Chapter 498: Our Luck Is Really Something ( PS Bonus - )

Chapter 498: Our Luck Is Really Something ( PS Bonus Chapter )

Hundreds of stone terraces had been built along the mountain slope, and thousands of fruit trees had probably once grown on them.

Now, most of the trees were dead.

Hollow trunks rose toward the sky like black hands.

But not everything was dead, small ponds between the terraces had been filled with rainwater, and plants with pale blue leaves had grown inside them.

As One passed by, the light of the plants shook on the surface of the water, it was beautiful despite being abandoned, and perhaps that was what made its beauty sad.

It was clear that people had truly lived here once, built gardens, shared the water between the terraces, and walked along the narrow paths between the trees.

And now, the only thing left from that life was the stones between which monsters wandered.

They encountered three groups of monsters that same day.

Lian did not interfere much.

Kain handled the first group, golden light gathered around his hands, and by using the narrow space between two walls, he did not let the monsters reach him at the same time.

One took the second group.

A heavy monster with thick skin struck its Natural Armor several times, but in the end, it fell under its jaws.

The young Vorhelm only blocked the path with ice when one of the creatures tried to escape.

The cores were also left for the giant ant.

[Monster core absorbed.]

It was still not enough, it seemed that absorbing cores had no end, even Lian’s guess of fifty had turned out to be wrong, and although it had absorbed hundreds of cores, it was still not enough to complete One’s evolution condition.

One’s dissatisfaction was completely clear through the Colony Link, and its master placed a hand on one of its antennae.

"I don’t know how many more you want either. Don’t look at me." This made a thought come to his mind.

Maybe this was why normal monsters preferred to eat humans and Awakeneds instead of absorbing the cores of their own kind.

Maybe eating humans was actually a shortcut that allowed them to complete their evolution condition faster.

"Are you talking to it?" Kain passed by them.

"It understands."

"Great. Now I dislike its name even more."

Lian did not answer.

A large part of the third day passed without any fights, the World Memory showed several old roads that practically no longer existed.

One had been buried under a mountain slide, and another passed through a forest that had completely swallowed the path over the centuries.

In the end, they had to take a longer route along the mountain slope.

And near the afternoon, they saw the first lantern.

"What is that?"

The young Vorhelm looked ahead, a stone statue was standing at the edge of the path.

It was taller than a human, and both hands of the statue were holding something like a huge lantern.

The lantern was unlit, and several hundred meters ahead stood a second statue, then a third, and a line of statues continued along the road.

Some were still intact, while some had no heads.

One was broken and had fallen to the ground, but its hands were still locked around the stone lantern.

Lian opened the map, and the last record from the base was located around this area.

[Pass of the Extinguished Lanterns.]

They moved for a few more minutes, and then the main view appeared.

Two huge mountain walls rose on both sides of a very deep valley.

A stone bridge stretched between them, the bridge was wide enough for several carts to pass beside each other at the same time.

Both sides of the path were covered with statues holding lanterns.

Nothing could be seen under the bridge except fog, thick gray fog that had completely swallowed everything hundreds of meters below the edges.

On the other side of the bridge, the remains of a huge gate stood, and one of its towers had collapsed while the other half was still standing on the cliff.

And behind it, a wide plain disappeared into the fog.

He looked at the map, the line of new information from the base ended exactly there, while the World Memory still showed several old roads on the other side of the pass.

From this point onward, their map came to an end and lost all its usefulness, and unfortunately, the World Memory was also useless without a usable map.

And this was not good news at all because they had to continue the rest of the path without a map.

"I think we made it." Kain smiled.

"Almost." Lian was still looking at the map.

Near the entrance of the bridge, a camp could be seen, several tents, carts, and marked hunter flags with a small defensive array around them.

It was clear that groups of Awakeneds were using this place as a stopping point before advancing farther.

But a few seconds later, the young Vorhelm noticed something.

Smoke.

The problem was that there was too much of it, and it looked darker than the smoke from a cooking fire.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Kain."

"I saw it."

One slowed down without needing an order, and it was not long before the sound of the first explosion came.

BOOOOOOM!

A light passed beside the bridge and hit the outer layer of the camp’s defensive array.

The defensive layer shook and one part of it went out for a moment, at the same time, a scream was heard.

Lian leaned slightly forward from One’s back, and as they got closer, the scene became clearer, several Awakeneds had taken positions behind an overturned cart.

One of them had fallen to the ground and blood was coming from his thigh, while two others were trying to pull him back.

On another part of the bridge, three Awakeneds were fighting a group of attackers.

But they were not monsters ....they were humans!

They were wearing armor with different designs.

Dark metal, long pieces of cloth, engraved shoulder guards, and weapons that had nothing in common with the usual equipment of Earth’s Awakeneds.

One of them also held a long spear with Mana lines running along its body, their movements were not disorganized, they had a formation.

Two people in front and archers or something similar behind them, while another person was giving orders from a distance.

They looked nothing like the people from their world, so there could only be one meaning ....the natives of the Ruined Realm.

Lian checked the entire battlefield for a moment, there was no way to know who had started the fight.

It was possible that the Awakeneds had entered a forbidden area, or it was possible that the other group had attacked them.

There could be another reason between them.

But for now, several Awakeneds were injured, the camp’s defensive array was close to breaking, and the battle was still continuing.

One stopped at the top of the slope, and Kain slowly got down from its back, took a battle stance, and pale light formed between his fingers.

Just a short while ago, he had said that they might encounter the natives of this world themselves, and now it had happened ...

Lian did not jump down and first moved his eyes from the camp to the native warriors, then to the escape routes, the injured, the enemy formation, and finally to his friend.

The corner of his lips rose slightly.

"There you go, I told you, with our luck, meeting them was only a matter of time."