The place was much closer to the sky than any other location. Peaks blanketed with white snow shot upwards as if they were competing to see who would arrive at the top first, and white clouds flowed next to them like a river. Denest Mountain was the name of the mountain range far in front of them. The gigantic mountain range crossed a total of seven countries and was given a variety of nicknames such as ‘The World’s Roof’, ‘Haven of the Gods’, ‘The First Place to Have Been Created’, and so on. Yet, the reason why the mountain range was so famous wasn’t only because of its vast size. The giant peak in the Denest Mountain Range had the tallest known mountain in the world: Sellockblum. With its rough terrain, it was difficult for an ordinary person to even climb up to the middle.
Clouds and haze covered its peak almost every day so that it was hidden from view. Some even considered this mystical place sacred. Zich and his companions eyed the mountain. The mountain was so big that it made the other peaks in its surroundings look small in comparison. Zich stared at Sellockblum Mountain and then looked at Windur.
‘It really does seem like it’s pointing at that.’
Windur’s twisted blades pointed towards the mountain. Of course, since it was only pointing in one direction, there was also a possibility that it was pointing at something beyond Sellockblum.
‘I should go there first though,’ Zich thought and made Windur change back to its original form before he hung it on his back again.
“Let’s go!” Zich led his companions to a path again. As she stood next to him, Lyla asked, “Your destination is Sellockblum right?”
“It seems so.”
“If it’s Sellockblum, there is bound to be something there.”
“But we don’t have much information about the place.”
Sellockblum appeared like it rejected all human presence, as if it would never fall under human command. Although it was basically impossible for ordinary people to reach its peak, there were unordinary people in this world. People who had heightened their physical abilities with mana had conquered the mountain a long time ago. Yet, the number of mana users in this world was small, and only a few of them could climb Sellockblum. Even mana users had difficulty climbing Sellockblum easily, and there were even fewer people who had a reason to climb the mountain in the first place. After all, there was a difference between being able to do something and actually wanting to do it. Thus, even after it was conquered, much information about the mountain remained unknown.
“Isn’t that the reason why they weren’t discovered for so long? Ah, but if you consider Violuwin, that might not be the case.”
Although Violuwin’s ruin had existed in a big city right under an extremely popular tourist site, people weren’t aware of its presence at all. If Sellockblum had a ruin, it would be even harder to find it.
“Well, let’s go there first. Whether or not it’s our destination or a simple pass-through, we will have to climb it first.”
“Are you going to go right away?”
“No, I’m going to drop by Pialu first.”
Pialu was the city closest to the Denest Mountain Range. No matter how high the mountain range was, there were bound to be people who lived and traded there, and Pialu was a trading point where merchants passed through. Yet, it wasn’t a large trading center flowing with goods and money like the other cities Zich and his companions had visited. The Denest Mountain Range had extremely harsh terrain and moving goods through the area was difficult. Thus, in comparison to other trade cities, Pialu was much smaller in size. However, it was still more than enough to rest a couple of days there.
“Since we don’t know what will happen there, we should get a good rest.”
Lyla thought of the ruin where the Tree of Water and Tree of Earth were and nodded. After walking like this for some time, the sun set, and the moon rose. Zich and his companions set up a simple campsite and lit up a fire. They took out food ingredients from their magic box and ate. Zich looked behind him, and Hans was the next person to notice. He clutched Estellade as he got up. Zich and Hans’ behavior made the rest of their companions wary. Lyla and Elena got up while gripping their staffs and Snoc got up after placing Nowem on his shoulders.
“What is it?” Elena quietly asked Snoc. After concentrating on the noise from the earth, Snoc answered, “Looks like monsters. There’s a considerable number of them. I reckon about twenty to thirty of them.”
Nervousness passed through Elena’s eyes, but it was just enough to be fitting for battle. She had met monsters in this exact manner multiple times now. Lyla swung her staff. Fireballs shot out from her staff and lit up the area. The monsters hiding in the darkness revealed themselves.
“They’re ogres.” Like Zich said, they were large monsters with the ogres and a mix of small monsters with them. Zich lifted his chin while looking at Hans, Snoc, and Elena, and the three of them walked forward. Zich and Lyla stood and watched; there was no need for them to get involved. Soon, a battle erupted between the three disciples and the monsters. Hans ran while holding Estellade. Light shone a couple of times and monsters pushed forward. Snoc lifted the earth and crushed the monsters.
“Move aside!” Elena shouted and Hans stepped back. A giant fireball fell on the already half-annihilated monsters.
Baaaaam!
The earth vibrated and swept the surroundings. Red fire burned the monsters.
Crash!
The last ogre was burned to a crisp and fell. This group of monsters wasn’t at a level to threaten Zich. Hans, Snoc, and Elena walked and sat back down in their spaces. Zich and Lyla were already in their seats.
“Good work,” Zich said shortly afterward and the disciples nodded.
