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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘It’s definitely useful.’
It seemed like a skeleton that had been in battle dozens of times.
I quickly cast a strengthening spell on the skeleton, and as soon as the strengthening took effect, the first collision occurred.
The first to clash with the skeleton was a troll.
It came running at a faster speed than the other monsters and threw its body directly onto the skeleton’s shield.
The skeleton’s reaction was agile.
It immediately lowered its posture to a stable stance, withstood the troll’s charge, and deflected the attack of a goblin that followed.
It focused solely on defense rather than counterattacking, and that was the right choice.
I rushed towards the fallen troll, and Kayla pierced straight through the neck of the goblin that the skeleton had intentionally deflected.
An orc that tried to attack the skeleton immediately changed its target to me when the troll was about to die.
However, it couldn’t block my attack.
The skeleton intervened in the middle and held off the orc, and I sliced the troll’s belly and immediately retreated.
In the meantime, another troll that had infiltrated from the side pounced on Kayla.
Thud! Crack.
Kayla showed movements so smooth that it was hard to believe she had an inconvenient leg.
The troll was instantly killed, and the triangular formation was restored once again.
“…Are skeletons usually this strong?”
“That one is special.”
“I see.”
“Grrr!”
“…They’re excited.”
“It seems to be because of the smell of blood.”
The terrain is advantageous for us, who are small in number.
Although the passage is wide, it’s true that the sides are blocked.
“We’ll attack first.”
It’s better for us to push forward rather than let them run wild.
I immediately gave instructions to the skeleton, and it charged towards the orcs that could be considered their front line.
“Krha!”
The orc blocked the skeleton’s charge as if it was ridiculous and swung the club in its hand as if to smash its head.
However, it couldn’t fulfill that intention.
I cut off its hand, and Kayla bisected a goblin that was aiming for the side.
Still, the excited monsters didn’t back down.
Even the orc with a severed arm rushed in as if pain didn’t matter, and like that, a dozen monsters had their lives cut short by our hands one by one.
“…They’re stronger than ordinary monsters.”
“Because they’re dominated by magical energy.”
Even so, they were no match for us.
The orcs were somewhat useful, but they rushed in so recklessly that their unique savagery was completely dead.
It’s not enough to just increase physical abilities.
Therefore, they could only be slaughtered by us as if they were being massacred.
“The smell of blood is vibrating.”
It was noisy fighting, so if there were more monsters, they would have noticed our intrusion.
“How’s your stamina?”
We had only faced a little over ten monsters, so stamina wasn’t a problem.
“Then let’s continue.”
We moved deeper into the cave with the skeleton taking the lead.
As we went further inside, the surroundings became brighter, and soon we discovered a fork in the path.
“What shall we do?”
I could guess where the artifact was located.
Because slightly thicker magical energy was flowing from one side.
However, I chose to go in the opposite direction.
“The destination is likely on the left. But to go as safely as possible, we’ll search the right side first.”
If there were monsters here, in the worst case, we could be attacked from both front and back.
‘Still, the artifact would be the most important thing, so if there are guardians, they won’t move from there.’
We immediately entered the right side, and before long, we found a cavity divided into several branches.
“This… looks like a living space.”
There was something like a door in each cavity.
Despite the long time that had passed, the doors looked quite intact.
Moreover, the inside was very bright, and as expected, numerous magic lamps were brightly illuminating the surroundings.
“This seems to be a research journal. But it’s written in characters I’ve never seen before.”
“That’s the demonic language.”
“Can you read it?”
“Of course.”
Since there was no sign of monsters inside, I immediately checked what was presumed to be a research journal.
“…This is absurd.”
This seemed to be a research lab secretly created by a Lich from the demon realm.
To be precise…
‘This guy is crazy, isn’t he?’
It appeared to be a research lab where chimera research was conducted on fellow demons.
‘Insane. Despite coming over to invade the middle realm, you experimented on fellow demons?’
It must have been a Demon Lord’s subordinate, but it seemed he was skilled enough to deceive even the Demon Lord’s eyes.
Demons experimenting on other demons is one of the things forbidden by the Demon Lords.
The reason was simple. Due to the past war with the Celestial Realm, the overall power of the Demon Realm had greatly diminished, so various restrictions were put in place to increase the overall power of the Demon Realm.
One of them was experimenting on the races and demons belonging to the Demon Realm.
Before that, they didn’t care whether demons experimented on other demons or not.
This is a fact I heard from the Demon Lord I contracted with in my first life.
“…There was a reason why the magic lamps were still running even after a long time had passed.”
“Pardon? What do you mean…?”
I immediately opened the half-broken doors and thoroughly searched the interior space.
In one of them, I found what I was aiming for.
“…What is this?”
“A demon’s heart. Tsk. It’s unusable.”
The magical energy inside had almost all leaked out. What remained was little more than a shell.
