Chapter 435: You Are a Dwarf?

The giant was about six or seven stories tall. Although the Thorny Beast was much shorter, for the group, all of whom were under two meters in height, there was no way to see the tops of their heads other than flying up.

And as Jilannis lifted Ron and the others, their view gradually expanding, Silvia let out a gasp of surprise, and everyone’s eyes focused on the top of the Thorny Beast’s roughly triangular head.

There, a round, pitch-black, and bizarre mark was coiled atop the Thorny Beast’s head like a great serpent. As the Light Magic shone upon it, the mark’s surface reflected two neat rows of an eerie glow, as if the serpent were baring fangs at the group, ready to spray venom at any moment!

"What... is that symbol?" A chill ran down Ron’s spine as he stared at the light reflecting from the strange mark—and it wasn’t just his imagination!

’He could feel it. Whoever branded this mark onto the great beast’s head was a terrifyingly powerful Caster—perhaps even more powerful than Jilannis!’

’At least, in his experience, Jilannis’s creations had never given him such a hair-raising feeling!’

"Benefactor, you... you feel it too?" The Vampire Mage clutched her Walking Stick to her chest, swallowing hard. "Did its master brand it with this? That must be an incredibly evil being!"

Unlike Ron, Silvia could, to some extent, perceive the alignment of the master behind the mark, and the result chilled her to the bone.

"So, the giant was actually fighting the Thorny Beast’s master?" Victoria frowned slightly. "But why was the Thorny Beast’s corpse also left here?"

"Could it be that a monster like this is nothing more than a disposable pawn to that being?"

"Don’t deify an unknown enemy, Victoria," Ron reminded her. "If the being that created this brand is really that powerful, it might already be close to the Deities."

"There must be other clues we’re missing, like—aha! Look at the top of the giant’s head!"

As the group rose even higher, an even more shocking sight appeared before their eyes: on the giant’s head, there was the exact same mark—and not just one!

Three marks, looking as if they had been stamped from the same seal, crowned the plant giant’s head. As the Light Magic reflected off them, they cast a menacing gaze upon the group. Unlike the one on the Thorny Beast, these three marks also seemed to be highly corrosive. They had etched jagged, uneven scars into the giant’s crown. Ron directed the light source closer to the wounds; they appeared to have pierced straight through the giant’s skull, exposing tissue inside that resembled brain matter.

But after so much time, this tissue had long since rotted into sludge. Countless fungi and microorganisms thrived and multiplied within, treating the inside of a giant’s head as their entire world.

"This isn’t a brand to mark ownership. It’s for... killing."

"It looks like a third party intruded while the giant and this Thorny Beast were fighting and ended the battle with a sneak attack." Ron signaled for Jilannis to set him down on the giant’s head.

The space wasn’t particularly wide, but there was more than enough room for a few people to stand. Ron summoned the Weaving Introduction to try and identify the origin of the Magic. The Spellbook began flipping through its pages at high speed; it looked like it wouldn’t find an answer anytime soon.

"You won’t have an easy time getting an identification from that," the Sword-Singing Lion Armor said, its tone dripping with disdain for the old. "That was the handiwork of my other half from centuries ago. Its performance is far inferior to this suit of armor."

"’It was made by the original, sole ’me’," Jilannis corrected. "It and the Sword-Singing Lion Armor are not the same kind of creation. There’s no point in comparing them."

"And at the very least, it’s far, far superior to that mask you cobbled together."

"I can predict the outcome every time you two argue. Jilannis wins, and Jilannis also loses," Aive said from behind Ron. Her eyes were glued to the human, who had lifted a boot and was prodding dangerously at the edge of the giant’s "brain-hole," ready to pull him back at a moment’s notice.

"I’d advise against that. The inside is probably soft..." the Half-Elf Warrior kindly warned Ron. "If you accidentally fall in, it’ll be like sinking into a swamp—Ron?!"

Ron didn’t hear his companion’s well-intentioned warning. The moment he was just testing the edge, his consciousness was seemingly yanked into another dimension.

Finally, the SQUELCH of his boot landing fully and Aive’s scream faded away as if in a dream. When Ron’s mind stabilized again, he found himself in a different, twisted, and absurd dimension.

"Where... is this?"

Ron still hadn’t fully recovered his senses. He tapped his head and tried to focus on his surroundings, but the phantasmagorical scene made him feel as if he’d forgotten to put on the glasses he’d stopped wearing years ago. Everything was blurry and indistinct; all light sources seemed to diffuse outward, melting into hazy nebulas.

’Why am I here?’ was the next question on Ron’s mind. He tried to cast a Teleportation Spell to return to his own world, but his Casting vanished without a trace. It wasn’t just Teleportation Spells; he couldn’t unleash Mist Step, Fireball Magic, or even the simplest Flaming Arrow. Ron felt as if the Magic he cast was entering a completely different world.

Already accustomed to bizarre sights, Ron didn’t panic. He began to cast cantrips over and over, trying to find what was wrong so he could adjust his technique and return as quickly as possible. However, as he began to cast his twenty-third spell, a deep, resonant voice suddenly echoed by his ear, interrupting his attempt and grabbing his attention.

"You have come."

"Who’s there!"

Ron reached for the shortbow on his back but grasped only air. When he immediately reached for the Hand Crossbow at his waist, he again found nothing. Stunned, Ron looked toward the source of the voice. A massive, gray-green figure was making the ground tremble with every step.

It was walking toward him.

The gray-green figure looked very similar to the giant outside, yet it was different. At the very least, the giant outside didn’t shrink a little with every step. By the time it stopped in front of Ron, its body had shrunk to a tenth of its original size.

"You’re one of the Dwarves, aren’t you?" the gray-green giant, now just over two meters tall, looked down at Ron as if at a child. "No, you don’t have that thick a beard—then are you one of those so-called ’Half-Elves’ or a ’Dwarf’?"