Chapter 422: The Searchers

In the gloomy forest, a two-person squad moved forward in silence, one in front and one behind.

They were caked in mud, looking tired and bedraggled. They watched their surroundings with wary eyes, fully aware they were in a dangerous place; every move they made was extremely cautious.

The soldier slightly to the rear suddenly changed expression and fell on his butt. Muttering “did that dog of an apothecary swap in inferior herbs again,” he yanked off his boot and gave it a hard shake.

A finger-long venomous bug flew out of the boot. The soldier reacted fast, drew his dagger, and stabbed down. The bug was chopped clean in two.

Green liquid splattered. The two halves writhed, still emitting sharp, squeaking cries.

Even though he was long used to it, the soldier couldn’t help showing disgust. He shook his head and sighed:

“Ugh, how long is this crap going to keep happening...”

“Stop complaining.”

A steady voice came. A leather boot lifted and smashed down, grinding the not-quite-dead bug to pulp.

“Mission first.”

“Okay.”

Seeing the captain’s face—like someone owed him a few thousand Aimiers—and thinking he really did owe him a few thousand Aimiers, the soldier hunched his neck, put his boot back on, and sprang up from the ground.

The heavy water in the air had soaked his boots through. Add in the unbreathable leather jacket, and he felt like he was trapped in a steamer basket. When the temperature dropped at night, the chill rushed in; he could feel his body heat draining fast, hands and feet already ice-cold.

All he could do was keep moving to hold his temperature.

But moving in this damned place burned through stamina at a frightening rate.

It was a dense, sinister jungle. Aside from the venomous bugs all over the ground, and the cawing crows flitting among the great branches, there were basically no living things.

If we die here, there probably won’t even be whole corpses left.

The soldier pictured his body being divided up by bugs and crows, and let out another long, helpless sigh.

He’d only joined the army a few months ago, planning to scrape a soldier’s pay and maybe pound on a few of those eyesore kingdom savages up north—thus he’d chosen the border guard under the famously decent Count Eller.

Never thought he wouldn’t see a single kingdom savage before being assigned a shit job like this.

Find a person.

Find a person in a forest this huge.

This was like fishing a needle out of the sea—utterly absurd. In the soldier’s experience, an ordinary person staying in a hellhole like this for a few days would already be crow feed.

But the person they were looking for had supposedly been missing almost a month. What was the point of looking?

“Captain, I’m just saying—shouldn’t this kind of thing be left to those magus lords? Much easier, right?”

The soldier couldn’t help grumbling:

“I heard those magus lords can do anything under heaven—finding a person ought to be simple. Like this: use magic, biubiubiu a few times. I saw those magus lords from far away once—man, they looked impressive when they cast.”

He made a few wildly exaggerated gestures, as if putting himself in the role.

“I’m not too sure.”

The captain pulled out a dry pipe, puffed on it with soft clicks, and used the long blade in his hand to cut a path with practiced ease:

“Just heard there’s something terrifying in this forest that’s woken up. The stronger you are, the more likely that thing is to take notice.”

The soldier blanched. “Then what about us...”

“Relax.”

The captain glanced at him. “You don’t even have two taels of meat on you. You think it’d be interested?”

“True, haha.”

The soldier scratched his head.

“But I still think it’s weird. At first our orders were to stand guard outside the forest—why the sudden change two days ago? If you’re going to find someone, the first few days are the most important, right? It’s been a month—there won’t even be bone crumbs left.”

“I’m not too sure. Supposedly the first order came from Count Eller, but two days ago some lord from who-knows-where showed up, said something to Count Eller, and then we got the order to come in and search.”

Here the captain paused, then suddenly lowered his voice:

“Rumor is—the one we’re looking for is a noble’s young lady!”

“...So that’s it.”

The soldier showed a look of sudden realization, then sighed along:

“Lord Count Eller’s a good lord.”

“Yeah, the Count is of course a good lord—that’s the shared opinion of our border forces. But...”

The captain sighed. “Not every noble lord is that good.”

“Yeah.”

The soldier pouted. “I joined up because the lord back home was a real bastard—high taxes, and he even stole people’s wives. So I—”

The captain’s expression sharpened. “Silence! You can’t shoot off your mouth like that!”

“I know, I know. I only say stuff like this to you in a deep forest...”

The soldier took out his canteen to drink, shook it and found it empty. He muttered a few more words, then continued:

“But I still think something’s off. If they really wanted us to search seriously, why do it like this?”

He pointed to himself, then at the captain.

A two-person team.

For entering a forest to search for someone, this was incredibly stupid. Two people couldn’t cover for each other, much less spread out to search.

In the soldier’s view, this method... was just to make limited manpower look like a grand operation.

Yeah—hundreds of men split into over a hundred tiny teams, reporting search updates day and night—really did sound like a massive show.

“Who knows. How dare we try to guess what the lords up top are thinking.”

