Even though it was desolate and decreasing with each moment, it undoubtedly possessed the kind of aura only living entities did.
"Gulp." The man swallowed his dry saliva and opened his mouth to question when—
"It didn't decay even after a year. Fucking monster." Princess Nora shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and walked to the hill-like monster and kicked it.
Szzz!
The monster burnt up a bit as fire mana circulated from Nora's shoes into its corpse.
But that was all.
Except for a burnt smell, the hill-like entity stayed still.
Prince Jamie shrugged and walked to the edge of the valley.
There was only a very thin mist wall, trembling as if it'd dissipate at any moment.
Nora kicked the creature once again and stood beside Jamie.
Prince Curtis looked at them and shook his head.
Then, he turned to the brawny man and said. "You know why this region was still partially explored until this year?"
"I…" The man didn't know why. He simply entered this place in hopes of getting lucky.
"You see, this creature is the guardian beast of this valley." Prince Curtis pointed to the creature and snapped his fingers.
Boom!
The colossal corpse flipped and revealed a grotesque figure.
It was a giant black creature with violet bone-like protrusions all over its body. These protrusions were previously mistaken for trees.
The creature's head itself was wide enough to park a plane.
"…Fuck." The man swore. Even without him noticing, his back was drenched in sweat and he was trembling from head to toe.
This monster…this kind of monster…
"…The level 7, level 8 and level 9 valleys each have a guardian beast." Prince Curtis explained with a calm voice.
The crowd, however, paled at his words.
"The conditions to go beyond this valley is to clear up all the guardian beasts. Of course, every year, mankind teamed up to kill either a level 8 or 7 or 9 guardian beast." Prince Curtis said with a nonchalant face.
"…"
The crowd, however, found him to be scary.
"But you see, the only condition to open the valley is to kill all the monsters in the same year. Or they'll be replaced next year. Last year is the first time we accomplished the feat." He smiled brightly and walked to the two.
Princess Nora looked at the dumbfounded crowd and shook her head.
She pointed to the brawny man who made a fuss earlier and said. "For your undeveloped brain, I'll make it clear. We were the biggest contributors to last year's fight. We killed this beast. You think you stand a chance?"
"…"
The man lowered his head and joined the crowd. Everyone distanced themselves from him.
With a depressed smile, he stood at the back alone.
'I fucked up.' The man sighed. 'Without anyone teaming up, it'll be real bad, hmmm?'
Just like him, a young man was also standing at the back of the crowd. But unlike his depressed face, the young man was humming a tune and smiled from time to time.
And he was continuously plucking the petals of a flower he held in his hand. But due to the speed with which he plucked them off, a flower was emptied in a moment. Thankfully, he seemed to have stock as another flower appeared in his hand right away.
But…
"W-What the fuck?"
There was a fricking flower bed under the young man. No, it was accurate to say it was a petal bed. It was reaching his knees!
Even if he was plucking the petals fast, to reach that level, he needed to do it for several hours.
"…Are you kidding me?" The brawny man looked at the smiling young man with a pale face.
Among the level 7s present here, he wasn't a hard worker and lost his title as a prince due to his lack of progress.
His plan was to loot a few and kill a couple to change his life.
But even he…
'This bastard is nuts!' The brawny man shivered and took a few steps away from the young man.
The men in power feared the common man. The common man feared bastards. Bastards feared crazy men. Crazy men feared nothing!
"Oh?" the young man, while continuing to pluck the petals raised his hand and glanced at the brawny man.
"You want?" He raised a finger and a bunch of flowers floated to the brawny man.
"I…I don't want." The brawny man raised his hands and shook his head like a rattle.
"Ohhh." The young man sighed like it was a pity and continued his business.
Even when the crowd avoided him, even when they looked at him with strange gazes, he didn't seem bothered at all.
'How? Does he have no sense of shame?' the brawny man wondered.
Five more minutes passed and the mist wall dwindled further but didn't vanish yet.
"23:59."
Someone read out the time.
The brawny man held his breath.
One minute.
Just one more minute.
The atmosphere started to heat up.
The teams within the crowd began to group up. Almost everyone was in some group or another.
They weren't going to stay together until the end, but at least for the initial difficulties, they planned to face them together.
If they were careless, death was a real possibility.
So, despite the condition of splitting the initial rewards, they put safety first.
"Tch. Those bastards are acting all righteous now. Hypocrites." The brawny man cursed under his breath as he gazed at a five-member team to the far left.
The five glared at him as if saying. 'You aren't welcome.'
"Tch." The man clicked his tongue and sighed in exasperation. "I'm alone? Alone? Really? The fuck!"
'Wait…' His eyes widened and he recalled one weirdo that was plucking the flower petals.
The bastard turned around and said with a bright smile "Brother, do you want to—"
His smile froze and his words came to an abrupt pause.
"One. Twoo. Threeee. Fourrrr…" The young man mumbled softly as if he was engrossed in his world.
Wait…it wasn't really a soft mumble. In fact, with each number, his voice turned more and more excited and his breathing was ragged.
"W-What the fuck?" The bastard felt that this guy might be a psycho.
"Fifty eight…Fifty nine…" As he reached the end of the count, the young man raised his head and stared at the mist wall with burning eyes.
The intensity in those eyes…it far exceeded even the worst addicts the bastard knew.
'What's up with this kid?' the bastard's head spun and he threw all plans of teaming up with him out of the window.
He could work with naive people, stupid ones, even cunning ones, but this guy…
'He looks like the kind of guy who courts death and drags me down with him.'
Seeing the crazy smile on the young man's face, the bastard's opinion only strengthened.
So, he decided to distance himself further from the young man and go solo despite the risks.
"Go!"
The misty wall disappeared and everyone shot forward.
Dust rose to the sky and in the blink of an eye, the field was empty.
Except for the bastard.
"W-Wait, did he just overtake everyone?"
He was somewhat certain. The young man beside him overtook everyone and raced ahead.
"…Maybe I should've teamed up with him?" He thought.
He didn't know…
The young man was really someone who courted death.