by now..." Danzel said as in the distance he could see how there were fewer trees to see.
Coming out of the woods, the sun illuminated the vast river.
"Finally arrived," Danzel said as he looked ahead.
"That´s bigger than I had expected..." Danzel said, surprised that he could barely see the other side of the river.
"Hmm, let´s take a look." Pulling his map from his ring storage out, he went into deep thoughts.
"Let´s see, If I were to cross the river the borders of Arcana and Berum would no longer be there. But except for the big black spot in the map, I can either head towards northwest closer back to Berum, but there isn´t anything else except that one old kingdom that I heard Hanson talking about..."
`No...according to what Hanson said then that place is the last place that I would want to go.´Shaking his head, he stared at his two remaining options.
"I either got to move forward where the unknown part of the map is or in that direction." Pointing his finger at the northeast side from here, was a part of the map that was with yellow color-marked.
"Then I will have to get in that desert..."
After thinking about his choices for a bit he made up his mind.
"Dessert it is then" Danzel declared out loud as he put his map away.
With left having only trouble and the middle is unknown. Danzel preferred the dessert that the former two.
As he had the map of the desert, not as much detailed as the two kingdoms.
He still had bits of information about some cities there.
"It isn't like I lose anything anyway, I got enough time to waste."
Walking closer to the river, he stared at it before looking at his armor.
'I guess I should put them out first' Danzel thought, not very much liking the idea of having his main equipment to rust or something.
Putting all his staff inside his storage ring, he brought out some armor and sword that he had to carve before.
"Mm, good."
With decently packed weight to those bones of mine, I walked towards the river until I was fully submerged.
