The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 184
The next morning.
Lucretia and Anduha, who had stayed in Iswakan to receive state approval, arrived at the port of Freyja.
I decided to explain the situation to Lucretia.
“Your companions killed a nobleman?”
She frowns.
“Isn’t that a serious crime!”
“Yes, I know. But we can’t just ignore it either.”
Lucretia agreed with this as well.
“Of course. They should be caught and punished for their crimes.”
“…”
As for Gunther, it might be better to secretly extract him and send him towards the territory of the Savior Alliance.
“Anyway, we’ll move right away. If the sea journey was difficult, you can rest.”
“It wasn’t difficult at all. We can go right away.”
Our organized group consisted of six people: myself, Erina, Rinoa, Gaspar, Lucretia, and Anduha.
Actually, when going to conquer dungeons, we usually hire porters in addition to this, but because the Forest of Lament is so infamous, the porters weren’t willing to follow.
So we had no choice but to each carry about 10kg of luggage, which seemed quite arduous for everyone except me and Gaspar, who had a lot of experience carrying military packs in the army.
Especially the women became exhausted after walking about 1km. We inevitably had to take a short break.
‘This is why we need porters.’
At this rate, the sun might set before we reach our destination.
‘Well, I was planning to send the rest back before that anyway, so it might not matter…’
Our primary target was a level 7 lower dungeon about 2 hours away.
According to the information, it’s an insect-type dungeon, with creatures that look similar to scorpions inhabiting it.
After walking for about an hour after the break, creatures about the size of children appeared.
‘No, this is rather than a scorpion…’
It looked more like a cockroach. Or perhaps a cockroach with a tail.
“Kyaak!”
Rinoa lets out a scream as if in agony. Erina seems similar, turning pale white.
“Be careful. These guys are quite nimble!”
Gaspar shouts while dealing with the one at the front.
The monsters start flying with a ‘weeeng!’ sound and begin circling around us.
“I’ll strengthen the defense!”
While Gaspar attacks from the frontline, we adopt a strategy of solidifying our formation to counterattack.
Unexpectedly, Rinoa showed remarkable performance here.
As the multiple wind blades she created swept through the air, two or three monsters would fall to the ground in pieces.
Besides this, Lucretia’s performance was also excellent.
She, who uses ice magic, was specialized in defense. She could create ice walls at will within a certain range, generating ice walls in front of monsters trying to penetrate gaps between comrades, blocking their approach.
After some time passed, all those numerous bugs died and disappeared.
“These monsters aren’t much. How was it, Wade?”
“Yeah, yeah. You were excellent, miss.”
“Hehe, this kind of thing is nice once in a while. Come on, let’s go!”
Rinoa urges us on, full of pride. On the other hand, Erina, who couldn’t contribute much, has a sullen face.
She seems to be waiting for a chance to show her skills.
That chance came soon.
The dungeon boss was much larger than the creatures we’d seen so far.
If the ones until now were about the size of children, the boss boasted a size comparable to a compact car.
Around it were piles of withered corpses, suggesting that this creature doesn’t devour its prey whole, but rather sucks out their bodily fluids.
Seeing this, Gaspar says in a low voice.
“…Ars.”
“I see it too.”
Among those piles of corpses, there were some that appeared to be human in form.
“For now, dealing with that thing is our top priority.”
“I’ll cut it to pieces in one go.”
But just before that.
Crackle! Sparks fly in the air.
Erina had started casting a spell.
“Step back!”
Even without Erina’s warning, an instinctive sense of danger was felt. Gaspar also retreated hurriedly with his hair standing on end.
And then, crack! Lightning struck.
The monster pierced by the lightning turned black and steamed. And belatedly, a booming sound reverberated.
That was the end of it. The boss turned into magical remnants and disappeared.
Erina, who had finished off the opponent in one shot, says apologetically.
“I’m sorry. I wanted to show you a good side of me too… Was I too rash?”
“Ah, no. That was cool. As expected, your firepower is amazing.”
This was the strength of lightning attribute magic.
There are hardly any living beings that can survive being struck by lightning.
Although there are various limitations such as greatly reduced efficiency indoors, once the conditions are met, it can exert extreme firepower.
For now, this achieved our primary goal.
If we take the magic stone that came from the boss’s remains to the academy, it will count as an achievement. This more than makes up for skipping classes.
“So this is a magic stone…”
Rinoa was staring as if mesmerized at the magic stone emitting a mysterious light on her palm.
I decided to search the corpses around with Gaspar.
Perhaps because all their bodily fluids had been sucked out, the degree of decay in the corpses wasn’t severe.
We could identify facial features from their mummified appearance.
“Fortunately, Gunther doesn’t seem to be here.”
Gaspar nodded ambiguously at my words of relief.
“But look. The emblem on this man’s clothes. It’s the emblem of the noble family that Gunther said he killed.”
