Chapter.9 Star Fall (20)
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“Undead?”
“Yes, undead. “The Blue Line is full of undead.”
“But if there are that many undead… will the church just leave them alone? “Even if one of the five major denominations, whether Light or Bountiful, came forward and purified it, I think they would have done it a long time ago.”
Borka wasn’t wrong. After the Dark War that broke out 70 years ago due to the insurgency of the undead, not only the religious order but also the nobles of royal families and fiefdoms in each country were outraged by the undead. The memory of that day, which brought humanity to the brink of destruction, caused both sides to clear the battlefield even after the bloody battle, and the moment a little morale was gathered or even a half-broken skeleton was discovered, heavily armed Holy Knights rushed there in droves. There was no place for the undead in most of the sunny areas as well as the shaded areas here in March World.
Except for one mountain range with a special environment called the Blue Line.
“I think I need to explain this. “The Borca tribe lived far away from the human world, so they might not know much about it.”
When Borka looked like he didn’t know what was going on, Otman took my words and continued.
“The Blue Line, as is widely known, is a magical mountain range created by ley lines rich in mana. It is a place overflowing with materials that wizard alchemists covet, such as plants and minerals rich in mana, but because of the monsters affected by the mana, anyone without knight-level weapons is prohibited from entering. However, 70 years ago, during the Dark War, the great warlock Karkan Demanus of the Black Cloud touched the ley line of the earth, called the dragon vein in the world, and part of the Blue Line became contaminated. The powerful black magic that took root from his hands penetrated into the deepest part of the dragon vein and polluted its tributaries, and the river of mana flowing along the ley vein was polluted by that black magic, turning the ground into a place where dark magic gathered. ”
“It’s a magic zone where black magic accumulates… There must be quite strong undead.”
“You mean this? All kinds of monsters and animal skeletons are running around in droves, ghost-type monsters are gathering so much that they cover the sky, and it has become a place where high-ranking undead such as Death Knights and Dullahan Shadow Wights, which were not easy to see even 70 years ago, lead their legions to attack people. Even the church had no way to purify the dark magic that had penetrated deep into the dragon vein, and as a result, the Blue Line was a dark magic zone containing high-ranking undead and a non-black area filled with powerful monsters that use mana who moved from the black magic zone. It was divided into magic zones. Either way, there is no change in the fact that it is a rough terrain where even the largest knights cannot survive if they go deep into it.”
“You get the idea, right? This is why trade goods from the eastern desert countries, which are much further away than the Elven Forest, are cheaper than Elven goods. Most elven items are handed over to wind wizards across the Blue Line by sending them over the mountains on balloons made of cloth. “Transportation costs are enormous.”
“indeed. “It’s not like I was raiding the church’s supply store simply because I was greedy.”
“Well then!” “It all had meaning!”
Borka nodded in understanding and picked up the scattered luggage.
“So where do we go now?”
“Hmm… I guess it will probably follow a path called a ray line. Even on the Blue Line, it is a place where the energy of the dragon vein rises less, but the surface of this place is periodically subjugated and purified by the Five Great Churches, so it is at least worth going around. “Am I right?”
“Half right and half wrong.”
“hmm? “What does that mean?”
“As you know, we need to go to the heart of the Elven Forest, where the World Tree is, but no one knows where it is. Trade goods are carried by Sylphid to the location agreed upon with the wind wizards. “Only the elves know the exact location, but kidnappings are rampant around Roderick, so the elves’ seed has dried up.”
I quickly took out the map and drew a line in charcoal from the Kingslands to the center of the ley line, then bent the line to the center of the Blue Line Mountains, which were dotted with red and black X’s.
“We are going to the ‘Village of the Exiled Elves’, which is the deepest part of the Blue Line. I will find a guide there and go to the elf forest by the fastest and most accurate route. That’s the fastest way. The ridiculously large elven forest is an illusion created by all kinds of spirits, so if you walk in it, you’re likely to end up at the entrance to a road. Even if you find the correct path, it would take an average wizard or spiritist to break through the spirit barrier that the elves have set up. I don’t know if it will catch me. There is no way that the elves will stay still in the meantime. “The only way is to receive guidance from an elf.”