The captain tapped ash against a nearby trunk, ending that dangerous topic.

He looked at the soldier’s still-young face and softened a bit:

“We stop here tonight. Camp on the spot and rest. I’ll light the fire; you fetch some water from the lake.”

He pointed to a small lake not far away.

“Got it!”

At the mention of rest, strength flooded back into the utterly exhausted soldier. He grabbed the captain’s canteen and hustled toward the lake.

The lake wasn’t large, but the water was very clear.

There were no trees right at the lakeshore, so the starry sky could be seen reflected on the surface.

The soldier felt nothing special—he was sick to death of these dry, boring stars. They weren’t half as nice as the white, bouncy chests of those slutty little hussies in the city you had to pay for.

With nothing better to do, the soldier could only watch the bubbles glug-glugging up through the canteen mouth.

Caw—

Suddenly, a crow flew over his head. He staggered, nearly falling into the lake.

“Motherfucker, you dead bird!”

He swore. “Believe it or not, I’ll pluck you and make you my midnight snack!”

The crow, like a streak of black lightning, vanished rapidly into the night.

The soldier lowered his head—and discovered that thanks to the scare, he’d let go of the canteen. It was sinking into the lake.

“Damn it.”

He cursed again.

In a forest that stayed sweltering even by day, water was vital. The canteen couldn’t be lost.

He bent down quickly, reaching for it.

To extend his reach far enough, he even put his head into the water.

The lake was icy and clear. With the starlight, the soldier could see the canteen sinking fast.

But just as his fingers were about to touch it, he realized the canteen wasn’t alone in the water.

A writhing black shadow was squirming not far from it—and rapidly growing.

No! It wasn’t growing!

It was racing closer!

He jerked his head up—but at that same instant, the shadow burst through the surface!

Terror twisted his face. Reflected in his pupils was the horrifying true form of the shadow.

It was... a massive tentacle as thick as a barrel!

“A m... magical beast!”

He cried out, but fear froze him for an instant. He could only watch as the tentacle lunged at him!

“Idiot! This is not the time to blank out!”

A harsh shout snapped him awake. The seasoned captain lunged in, the long sword in his hand hacking down at the tentacle.

Scales covered the tentacle; the blade only chipped a small notch.

Luckily the thing still felt pain and coiled. The captain seized the chance to yank the soldier back.

But before they could exhale in relief, a huge wave rose from the lake. A massive black shape, like a small mountain, surfaced from the depths!

It was a giant octopus!

Its mottled skin was vividly bright under the starlight. More tentacles reached from the bottom; the small protruding eyes on either side stared coldly and bloodthirstily at the two on shore.

“Why... why—wasn’t it said there were no magical beasts in this forest?”

The soldier’s face went paper-white.

“No. It’s not a magical beast.”

The captain’s expression grew grim.

“There’s no magic fluctuation on it. It’s just a big animal!”

“Then we...”

“What do you mean ‘we’—even if it’s just an animal, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) it’s not something we can handle!”

The captain tackled the soldier, shoved his head down, and turned to flee.

At the same time, a thick arm swept past the spot where the soldier had been, smashing a massive boulder to gravel with one blow!

Cold sweat burst out of the soldier. He didn’t dare think; after a day of slogging his stamina was spent, but he still forced every last bit out of himself.

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have blown all my money on whoring—should’ve bought meat a couple more times...”

For the first time, he felt true regret for his wasted first half of life.

“Fuck that! This isn’t the time to cry! If you’re gonna cry, wait till we get back and bawl on some woman’s belly!”

The captain slapped him on the back, gritted his teeth, and pulled a sphere of metal from his chest.

Imperial-Issue Type-III Alchemical Bomb!

A precious piece of kit issued from above. There weren’t many. With his status as captain, he only had the qualification to receive one.

But there was no time to hesitate.

He primed the bomb and hurled it straight at the giant octopus behind them.

Boom!

A deafening blast tore through the woods. Fire lit the sky; countless crows rose in the distance. The shock and heat burned their backs.

The octopus was swallowed in flame.

But before the captain could show joy, he saw the octopus—hit dead-on—begin to move again.

Tentacles writhed in the fire like crazed pythons!

The bomb had only blown off one arm; even that arm was sprouting flesh buds, regenerating at a rate visible to the naked eye. The octopus’s massive body swelled as if flooding with water!

The captain couldn’t tell how much real damage the blast had done—but he knew he had completely enraged the monster!

“Run!”

He shoved the soldier—who was about to look back—forward. Seizing the step of delay the bomb had bought, they shot into the trees.

“Drop... drop the weapons and run!”

Neither of them was high-ranked. They didn’t even qualify for real armor—only soft leather sewn from beast hide, and a standard-issue longsword.

But from that strike just now, those swords couldn’t hurt the octopus at all—only drag them down.

Normally one sword was nothing. But right now they were both almost out of strength!