Even though the monsters in front of them would have completely decimated a normal group of travelers, Zich and his companions were extremely calm. Considering their skills, their battle just now was not even a warm-up.
“Don’t you think there’s an unusually large number of monsters?” Lyla expressed her suspicions; it hadn’t been just once or twice that monsters ambushed them in a short time frame.
Zich also had the same thought, so he nodded. “What’s even more unusual is that monsters like ogres are moving around in groups and even with weaker monsters. It’s definitely a strange occurrence.”
“Sir, do you think it might be because we’re near the mountain range? Moreover, it’s not just an ordinary mountain range.”
Hans expressed his opinion, but Zich shook his head. “That could explain the high frequency of monster attacks, but it doesn’t explain why those idiots are moving around in groups. Moreover, even if we’re near the infamous Denest Mountain Range, this amount of monster ambushes is still strange.”
Most of all, they were near a city: Pialu. Compared to a full-fledged trading city, it was a shabby place, but a city was still a city. In addition, Pialu was also the first line of defense against monsters that might come down from the Denest Mountain Range.
Lyla said, “Then, you’re saying that something happened there, right?”
“Yep.” Zich looked sideways. At the end of the dark path, there’d be Pialu, and beyond it was the Denest Mountain Range. Lastly, Sellockblum was inside the Denest Mountain Range. What would be waiting for them there?
‘I hope it’s something related to the tree.’ Zich filled his heart with hope.
* * *
After staying the night, the companions continued walking. The monster ambushes continued, but they were unable to cause any harm to Zich and his companions. Instead, all the monsters lost their lives. However, not everyone could defend themselves against monster ambushes like Zich and his companions.
“…It’s awful.” Lyla scowled, and Hans, Snoc, and Elena did the same.
Zich took a step forward and picked up a random arm sprawled out on ;the ground. The arm’s cold temperature seemed to represent the feelings of the owner when they died. Hans and Snoc also scanned the surrounding corpses.
“Senior, monsters must have done this, right?”
“Yeah.” While bending one of his knees, Hans picked up a leg sprawled on the ground and scanned his surroundings. “There are no other parts.”
Only flesh and a few limbs remained on the ground—no other body parts could be seen. Moreover, considering the enormous amount of blood spilled on the ground, the number of body parts was extremely small. There was only one explanation that Hans could think of.
‘They were all eaten.’ Hans clicked his tongue and got up after straightening his legs.
Contrary to Zich, Hans, and Snoc who investigated the corpses, Lyla and Elena scanned the items that probably belonged to the dead people. Shattered pieces of wood were scattered on the floor. They were so thoroughly shattered that it was impossible to know what they could be used for if not for a small fragment of a carriage wheel that was also left behind. If this small fragment wasn’t present, Lyla and Elena would have had to decipher the purpose of the wooden pieces just by guessing.
“They must have been merchants.”
There were various miscellaneous goods on the ground. It seemed as if the monsters left them behind because they were not edible goods. The companions judged that merchants passing through this path were massacred by the monsters’ sudden ambush. After roughly collecting the corpses, they buried them next to the path and raised one grave marker in front. Then, they headed off to Pialu. However, it was not long until they met with another pile of corpses. And then another. And another.
“It seems like the situation is more serious than we thought.” Zich rubbed his chin as he stared at the blood-stained ground where there was not even a piece of flesh left. This was also after they defeated another group of monsters.
‘Our feet might be tied to Pialu for a while.’
Even though Zich decided to officially start acting like a hero later on, he didn’t think it was a bad idea to at least start the foundation earlier on. He thought it would be fine to give some of his support if Pialu was being exposed to monster ambushes.
Wth this in mind, Zich met with another pile of corpses. It seemed as if the merchant group this time was extremely large—there were a great number of scattered goods, wagon fragments, human body parts that were not eaten yet, and blood marks. It also seemed as if the merchants had shown great resistance as they also saw parts of monster flesh. The monsters must have also eaten parts of their fellow comrades as well.
The companions easily piled up the body parts to one side. They dug a hole next to the path and were about to bury the parts with dirt when—
Dudududududu!
They heard the sound of horse hooves from afar. Lyla stared at where the sound came from. “People that look like mercenaries are coming.”
Zich had noticed the group of people earlier on, and he said calmly, “They’re probably people hired by the city. The city won’t stay still when things are like this.”
“There probably won’t be a conflict between us, right?”
“Would they try to pick a fight with a human when monsters are running amok like this? Unless they’re seriously crazy, they’ll just glance at us and go their own way.”
“But what if they’re crazy?”
“Why do you even need to ask?” Zich replied without hesitation as if Lyla was asking about natural truths like rivers flowing into oceans and objects falling down to the ground. “If they pick a fight, we have to fuck them up. I said I’ll act like a hero, not like a stupid-ass dipshit pushover.”
Zich tilted his head. “Ah, are those two things actually the same?”
“…You really have a lot of animosity against the word hero.” Lyla shook her head.