The Wind of Eutinus (1)
There were three reasons why I killed the monster and saved Mireina. First was that she was much weaker than me and didn’t pose a risk. Second, I needed a way to gather information inside the Rookie’s Battlefield, since I couldn’t count on Rain for information. The third? It didn’t look hard to do.
“Haven’t you encountered these monsters before?”
“Fortunately, no. The ones I’ve fought before were much weaker than me.”
“Ah, I envy you. I’m not all that strong myself, I’m just doing my best to survive. Man… I miss home.” That was to say, I didn’t think it would be hard to deceive this woman. I didn’t think all elves would be as easy to trick, but this Mireina couldn’t be the sharpest knife if she was out here screaming like a child in front of that monster. ‘Not that I fared much better against my first monster either, I suppose.’
“Where are you from?”
“Quenasat. When I was a bit younger, I decided to leave home and live as a wanderer.”
“Wandering! So you are strong! I’m from Amni myself. Everyone in my village was quite weak when we were brought here. We banded together and tried our best but… now I’m the only one left.” I hadn’t asked, but she was quite eager to give away personal details. ‘I know I saved her, but I’m also a stranger who appeared from nowhere. Show a bit more caution, yeah?’
The thought occurred to me that it might have been a ploy, playing dumb to gather more information about me or catch me off guard. Although I doubted it, it was possible that she could have the skills or artifacts needed to see through me. Whether or not she had an idea of the thoughts going through my mind, she continued to move about happily.
“These monsters are truly terrible, I just want to live a quiet life. Why did the Great Fusion happen… did someone plan all this?”
“If somebody did, I think I would like to meet them.”
“Caesia, that’s a scary face you’re making.” My face was stuck in the expression of a bright smile at the topic, apparently scaring her. We continued walking through the fields, talking all the while until the day turned to night. The artificial sun above us slowly began to adjust its brightness without moving across the sky, changing the daytime lighting to a night setting.
“Caesia, do you like the moon?”
“I do.” Even though I knew it was fake, a construct designed to fulfill the role of both the moon and sun, it was incredibly beautiful to witness after what had felt like so long. As I pulled my gaze away from it, Mireina was there staring at me. ‘This woman is too friendly.’ I averted my gaze from hers, unable to bear it.
“How have you been able to survive this long?”
“I’m not that weak! It’s just in the past few days the monsters have become particularly vicious. It’s because the Wind of Eutinus is so near, and I’ve taken a few hits to my soul from them…” A pained look crossed her face briefly, but she laughed it off, assuring me she would be fine after a couple of nights of good rest. ‘This doesn’t really seem like a safe place to be relaxing so…I guess she expects me to protect her.’
According to Rain, before I arrived here, the elves that built this place planned on living here from then on. Which meant there had to be food here to sustain them, and it probably wouldn’t be a small place to explore either. ‘I think elves prefer to eat fruit and vegetables…’
“I don’t like to eat animals, but somehow they arrived here. They gave these monsters strong bodies to use…have you ever seen an octopus monster? It has all these legs, and it wriggles like this… and it spurts ink all over the place! It’s the worst.”
“Did you kill it?”
“I ran away! I have a skill called Escape, it’s super cool. It lets you get away from danger easily. In fact, if I hadn’t sprained my leg before, I would’ve been able to run away no problem.” She puffed out her chest with pride, filling myself with a strange longing to have this useful skill. At the same time, I was undeniably sure of it now. No doubt.
‘She’s weak. And an idiot.’
“As the monsters managed to worm their way into the battlefield, they caused many disasters. But fortunately, the fruit trees that my people brought here still managed to flourish. What kind of fruits do you like, Caesia?”
“Anything edible is fine.” I wanted to eat the monsters’ corpses in my inventory, but if I did, my cover would be blown. Whether I stayed here with her, or if I went back to the dungeon, I would have to make sure to eat away from the prying eyes of others.
We continued to walk aimlessly. I didn’t know where to go, and she didn’t appear to have a destination in mind. I wondered how long we would have to walk but wasn’t too worried about it. ‘We can only walk for so long, after all, before she’ll need to take a break.’ It wasn’t long after that thought had come to mind that she stopped suddenly.
“The Wind of Eutinus will blow tonight. The monsters; this area… everything will change…” Mireina turned around and started to approach me.
“I think this is a good place to stop and prepare. There’s nothing around here.” She said this with a serious face, but it felt silly to listen to her. I still had no idea about what this Eutinus was, or what would happen. ‘It seems like it’ll change our surroundings, though?’ Also, there was one more thing…
“Hey, what level of detection do you have?”
