Episode 38. Wind Valley
Binaeril and his party asked Simon to guide them toward Wind Valley.
“This is the fastest way, right?”
They had calculated that attempting to speak with the valley’s spirit was preferable to circling the mountain range and encountering unknown monsters.
Simon brightened at their choice.
If the problem of Wind Valley was resolved, he too could return to his hometown.
They followed the Myo tribe’s path toward Wind Valley.
After spending a night in a cave located midway up the mountain range, they reached their destination without a single battle.
“Arriving so peacefully makes me doubt Hohenberg’s notoriety.”
“Though I can one-hundred-and-twenty percent acknowledge its reputation for treacherous terrain.”
…That much I admit.
“So this below is Wind Valley?”
They were currently positioned at the summit.
According to Simon, their destination lay beneath a sheer cliff.
“Beyond Wind Valley, the Myo tribe’s village appears, and from there, there’s a side path leading straight down west.”
“…Of course, that path is probably similar to the one we came up, right?”
They hadn’t even crossed the valley yet, and already another worry had been added.
The closer they approached Wind Valley, the quieter their surroundings became.
No noise made by living things—not birdsong, not the sounds of wild animals—could be heard in the vicinity.
Only the sharp howl of wind raised by the gorge.
Someone grabbed Binaeril’s sleeve and pulled. It was Rike.
“Binaeril, I can feel the vibration of mana from inside.”
Almost simultaneously, Veritas also warned Binaeril.
—The feeling from inside is ominous. We’ll need to be careful.
Veritas rarely gave such warnings.
‘Got it.’
Wind Valley was engulfed in fierce winds, just as Simon had said.
But the winds did not extend their influence beyond a certain area.
Was it the spirit’s influence? It looked almost like a barrier rejecting intruders.
Binaeril and his companions stepped into the rushing gale.
Wind Valley.
Simon had said this place was called Wind Valley.
It had no doubt been named so because the Wind Spirit lived here, but that was no longer the case.
In the fierce wind befitting its name, Binaeril and his companions raised both arms to cover their faces.
“I can’t keep my eyes open!”
The wind lashing their faces made it impossible to secure their vision.
The inside and outside of the gorge felt like entirely different worlds separated by a single step.
“We have to go inside to meet the Spirit!”
“We need to go in!”
Even though they were right next to each other, the wind drowned them out, making proper communication impossible.
“Grrr!”
“Did you just hear something?”
Between the ear-splitting gales, Binaeril detected an alien sound.
He warned his companions.
“Be careful!”
The source of the sound was soon revealed.
Monsters had appeared within the fierce wind.
“……!”
It wasn’t only Binaeril who recognized the monsters approaching close enough to be seen.
It was hard to hear, but Rike and Silvia seemed to be chanting something, preparing to attack.
A monster’s snout appeared right before Binaeril’s nose.
“Piercing Mana Arrow.”
Binaeril chanted a 1st-tier penetration spell.
Even his own chanting voice was drowned out and barely audible.
“Kieek!”
The monster died from a single spell shot by Binaeril.
A sharply protruding pig’s tail was visible on the fallen creature’s rear.
This creature was a monster called Pigtail.
Binaeril could feel that the mana stone he had fed to Veritas in Fairhill had significantly increased his magic’s potency.
“Everyone, put your backs together and focus on the enemies in front!”
Binaeril channeled mana into his voice and shouted so his companions could hear.
The three positioned Simon—who had no combat ability whatsoever—in the center, surrounding him and pressing their shoulders together.
“What is going on? Monsters don’t normally live in Wind Valley….”
Simon was likely not lying.
They hadn’t seen hide nor hair of a monster on the way here either.
“Rike, you said you felt mana from inside the valley, right?”
It seemed the monsters had been drawn here by the mana the Spirit exuded.
“Can you still feel it?”
Rike closed her eyes and focused.
Soon after, she raised her finger and indicated a direction.
They cautiously advanced, wary of their surroundings, unable to see an inch ahead.
Pigtail snouts popped out now and then, but they could fend them off with appropriate responses.
But the obstacle of Wind Valley didn’t end there.
The deeper they went toward the center of the valley, the more frequently the monsters appeared.
“At this rate, we won’t make it.”
Binaeril was fine, but Silvia—who specialized in close combat—and Rike—who was inexperienced in attack magic—were accumulating minor wounds.
“Do you have some kind of plan?”
“Stay on guard.”
Binaeril extended his finger and fired an air bullet compressed with mana into the wind.
Through the vision blurred by the fierce wind, the surrounding scenery was briefly revealed in the wake of his spell.
In that brief moment, Binaeril confirmed that the wind wasn’t blowing deeper inside the valley.
“It seems safe in there.”
“Let’s run.”
“What if we get attacked!”
“I’ll take the rear.”
Binaeril compressed the air in the same way as before. But bigger, and stronger.
Both to make the monsters retreat and to secure his companions’ safety.
“Fire!”
A path opened through the fierce wind following the trail of the mana bullet.
“Run!”
The cries of Pigtails catching the scent of mana rang out from all directions.
The companions, excluding Binaeril, threw themselves toward the inside of the valley with all their remaining stamina.
