(EP-68.1) Shadows Cast #4
068 – Shadows Looming Ark #4
There were quite a few ruins in Gracia.
In any world, most relics would have academic value.
It was the same for the ancient castle located in the North of the city.
Me, Mirna and Elga arrived in an area commonly called the ‘Old Castle Ruins’.
“Is this really the place?”
Elga scanned around the area.
Elga’s clear blue eyes trailed along the winding vines on high stacked bricks and the thorn bushes surrounding it.
“It’s creepy.”
Beyond the dark walls, even though it was not yet evening, the gardens and corridors looked overcast and stuffy. The smashed stone statues abound definitely wasn’t helping the atmosphere either.
“Is there no one but us?”
When Elga asked that, I also looked around.
The place was full of mud and weeds, and even several strange footprints…
Mirna was likewise vigilant. She also checked the mud with her finger.
“Seeing that the mud hasn’t hardened, the footprints are new. But I don’t think anyone’s here at all.”
It was as Mirna said.
It would have been normal if there were already 9 teams other than us here. But they were nowhere to be seen.
Did they go deep inside?
At this time, Elga took a deep breath.
“Is there anyone—!?”
Soon, a loud, thunderous roar erupted from her mouth.
It really sounded like natural thunder rather than a human voice. Being so close to her, it felt like a gun was fired right beside me without anything to plug my sensitive ears.
Meanwhile, Elga just clicked her tongue.
“No response. It seems we are too late.”
“Where did all the people who arrived before us go?”
Picking my now-deaf ears, I asked Elga who had just found someone’s uniform robe that had fallen on the ground. Elga answered with a, “Hah”.
She then pulled a huge ax out of thin air and laughed.
“It’s funny. They really set such an obvious trap. It’s funnier to go into such an obvious trap. Not even butterflies would fly into a very clear web.”
Completely opposite of her words, Elga confidently stepped on the mud and began to move forward.
Mirna also followed suit, so I had no choice but to go with them.
“Hey, Theo. If something pops out, don’t do anything and just stick to Noona’s back, understand?”
Elga said jokingly, trying to reassure me.
To that, I responded appropriately, “I do.” But unlike before, I now had some power to fight back.
Having defeated a previous opponent with magic, my will to fight increased with my level.
“Then let’s go inside now.”
Elga was currently standing in front of two very huge doors which were gates that probably hadn’t been used for several decades.
There was a gap between them, big enough for one person to fit in. Beyond that, it was absolute terrifying darkness.
Sch.
Elga suddenly covered her nose.
“The smell of rot. The smell of death. The smell of decay. There’s something here. Hey, Mirna, what do you think?”
Mirna, who was looking around anxiously, trembled.
“It’s a perfect place for the undead and ghosts to hide. They like old, broken, quiet places like this…”
As she was saying that, Mirna’s body started shaking little by little.
Of course, without my sensitive Half-Fairy sense, I wouldn’t have caught it since it was barely noticeable. Mirna was probably frightened.
Well, Narmi, Mirna’s younger sister, had already spilled the beans.
Mirna, despite being born into a lineage of necromancers, was afraid of things like ghosts.
Such a person would be scared out of her wits wandering around the ruins of an ancient castle like this.
“Then I’ll go in first.”
Tossing a torch into the darkness, Elga passed through the small gap.
“Ugh. It’s tight. It’s narrower than I thought.”
Her chest was big, so it was a tight fit, but she somehow got through. Probably because of its elasticity and softness.
“Come, go one at a time.”
At Elga’s signal, I decided to send Mirna first.
“You go in first. I’ll watch your back.”
“… Okay.”
Mirna also seemed to find it quite difficult to enter through the cramped door, but it wasn’t anything like Elga. She stepped in and stood in the dark.
I was the only one left.
Then, just as I was about to enter…
━Graaaa-!
Paseuseuk, paseuseuseuk.
Something broke through the ground.
They took the form of people in old, rotten armor.
The gaps between the armor revealed the chilling sight of hollowed out skulls and thin skeletons.
━Gruaaah!
How many were there? Five? Ten?
I didn’t know. The important thing right now was that they had found and started rushing towards me. Mirna, who was waiting inside the door, shouted.
“Skeletons! Hurry up and get in here!”
Even if Mirna hadn’t shouted, I was thinking that it would be better to go inside the castle.
Thus, I began putting my body in the cramped gap. Before I knew it, the skeletons had already grabbed my leg and pulled me in the opposite direction.
━Greuaaaaahhh!!!
“What…!?”
Thanks to this, I couldn’t enter the gate and was instead pulled outward.
Aaaaah.
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