novelraw Chapter 170 : Chapter 170
Chapter 170 : Chapter 170
Chapter 170: Dreamlike Place (2)
Clang! A loud noise rang out once.
It was the sound of Ellen’s sword pommel hitting Harad’s palm and then sliding back into the scabbard.
Ellen, who had instinctively started to draw her sword but was blocked, widened her eyes.
Harad suppressed the agonizing pain that felt like it pierced from his palm to his elbow and spoke.
“Let’s just go.”
Ellen frowned as if she couldn’t accept it, but soon complied.
There was that much trust. Harad held the Fireball in his arms and took the lead.
‘It has intelligence.’
The darkness is not a space of the boundary, but a Magical Beast.
And a considerable one at that.
Fire.
The Magical Beast must have noticed that the magic belonged to Harad.
‘But it saw the fire, not me.’
He couldn’t cover the Fireball completely with his body.
The Fireball’s body was lighting up the front.
But the eyes did not sprout again.
‘Indeed. It reacted to magic, not fire.’
The darkness felt Harad’s magic as an attack.
That’s why the eyes sprouted.
‘When I removed the magic, it closed its eyes again.’
It means the darkness has no intention of hunting.
‘Either uninterested, or full.’
Or docile.
‘It’s probably not full. If it were, this tunnel would have been discarded long ago.’
It can’t always be full.
But this tunnel was used just fine.
Unless attacked first, it means the darkness is uninterested in humans or docile.
That’s why it was safe as an exit.
Harad walked slowly. There was no reason to provoke it by running.
Ellen was following well, and the quick-witted Fireball was even holding its breath.
He knew the direction.
The dark zone is short. It was the broker’s information.
It was a zone not in Harad’s mental map.
He only knew the location through cross-verification of the surrounding areas.
‘To think it wasn’t a dark zone, but a zone where darkness lives.’
The broker’s information was wrong.
But not completely wrong. It was just a misunderstanding due to a low level.
The continental mages who sought asylum through this tunnel would have been the same.
How long did they walk? The left foot he stepped forward disappeared.
It only disappeared from sight; it was fine. The invisible left foot felt cool.
Harad proceeded without delay. Suddenly, the scenery changed into a snowy field.
-Squeak!
The Fireball rejoiced.
Harad looked back. Darkness, as if cut off from the world, stood like a wall.
From a distance, it would have looked like a giant rock.
That darkness was the place they were in just now, and a Magical Beast.
Ellen popped out from within it.
“Is your hand okay?”
Ellen worried first about Harad’s hand that blocked her sword earlier.
“It is fine. It didn’t break.”
It meant it hurt though.
Ellen’s face became upset.
Then she immediately drew her sword and turned her body back.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to kill it.”
Ellen spoke as if asking why he asked such an obvious thing.
“You stay still, since you’re hurt.”
“Is it necessary?”
“It’s a Magical Beast.”
“This one is a Magical Beast too.”
Harad said while stroking the Fireball.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“There is no need to fight unnecessarily. We have a long way to go.”
They had to go to the dreamlike place.
A place disadvantageous to mages and advantageous to knights.
Also, they had to be conscious of the Otherworld as well as the boundary along the way.
There was no reason to consume strength already.
“But you have to predate, don’t you?”
At Ellen’s following words, Harad laughed softly.
I wondered why she wanted to fight so much.
‘It wasn’t just for enjoyment.’
The Elaine of the previous life went crazy for fights.
For the Ellen in front of him, another reason was added.
“We still have leeway. There will be plenty of Magical Beasts on the way.”
“Since we’re eating anyway, a big shot would be good. Isn’t that 5th Rank?”
Ellen roughly sensed the Rank of the darkness.
Indeed, it was excellent intuition.
“Without the orb, I am merely 4th Rank. You are not a Sword Master either.”
“I can fight better than last time.”
She must be talking about when she fought Avery Aquins.
The current Ellen would be stronger than then. Since she became more accustomed to Innate Strength.
“Still, no.”
“……That Magical Beast is at that level?”
“It is not 6th Rank. Since it doesn’t seem like a legend.”
Harad scanned the giant darkness once.
It is not 6th Rank.
But not all 5th Ranks are the same.
“Time, space. Mages or Magical Beasts interfering with these two are dangerous.”
If it’s a mage, their talent called Origin is huge; if it’s a Magical Beast, their past life was tremendously intense.
Since Magical Beasts construct Origins through their lives.
“Space is usually a concept of 5th Rank. The Otherworld teaches so. It doesn’t hold much meaning. Since it varies depending on the Origin.”