“It’s not advanced yet, but I’ll need a few at that level in order to get a thousand people. Is that even possible?”
“I haven’t reached a thousand yet either.”
“Really? That’s surprising. You are pretty strong after all. You’re a warrior, aren’t you?”
“No, not really…”
“How much stronger will you become if you did get a thousand people? Maybe you would stand at the top of Elyos.”
“Enough of that.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve met another elf…” Her voice faded away. If all the elves were like this, maybe I wouldn’t need to be hostile toward them. I resolved to solve her misunderstandings.
“Monsters appear to be gathering around you.”
“What…? I can’t detect them… are they outside my range of perception? Incredible… you’re strong and dependable.” She beamed at me with respect. ‘Seriously, how weak are the people of her village?’ I clicked my tongue and pulled out Blood Shadow. It wasn’t small when I was a bugbear, but now it had become the size of a greatsword since I had evolved into a Crimson Elf.
“Two ahead of us and one behind us… three to the left of us around seven hundred meters off. We can take them, but not all at once. Be careful.”
“Six of them?” Mireina was trembling; her face warped with fear as if she were about to be killed by a monster.
“This is bad… the wind is about to come through…”
“Calm down.” I placed my free hand on Mireina’s shoulder, but it offered her no comfort. She shook her head and sank to the ground
“This time I will die. This is it. I will die.”
“Hey.” It’s okay if you’re weak. Everybody has their limits, after all. There was no way I could have become as strong as I was now if I had remained a human. There was no point in ridiculing others for being weak due to their limits. However, if the heart itself was weak…then there was no hope. ‘Disgusting…’ Mireina had given in to her fear of death, though it had yet to arrive, and it filled me with disgust.
“Hey, leave me and run. With your ability, you could survive, right?”
“I could.”
“But you won’t run, will you? Even with someone as useless as me… it’s okay, you know? This body should have died long ago. It was good to meet one of my own kind at the last minute, though. So it’s okay. Run away. Quickly now.” I had to give it to her; at least she wasn’t trying to drag me down with her.
“Don’t worry, I can take care of it.”
“No!” Her scream echoed out.
“The Wind of Eutinus is coming!” The moment she shouted this, I sprung forward. Blood Shadow was in my left hand, several blood fangs in my right. I still had no clue what this wind was, and Mireina may have had a point that I couldn’t defeat six of these monsters. But it didn’t matter. I would have to fight them sooner or later anyway, and now I could sense that there were even more enemies further out. As the night continued, the number of enemies would only increase. Running away wouldn’t be feasible with that many of them, so it would be better to take my stand here.
It seemed that some sort of change would occur due to the Wind of Eutinus, so I had to kill these monsters before then. With that thought at the forefront of my mind, I jumped forward in space. I skipped across the ground, clearing the distance in moments. Two monsters were ahead of me, not yet aware of my presence. I leaped forward one more time to come closer, both monsters turning to look at me as soon as I had landed. ‘It looks like they’re a bit too on guard to surprise…’
[Kugagaaaak!]
The monsters were spread out about twenty meters apart, seemingly unconcerned for each other. They were more focused on me.
[Kiiiiii!]
The Madness Noise rang out, apparently a skill that all these monsters with modified souls possessed. ‘Damn it!’ If It weren’t for my resistance to it, I would have been rendered immobile by the double attack. But instead, the attack had left them defenseless. I had landed on top of the head of the closer one -shaped like a rhinoceros- before they could react, using both power and speed attack to strengthen Blood Shadow.
[Kagaaaak!]
The dark mist surrounding the monster’s body began to split out and flow toward me like tendrils of darkness, but I ignored them. I had to hope my resistance against abnormal statuses would protect me from it. Instead, I focused on concentrating mana into my sword and stabbing it into the creature’s head.
[Kagak!]
Only
My sword stabbed through the monster’s brain, the second one beginning to charge at me. ‘Trying to crush me against your friend?’ I gritted my teeth, pulling my sword free and jumping clear of the collision just as the two monsters collided.
“No!” Mireina’s cry rang out through the fields. It was a scream that tore at the air, reaching me so far away from her. ‘What’s happening?’ I rotated in the air to correct myself, landing softly as my head swiveled to look at her.
The wind was blowing through, full of ominous mana.
[Kugaga!]
The monsters I had noticed before began to flock toward this area, to the two monsters that had collided. I could hardly believe what I was seeing, the leathery skin of the beasts melting together. I hadn’t been fast enough in slaying the monsters, and now… now, something even worse had begun to form. A terrible being of evil and malice was about to emerge from the forms of these monsters.
The Wind of Eutinus began to blow.
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