“That’s right…well. So, are you saying that you are going to leave the safety zone on that ley line and traverse along the ridge of the Blue Line Mountains like you just drew?”
“Yes.”
“There are more than 9 X’s on the line drawn with charcoal right now?”
“It will overlap a little more since it has to curve along the mountain slopes.”
“That territory also includes the realms of people who are so famous that no one in the world knows about them, such as ‘The Three Ghostly Knights’, ‘The Wild Cat Who Died Eight Times’, and ‘Cartanica the Half-Dragon’?”
“If there is no change in the area, will ‘Gertrug, Descendant of Corruption’ be included? Just avoid the dragon and break through the rest. Aldrich, were you really scared? There are two warriors of light and a soul mage here? “Is this level of power rare against the undead?”
“You… don’t you think it’s a bit like being a warrior of light?”
“Isn’t that why you packed it up like this?”
I know. I’m not a hero of light, but I’m a physical water attribute hero who can’t even use a little bit of divine power. That’s why you worked so hard to shake it off, right?
Pakak!
The professor broke the upper sealing device of ‘A Handful of Light’ that he was holding in his hand and threw it at the feet of Aldrich, who seemed to have ‘If you wear a mask, you will die’ written all over his face.
Squeak, crack, crack.
“hmm? What is this-”
Tsk tsk. Flash-blink!
“Wow!”
The ‘handful of light’, which became unstable as the pre-installed hook dug into the sealing device, split into dozens of cracks as if it could not withstand the pressure inside, and soon began to pour out a tremendous amount of light.
“My Nuun! OMG my eyes!”
“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Snow! Leader! What is this! Ahead! “I can’t see ahead!”
“Well. I think it would be better to experience it in advance than to write it without knowing anything and then be blindsided by the battle situation. “You have to experience it first-hand to be able to close your eyes tightly just by hearing [sum-!] in a combat situation.”
It’s not a joke. It is said that education comes from experience.
A handful of light. The so-called Holy Flashbang is one of the most popular unique items in the Light Church. Simple and familiar usage similar to a grenade. A nostalgic design that resembles the ‘Halxruya Bomb’ that appeared in a famous game in the past. It has great effects that cause instant blindness and strong holy damage to undead!
The Cult of Abundance uses the delicious, filling, and nutritious ‘Harvest Potion’ and the Cult of Courage uses the comprehensive buff holy water ‘Baptism of Courage’ that the Cult of Courage pours over their heads just before battle. Wisdom is an exploration (探邪) that allows you to see evil things when worn. )’s circlet, Mercy is famous for its unique items such as ‘Prayer’s Sanctuary’, which provides constant slow healing in the vicinity when it is driven into the ground, while the Church of Gwangmyeong is known as the Holy Flashbang or the Eye of Ro-Haram as it is a Church that serves the light. A handful of light is the item that represents the church.
“Snow! As if my eyes were burning! water! “Hurry up and get some water!!!”
“Gwook!” It hurts my eyes! Buytum and friends are going home! I attain Buddhahood! It’s like a young troll being dragged into a stream! Gwuwook!”
Well, it kills the effect. It’s that effective even for trolls with high resistance to basic status ailments. After all, it is a flash bomb made by the Gwangmyeong Church that is trusted and used.
“Anyway, you all know the effect, right? Save your stamina and mana for real undead or spirit beast level monsters, and use this to deal with the remaining job undead and get through them. Anyone have any questions?”
“Ugh… I knew it was crazy, but…” “
I heard a rumor about something called a ‘handful of light,’ but I never thought it would be this big…”
Everyone grumbled, but only the map. His face looked much more hopeful than when I was watching it. Having experienced it myself, I know how powerful an item it is.
“It was all thought out and prepared. A war where the fate of humanity is at stake is just around the corner. Do you have time to waste even a moment? Go as fast as possible over the shortest distance. Let’s go. To Estanik Village, where the Ray Line, the only passage of the Blue Line Mountains, called the Demon Land, is located.”
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Estanik Village is a village that can be reached by simply following the road due west from the capital, Kingsland. It’s a boring and peaceful road with no particularly rough roads, no big villages, and only a few small forests and hills to go over.
The week-long journey to Estanik should have been such a comfortable one.
