Chapter 85 - The Great Barrier (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The aberrations had indeed left behind considerable traces of pollution in their process of roaming. Although those chaotic magic auras were dissipating very quickly, as it had been a timely discovery, there was still substantial proof remaining.

Following those pollution auras which would appear from time to time, Gawain and company advanced unceasingly in the Dark Range and gradually moved closer to the gap in the mountains that was located in the southwestern direction of the camp. And this gap put Gawain on the alert.

This was a part of the Dark Range with lower relief and also the juncture easiest to cross over. If those monsters had entered through this gap… they would be able to sense the auras of the humans at the pioneering camp soon and charge down from the mountains to drive straight in and attack the camp.

The trio climbed up a huge boulder and surveyed the gap in the mountains from afar. There wasn’t much vegetation covering the rocks there; the exposed grayish-white rocks were lifeless like fractured skeletons. The entire terrain looked as if it had been hacked apart by a sharp ax, and at the bottom of the gap, they could clearly see an unsettling dark mist curling upward.

Gawain immediately had Heidi use spells to hide the various auras on the three of them, including magical power. The capabilities of a level-three mage in this aspect were naturally limited. Such concealment would not work on any professional at the intermediate level and above. However, Gawain was very clear about the aberrations’ weaknesses. After breaking out of the Dark Wave’s environment, their senses would become very obtuse, and their thinking ability would lower. As long as they did not clearly sense magical power or the aura of intelligent beings, they would not react.

After completing the concealment work, the three people cautiously found their way forward. Before they were even halfway there, a putrid odor could be smelt coming from ahead.

“Bleuurp…” Heidi dry-heaved quietly while her fingers tightened around her magic staff. She knew this smell too well. Such an odor had appeared in her nightmares more than once and roused her from her dreams. — A few months ago, the entire old Cecil territory had been ruined amidst this stench.

Knowing that those monsters could sense the fluctuations of magic and that the effect of her concealment spell was limited, Heidi suppressed the urge to release Wind Shield. She carefully treaded behind Gawain to round past the rocks and old trees that were blocking their path ahead.

Gawain, who led them from the front, suddenly made a gesture. “Hide— they’re in front.”

The three hid between the jagged rocks in a single file. Amber boldly poked her head out under Gawain’s shoulder. In the next second, goosebumps flooded her skin.

The mountainous path below was shrouded in a layer of dark mist. The vegetation there was withered and mutated; pricks and feelers crept out from the soil and gaps between the rocks; countless lumped masses resembling a certain type of mollusk squirmed and rolled between those rocks and soil. The sight made one sick to the stomach. And the gory titans were lumbering forward on this path which seemed like the road to hell. Flesh and blood slurries ran down their muddled faces as profane yet low murmurs sounded from their thoracic cavities, forming a buzzing resonance in the air.

What made one shudder even more was that many of these gory titans had decayed and ragged ancient weapons stuck in their bodies. Amber even caught sight of a hollow human skeleton lodged in the abdomen of one of the titans. Such sickening evidence confirmed Gawain’s judgment: This was a contingent of demon troops that had wandered from the Gondor wastelands and originated from hell.

Amber immediately grabbed Gawain’s arm and uttered her clearest thought at this moment in the softest, faintest voice she’d ever had in this life, “Boss, I don’t want my pay any more. Just let me go…”

“Shh—” Gawain held down Amber’s head, but his eyes were scanning through those monsters. He checked again and again and finally lightly heaved a sigh of relief. “Thankfully, this is not the worst situation.”

“This still isn’t terrible?!” Amber felt as if she was staring at a madman when she fixed her gaze on Gawain. “Such a big group is enough to tear down the entire camp three times over!”

“Don’t be scared by appearances. Actually, their numbers aren’t as many as you imagined.” Gawain knew the kind of wrong perception average people would have when they saw the aberration army for the first time. Hence, he explained patiently, “Those mist and paraphytes surging on the ground would give you the illusion that there are lots of them. But count carefully, the actual figure is probably less than a thousand…”

Amber faltered for a moment but then seriously estimated the number of gory titans swaying in sight. “It really seems like there are only a few hundred…”

However, she quickly reacted. “But our entire camp consists of only eight hundred people — and seven hundred of them can’t fight!”

“But this is already much better than my worst expectation,” Gawain replied under his breath. “Initially, I was most worried that their numbers had exceeded the threshold ‘line’ by too much. That way, their numbers would increase rapidly, like they were growing out of the air. Back then, we had a considerably hard time in this. The two thousand enemies in the reports would have multiplied to three or even four thousand by the time we met… However, look at these. There aren’t any new aberrations growing out of the air. This means that their numbers happen to not have exceeded the line, or have exceeded it just slightly but have yet to reach the extent where they would naturally increase…”

“Still, even if there’s only this amount of them, it’s not something that the camp can handle at this point.” Heidi pointed out worriedly in a low voice. “Ancestor, their direction of movement is towards the north of the mountains. They will arrive near the camp sooner or later. Once the camp is exposed within the range of their senses…”

Amber’s pair of pointed ears ceaselessly shivered in the air. “Didn’t you say that those aberrations would randomly roam or stop where they were when they no longer sensed magical power or humans? Who knows, they might halt after walking another stretch and remain there for eight hundred or a thousand years…”