Novel Full Chapter 344: Legends Of The Golden Order Knights (3)
Chapter 344: Legends Of The Golden Order Knights (3)
The policemen weren’t shocked that the gate closed. It was recent news that earth would soon become a mature world, meaning all the while they’ve been in some sort of tutorial.
Now, once there was a dungeon break and the boss was killed outside the dungeon, it would close. Meaning the reason blue gates that had dungeon breaks didn’t close in the past was so that they could extract resources and fight one creature endlessly to grow, but now that earth would soon be considered a mature world, that leverage was gone.
Unfortunately, this also had its drawbacks. A dungeon break was dangerous on any level; it meant either a casualty or devastation of property, which was a loss either way. Guilds, freelancers, some large corporations, and the authorities might not really want gates to be closed down since money was being made from them.
There might be penalties for closing down blue gates, especially now that the Pagoda Guild had paid quite the sum to retain this dungeon; now it was gone.
Even after thinking about all this, the leader of the policemen shrugged. ’We’re alive. That’s all that matters. They can fully implement those rules the day I see the sun again. I also find it strange that we’re alive with the sun all this while, just what—ugh!’
Liam hit his ribcage. “The Knight’s leaving,” he whispered.
The leader looked at him. “So what? Are you going to arrest him?”
Another one jumped into the conversation. “Wasn’t that one of his knights?”
“Who?” Liam raised an eyebrow.
Both policemen looked at Liam with raised eyebrows.
***
On a grass field, no more than two dozen children sat, the oldest not more than ten. They listened to an old man who was the caretaker of this obscure orphanage.
Support wasn’t much from the authorities anymore, so they lived on the bare minimum, but if there’s one thing the kids would always cling to, it was the story of their caretaker, which he told once every month.
The world had been dark for a long time, but even without proper security, this old man had managed to make these kids feel safe.
Watching them sit on the grass field intently listening to his slow, weary voice made him smile.
“And so…” Just as he was about to speak, a loud resounding sound rang out. Everyone’s neck snapped toward the wall. The wall was tall enough, but whatever was coming was taller than this wall.
They could see his golden helmet and his huge pauldrons. The heavy sound of Mountain approaching made the hearts of the children leap.
They’ve never seen anything that huge this close. Cut off from the world in this spacious compound, enough to play and do whatever, the safe world they knew couldn’t fathom the sight of a being taller than the wall itself.
“I… Is that a dungeon… M-Mon- Monster?!” An innocent nine-year-old boy trembled, fingers shaking nonstop as he tried to tap the girl before him.
The moment his finger touched her, she shot into the air, screaming. Others bolted. Small twerps, fleeing for their lives, running as hard as their small feet could carry them while panting hard.
Panic was everywhere.
Mountain froze, looked into the orphanage, then turned away and sat on the ground, leaning on the wall. He dropped his shield and hammer-axe.
Tilting his head, he looked at the dark skies.
He remembered the days he lived before becoming a knight.
Then, he was the madman, a violent beast of a man chained to the mountains in the frozen region. The cold and constantly falling snow brought so much frost his skin turned white. The chains that bound him were colder than the touch of death.
In those days, he survived on the discarded food tossed his way by those compassionate enough to give him their waste.
While their bread filled his stomach, he punched the mountains.
Why?
Mountain at first had no idea when that started.
But there was a cause.
His violence.
Instead of beating people like the insane mess he was, he chose to break his hands against the mountain.
Years went by, and before long it became decades.
The sounds of his roar and the mountain responding to his blows would echo, reaching nearby towns in the region. Many said he was too insane to die despite wearing nothing but a ragged loincloth and being bound for decades.
The man beast was at it, they whispered.
He knew what was happening.
Yet the worst curse any living being could suffer was the loss of one’s own mind. It whispered to him, taunted him, filled his head with hideous thoughts, the most grotesque of them that sometimes he wept for an entire day, smashing his head for death to come.
Sometimes he starved, yet could cave in and gobble down bread buried under the snow after days.
At first, punching the mountain gave him pain; it cracked his bones, yet when those bones healed, he would continue and continue and continue until it was all he knew.
Mountain Man, Madman, Man Beast, they called him.
But that day came, the day he landed one final punch and realized he had punched an entire path through the mountain!
For the first time, the rays of sunlight rested on his heavily bearded face.
From a Man Beast, he became known as the strongest Pathan, then he became an honoured knight.
Mountain looked at the dark sky, imagining his world’s golden sun.
’I was the very first to become a hybrid, the Great All-rounder, General of the Snowmen, Defender of the young.’
How was it that he who was scorned became the reason they lived, became he whom they admired and raised statues in honour of?
How was it that a madman became a noble knight, an existence that stood on loyalty and honour?
He became the White Bear of the North, his presence brought peace to the hearts of Pathan men and women, and his Snow Bearmen unit, the most powerful hammeraxe-bearing heavy infantry, also called the Golden Berserkers, brought terror to the hearts of monsters, which they ripped out and crushed.
But…
’Since… When was knighthood about melancholy, what exactly is the root of my current emotions?’ Mountain asked himself inwardly when suddenly, an aged voice rang out.
“Lost?”