Caw caw! “
Damn it,
there’s no end to it.” My nose is numb again. “Please shift, Captain.”
“okay. “You worked hard, Borka.”
As I watched Borka, who had been acting as a scout, wrap his nose and return to his human form, I got off the cart and took about ten steps ahead of the group.
Concentrating your senses and broadening your horizons, and at the same time, a feast of all kinds of information pouring in like a flood.
Tiring-!
[Broken fence: For cavalry tactics. Broken by a strong impact.]
[The ground is sharp and deeply dug into three branches: A pile of dirt with a narrow end that looks as if something sharp has scratched it. Judging from its shape, it resembles a claw mark made from the top down.]
[Pile of burning human bones x N: Most of the bones are broken and lost, so the exact number cannot be estimated. A faint reverberation of magical power remains. It appears to have been completely incinerated using magic]
[Rock embedded in the ground: Similar rocks are embedded here and there. Although it is a size that cannot be used with an existing catapult, it appears to have been fired from quite a distance based on the shape of the nail and the condition of the surrounding soil.]
[Blood-soaked ground + strange, huge pit: Confirmed information (horse footprints + grass) It was confirmed that this was the center of the human side’s formation based on (plate mail boot prints + traces of shield use + unusually concentrated blood traces). Unlike other soil, the inside of the pit is carbonized rather than dried, and it appears that something huge was swung with great force and the formation was shattered in one blow. The slanted portion and traces on the inside appear to be traces of someone attempting to block the blow.]
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“It looks like the Western Front was really… more than I imagined.”
A pile of human bones that seem to have been burned using some magical method and are still burning with the flames still splattering.
A wooden fence torn to pieces, covered in red blood and all kinds of mute body fluids, and a moat in front of it, rotting blood and infested with maggots.
The place where there was a small forest on the map had been cut off as if it had been eaten by a monster with a huge mouth, and at the bottom of the place where the ground had been turned upside down by a magical bombardment, there was a rock with a lot of blood splattered on it like a tombstone. A sword attack with an aura. There were places where the ground was cut into pieces like a checkerboard with claw marks all over the place.
The further west you went over the past week, the more severe the scene became.
Caw! Caw!
“I’m not a superstitious person, but that crow is truly unlucky. “Hey Aldrich, is there a chance that that crow is Mute’s minion?”
“Hmm… First of all, the soul itself is clean. It’s because you’re hungry that you use evil like that. It has to be that way, right? “I came to a famous banquet and it smelled amazing, but there was nothing to eat.”
Aldrich observed a crow roaming the sky with eyes glowing with blue ghost fire under the influence of the [Soul Eye] spell.
“The humans collect and burn all the bodies they can get their hands on, and the mutes also collect and eat them all. “There’s no way there’s a body left.”
“Gwook. Ghost old man teacher. “They’re coming here again.”
“what? already? Umm…. Really. Hey professor! It’s a wave! “Everyone, get ready!”
At Aldrich’s shout, Notum put down the cart he was pulling and took out something that looked like a small white ball. Aldrich opened the soul jar and Otman started making hand signs on the cart.
Crash!
“I’m up! “It’s a little late because I came from so far away!”
“Gwok. Big little human. “Did you see something?”
“fire! You didn’t see it wrong this time! It was definitely a light lit by a person! I’m sure we’re close to the village! “If we stop this one more time, we’ll reach Estani!”
“For some reason, the marches of vengeful spirits are becoming more frequent. Gero-gun, where the dead were approaching the village, guided by the vitality of the living. “If we hadn’t come here and cleaned things up, we would have been in big trouble.”
“well. There’s no guarantee. When you see vengeful spirits wandering around like this, you can’t think that it won’t have an impact on the village, right? [Water Shield]”
Pong!
When Otman chanted a spell along with the sound of opening the lid of the holy water, the water from the holy water mixed as if a white line was drawn between the water rising from the floor, and a soft curtain of water was completed.
“I told you to wait a moment! “Let’s take a breather!”
“You need to know how to cast Water Shield while running.”
“Ugh! [Oh, Ottoman Baudelaire’s water shield!]”
Ouch!
