#103 Escape from the Mountain Range (1)
Four days after Harley’s party entered the northern mountain range.
After yet another battle ended, Harley brought the magic stone he had just acquired to his mouth.
—Smash it all, tear it apart, kill them all!
Crack! Crunch, crunch.
—and, as usual, ignored the mad impulse echoing in his head, diligently chewing it up and swallowing it.
Having steadily consumed magic stones all this time, he was now beginning to see somewhat meaningful results.
His metabolism had become even more active, and his physical abilities had risen accordingly.
As a side effect, changes were about to manifest on the outside of his body, such as bloodshot eyes and veins swelling excessively... but to Harley, who could control his entire body with “Physical Mutation,” such things were nothing at all.
If he had not possessed this ability, by now he would surely be showing the same symptoms as the monsters scattered throughout the mountain range.
“Damn it, they really don’t give us a moment to breathe. How many times in a row has this been now?”
“Kahahah! Sorry to say this while you’re complaining, but another group is approaching! Thanks to the concealment barrier, they don’t seem to have found us yet, but if we stay still like this, we’ll run into them soon.”
“...Now we truly don’t even have time to regroup.”
The deeper they went, the higher the chance of encountering monsters became, and their level rose as well, making it increasingly difficult to press forward.
This time too, the party had no choice but to remove only the scent of blood from their bodies with a cleansing magic tool before hastily moving on.
Charlton, the ranger belonging to the Steel Citadel, was erasing as many traces of their passage as possible from the rear, but this was an extremely dangerous course of action...
The moment the magic was dispelled, they would be surrounded by monsters rushing in from all directions, so there was no helping it.
To avoid endless fighting, the best option was simply to leave the area as quickly as possible.
“There seem to be quite a few in that direction too. The distance is...”
“...Then it would be better to go around this way. Everyone, follow carefully.”
Even then, without Harley’s detection ability and Marcus’s skilled guidance, they would never have made it this far.
“Mr. Marcus, are we still far from the destination? I believe you said earlier that we were almost there, but the sun is slowly starting to set.”
Fabiella, her face gaunt from the continuous forced march, spoke in a dying voice.
No matter how much he had trained, as a mage, his stamina was bound to be weaker than the others’, and with his mana beginning to run low from frequent spellcasting, it was no wonder.
At that, Marcus, who had been silently guiding the way, took out a magic tool shaped like a pocket watch, looked inside, then turned back to the group with a slightly brighter expression.
“It’s around here. There really isn’t much left now.”
“Phew... We’ll finally get to see that precious face of his. Good heavens, dwarf or not, I can’t believe this many people were mobilized just to rescue a single craftsman.”
Mikel raised her crossbow, keeping watch on the surroundings as she murmured softly.
Just as she said, although only a small number had been deployed due to the nature of the mission, the people here were by no means cheap.
Every one of them could be called among the finest talents in Tarak’s mercenary world.
And yet, in addition to offering all sorts of extra allowances on top of that price, even a knight of the territory had been mobilized.
‘Well, Robin did say he was of commoner origin.’
The group, who had grown close to their client while overcoming hardships together, had been able to share various stories with him during camp.
He had not gone into detail either, but thanks to that, they were able to grasp the general situation...
‘He said the dwarf was the territory’s chief craftsman, someone who had ties with the previous lord. Well, if he holds that kind of position, this much in commission fees would be nothing.’
Weapons, after all, were goods whose price rose sharply the higher their grade became.
In that sense, he was a precious person beyond comparison to a certain amount of money or a single knight of common birth.
If the issue of holding back the monsters had not been more urgent, there would probably have been a more large-scale rescue operation.
Though in the first place, it was because of that very chaos that the dwarf had become isolated.
“We’ve arrived. This is the place.”
And at last, they were able to reach the place indicated by the magic tool’s signal.
“Mm...”
A brief silence followed.
The party kept watch over their surroundings while tapping the ground here and there.
“...There’s no cave or anything. Where is he hiding? First, we need to find the entrance...”
At that moment.
Rustle, rustle.
—the area around the roots of a tree growing to one side seemed to stir.
Thud!
“Oh! You’re already here! You came even earlier than I expected.”
The ground opened, and a single face covered in shaggy hair popped out.***
“I came here to prospect for minerals, and then all hell suddenly broke loose! I’ve been in and out of this mountain range countless times before, but this time, getting out on my own was absolutely impossible!”
Following the dwarf into the tunnel, the party could not help but be surprised by the unexpectedly cozy underground space.
‘I thought I heard he’d only been isolated for about a week.’
The spacious area had more than enough room even after all of them entered, and it had been neatly trimmed, with several air holes here and there in the ceiling where tree roots were intertwined.
On top of that, there were earthen beds and a workbench on one side, along with various odds and ends.
“Ah, this? I had nothing to do while waiting, so I started tinkering with this and that, and it ended up like this! Good thing I expanded it in advance! Hahaha—!”
Seeing their surprised expressions, the dwarf, Zaonic Steelstone, burst into hearty laughter.
Since the interior was already protected by high-grade barriers from the magic tools he had brought with him, there was no need to worry that making a little noise would alert the monsters outside.
‘They must be quite expensive, if they can even deceive my senses.’
Even though Harley knew he was hiding nearby, he had only sensed a faint sense of incongruity and had not immediately pinpointed the exact location.
If he had been given a little more time, he probably would have noticed, but monsters who knew nothing would not even perceive it and would simply pass by.