They didn’t hesitate long—they tossed the weapons and bolted with everything they had.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Blows thudded behind them.

This forest wasn’t like ordinary forests. The trees were unimaginably tall; but because of that, they weren’t densely spaced. They couldn’t hinder the octopus’s movements.

The arms writhed; on land the beast was no slower. Its tentacles scythed across trunks, leaving shocking wounds on the bark of those ancient giants!

The two had no mind to marvel. They only wished they could squeeze out even their milk strength.

But speed could not beat a monster of that size. At this rate, they were going to be caught.

What to do... Is it over?

The captain’s thoughts spun, but no solution came.

What he’d learned in a few years of army slog wasn’t enough to handle a horror like this.

But...

In the encroaching despair, the soldier’s eyes suddenly lit. He pointed ahead, panting:

“C... captain... look there...”

“What?”

The captain’s side glance caught it—and joy burst in his chest.

Ahead, in a patch of dense brush, there was a cave!

The opening was only a person high. With the octopus’s bulk, it definitely couldn’t fit.

And from that cut he’d landed earlier, the captain knew for sure this creature wasn’t a soft-bodied animal that could shrink itself tiny.

He didn’t know what laired there, but he’d never heard of bears in this forest. In any case, better than the monster behind.

He only hoped it was deep enough.

“We’re going in!”

He clenched his teeth and dragged the soldier toward the cave.

But when they were less than ten meters away—hope right before their eyes—

Boom—

A python-thick arm whipped over them and smashed down on the cave.

Dirt and stone exploded. The two could only watch in despair as their only escape was buried completely.

“It’s over...”

They both stopped running. There was nowhere left to flee.

The giant octopus also halted. The little eyes bulging on either side showed a human-like sneer.

As if everything it had just done was merely toying with its prey.

Now, the game was over.

“Damn it...”

At the last moment of life, the captain looked at the soldier beside him—so terrified he was crying—and let out a bitter sigh.

He’d promised he’d help the kid find a wife. Never thought... in the end he’d break his word.

As a captain, he was truly unfit...

A pity...

Wind howled.

A black shadow lunged for the captain at a speed almost too fast to see. He didn’t struggle pointlessly this time—he simply wrapped the soldier in his arms and, in his heart, prayed to the Goddess he believed in.

Because he knew that in the face of the death rushing down, all struggle was meaningless...

“Ah? What’s this.”

But then—perhaps the Goddess had heard his prayer—another voice suddenly sounded, and that inevitable death was forcibly... halted.

The captain’s eyes flew wide.

In front of him, the octopus froze mid-motion. The small eyes on either side of its head turned, wary to the extreme, toward the direction of the collapsed cave.

The voice came from there:

“I finally get out, and this is the warm welcome I receive?”

“Really doesn’t... make one happy.”

As the voice grew colder, the octopus’s arm—the one it had stretched out to smash the cave and not yet withdrawn—suddenly... shattered.

Yes—shattered.

Just like that—abruptly—shattered.

A ferocious sword-light brightened the night for an instant. It fell on the tentacle; in a heartbeat flesh flew, and foul slime sprayed everywhere.

The octopus’s limbs spasmed and twisted violently, shrieking in a grating screech.

In that instant, rage flooded its underdeveloped brain, making it forget the trace of threat it had just sensed.

But it didn’t even have time to attack before a massive sword blade thrust from the collapsed dirt and stone—

Molten-crimson light flowed along the blade. It angled toward the octopus and gave a light, weightless cut.

Like a child swinging a toy—no force at all.

But.

In an instant.

The rubble split.

The ground split.

The octopus split.

Everything before the long sword split.

And this time, the octopus didn’t even scream. A violent flame ignited and engulfed it.

The stench of char spread fast. The octopus thrashed madly, all in vain.

No matter how strong its regeneration, it could not withstand that overwhelming cut and that searing fire.

It could only be casually reduced to ash by an even more terrifying power.

“Th—this...”

Watching a monster so powerful it would take at least a hundred-man formation to handle be killed so easily, the captain and soldier both shuddered, almost pissing themselves again, and stared in terror at the slender figure amid the split rubble.

Star-like motes rose and fell with the figure’s breathing. A mighty pressure surged from her frail frame. In that moment, she seemed the center of the world; even her heartbeat made everything tremble along with it.

They remembered the rumors and thought—could this be that terrifying presence in the forest?

But that presence didn’t seem to care about two ants like them. She only lifted her head; her long hair flew as she gazed up, a touch of wistfulness in her eyes:

“So this is... the feeling of Fourth Rank? Breaking through Fourth Rank in just one month—this speed counts as astonishing, doesn’t it. Unprecedented? Maybe. Let’s just say ancient ruins aren’t disappointing—the gains are substantial.”

“But... even after I cleared the entire ruin, I never saw your shadow. Liya, you weren’t in the ruin at all. Where are you?”