Chapter Ten: Only Death Will Follow

“Try inviting him to the party,” Yushin said.

Rain nodded and sent an invite to the dignified Dino.

[Gadras, The Voiceless one, joined the party.]

“It worked!” Rain had a small smile for the first time. It looked quite cute.

“I thank you, human. I will show the way,” Gadras then led them to a small and hidden path in the mountain range. Yushin and Rain missed it even though there wasn’t any magic or special mechanism involved.

“My kind are [Mountain Pathfinders]. Surprised by only this much.” The dino-like resounded in their minds proudly. On that trail, only small monsters are present. Even the flying ones are unaware of their presence. Soon they stood in front of a stone door full of runic inscriptions.

“This is the entrance to the Mountain Dwellers Path. Their kind can pass without triggering traps, but we must be careful,” Gadra warned them.

“Mountain Dwellers?” Rain asked.

“A race of hunters and gatherers. Weaklings, but crafty. Their path is the only one connected to the human’s stronghold. Short Legs, touch the door.”

“...What did you say?” Her cold eyes fixated on him.

“What is the matter? Can you not reach?” Gadras continued without a clue.

Crossing arms, a vein became engorged in her forehead. Yushin decided to intervene.

“We’re losing too much time.”

Rain sighed and touched the door. Nothing happened, “What about it?”

“I was hoping a human could lead us closer. I can open it, but it will alert them inside.” It was Gadras’ turn to sigh.

“If we could decipher those runes…” Yushin came closer and touched the door. The runes were lit and started to move around, startling everyone.

“...What’s going on?” Rain fell back and raised shield.

“The path is open. Human, you are full of mysteries. This type of path only opens to those [Mountain Dwellers]. Are you one of their kind?”

Yushin shook his head, “I have no idea.”

Once again, something recognized him as a different species. This happened way too often to consider it something random. It definitely had something to do with his randomized origin. So far he was recognized as an Elf, a Dwarf, and even the unknown Mountain Dwelling Race.

Rain Falls found it intriguing but did not ask about it.

Gadras seemed to have a few thoughts, but did not go into details, “It seems this king is blessed once again. This path will be much easier to travel. Be warned, they will hunt us.”

“Can’t we negotiate?” Rain asked.

“No. The Demon Magic Fog has driven them insane. They only know how to hunt and gather. So, they will hunt. Be careful of their tools.” Gadras explained and the trio went through the door. It was a magic portal but somehow felt different than Dungeon Gates. After all, it didn’t lead to a true dungeon, but some other space.

A stone room full of inscriptions and paintings. A storage of some kind of tools and small crafts.

“It seems after this King’s warning you unconsciously brought us to one of their storage rooms,” Gadras grinned. “Be careful and look for something useful to you humans.”

Most of the times the crafts didn’t make sense. Some looked like stone gears with runes. Yushin’s engineering level was too low to discern anything. But among those were sometimes gears with jewels that looked quite precious.

“Maybe those are expensive, let’s take as much as we can,” Rain said.

Hidden in a box, Yushin finally found something useful. It looked like a crossbow but fired very small white rocks. There are five rocks altogether.

“This looks like a weapon,” Yushin grabbed it.

“Indeed. That is one of their old weapons. Those white rocks explode on contact.”   

“Take it,” Yushin handed it to Rain.

She shook her head and rejected it waving hands, but he insisted.

“It will take the enemy by surprise. They won’t expect a tank to have it.”

She finally accepted and nodded. They kept looking and were about to give up when an object in the corner came into attention.

“Wait, that looks like a broken guitar,” Rain said while grabbing it. It had no strings, made of some kind of light gray metal and runic inscriptions. There are four spots, two top, and two bottom, that somehow looked important. “You take it this time.”

Yushin accepted it. He wanted to try and fix it later on when his engineering skill was higher.

“Let’s move on. Can you camouflage yourself here, Gadras?”