In the end, what mattered was the Origin.
“So it’s a concept that applies to Avery Aquins?”
“Correct. Usually, they are distinguished by the form and scale of manifestation.”
Avery Aquins’ Origin was a river.
The manifested river occupied considerable space.
“Psina of the Ivory Tower belongs to the exceptions.”
Brush.
That Origin was used as a tool.
“The Otherworld wants them to be included in that concept. Because interfering with space usually means an extraordinary Origin.”
Darkness. That Magical Beast was included.
“If you want to kill that, we will probably have to go back immediately.”
The consumption of the Moon Orb would be inevitable.
They couldn’t visit the dreamlike place either.
Precisely, the boundary village that would be there.
Both would be disliked by Ellen.
She hopes Harad won’t bleed, and she wants to find Balbebron and Alena.
“A dreamlike place. Anton said so. It was also Anton who told Balbebron and Alena about the asylum route and the existence of the village.”
Balbebron and Alena must also be looking for the dreamlike place.
Perhaps they have already found it and arrived.
“……That doesn’t matter. Those two will be alive.”
You want to fight?
Harad asked with his eyes.
“I’m holding back because of you. Because you shouldn’t get hurt.”
Ellen sheathed her sword and approached Harad.
Squeak! The Fireball liked it.
“What about time?”
“Hmm?”
“You said space is a concept of 5th Rank. What is time?”
“They say it’s 6th Rank, well. I have never experienced it.”
He only experienced it through the Stone of Regression.
He had never felt the concept of time from the 6th Rank mages he experienced in the previous life.
That is why regression is still marvelous.
There are no naturally born magical items.
It is extremely magical and artificial.
‘Just who made it.’
What kind of Origin mage interfered with time.
‘An artifact passed down in the North.’
The Elaine of the previous life called the Stone of Regression that.
It means it’s an object of Serzila.
‘It must be spoils of war.’
It must be something obtained against the Otherworld sometime.
The opponent must have been a 6th Rank mage.
‘Of which Tower?’
That was a problem directly connected to the history of the Otherworld.
It was a question Harad, who didn’t know even the current Otherworld well, couldn't answer.
“Let’s go for now. It’s that way. Ah, aren’t you hungry?”
“We just arrived.”
“Jerky?”
“……Give it to me for now, I’ll eat while walking.”
Pig.
* * *
It was an expensive tunnel.
‘I didn’t expect it to be this kind of exit though.’
The boundary is the boundary, I guess.
There are no safe zones. If it looks safe, it’s just that the person is ignorant.
Anyway.
The exit of the expensive tunnel was located at the Second Stage Boundary.
They had to head east from here.
Close enough to approach the eastern sea where legends, not the Otherworld, live.
“What kind of place is the dreamlike place?”
“A dreamlike place.”
Ellen frowned, feeling the lack of sincerity.
“I don’t know more than that either, since I only heard it passed down like that too.”
“From whom? Ah. Don’t tell me. You’ll say it’s a secret.”
It was the correct answer.
Harad smiled instead of answering.
The source was an Otherworld mage he met in the previous life.
He encountered him in the boundary and found out through interrogation.
East of the boundary.
Near that sea where legends live, there is a dreamlike place.
‘The Otherworld grasped the location of the dreamlike place at that time.’
It is an event 8 years from now.
So right now, they only know a dreamlike place exists, but likely not its exact location.
‘A dream.’
That holds special meaning to mages who do not dream.
Even if it’s not a dream but dreamlike, mages wouldn’t be able to resist.
‘There’s no way another place like that exists.’
Anton’s dreamlike place and the dreamlike place heard in the previous life likely match.
“I don’t know why it is called a dreamlike place.”
At that time, he wasn’t interested.
The Harad of the previous life didn’t have that great of a curiosity.
It was Elaine’s influence.
Since that human was so reckless, Harad was usually in the position of stopping her.
‘Now we are making a fuss together.’
Borrowing the words of the Elaine from the previous life, it would be playing together.
“But it wouldn’t be called that for no reason.”
They had to keep it in mind.
Grand Duke Aratus said it was a land disadvantageous to mages.
“Disadvantageous to mages. And advantageous to knights.”
Ellen repeated.
“Aura?”
“Is that dreamlike?”
“Indeed. It doesn’t seem dreamlike.”
Ellen nodded.
“Then maybe it’s really a dream? You dream if you go there.”
“That sounds plausible, but then wouldn’t it be a place where you dream, not a dreamlike place?”
