Chapter 274
When the giant tree generated by the skill burst through the ceiling, its branches grew monstrously fast and attacked the Orc’s.
The monsters screamed in pain as they were grabbed. The white haired man fell backwards with fright. He tried to control the Orc’s to fight back against the branches of the tree, but this effort was useless, because they were regenerating.
As if it was something easy, the branches lifted the Orc’s, which were five meters each. At the top, all monsters were broken in half by the severe squeezing of the branches that filled with life from the blood.
Luke discovered the day he killed dozens of imps that his ability becomes stronger in proportion to the amount of monsters he kills. This fascinated him and made him wonder how strong this skill could become, what the limit was, so he spared no energy to use the skill when he saw the Orc’s in a place that the tree would not hinder him, but would help him.
All nine Orc’s died in the blink of an eye, without the man having a chance to control them properly.
“That’s not possible! What was that!?” He wondered, dragging himself backwards as he stared in fear at the giant tree, whose green leaves that had grown were stained with the black blood of the Orc’s. “Is that land sacred or something!?”
The man stood up, and turned back, ready to run as far as he could. However, when he turned he saw a person stop in front of him, with a cold and practically inexpressive gaze.
“Boo.” Luke scoffed.
Although it was a joke from the half-wolf, the man was truly startled by Luke’s thick voice and the way Luke was staring at him.
“Aaaaah! Please spare me poor lost soul, I didn’t mean to disturb your lands! I’m already leaving.”
Luke was confused, but the apology was not so bad. He shrugged and decided to abuse the cooperation of the man with scales a bit.
“Tell me what you were doing here. You must be honest, or you will not be spared.”
“Okay, okay!”
The coward agreed with a low nod, sitting down on his knees and head down before what he believed to be a guardian spirit of the snow village. After all, no human being could simply be strolling through the highest mountain ranges in the world.
“I… Actually, we were simply carrying fertilizer to sell in the cities of the Broteforge Empire.” The man said.
“With monsters?”
“The world has changed a lot since you died, poor knight.”
‘Poor Knight?” Luke felt as if someone had hit his head with a piece of manner, and a vein popped out on his forehead. “Wait a second, you think I’m dead?” The half-wolf was confused.
‘Dumb bastard spirit, you don’t even know you’re dead. Calm down, Eliot, you need to stay calm. I can’t let that spirit get angry, shit…’ In the end, the white-haired man just smiled in a cynical way, as if he did not wish to answer Luke’s question.
‘Huf! Whatever… just tell me the truth, and I’ll let you go.” Luke tried to negotiate calmly, for he was not yet a barbarian.
‘He may be a conscious spirit that wanders these lands, maybe if I lie it will be worse…’ He pondered. ‘Any truth? Regardless of what it really is?”
The half-wolf nodded.
“All right, I will speak the truth…. We were carrying alchemical bombs for use in the rear of the Front Line.” With a brief explanation, the man said without any guilt as if he were confessing his intentions to a mirror. He didn’t even think about the possibility that Luke was real.
Thanks to his hearing enhanced by his focus, Luke noticed that there were no irregular palpitations in the man’s heart while he was speaking. That meant he was not lying.
“Where were you guys coming from?” Luke asked seriously.
The man arched his eyebrows, but decided to answer. “We came from a Military Post near the Howling Hills.”
“You guys carry a map, don’t you? Let me see it.”
“Of course, just wait a second I’ll get it from my pocket.” Then the man opened his jacket and suddenly slashed with a knife in the direction of the half-wolf, who did not even for a second lower his guard.
Luke dodged the knife as if he had all the time in the world. He could notice the facial expression of the man, who didn’t even seem to know what he was doing, and also the wrong way the man was holding the knife. The sharp blade passed close to his cheek. At that moment Luke moved his left arm to the man’s neck and squeezed him hard to knock him out.
It all happened in just a second for both the man and Meredith who was watching from afar with two more arrows tensed on the bowstring.
When the half-fox saw the man fall, she sighed with relief that it all worked out. As she had never fought monsters before that day, winning the two battles against Orc’s was certainly something to be proud of, even if it seemed so paltry to Luke.
As it was getting dark, Luke put the man on his shoulders, after all he still had questions to ask, and met up with Meredith so they could go into one of the buildings of the snowy settlement together.
The cold in that region was severe and deadly, in a way that Luke had no idea how there could even be a building so high up. As soon as they entered one of the buildings, the questions about what it was all about only multiplied.
On the walls of the spacious chamber were several strange symbols, which were neither runes nor normal letters. These symbols were somewhat square in the center and irregular around the edges, but followed a pattern similar to that of a human language, which meant that it might just be an ancient language.
On the walls there were also many beautiful drawings carved deep into the stone blocks. In one of these drawings Luke saw something that reminded him of something he saw a long time ago: a half-moon.
This half-moon reminded him of the woman he saw in his vision and relieved him of his curse when he didn’t even know what it was yet. He had the chance to have only a brief conversation with her, but the situation was so unusual that his brain had erased it, until this moment.
Luke didn’t think much of it and touched the illustration of the moon with his right hand.