“It’s useless to hide for long. They can smell this king. As long as we are not found out it won’t be a problem.”

They agreed to proceed with Yushin as the leader. Since the path recognized him as one of their own the traps will not activate.

The path had barely any light. Runes provided a small light when activated, so they did not travel blindly. Gadras vision was perfect in the darkness, but Yushin and Rain would be at a disadvantage.

At the beginning, there were few rooms and no sign of living things. It was much somber than the Elven place. Most of it is empty too. Reaching a room that looked interesting, there is an altar in the center with a figure running from some kind of fog with hidden demonic eyes.

“This is in the common tongue,” Yushin said. It read:

“Yrb will not fall today,

Yet, fallen it already is,

Stolen novel; please report.

For the shadows that lurk this world

Come with fog and blood.

He who finds my will,

Purge my brethren of this madness,

Claim my inheritance,

Erase my lasting sadness.”

- Faráng, King of Yrb

“So this place was called Yrb. Seeing it is in common tongue, it may be safe to assume it is somewhere in our own world,” Yushin complemented.

“No quest window, does that mean it’s not a quest?” Rain Falls added.

“Maybe we just can’t accept it yet. It doesn’t seem very simple to do.”

“Foolish humans. You don’t even know how large it is. In the past, the people of Zaracha were subjects of Yrb. Their greatness overshadowed all. Even if many are dead, purging them all is no easy feat. This mountain is only but a fraction of its domain,” Gadras pointed out.

“We can only go to the stronghold then. We’ll figure things out on the way,” Yushin said.

Rain seemed lost in thought. After a while, she snapped and glared at Gadras.

“...Are you still reading our minds?”

Gadras shook his head, “No. Not after you became this king’s companion.”

‘What a relief,’ she thought.

“Are you afraid this king will tell the mysterious human you kept thinking how cool he was?” Gadras asked cluelessly.

“...YOU!” The petite shield bearer was so startled she forgot to use private message. Her loud roar echoed into the deeps.

The echoes dissipated as the feeling of regret filled the air.

“You know, this looks like a very famous movie scene, and I don’t like where it’s going.” Yushin sighed and grabbed his spear, changing the subject from before.

“Short legs, you are a very troublesome human.” Gadras also sighed.

“...I swear I’ll teach you a lesson soon, lizard.”

“This king is not a lizard!” Gadras roared.

“Enough, get ready to fight our way through!” Yushin screamed. The sound of machinery working was already loud.

There was no door to close, so Rain took a step forward and acted as the first line of defense. Gadras disappeared with his camouflage and Yushin took position near to support them.

Dragging sound of metal came close and soon the new enemy into view. They had small, frail human like bodies, with darkened teeth and pure blue eyes. Corrupted by the miasma. Their engorged veins clear to be seen, glints of madness in their glare.

Gears formed some kind of exoskeleton, with runic inscriptions and formations. It was a mix of magic and engineering. It had long mechanical arms and legs, holding crossbows and long swords. Over three of them at the door, with some still left behind. One raised a sword, and his arm stretched in the air, slashing towards the trio.

“Dodge!” Yushin told Rain before going out of the way.

Yet she was so used to parry her first instinct was to do it. The sword started to spin around itself, like a drill. There was no way to parry that on the first try.

The drilling sword with a clang hit the shield and advanced towards the body. The failed parry caused a lot of damage to the shield and to Rain, taking near one-third of her HP at once. Taking into consideration the few hits from before, she has 800 left out of 1550.

  “..Ugh!”

Yushin didn’t have time to worry about her and started to run close to the wall towards the enemy.

“Rockbow!” He shouted, and Rain knew exactly what to do.

Usually, saving the rare item for later was the best choice, but right now the enemies were crowding at the door. If that thing was any good, it’s a good time to try it out.

Shooting the rock bullet, Rain didn’t know what to expect. The enemies were slow, even though they had gadgets all around. In a normal state, it is possible to cut explosive damage by extending one of the hands and sacrificing it. Yet they didn’t even seem to recognize one of their own weapons and made no attempt to evade.

