"Nu…Ri…Bass!" The other male Claw Warrior looked surprised and angry. It turned around and yelled at Angele, but Angele could not understand what its words meant. The Claw Warrior raised his huge claws and charged toward him furiously with a speed so fast, its body turned into a yellow flash.
Angele muttered the incantation in a low voice and quickly raised his dagger to block the incoming strike.
*CLANK*
Both of them backed off upon realizing the similarity of their strength level.
Angele turned around right after stepping back. His dagger drew a silver line in the air as he attempted to stab the Claw Warrior's head.
Two rays of red light left the tip of his dagger. One of them disappeared into the air, while the other struck its head. The warrior slowed down its action after taking the hit.
Angele's dagger easily pierced its right eye and half of the blade was inside its head.
He immediately pulled the dagger out, resulting in a yellow eyeball dropping to the ground as blood spurted out of the wound.
The Claw Warrior stepped back and went down on his knees before he stopped moving. The other one was slain by Angele using the same method. It fell to the ground, and beside their bodies, a pool of blood was formed.
‘So they need to activate the force field by themselves, and it seems they can't maintain it for a long time. My close combat spells are a great match in dealing with enemies like that. I only need to wait for a chance.' Angele turned around and shook the blood off his dagger before returning it back to its sheath.
The girl's knees wobbled and she crumbled down onto the ground. Her breathing was heavy and her face pale. It seemed like she was exhausted after escaping the pursuit of two Claw Warriors.
"Are you alright?" Angele looked at her and asked.
"Yea… I'm fine." The girl answered right away, "Thank you."
Angele could see the wounds on her legs and arms.
"Good." Angele nodded. He walked toward the bodies and dipped his finger into the blood, tasting it.
‘Unknown parasites detected! Warning! Clean your mouth immediately or you will get infected,' Zero suddenly reported.
Upon hearing that, Angele's expression changed. He spat the blood out and took out some leaves from his pouch before putting them into his mouth. He chewed the leaves for a while and spat everything out right after. Angele repeated this process several times.
‘Parasites are gone.' Zero finally signaled.
Angele had a bitter smile on his face. He had now decided to stop putting everything into his mouth. He had never encountered parasites before, and he didn't want to get infected in the wild. He wiped the blood off his nails. Then he drew his dagger out and started cutting the Claw Warrior's claws.
As expected, their shells were incredibly hard. Angele spent a while just to cut one of their claws off. Their skin seemed like a human's, yet the texture was akin to iron. Angele initially thought that the female Claw Warrior's shell bra was made from special materials, but disappointment replaced his expectation after finding out that it was just an ordinary clamshell.
"Let's go." Angele grabbed the claw and stood up, "Hurry up, we only have one hour."
"Sure," the girl responded, "I thought it was one hour and a half?" She suddenly realized.
"Nope, just one hour," Angele whispered.
They walked toward the door they came from and re-entered through it, successfully returning to the patio. Only two Claw Warriors had entered this door, while the rest had gone after the others, so the place became deadly silent again.
Angele walked directly to the entrance of the garden on the other side. The girl followed him from behind, looking relieved.
The garden was about the size of an average backyard. Plenty of rare plants and vegetations were planted. Angele couldn't believe his eyes as those priceless materials filled the entire place just like common crops.
Angele looked around and some huge mushrooms caught his attention. Those mushrooms were about the size of an adult. Their stipes was white and their caps red. They looked attractive in a bizarre way.
"Perro Flower… It's Perro Flower!" The girl got excited. She ran toward the blue flowers and took out her herb-gathering equipment.
Angele scrunched up his eyebrows and glanced around.
‘Did you find any suspicious movement?' Angele asked.
‘Nothing detected.' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his head.
Angele held his dagger tightly and started wandering around in the garden. Again, the area was small. He could walk from one side to the other within 15 steps. It seemed like the garden was built for those rare materials.
Angele found many plants that he had only read about from the books, such as the Rainbow Flowers, Black Chrysanthemum, Ear Flowers, and Maggot Grasses.
Angele stopped by some strange-looking mushrooms and crouched down. He felt relieved after making sure no threat was in the garden.
Those mushrooms were white and tiny. There were red smiley faces on their caps, almost like someone intentionally drew faces with a pen.
He had never read about mushrooms like that. Angele scrunched up his eyebrows again and slowly reached out to them with the dagger.
"Hehehehe…" Those mushrooms laughed and stood up. Hands and legs appeared on their bodies. While holding each other's hands, they quickly surrounded Angele in a circle.
"La~ LaLaLa~ LaLaLa~" They started singing and started spinning.
Angele looked at all the twisted red smiley faces. He could feel the chill creeping up his back. He kicked some of the mushrooms away and rushed toward the only path in the garden, but the mushrooms followed him from the behind within seconds. All of them were still laughing and singing.
The mushrooms that fell to the ground got up slowly and caught up quickly. Although Angele knew the faces were not their expressions, the scene was still horrifying to him.
"What the hell! What the f*ck is this place!" Angele shouted. He turned back and ran toward the exit.
