Chapter 186: Chapter 186: Gaine Forest
Translator: 549690339
Due to the winding and obstructed nature of the forest trails, the horse-drawn carriage couldn’t maintain its top speed for the entire journey. It was estimated that it would take two hours to reach the “camp”.
Squawk Squawk
A familiar crow’s call echoed in from outside the window.
Thanks to the hidden assistance of the Little Demon Eye, Han Dong was able to pinpoint a tree as big as a human face fifty meters away, on which a ‘Crowman’ was standing at the end of a branch.
A pair of oversized crow skulls grew from its body, while its lower half was completely human, quietly squatting on the branch.
Its back was adorned with crow wings, and a few tentacles were faintly floating among the feathers.
The crowman seemed to have no inclinations to attack, nor did it make any calls to summon its peers. It merely watched passively as the grand human troops passed by.
This is when Abe, the team leader, started explaining:
“These are fairly common ‘Crowman’ in the Gaine Forest, most are neutral. As long as you don’t disturb them, they won’t attack.”
“Dual-headed Crowmen are relatively rare.”
“Dual-headed Crowmen huh?”
I wonder why
When Han Dong looked at this Crowman, especially when their eyes met, he felt a subtle connection between them, amplified by the ‘Little Demon Eye’ and his own slight crow characteristics.
Along the way, the team passed through many unusual places in the Gaine Forest.
One of the larger lakes in the forest left a deep impression on Han Dong.
In the iridescent lake swam ‘mermaids’.
By regular aesthetics, they were indeed beautiful, with a beautiful human torso, matched with a fish-like tail covered in scales.
There were about twenty of them frolicking in the lake.
Upon realizing that the caravan was intentionally avoiding the lake, the laughing sisters immediately revealed their ferocious nature, and rushed ashore.
The moment they touched land, their beautiful exterior immediately transformed.
Their spines split open, sprouting several long legs for crawling, turning into an amphibious creature chasing the carriage.
Unfortunately, their speed was no match for the fast-moving carriage. In the end, they could only show disappointed expressions, return to the lake, revert to their beautiful mermaid forms, frolic and wait for the next prey to arrive.
Han Dong posed a question.
“Why do these lives affected by ‘Demons’ mutate into ‘humanoids’ rather than undescribable aberrants?”
Abe explained briefly: “The human lives lost since the Dark Age are countless Just underneath this Gaine Forest alone, there should be over a million skeletons buried.
Emotions like anger, fear, regret from the dead have an impact on a specific region.
The ‘Wild Beasts’, affected by the mist and undergoing transformation, are also influenced by these strands of human emotions.
Therefore, only some wild beasts undergo ‘humanoid’ transformations.”
“Thank you.”
“This time, with the Deputy Leader of the Knight’s Regiment leading us discreetly we might just be able to reach the ‘camp’ without any obstacles.”
Not long after Abe had uttered these words.
The fog in the forest thickened rapidly.
The density of the fog was such that it reduced the illumination range of the kerosene lamps hung on the outside of the carriages to within five meters.
It was no longer possible to continue moving forward in this dense fog.
Stop the carriages.
The carriages drew closer to one another.
At the same time, the members of the Behemoth Knight’s Group all pulled towards the centre, shrinking their defence line, surrounding the carriages to ensure the safety of the apprentice knights inside.
Various beasts of burden continuously let out low growls. There was something dangerous approaching in the mist.
At that moment, the vulture perched on top of the carriage spoke:
“You youngsters stay in the carriage, any troubles we encounter along the way will be swiftly dealt with by our knight regiment.
However, it’s best you prepare yourselves.
Unexpected situations may arise, perhaps some long-range attacks could directly penetrate our defense line and hit the carriage you’re in.”
“Okay!”
The most tense are undoubtedly Miss Winry, the blacksmith.
She unexpectedly clutched the forging hammer from her backpack tightly in her hand. Her arm muscles were clearly visible.
At this opportune moment, Mia attempted to mimic a very frightened appearance, trying to bury her head into Han Dong’s shoulder.
“First rule, stop pretending! If you disrupt my actions, I’ll immediately terminate our ‘temporary alliance’.”
“Hate it ”
Mia could only let go.
Otherwise, she could genuinely be secretly dealt with by Han Dong during the upcoming training period.
At this moment, Han Dong, who was observing closely at the window, murmured:
“Something is coming!”
Emerging from the dense mist were- [Skeletons]
These were quite different from the common idea of skeleton soldiers.
These skeletons were not just empty structures, and moreover, their method of movement was not entirely walking A lot of them were crawling, wriggling, and even floating mid-air.
This kind of ‘white bone resurrector’ was referred to as [Evil] in the witch’s basic education.
Low rank beings derived from corpse bones that were influenced by ‘mist’ over a long period.
Although low-ranking, their quantity is terrifying.
Every single bone could potentially spawn a skeleton evil, given the fact that millions, tens of millions of people were buried in Gaine Forest, such an evil could completely form a huge army if led by someone.
“What kind of weird skeleton is this?”
The joints were connected by a black, viscous substance,
There was a centred, one-eyed black egg body growing inside it, connected to the skeleton through black silk-like threads that helped suspend it in position.
There were also two dark eyeballs that filled the sockets of the skull, providing night vision ability.
Besides the common ‘Skeleton Walker’, there was another kind of skeleton floating in mid-air, draped in torn cloth. Weird black circular marks were imprinted on its skull, seemingly able to cast some kind of spell.
Some didn’t even have the shape of a skeleton at all. Their bodies were entirely a puddle of muddy substance, with only a skull embedded on their surface, capable of releasing a highly corrosive substance.
“Hold the line, kill!”
On Deputy Leader Heidler’s command.
All the Knights maintained a fallback formation, brandishing their weapons, and swiftly killing any skeleton that got close.
Meanwhile, Heidler himself was riding alone on a black serpent, delving into the mist, seeking the mastermind behind this ambush.
Facing these low-level beings, the Knights fought effortlessly but these skeleton evils just wouldn’t end.
Splat!
A black viscous egg body suddenly flew out from the mist.
It went through the fighting Knights and stuck exactly to the window of the carriage Han Dong and the others were in.
Hum!
The egg body shattered the thick window which was as sturdy as bulletproof glass through resonance.
Splat!
The soft egg body landed right on the floor of the carriage.
The polluting smell immediately filled the inside of the carriage.