Pigtails rushed toward Binaeril, who remained alone.
But he had prepared for this as well.
“Rise, Spear of Earth!”
Stone spike pillars spread out from the ground around him.
“Kriek!”
“Kyaek!”
The frontline monsters lost their lives to that single attack.
Taking advantage of the monsters’ hesitation, Binaeril kicked off the ground and leaped out.
The startled Pigtails bristled with excitement as their prey escaped, baring their teeth.
Binaeril’s forearms were scratched here and there.
Ten meters remaining… five meters… the last step!
“Haaah!”
“We made it!”
The moment they crossed a certain point, the ear-ringing sound of wind could no longer be heard.
Crash!
With the suddenly open view before him, Binaeril tripped, unable to check what lay ahead in time.
A tree root jutting out was the culprit.
“Are you okay, Binaeril?”
“Agh… it stings.”
Rike cast healing magic on Binaeril’s wound.
She also healed the minor wounds the party had suffered with simple magic.
Simon shouted excitedly.
“You guys were amazing mages!”
“Yeah, thanks for noticing.”
“So this must be the center of the valley?”
It seemed so.
Unlike the outside where knife-like winds blew, this place was tranquil.
Swaying vegetation, cool falling streams, and puddles gleaming like crystals.
It was a natural landscape untouched by human hands.
“But it’s a bit strange.”
“I can’t hear any sound at all.”
“…You’re right.”
Other than the sound of water falling from the gorge, truly no sound could be heard.
Not birdsong, not insect chirps, not even the sound of wind outside or the screams of monsters.
“It’s as if the space has been completely separated.”
The cause was likely that being floating in the center of the gorge.
In the very center of the flowing water, there was a semi-transparent spherical bubble.
Inside it, a faint silhouette lay asleep.
“Is that the Valley’s Spirit?”
“I think so.”
Even Simon of the Myo tribe didn’t know for sure.
Communication with spirits was handled exclusively by spirit priests, so that made sense.
At last, Binaeril’s party had met the spirit of the Hohenberg mountain range.
Now, whether they woke the spirit to talk or beat it into submission, if only they could somehow obtain permission to pass through…….
“…But what do we do now?”
The other three shot looks at Binaeril, as if asking why he was asking them.
“Try talking to it.”
‘…That’s exactly what I’m asking—how…’
The three had followed Binaeril on blind faith.
Because only Binaeril could handle spirits.
But strictly speaking, Binaeril was not a spirit sorcerer.
He could handle spirits not because he had any innate talent for communing with them, but because he had received the Magic Tower Lord’s gift.
Binaeril cautiously approached the spirit in the bubble with hesitant movements.
Inside a transparent membrane like a soap bubble, a faint blue life-form crouched with its knees hugged.
‘So this is what a spirit looks like up close.’
It seemed like a shrunken human form, yet there were many unrealistic aspects to its color and appearance.
The Wind Spirit had blurry boundaries to its skin, and its lower body spread out in a faint blue color.
“Um, excuse me. Hello, Spirit?”
Silence.
Binaeril tried speaking on the off chance, but the spirit in the gorge showed no reaction whatsoever.
He could feel three pairs of eyes filled with anticipation watching him from behind.
“Haha, ha. It seems to be in a deep sleep.”
Binaeril approached the spirit a little more.
“Spirit? Mister? Miss? Hey? You there!”
The more he raised his voice, the heavier the looks of doubt became.
Binaeril broke into a cold sweat and did his best to ignore the gazes behind him.
“You’re the one who said to come here. Didn’t you have a plan?”
Silvia nagged him, and Rike offered a suggestion.
The spirit floating in the center of the gorge was too high to reach.
Binaeril used magic to raise the rock he was standing on high into the air.
The Wind Spirit was still asleep.
Knock, knock—even when he tried rapping on it, there was little reaction.
‘Should I try removing this protective membrane with mana?’
Either way, he had to wake it before any conversation could take place.
Binaeril silently chanted an incantation in his mind to draw out his power.
And in the moment he drew upon Veritas’s mana—
[!]
—the spirit in the bubble suddenly opened its eyes.
[So it was you!]
The bubble enveloping the spirit shattered into pieces.
The Wind Spirit reached out its hand and pointed at Binaeril’s face.
A stream of mana like an arrow shot from the Spirit’s hand toward Binaeril.
Binaeril instinctively switched the mana he had raised directly to defense, blocking the attack.
But it was insufficient to completely nullify the impact.
The spirit’s attack harbored clear killing intent.
He had barely redirected it from his face to his shoulder, but the sharp attack tore through and pierced his shoulder.
“Ugh!”
Binaeril fell to the ground in an arc.
Silvia ran out and caught his falling body.
Blood surged up from the hole in his shoulder.
“Aaahk! The spirit suddenly attacked!”
Silvia and Rike looked at Simon in confusion.
“I-I don’t know either! Why is the Spirit doing this?”
But there was no way Simon would know the situation either.
[You will not achieve your purpose. Die, human!]
The tranquil scenery of the gorge turned ominous in an instant.
Sssst, fwoooosh—
The gentle breeze blowing around the spirit instantly grew stronger.
“Your Highness, dodge!”