“That is true too. But why are you only thinking about me?”
“I am thinking about myself too. Just nothing comes to mind.”
“Isn’t your creativity too lacking?”
“Because the subject leaves me no choice.”
To a mage, a dream was an unknown surpassing the boundary.
In the end, it seemed they would only know by going there.
The way was long, and every step had to be cautious.
Harad was doing so sufficiently. The Fireball added to that caution.
Wings have a huge advantage.
Besides escaping threats on the ground, they can see far.
When Harad set the direction, the Fireball would determine the path.
“What are you doing. Eat.”
Ellen held out a heart.
Steam was rising from it as it was freshly torn out.
Harad burned it with fire and absorbed it.
“Why burn such a precious thing.”
“Because I don’t want to eat it directly.”
“Originally, things good for the body are unpleasant to eat.”
Ellen grumbled asking why he didn’t eat with his mouth.
Harad found that awkward.
‘She changed too much.’
The Elaine of the previous life extremely detested heart predation, but the Ellen in front of him was actively encouraging it.
‘Indeed, it’s a location awkward for the Otherworld. That’s why they got caught 8 years later.’
I don’t know when the village was formed, but it might have lasted much longer than thought.
‘The Second Stage Barrier is closer than the Otherworld.’
That barrier, the core of the boundary, is not far.
They didn’t know when they would encounter a high-rank Magical Beast.
Also, the dreamlike place is a land disadvantageous to mages.
That is why they are avoiding Magical Beasts as much as possible through the Fireball.
Because hunting Magical Beasts is not the objective.
Although mana can be recovered by predating hearts, there is still a need to prepare for contingencies.
It means although they are often making contact because Ellen wants to feed him hearts, they are minimizing it.
“Isn’t it too few?”
Ellen pouted her lips.
It was a valid point.
Although they had been walking for several days already, the number of hearts Harad predated didn’t reach ten.
“That is true.”
Although it was an intended result, it was also true that there were fewer Magical Beasts than intended.
‘And not just one zone, but several zones.’
Even if the Fireball has talent as a guide, this place was the boundary.
Even stepping one foot should make it teem with Magical Beasts.
“There can’t be this few.”
It’s not like some amazing Magical Beast went on a rampage.
The environment of the boundary is bizarre, but there are proper laws and order in that bizarreness.
It means the boundary is also an ecosystem.
What disturbs the ecosystem is usually not a member, but an outsider.
-Squeak.
Suddenly, the Fireball descended and cried as if whispering in Harad’s ear.
It means there is a singularity.
Harad educated it a few days ago to do this in such cases.
“Is it an amazing Magical Beast?”
-Squeeaak.
The Fireball shook its head.
“Environment?”
-Squeeaak.
“Person?”
-Squeak!
The Fireball nodded.
There is a person ahead.
* * *
It was a zone where a fresh forest lived inside a blizzard, mysterious but relatively ordinary in the boundary.
A person was sitting as dead as a mouse at the entrance of that forest, leaning their back against a living tree.
If they hadn’t shaken off the snow accumulating on their body intermittently, they would have been mistaken for a corpse.
‘Injured?’
Harad moved the Fireball high and far back for now.
Aroshu of the Bonfire called this guy a Divine Beast.
It must be the Otherworld’s perspective.
Whether the Fireball is truly a Divine Beast or not, it was a clear fact that its appearance was special.
‘There is nothing good about looking special.’
If special, they become more vigilant.
There is no reason to plant preparation in the opponent.
The person sitting far away shook off the robe draped over their body.
The lower body revealed at a glance was unique.
Only the right side of the pants was intact, but the exposed left leg was iron, not bare skin.
It seemed that iron leg was the problem.
The man held his knee and groaned.
‘It won’t straighten?’
The knee was bent, and the man was pulling his foot.
It seemed he wanted to straighten his knee but couldn’t.
‘Stranded.’
An outsider cleared the nearby Magical Beasts.
That is the conclusion reached earlier. And there was an outsider in front of them.
‘Impossible alone.’
If he had such skill, he wouldn’t be stranded.
There is a party.
At that conclusion, Harad smiled brightly and closed the distance.
“Stop.”
Sensing the presence, the man groaning while holding his knee flinched and shouted.
“I said stop.”
Harad ignored him and walked over.
Then, to the man standing on only one leg, he spoke as gently as possible.
“Do you need help? I can help.”
“What?”
“I am Harad, 3rd Rank of the Red Tower.”
The man blankly stared at the fire blooming on Harad’s hand.