As the professor’s voice sounded like it had been squeezed out, something that looked more like a sloppy swirl than a shield of water rose up like a boil on Otman’s tent. A sigh escaped Otman’s mouth as he watched that scene.
“You… your copy spell can’t even match half of the origin spell. Is it possible for me to pull off spells like Blood Armor, which is an origin spell that is so complex that I can’t understand it even after hearing it, but can’t even properly use Water Shield, one of the most basic spells for a water magician? “As an educator, I feel a sense of self-destruction!”
“What can I do if I can’t concentrate! Last time, I saw a group of evil spirits that Notum had missed being cut off by this holy water water shield! “Even if I rack my brain, all I can think of is how I could take a nap in here, let alone the image of defense!”
“So, if you’re so good at recalling magic that doesn’t exist at all, why can’t you come up with the image of a shield that even has a direct shape! “I asked you to learn just one water shield properly for a week!”
“Those wet wizard friends behind there, please be quiet. “Notum needs to focus a little more from now on, right?”
While Ottman touched his forehead in response to Aldrich’s words and the professor made another hand sign, Notum, who was quietly closing his eyes in front of the cart, was concentrating on the small, white, wooden bag that was rattling in his hand.
It was a simple soul jar that Aldrich put a lot of effort into making during the week he came here, and it was closer to a totem than a soul magician’s soul jar. Aldrich, who saw the souls flocking around in droves, decided that this opportunity could not be missed, so he made a temporary soul jar that Notum could handle in a hurry. The wood that covered the outside was made of tree knots that drank blood and sprouted new shoots in the middle of a battlefield, and the white hollow stones that rattled inside were made by grinding together five finger bones from Notum and one finger bone from Aldrich. Notum, a troll, had been able to create perfect bones with the help of potions for a long time, but Aldrich, a human, could not.
“Gwok. Even without these things, the soul listens to me well. It’s pointless, ghost old man, teacher. “I cut off my fingers and made strange instruments.”
“Hehehehe! A guy who has never taken his hands off his hands after receiving them says something like that? If you are grateful, say thank you, you idiot. This is the original spirit mage tradition. The teacher creates a soul jar containing a part of the body containing a piece of his soul for the disciple who enters the soul art room. Think of it as my small greed. “Isn’t it an honor given to anyone to become the teacher of a soul mage who will reach the highest level in human history?”
Hearing Aldrich’s words, Notum quietly looked down at the strangely shaped totem in his hand. As if reacting to Notum’s gaze,
the bone stones inside the totem were moving and making a rattling sound.
From afar, resentful souls were gathering like clouds.
“Show yourself, Notum. “I wonder what a huge impact it will make when you, who can communicate with spirits through just your senses and have realized your soul child, enter the world of true soul arts!”
Notum, who was looking at the bandage wrapped around Aldrich’s right index finger, snapped his neck and stepped forward.
As the souls approached, I felt my heart beating like a drum.
I learned about soul magic and spells from Aldrich. But in front of that huge group of souls, her instincts were whispering. closer. To face them more deeply.
Grumbling, rattling! Slurp! consciousness! Awareness, awareness, awareness!
As the vengeful spirit approached, the heart rang, and the totem rang violently to match its beat. She took a deep breath, looked at the group of souls filled with deceit and resentment, and raised a heartfelt voice from deep in her heart. The ancient sounds of her ancestors and soul. The sincerity of the race with the oldest origins!
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
much!
Eo-eok-
Eo-eok-
Eo-eok-
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Grumbling.
The totem that had been shaking like crazy quieted down, and the curses and whispers of resentment that had been digging into my mind, as well as the cool air created by the vengeful spirit, disappeared without a trace.
okay. It’s gone. It was not absorbed or contained, but rather disappeared cleanly. It felt like even the gloomy weather had cleared up a little because it had disappeared so completely.
“Uh… Notum? “Didn’t I… tell you to be sincere?”
“So I spoke in the language of our species, which is closest to our emotions. “I think the effect of this instrument is good.”
“No, they gave it to me to put the souls in it, but what on earth did they say? The souls left without a trace…”
Sigh-
“I told them to get out.”
Notum’s proud smile left Aldrich at a loss for words. What Notum had just uttered was the unique cultural battle cry of green skins such as orcs and troll ogres.
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