He quickly grabbed what he could on the way to the exit, including the Dragon Scale Flower he wanted. The mushrooms, however, were still on his tail.
They were singing, jumping, and laughing, but Angele did not look back. He suddenly heard birds chirping in the sky. Flocks of black birds started circling above him. There were so many of them that they looked like black clouds.
The sky was slowly turning red. It was still gray several minutes ago, yet things changed as soon as Angele approached those mushrooms. Clouds of black birds, laughing mushrooms, and the red sky, everything was making the atmosphere heavier and heavier.
"Move!" Angele grabbed the girl's hand and ran with her.
However, he didn't feel the weight of a human being, so he turned his head back immediately only to see a leather chest piece in his hand. Angele had been certain that he saw the girl before grabbing her hand.
Angele scalp tingled from fear. He threw the chest piece onto the ground and quickly looked around. There was no sign of the girl, but he knew the girl was wearing a red one piece under the leather armor. The only red things in his sight were the faces on the mushroom caps and the sky.
The sky was getting darker, and he was the only one in the garden. More and more mushrooms appeared from nowhere, laughing as they ran toward Angele.
"Damn!" Angele could feel the numbness from his scalp. He finally reached the exit and returned to the patio.
He was shocked after seeing the changes that had happened to the patio: the water in the pool was gone and the bottom of the pool was cracked as if the water had never been there.
The mushrooms were still chasing him, so Angele had no time to check the pool. He started running along the way he came from.
‘Zero, record every change in the environment.' He tied the claw onto his back and threw all the materials he got into one of the larger pouches.
‘Forcefield is shifting intensively… You are inside a huge force field. Situation: Unknown. Please leave the area immediately…' Zero's voice was unclear due to the interaction with the strong force field.
Goosebumps rose on Angele's skin. The mushrooms' number almost tripled as they rushed toward Angele like crazy.
As Angele was getting closer to the exit, he took out an arrow and nocked it onto his bow.
"Atoria, Masnightin!" Angele shouted out incantations.
A blue rune appeared at the tip of the arrow. The rune was twisted and looked like a badly written number four. Blue lightning sparked around it, creating noises.
Angele pulled the bowstring to a full moon and aimed at the sea of mushrooms. He shot the arrow without hesitation, resulting to a blue line being drawn in the air as it descended into the sea of mushrooms.
The Electricity-imbued Arrow seemed effective as many mushrooms fell to the ground after being shocked by the electric pulse.
Angele kept running, sweat covering his face. He finally found the white gate and left the patio.
Outside the gate was the road built using the Screaming Bricks. Angele stepped on them quickly, but he did not hear anything screaming. They did not move, and they looked like ordinary bricks. Angele saw another person ahead of him. It was the black-robed man.
The sky was dark, last rays of light poured onto the ground. Objects around were barely visible.
‘Time is up.' Angele checked the timer with Zero. Almost an hour had passed. The mushrooms stopped near the white gate as though they couldn't go past that.
The black-robed man heard the footsteps and turned his head around. Upon seeing that it was Angele, his face was filled with surprise. However, they didn't communicate and only kept running.
The black-robed man's hood dropped down due to the wind, Angele realized it was a lady after seeing her long, brown hair and her beautiful neck.
Angele was much faster than her, so he quickly left her in the dust.
*GA GA*
The black birds were still in the sky and their chirps were loud and strange. Angele raised his head and looked at the sky.
Great flocks of black birds were still circling around the sky, Angele felt sick by just looking at them.
"Help me! I'm Princess Delanya from Liliado! Please…" The lady was almost crying.
Angele turned back and looked at her. Fear was written all over her face and tears were dripping down her chin. Shadows were catching up to her and they almost reached her feet.
Angele knew that she didn't help him at all back at the pool, but he still decided to help her. He grabbed her hand and started running again. Angele moved much faster than those shadows, and they finally reached the sign at the forked road.
They finally stepped out of the Moon Gin Manor's area. The sunlight returned and the sky became clear.
Angele covered his eyes with his hands since the light was still too intense for him. He could hear the lady breathing heavily on the side.
"Finally… We made it!" The lady sat down on the ground.
"A manor that brings death…" She muttered and wiped the tears off her face.
Angele looked at the direction of the manor. The road was still covered with weeds and there were no footprints at all. It was like they never entered the area.
"Don't worry, we are good." The lady stood up and took off her mask. Her skin was glossy and her lips were pouting. She looked gentle and noble; Angele believed she was a princess.
There was a pair of silver earrings on her ears. They were glowing, and Angele wondered if they were enchanted items. He stopped observing and checked the things he had obtained from the manor: a claw from Claw Warriors, and a decent amount of rare materials he grabbed on his way out.
‘Great.' Angele calmed down and felt happy with what he had gotten.
"Thank you for saving me. My name is Delanya, and this is a small gift for you. I'll remember what you did for me there, and I will return the favor in the future." She put on the hood and covered her face with the mask again. She handed a telescope-like brown tube over to Angele.
Delanya left immediately after giving Angele the tube. Angele stood there for a while and looked at the path to Moon Gin Manor one more time before heading back to town.
"I hope I don't have to return to this damn place," Angele mumbled.
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