‘There’s no point in keeping it… Ah, no. For a different purpose…’
I immediately took the heart. Fortunately, the magic lamps didn’t turn off right away. It seemed they would be maintained for a while thanks to the residual magical energy.
In another room, I noticed several demon body parts half-rotted in sealed containers and old reagents that had become unusable.
There were also Spirit Herbs.
Three blue roots of Trenelsi. They seemed to be hundreds of years old.
The blue roots first discovered in the Trenelsi region are mainly used as ingredients for Spirit Medicines.
They are rich in mana, so they are helpful even if you just eat them.
They are Spirit Herbs that can’t be obtained even with money.
Moreover, if they are hundreds of years old… You can’t buy them even with money.
It seemed they had been stored with the roots and then neglected for a long time, taking root in the cave.
‘It’s a wonder they weren’t contaminated by magical energy.’
It was unfortunate. If they had been contaminated by magical energy, I could have refined them and used them.
The inside was filled with pure mana, not magical energy, for nothing.
‘No, no. The artifact still remains. And… I also obtained the research data.’
Although it was an empty shell, I had obtained a demon’s heart.
It wasn’t an ordinary heart either.
I had to check, but if it was as written in the journal, this was the heart of a Lycanthrope.
The problem was that the corpse of the Lycanthrope whose heart was removed was used for chimera production, and while there was a record of completion, even the corpse of that chimera was nowhere to be seen.
‘…There will be a guardian.’
It was likely to be on the left path.
‘There should only be monsters at the entrance. They’ll be idiots drawn by the magical energy.’
Monsters also have a lifespan.
Even if they are contaminated by magical energy, their lifespan doesn’t increase.
‘If anything, it decreases.’
According to the journal, the successfully created chimera was only one made from a Lycanthrope.
Even that was regrettably noted to have poor performance.
‘A lot of time has passed, so it will have weakened.’
Considering the curse that remained in Thea’s body, there was no way a chimera that hadn’t been maintained would be intact.
‘Maybe it has become completely unusable.’
Originally, this cave was also a place that wasn’t revealed due to the barrier set up by the Lich.
After the Lich disappeared and time passed, the barrier weakened, and its appearance was revealed.
In other words, the chimera must have also been affected by time.
“…This is all we can take.”
The magic lamps were embedded in the cave, making them difficult to remove.
“Then shall we go directly to the left path?”
“We have to.”
I informed Kayla of the possibility of a guardian being there.
“If it’s a guardian…”
“It’s a chimera. Made from the corpse of a Lycanthrope.”
A chimera made with the best materials, using the corpse of a Lycanthrope as the base and incorporating a demon’s horn and heart, an incubus’ eyes, and even the wings of a fallen angel.
‘It said the synthesis of a shadow beast failed. That’s fortunate.’
But perhaps due to a poor combination, its power was miserable compared to the materials.
There was a record left stating that it could barely handle Expert-level, let alone Master-level.
The record was filled with anger to the point where it could be felt.
‘It’s infuriating enough.’
Although it varies by individual, on average, except for the incubus, the demons used as materials alone can easily handle Expert-level.
But somehow, even when combined, not only did it not become stronger, it became weaker…
‘Moreover, the Lycanthrope was said to be a Demon Realm general when alive…’
It had terribly weakened.
Even if a zombie was made with that corpse, it would be stronger than the chimera recorded.
There was no way anger wouldn’t arise.
“Don’t worry. It’s written that it’s not very strong. Moreover, a lot of time has passed, so there’s a high possibility it’s not intact.”
“…Is that so? I understand. Let’s go and see for now.”
Since our original purpose was there, we couldn’t back down here.
Kayla and I put the skeleton at the forefront and returned to the fork, this time heading to the left.
It wasn’t long after we had entered that way.
“Kruk. Hu, man?”
“…It talks?”
Honestly, I was surprised.
It was amazing that it was alive and moving properly, but it even spoke.
‘It has intelligence? That’s a bit troublesome…’
Thud, thud, thud.
The creature, sensing our presence, slowly revealed itself.
“…It’s quite big.”
But it was only big in size.
Its appearance was abnormal.
Its body was rotten here and there, it had only one of the fallen angel’s wings, and its eyes seemed to have lost sight, lacking focus.
The demon’s horns were nowhere to be seen, not even a trace.
“Life, force. Offer your life force…”
“Master, please step back.”
Kayla spoke with a highly tense expression.
The creature slowly approached us like a zombie, and although its appearance was a mess, its size was nearly 3m, so it had a considerable level of pressure.
“…It’s fine. That thing is just a piece of trash with a large build.”
The magical energy felt from its body was less than mine currently.
Even that was leaking from its rotten body here and there.
As I shifted my gaze to the back of the creature, there was a small altar.
‘…Found it.’
On the altar, a single staff was placed.
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