“By the way, are you all right? I didn’t know such a large fellow would be coming, so I didn’t do much work on the entrance passage.”
“Mm—my skin isn’t so weak that it would be wounded by a few scratches from an earthen wall. Don’t worry about it! Hahaha—!”
Zaonic spoke worriedly as he looked at Harley, but forcing himself through the narrow passage had truly been nothing to him.
Rather, the firmly compacted passage had been scratched up and dug out by his body.
“Ah! Bordo, Hans. You were both alive!”
At that moment, Charlton, the ranger who had been quietly following the group until then, lit up and headed toward the area with the earthen beds.
Of course, Zaonic had not entered the mountain range alone.
Two more rangers belonging to the Steel Citadel who had accompanied him were also in this space.
“Ah! Senior Charlton, you’re here!”
“Senior...”
However, one of them was not in very good condition...
Unlike the one who greeted Charlton gladly, the ranger wrapped in bandages could only struggle to raise himself from the bed.
“Tsk—when the abnormal situation suddenly occurred, he reacted first and dealt with it, but injured his shoulder in the process.”
As the party looked toward the rangers, the dwarf Zaonic scratched the back of his head and explained the situation.
“We gave him the potion we had and treated him immediately, so it isn’t that serious. If he rests for a few months, he’ll be able to get back on his feet without any real aftereffects.”
But that was assuming this place was safe.
In this northern mountain range, which could be called the center of the monster berserk incident, that was out of the question.
In the current situation, an injury severe enough to make it difficult to move was a major factor that could threaten his life.
“Hans! Are you all right? Can you move?”
“Yes, my legs aren’t injured. Climbing the mountain won’t be a problem at all. Please don’t worry.”
The ranger Hans nodded solemnly, his expression filled with resolve not to become a burden.
And Harley, who was watching them...
folded his arms and sank into thought with a grave expression.
‘Hans, huh...’
No, well, he knew it was a common name.
In fact, he had encountered it several times during his life in Auterica so far.
He looked again at “Extremely Ordinary Soldier No. 1,” Hans, who was sitting on the bed.
‘...As expected, this won’t do.’
And he became certain once more.
The name of the Immortal King who would be recorded in history must not be Hans!
Village youth, village chief, carpenter, blacksmith, farmer—just the Hanses he had come to know so far numbered in the double digits.
Excluding the Immortal King Hans, who could be called the best output among them, the injured ranger Hans before him was the most extraordinary of the lot.
‘Becoming the greatest Hans among all Hanses wouldn’t be bad, but it still lacks too much impact.’
While Harley fell into serious contemplation as he looked at the rangers, Zaonic, having interpreted his gaze in some way, stretched his arm high and patted him on the waist.
“Well, Hans can move around, and he’s a member of the elite rangers. On top of that, such splendid warriors have come to help us, so won’t we manage somehow? Hahaha—!”
“Mm? Ah! That’s right. If he bears the name Hans, he should be able to overcome a hardship like this! Pahaha—!”
“Hahaha... Hm?”
“Hahahaha—!”
After a conversation and laughter that were slightly beside the point continued for a while, the party agreed to rest here for the day and depart the next morning, then each prepared a place to sleep.
Since it was an underground burrow protected by all sorts of high-level barriers, unlike their usual camps, only one person at a time needed to stand night watch.
‘Even with the barriers, we don’t know what might happen, so a night watch is essential.’
Even so, it was a far better situation than when, excluding Fabiella the mage, they had stood watch in pairs of two across three shifts, so no one complained.
Thus, a peaceful night passed.
At last, the day of the great escape dawned.***
The Bright ducal house of the Kingdom of Talia.
Heinz II was, as always, examining documents sent in from various places and grasping the state of affairs on the continent.
This time, Hans had obtained the Banshee Queen Olivia and added a new route for acquiring information, but that did not mean Heinz’s workload had decreased.
In the first place, lower undead ghosts, incapable of advanced thought, only moved as ordered and could not obtain complex information.
Olivia’s ability to process high-level intelligence based on the fragmentary facts gathered by the ghosts under her command was certainly impressive, but it was also true that there were limits.
She was unparalleled when it came to grasping real-time information on battlefields, the movements of military units, or the activities of forces in the shadows, but when it came to national affairs or political situations, borrowing the power of the Brokoslak Clan was far easier.
‘Well, each has their own strengths and weaknesses. My job is to compile all the information and make judgments.’
After all, cross-checking facts received from multiple sources for the sake of information reliability was the most basic of basics.
Just as he was organizing the newly acquired information.
“Lord Heinz.”
Mullo Brokoslak’s voice came with a knock.
“Come in. What is it?”
As Heinz lifted his gaze from the documents and raised his head, Mullo, who had already entered the office, bowed respectfully and opened his mouth.
“A report has just come in that the monsters have begun to stir.”
“Hmm... So it has come to that in the end.”
While commanding the vampires scattered across various regions through blood magic, Mullo also served to relay urgent information sent by them.
This time, it seemed he had received related news from those dispatched to the Forest of Demonic Beasts.
“Since two True Bloods went, it shouldn’t be too dangerous. Tell them to intervene only enough that the army guarding the outside of the forest doesn’t suffer too much damage, and not to overdo it.”
“Yes, understood. However, it is not only that place...”
“Mm?”
Even under Heinz’s questioning gaze, he continued speaking in the same calm tone.
“In the northern mountain range as well, the monsters have begun moving south in earnest.”
It was the beginning of the promised chaos.