“You mean they chased Gunther all the way here and were attacked by monsters?”
“Probably.”
“Then it must be true that Gunther fled in this direction.”
“But from here on, there’s no trace we can follow. What will you do now?”
“…”
There was a risk in going further in.
I decided to send the others back as planned.
Rinoa and Erina showed signs of dissatisfaction with this, but reluctantly agreed due to their struggles with the weight of the luggage on the way here.
Anduha was to take them out.
I tried to send Lucretia back as well, but she strongly insisted on accompanying us to arrest Gunther.
“What will we do now?”
“For now, I’m thinking of going deeper in. We need to find clues.”
We decided to set up markers to avoid getting lost.
Only after setting these markers could we determine our direction and move.
“First, let’s move north…”
But that’s when it happened.
There was a sound like ‘Koong!’ as if a rock was falling, and then a red current of air from somewhere enveloped us.
Simultaneously, the surrounding scenery began to change.
* * *
“This is…?”
The green forest is being covered in red. The sky began to emit an ominous red light as if blood had been sprinkled, and the color of the trees became bizarre.
Gaspar swallows hard and mutters.
“Well, it seems we’ve been caught in it.”
Lucretia also seemed greatly confused.
“W-Wade. Could this be…!”
“It seems to be exactly what you’re thinking.”
It was clear.
The culprit that caused numerous disappearances and made this place be called the Forest of Lament.
I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it was certainly an ominous presence.
‘To think it could erode reality.’
Because of this, this place had become a kind of different world.
I could understand why the teleportation scrolls had become useless.
“Lucretia. Give me the teleportation scroll.”
“H-Here it is.”
I checked the number on the scroll and distributed them to the two of them.
“The scroll we used before probably lost its effect. So it’s better to use it anew here now.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I’m not certain, but considering that people couldn’t return, it’s clear.”
The fourth method to neutralize the teleportation scroll is to make spatial movement impossible.
Since the teleportation scroll is ultimately a spatial movement magic, if it’s blocked, it won’t activate.
“There might be some kind of barrier that prevents movement to the outside. However, we might be able to move within this space, so that’s why I’m saying we should use it anew. Here.”
Gaspar used the teleportation scroll again without a word. Lucretia soon understood and obediently used it.
‘Now, from here on…’
It seemed highly likely that Gunther had come here.
So being sucked into this place was something I had hoped for.
‘For now, it would be good to search the surroundings.’
Since the surrounding situation had changed, something new might have occurred.
We cautiously moved forward.
That’s when it happened.
“Please save me!”
A woman appeared with a tearing scream.
She was an incredibly beautiful woman. Even I, who am indifferent to women’s appearances, couldn’t take my eyes off her for a moment.
She was a woman with pitiful beauty.
Such a woman appeared barefoot and asked for help.
“Please save me! A monster is chasing me!”
The woman rushed towards me as if to embrace me.
“Please save…”
Thwack! Her head flies off. Gaspar kicked away the headless body with cold eyes.
“What have you done?!”
Lucretia screamed in shock.
Gaspar calmly says.
“Before coming here, I checked on all the people who had disappeared relatively recently. There was no story about such a woman. If so, it means she disappeared a very long time ago. For that, the condition of her clothes is too good.”
“For just such a reason…!”
Lucretia seemed about to protest against Gaspar, but then a chilling laughter echoed.
“Kihihihihihi…!”
The severed head began to laugh madly.
Even Lucretia closed her mouth like a clam at this insane laughter.
“Kihihi! Welcome to the Forest of Lament! You too will soon despair and collapse! Until then, struggle as much as you want!”
“Shut up.”
Crunch! Gaspar crushed the head by stepping on it.
And then silence fell for a moment.
Lucretia cautiously says.
“It just said Forest of Lament. That’s…”
“Strange, isn’t it?”
The name ‘Forest of Lament’ is a nickname arbitrarily given by people. The fact that the opponent knows this means it’s a monster with intelligence.
“Or it might not be a monster.”
Black magicians hiding in the lost lands.
If it’s the doing of one of them, it makes sense. Considering that the teleportation scroll couldn’t activate, the latter seems more likely.
“To think it’s the work of black magicians…”
“Usually, big things are done by people. For now, let’s move forward.”
Whether it was the work of monsters or people, we had to find Gunther and Meissen.
We began to move, targeting the point where the red wave had occurred.
As we did so, the surrounding landscape became more bizarre.
Red sap flowing from pitch-black dead trees, or what looked like a lake boiling in purple.
The strangest thing was that, oddly, no human corpses were visible.
The number of people who have gone missing here so far is about 100,000. If they all died in this world, there should be corpses.
But the fact that there are no corpses means…
“Could it be…”
Just as the worst hypothesis flashed through my mind, Gaspar sounded the alarm.
“Ars!”
“I thought it was strange that there was no presence…”
Corpses creeping closer.
Undead soldiers were approaching us.
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