Ka-booooom!

The entire door and a few meters before and after blew to smithereens. If Yushin had taken another step it would reach him. Every Mountain Dweller died and their gear disappeared.

“...Holy.” Yushin stepped back, taking a careful look if there is any risk of collapse. The door is completely destroyed but the structure still held out.

“A good thing those structures are solid, Short Legs.”

“...Couldn’t you have said these things are this powerful, lizard?” Rain glared at him.

“You did not ask this king. And I am no lizard!”

“Save it, for now, let’s go!” Yushin rushed forward. They didn’t need to worry about traps and the door was empty for now. Staying there could lead to some unpleasant surprises.

The other two followed and tried to catch up with Yushin’s speed. He moved around swiftly and sometimes even running on walls. The first enemy comes into view and he strikes, aiming at their frail bodies. Spear pierces but somehow it still lives.

Rain Falls follows after and slashes with sword. The enemy has time to block with gadget hands, but Gadras is already on him. The three pronged tail pierces its head. Death.

His equipment disappears and nothing drops. The trio keeps going into the path, not needing to worry about traps since Yushin is there. There are many smaller and narrow paths, making the fights difficult sometimes. Switching leads often, Rain takes point on dangerous spots and Yushin when it requires mobility.

The drops are common and the trio had no time to check them.

“This way. I remember this road!” Gadras says they are near the final road, but the Yrbnian’s are already on their trail. Since they are hunters, most of the time there aren’t many together, but they are finally converging on that spot. The trio wasn’t in a position to use stealth anymore.

As Gadras said before, their gadgets are unique. Some doors can be moved through levers and gears, some even move automatically. If Yushin had time to analyze their structure, it would serve as inspiration for the engineering skill. Besides the drilling sword, mechanical crossbows and exoskeleton, an irrigation system brought water from the depths. The water from a few veils bellow helped the dwellers to survive.

“Fast, collapse that door!” After the trio went in, Rain used the rock bullet on one of the doors, collapsing it right away. Their pursuers stopped for a while, unless there are some hidden paths.

“Whew… That was close.” Yushin is already mentally tired from everything that has happened today. They killed several Mountain Dwellers while running around, and avoided many others.

“Humans are good at tricky things.”

“...Would you rather go back and fight all of them?” Rain pointed out.

“That was praise, Short Legs.”

Before it could proceed, Yushin stepped up:

“No time to rest it seems. Look forward.” He pointed at a large, well-built corridor. It had the same runes and patterns as before, but several giant gears and led to a huge gate.

“Finally! This King never made it this far before. This is a bless-” Before Gadras could finish his sight turned sour.

“Ó Blessed Lizard King, tell me, how are we dealing with this now?” Rain sighed.

In front of the gates, many forms stood. The same gadget-warriors from before, one dozen of them. And in the middle a small group of elite guards, which much tougher bodies and better equipment. They didn’t overly rely on gadgets but had spears and shields. In total, eighteen enemies.

“Rockbow?” Rain asked.

Yushin nodded, and she shot once.

However, one of the elite guards stood forward. Something clicked and his shield expanded with the sound of multiple gears, withstanding the explosion with ease. He had the same crazed look, but something about him smelled like danger.

“Any more brilliant ideas, humans?” Gadras smirked.

“Maybe they like lizard barbecue,” Yushin grinned.

“T-This king is no lizard!”

“Maybe we’ll like lizard meat,” Rain added.

“Y-You two…” Gadras shrunk a little.

“We kill and open the gate. Don’t rush too far and keep together. If there’s an opening, blast the slow ones away,” Yushin told them.

Rain nodded.

The leader of the elite group raised his right hand.

Frail gadget warriors rushed forward, not fearing anything. Two of the elites went with them, to protect from explosions.

Only death will follow.