Chapter 2131: Garan On the Other Side

A/N: Second book of the official audiobook is out!! It’s on Kokoro Audio App~! Do check em out~! Thank you in advance! Xoxoxoxoox

...

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Garan battled when he had to, used the elements to defend himself when it was practical, and then hid himself in crevices he could find if he needed to rest. All this took time.

He emerged to the other side at some point, memorizing the view while he could. The good thing was that the mountain itself was an excellent landmark, making it easy for him to orient himself.

His wife mentioned there was a suspicious forest just beyond the horizon from the granite mountains. He at least had a direction in mind, though he knew the way there would be fraught with obstacles.

He avoided the few wall crawlers on this side, which were fortunately not as common as that of the other side, but it was the ground monsters that were numerous.

Even from where he was, he could see several giant figures within his sight. They were relatively concentrated, and he recalled Althea’s message from before.

Wife, are you there?

Since she could send messages while he couldn’t reply to them, Garan had long guessed that she had done something with the tool.

He knew his wife’s skills, so he was never surprised by what she accomplished. Even if a miracle happened, he’d take it as a matter of fact.

Now that he was on the other side, he hoped that he could receive messages again.

[Wife. I am here.] He said, and to his relief, the message was indeed sent out.

Interestingly, it was as if their minds were connected. His aether letter heated up right after he sent the message, which meant she sent the message at around the same time as he did.

[Husband? Are you here yet?]

[Yes. The mobs are still dense and it may take a while to get to where you are, however. Do you have a lot of mobs in your area? Do you need help?]

[No, we are safe. We also have enough sustenance. Please do not take unnecessary risks. Make a move only when it’s safe enough. In our case, it is when the wind returns.

[When we meet, I’ll show you something good. Be careful. Love you~]

...

Althea read Garan’s mushy reply with a smile before putting it away.

The two of them had always been connected to each other in some way or form. She felt that he had gotten close so she sent a message, surprisingly receiving a message from him at the same time.

"What was that?" The digger orcs next to her asked, very curious. If it were human, this would be a rather intrusive question. For the orcs, it was purely innocent.

"It’s a letter from my husband. He’s nearby."

"Ohhh! Where is he?" they asked, looking around. Some looked at Althea, as if Garan was inside the letter.

She smiled, not explaining. It was a bit too complex for now.

At this time, they were facing the small space stone deposit.

It really was small, probably just a dozen or so ’pebbles,’ but even a single one was considered priceless to the outside world.

That said, she quickly realized that the task of harvesting was truly harder than she thought. It was no wonder only goblins were known to be capable of harvesting them.

They always had this passive of making the stones they mine soften up whenever in contact with them. No matter what item they were mining, the goblins were always the best choice for manpower.

Anyway, to summarize, the Space Stone apparently couldn’t be mined with conventional means!

Even when she handed a sturdy Class D pickaxe to a strength-type orc, it was useless. The pickaxe’s durability even dropped.

It was like the rocks around the space stone condensed to something so dense that it could be considered sturdier than the rock it once was.

After some experimentation, she found out that they could use the pickaxe method only after the stone around the space stone had softened. It was like loosening the artificial density of the rocks and minerals that protected the space stone.

Fortunately, her control of the earth element was improving to a magical degree. She also had to spend nearly two days meditating and absorbing an aether crystal, as well as practicing her controls.

The irony of improving the quality of her earth element in a place with rich wood element didn’t go over her head.

By the time she was able to harvest her first space stone, she had finally leveled up to level 27. Even then, it took hours.

With the current situation, only she would be able to harvest it. This was both good and bad. Bad because it was troublesome, good because even if she left, it would remain untouched.

By the time the wind outside calmed down, she managed to harvest seven space stones, two of which were the bigger pebbles.

She grinned. She would give some to her husband. She had always felt bad about taking all his space stones back then.

Althea had no idea the husband she had been waiting for would soon be at the destination ahead of her.

...

A day later, the wind finally began to pick up a bit. It hadn’t recovered to the usual degree, but it dissipated some of the scents, loosening up the dense mobs concentrated near the various tribes (and the unfortunate Garan).

He messaged his wife about this. She told him it was better to wait until the wind picked up, though everything would be up to him. After all, circumstances could change every second. Going in advance might actually be safer. Who knows?

Garan jumped down. In his case, the consideration was mostly because he missed his wife. He didn’t think going later would make much difference. The monsters in Althea’s area were too dense, and many would remain after the wind picked up. He wanted to be close by.

He immediately headed in the direction he knew Althea was in. However, he hadn’t been able to go far when the ground shook.

He knew a mob was forming nearby, some with such heavy footsteps that he could feel it from where he was. He frowned. It seemed like his scent was more attractive to monsters than he thought.

ROOOOOOOOAAAARRR!!

In an area opposite his destination, he saw a change with his peripheral vision. It was an even bigger monster than he thought. What he thought of as a small hill was actually a monster. It was likely stronger than level 40.

And it was heading in his direction.

His jaw clenched. Fighting against a level 40 beast would be a great challenge for him.

At the same time, several monsters—some level 30s—were heading towards him from another direction.

He and his wife had always been attractive to monsters. His wife, fortunately, developed some techniques to hide her presence and aura, but Garan’s was not like that.

The nature of his powers had always been destructive and overbearing. It was impossible for him to develop a skill related to hiding.

He truly wished for such an ability, however.

Now, Garan was trapped. In the end, he chose to rush towards level 40 one, going straight to the strongest one. Its large body meant it had plenty of blind spots. He could also use its massive size to perhaps reduce the number of enemies from the other side.

He certainly couldn’t lead this mob to Althea, especially not when she was already surrounded by her own mobs. These monsters against him were only a few kilometers away. Given enough time, the monster would be Althea’s problem, and he absolutely did not hand over.

Hence, he had no choice but to head farther away in an attempt to lessen the load on her.

It was a pity he didn’t have the time to send a message, but he knew his wife would trust him. Hopefully, she will be safe.

ROOOOAAAAARRR!

The level 40 monster seemed to have a body made of rocks and soil, making it difficult to damage. He was not sure what was underneath it, but when he attacked the gaps he could find with a deep metal skewer, it felt like stabbing soil.

It reacted and flinched, so he knew it felt the attack, but it was nowhere as damaging as he would’ve hoped.

It seemed like even just injuring it would consume a lot of his energy.

There were also the two level 30 monsters, both trying to get a hold of him. He was grabbed by one, and he battled it while he ran away.

With a sharp turn, he avoided the bite of one monster, getting it to bite the other in an accident.

ROAAAAARR

SLAM!

BANG!

Monsters were technically not sentient, but they were formed in relation to a mixture of various things and creatures. This meant many of those reference habits were carried over, too.

He would try to get them to fight each other, but even after hitting each other, their attention.

For the level 40 monster, it seemed like the other monsters following him, climbing over this moving hill, were more dangerous. At least it wasn’t attacking him in any other way than running to crush him or run over him.

He was slapped in the face very quickly after this thought.

As he stood above the big monster, using it as a battleground, the ground underneath him shook. He jumped over by instinct.

Right at that moment, the ground underneath him seemed to have opened up, revealing a creepy, rounded mouth with serrated teeth several layers.

"..."