Chapter 599 (1/2)

Chapter 599: A Retrospection of Magic Power

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

By the afternoon, Roland was prepared to head to the snowcapped mountains.

The equipment he would take with him included a tent, adequate food, and a concrete paddle steamer. Since Devil’s Town was coastal, he must set off from Shallow Beach. As usual, Hummingbird would be responsible for transportation.

He had to admit it was a pretty queer thing that Hummingbird, who was as petite as Nana, could hold up the entire concrete boat above her head. The scene reminded Roland of an ant moving rice ten times bigger than its own body. If Hummingbird happened to be on the other side of the boat, he would see a boat silently shifting by itself on the shore like a “ghost ship”.

As long as Hummingbird kept her hands attached to the boat, she could help with the transportation continuously. It was a much more efficient way to move stuff compared with her earlier method, with which she had to spend a great deal of time reducing the weight of each item. The new method also saved Hummingbird a lot of magic power. The only drawback, however, was that she needed to follow enchanted goods, which meant she could only move two items at a time.

The paddle steamer heading to the west passed endless mountains and ridges. It arrived at Rocky Beach two days later.

Last time, Roland took a bird’s-eye view of this land from a distance on the “Cloud Gazer”. Now when he finally set foot on the beach, he found it was nothing but a vast and desolate wilderness.

Rocky Beach, merely ten miles apart from Shallow Beach, was a completely different world.

There were animal remains embedded in layers of gravel and crushed stones all over the place, some of which had corroded due to exposure, while others were in the process of turning into new rocks. A few bones, which Roland failed to determine their owners, were quite big, almost in the same size of an adult.

The steep precipice was also bizarre and mystic.

Numerous sharp stalagmites grew out of the rock surfaces. Unlike the ones suspending from the top of the cave, these stalagmites, which looked like countless hooks hanging upside down at first glance, were all sticking out horizontally with their tails pointing to the ceiling. They were totally unbounded by the gravitational pull. Roland did not see them clearly last time on the balloon; but now, as he was personally on the beach, he felt the hair on the back of his neck all stood up at the sight of this disturbing view.

No signs of life could be found on the long beach. No seagulls were nesting in the vicinity, and no seaweeds or clams were discovered either. Even at the rear of the rocks was an endless expanse of open country, as if demons’ Red Mist had taken away all the lives on this land.

Roland and the others located the narrow crack leading to Devil’s Town with the help of the marks left by Lotus. It was actually more of a fracture than a crack. As the gap, fathomless and confined, almost split the whole precipice in half. Lotus created a narrow path of one and a half meters wide at the opening.

When they stepped down the stairs and passed through the crevice, Nightingale involuntarily burst out an exclamation.

“What’s the matter?” Roland asked.

“Look over there.” She pointed to the bottomless crack. “There’s a hole in the rocks.”

They all stopped and took a peek. Close to the inky bottom, Roland spotted several round holes, which seemed to be manually drilled. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know. But I’ve seen similar holes in the Impassable Mountain Range, except the ones there are slightly bigger.” Nightingale hesitated for a moment and then said, “I feel something is looking at me deep down there. The deeper I probe, the stronger this feeling is.”

“…Something?” Roland was a bit surprised.

“There is more than one.” Nightingale nodded. “In the valley on the way to the camps of the Witch Cooperation Association, there’s a path leading to the bottom of the ground. I’ve never been down there.”

“Take Sylvie to the Impassable Mountain Range after she’s back.” Roland took another look at the bottom of the fracture, managing to suppress the desire to explore. He then ordered the team to continue to marshal forward.

Although this continent was a part of Land of Dawn, on which human beings had settled as early as 1,000 years ago, they had a very minimal understanding of the world, as if mankind had deliberately forgotten to explore the outside world. Roland once told Agatha about drawing a map of the whole continent but was informed that the Union had done so for Fertile Plains. They had very roughly sketched out an outline of Land of Dawn. As to the land beyond, they knew nothing about it.

That was why Roland fully supported Thunder to explore lands overseas. He had thought it would be a matter of time to understand the whole world, but now he realized he was ignorant of even his own territory, the Kingdom of Graycastle in the Western Region.