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TL: ALT
Chapter 95 – Day 40 of Exploration
I woke before sunrise and had a light breakfast of dried meat and soup.
As I breathed in the night air, it chilled my lungs. I covered my mouth with a cloth to protect myself from the dust and moved lightly. Since we were only going home, we had very little luggage.
“There are clouds in the sky.”
As Chel had said, there were clouds in the sky to the north, where we were going to return.
“I hope it doesn’t rain.”
When it rains in the desert, the rainwater doesn’t soak into the sand but collects and becomes flash floods, so it’s dangerous.
We leave the ruins while the monsters are still asleep. We start running straight north.
Soon after we start walking, the eastern sky begins to brighten.
My body begins to warm up. Maybe because the monsters are still mostly asleep, they don’t attack us.
Everything is going smoothly, but the further north we go, the more clouds appear.
“Maybe we can walk during the day.”
“Ugh.”
If the temperature doesn’t rise too much, there’s no need to rest. The basic rule in the desert is to keep moving.
Although Chel complains, she probably thinks it’s easier to run in the cloudy weather because she doesn’t sweat as much and doesn’t lose as much energy.
As we continued running, we were approaching the chain that led to Sky Island when Chel stopped and looked up at the southern sky. I also stopped and looked up to see a group of monsters flying towards the north.
There were quite a few of them, and they stretched to the horizon.
The sight of the black monsters flying in a straight line below the white clouds left both Chel and me speechless for a moment. It was like a single black charcoal mark on a white sheet of paper.
When I looked closer, I saw that the types of monsters gathered there were different, and some of them were being blown around by the wind, like butterfly monsters and griffon-like monsters. They were probably monsters that had flown in from the Cliff Garuda. They had been eaten by the monsters in the ruins, but there might be other routes.
“I wonder where they’re going?”
Chel said suddenly, without an accent.
“Should we follow them? We’re going home anyway.”
“We won’t be able to go home.”
“If we go to the east coast, we’ll be able to reach the place where Chel was washed up. From there, we can go west.”
It will be a big detour, but if the destination of the monsters flying in the sky is the demon land, as the landowner, I want to see it. Although I am worried about Hel, there is a possibility that the monsters and plants of the demonic land will become active because of the monsters that have made the ‘migration.’
“Since they’re doing the ‘migration,’ they must be building nests. There’s bound to be a territorial dispute. The monsters are dangerous during the breeding season.”
“So they’re more aggressive than normal monsters, huh? Hel is injured, and if Sylvia drinks their blood by mistake, Lipa might be attacked.”
“Jennifer doesn’t know about the mating season, so she’ll probably be caught off guard and think they’re just normal monsters.”
“That’s for sure.”
Since we were leaving early, we decided to investigate the migrating monsters before we went home.
It was cloudy, and the temperature didn’t rise. We arrived just before noon, right under the chain.
There was no sign of golems in the area. They must be sleeping in the ruins below.
When I looked up at the sky, I saw the monsters flying by. They were moving at about the same speed as we were. The lead group of migrating monsters was heading straight for the demonic forest, but there were also monsters resting on the sky island, forming a black mass.
As I was about to eat a quick meal and take out some dried meat, a white sticky substance fell from the sky.
“Is it poop?”
Since they had been traveling, I thought even monsters would take a toilet break.
“Let’s get out of here!”
I threw the dried meat away, put on my leather coat, and started running north at full speed. Chel noticed and started to follow me.
Splash, splash, splash!
White excrement began to fall from the sky like raindrops.
“It’s a rain of excrement!”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing! It hurts!”
Before I knew it, the entire desert around me was covered in white excrement.
I used all my strength and magic to run as fast as I could to get out of this shithole. No matter how soft it is, when it falls from the sky, it’s harder than iron ore. On the way, the rain of poop hit the desert sand coyotes and desert salamanders, killing them.
It wasn’t just that the dirt was dirty or the food was inedible. We ran to stay alive.
As the white ground gave way to the usual sandy soil, we finally slowed down and looked up at the sky. We could see the lead group of the migration flying over the forest, but there was no more poop falling.
“Are you okay now?”
“Yeah, I thought I was going to die.”
I threw away my excrement-covered coat, and Chel washed herself with water magic. I asked her to wash me as well.
As we entered the forest, the lead group of the migration had diminished slightly. Perhaps they had landed at a nearby body of water. In the forest in front of us, monster screams could be heard from time to time, as if the plants were preying on the monsters.
“Maybe the landing place is different depending on the type of monster.”
“That’s right. At least, it looks like they’re not going to fly over our cave.”
It looks like they’re a little to the east of the path to our cave. If they had come to our cave, Jennifer would have been sick from the droppings alone.
“Our cave is west of the demonic land.”
“So this group is going to the center of the forest in the demonic land?”
“Maybe.”
Even though the number has decreased somewhat, the leading group of the “migration” is heading north. After gathering some cam fruit and taking a short rest, we decided to follow the “migration” monsters.
The forest in the demonic land is so thick that we couldn’t see the sky, so we thought we might not be able to follow them, but we weren’t the only ones watching the sky for monsters. Golden bats and goblins were also on the lookout, so when we walked in the direction of the noise, we could see the wandering monster through the gaps in the branches and leaves. Even if we were slightly off course, we could correct our course by looking up at the sky over the cliffs and rivers.
The problem was that there were fights between the giant monkey monsters and the giant crocodile monsters, as well as swarms of mosquito monsters. In addition, it seems that we passed through a mangrove swamp without realizing it, and the ground sank.
We took a detour to avoid the battle and covered ourselves with mud to deal with the swarm of mosquitoes. When I put my magic power into my legs on the sinking ground, I sank. The water strider monster bit my legs as I sank, so I had to pull them out quickly.
“I am tired.
“The monsters crossing the sky are also tired. We’re almost there.”
Thus, encouraging each other, we passed through the mangrove swamp and climbed up the hill to a forest dotted with huge rocks.
There are a lot of places I’ve never been, even though I live in the demonic land. The eastern side is almost unexplored, except for the salt-gathering expeditions. I didn’t even realize that the place we were in was just a forest.
“Is it an ancient ruin?”
When I climbed onto a rock that was bigger than the trees, I could look around.
The huge rocks were not lined up in a regular pattern but seemed to have been placed randomly. However, all the giant rocks were about the same size, and if you were told that they were man-made, you might believe it. They were also surprisingly easy to climb.
To the east, there were several huge trees, and some of them were moving, so they might be giant treants. There was a forest to the west and hills to the north.
The migrating flock flew over the hills.
“If we go after them, we won’t be able to go home today.
It was already past noon.
“There are monsters here, so we won’t be short of food.”
“That’s true, but it might surprise them when we return from the east.”
“That can happen.”
We don’t know how much danger lies beyond the hills. We’ll probably spend the night on the east coast tonight.
We climbed down the rocks and ran north.
There were many fire-breathing lizards and snake monsters. A Maaeshitsukawazu also attacked, but we didn’t pay any attention to it and just chased after the monsters crossing the river. If we stopped to fight, we would be in danger of being hit by a poisonous monster or a plant that attacked with a paralyzing poison, so we had to move as fast as possible, or we might die. Running at top speed was the best way to avoid danger.
“I see them!”
After crossing several forests and going down a hill, I saw a group of monsters descending from the sky.
In the middle of the forest, there was a large lake with no waves. The monsters that flew in from the Cliff Garuda landed on the lake. They slowly crawled up the shore, perhaps enjoying their long journey or perhaps from exhaustion.
“Isn’t there something strange about this forest?”
Chel voiced her uneasiness. I didn’t know what it was, but I, too, had been feeling strange ever since we’d crossed the last hill.
“Aren’t the plants attacking us?”
“No, I didn’t see any monsters except the ones that crossed over.”
“I didn’t hear any imp voices or birds singing either.”
Even though this is the forest of the demonic land, it’s too quiet.
It might be a trap set by the underground monsters, so I tried to search for them with magic power, but there was nothing special. No, there was too little.
There were only piles of dead leaves and branches and no monster bones at all underground.
“I guess I don’t have enough magic power.”
Chel confirmed this by producing a ball of light magic from her palm.
“It doesn’t look like a demonic land forest. What kind of forest is this?”
And then I saw something I shouldn’t have.
The people walking among the trees disappeared the next moment, leaving only their shadows. The shadows merged with the fallen leaves, and before I knew it, they were gone. Not once, but every time I looked back, people appeared, and the background became faintly visible.
“Oh, this is bad.”
“Chel, I’m not good at this.”
My spine tingled, and it was scary. It was against the rules of the demonic land.
“I know! The sun will be setting soon, so let’s hurry and run to the beach.”
We hurried east, over the cliff, and toward the east coast.
After crossing the cliff, we returned to the normal forest of the demonic land and were somewhat relieved when we were attacked by a ridiculously large bendgrass.
“I don’t want to go back to that forest.”
“But maybe we should check it out. It’s so strange.”
I understand what Chel is saying, but if I see ghosts every time I investigate, I’ll be useless.
“It’s a forest like this, so I guess even monsters from the Cliff Garuda could live there. Next time I’ll investigate with just the women and take Hel with me.”
“Yes, please.”
To loosen up, I punched and knocked down a house-sized crab monster.
I finally calmed down when I reached the beach.
I finished my crab soup dinner and went straight to bed.
“Chel, I’m sorry, but can you let me sleep first tonight? I’m really tired.”
“Sure. Ghosts are weak to salt, so they won’t come here.”
Chel said and laughed and let me sleep first.
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Thanks for the treat
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