Peer Mountains (2)
A roar of unknown origin thundered through the air, startling every bird in the vicinity into frantic flight.
The Peer Mountains.
A den of monsters that allowed no human intrusion. A place so perilous that even the strong entered only after the most thorough preparation.
Ellen had set foot inside it.
It feels more ominous than when I came here in life.
Hearing Master call something ominous doesn't quite suit you.
Dense canopy kept the Peer Mountains dark even at midday. Ellen pushed through the undergrowth with his staff, advancing steadily.
“Kieeek.”
A goblin’s cry. This was no distant roar—it was close.
If I head that way, I’ll find them.
Ellen turned toward the sound. He had come to investigate the monsters’ abnormal behavior; meeting them face-to-face was necessary.
“Kiik.”
Parting the brush revealed dozens of goblins.
Found them.
Thanks to his heightened senses, Ellen watched from a distance at which the goblins could not detect him.
They were stacking large crates onto a cart with methodical care.
Hmm?
He sharpened his vision and studied the cart more closely.
That’s not something goblins should be able to build.
Goblin-type demihuman monsters possessed enough intelligence to craft simple tools and communicate among themselves. But a cart this refined? He had never heard of a goblin capable of such work. It looked as if a human had made it.
“Kiik, kiik.”
A hobgoblin entered Ellen’s view, swinging a massive glaive this way and that, clearly issuing orders. With a creak of wooden wheels, the goblins hauled the cart in the direction their leader indicated.
They’re moving like a supply unit.
Intelligence or not, they were still monsters. Such organized behavior was deeply unnatural.
Observation alone won’t give me answers. Time to make contact.
Ellen raised his staff and took aim.
Ice Spear.
A sharp lance of ice punched clean through a goblin’s heart.
“Kiik.”
“Kieeeek!”
The rest shrieked in panic. While they flailed, the hobgoblin’s eyes locked onto the direction the spear had come from. Its gaze found the brush where Ellen hid.
“Kiik.”
Having spotted the killer of its subordinate, the hobgoblin charged at once. The others poured after it.
It traced the trajectory and found me that fast. Fancying itself a proper hobgoblin, is it?
Dozens of goblins swarming a single man should have been a terrifying sight. Ellen did not give an inch.
Three more Ice Spears punched through the front ranks. Bodies fell, yet the rest never slowed. They rushed him as if fear itself had been burned out of them.
They’re berserked.
Even a goblin whose arm had been sheared away by a Wind Cutter kept charging. Thick veins bulged across their bodies; their eyes burned blood-red as they howled.
None of it posed a real threat to Ellen.
With a sweep of his staff, a wall of flame erupted between him and the pack. At his will the fire moved like a living thing.
Stay nice and clustered for me.
The flames rolled over the goblins and reduced dozens of them to ash in moments.
“Kiiiii…”
Suddenly alone, the hobgoblin stumbled backward.
“Ah, I’m not going to kill you, so relax.”
A whip of pure mana lashed out and bound the creature tight. It thrashed wildly.
“Hold still. I need to examine you.”
Ellen layered several more Binding spells until the hobgoblin could not so much as twitch.
Scan.
He laid a hand on the creature’s head.
What is this…?
A spell clung to it—one he had never encountered before.
He began writing the analyzed formula in the dirt with his finger.
Is that truly the formula of this magic?
Proveng’s voice startled him.
Yes. There are missing pieces, aren’t there? Since I’ve never seen it before, I must have made mistakes.
He moved to erase the writing.
No! It is not wrong. To detect a spell with Scan and immediately write out its formula… remarkable.
Scan could only sense the presence of magic. Known spells were identifiable; unknown ones yielded nothing beyond the fact that they existed. Proveng had seen theoretical masters reverse-engineer formulas through painstaking analysis, yet never so swiftly. This was the extreme of the arcane path made visible.
I’ve analyzed the formula, but I’ve never heard of the spell. Do you recognize it, Master?
Proveng had been lost in thought when Ellen’s question reached him.
Hmm. I have never seen it either. And I never neglected magical research even after becoming a Lich.
Ellen sank into deep consideration.
A spell even Master doesn’t know…
In life Proveng had reached the 7th Circle and earned the title of Archmage. If even he was ignorant of it…
Curiosity burning, Ellen dissected the formula further.
It seems to form a link between target and caster… and this section is the berserk component? Beyond that I can’t make sense of it.
The overall skeleton resembled spells he knew, yet only the most basic framework was familiar; everything else followed an utterly alien system.
What do I do? I have to unravel this if I’m going to stop the monsters from running wild.
The hobgoblin finally exhausted itself and collapsed. Ellen never looked up from the formula. He could not afford to lose his only clue.
I truly don’t understand it.
No amount of analysis could reconstruct a magic he had never witnessed. All he could identify were the berserk segment and the linking formula between subject and caster.
Ah. That might work.
A sudden flash of insight struck him.
Master, if I rewrite the caster’s portion of the formula to point to me, won’t this creature link to me instead?
He wrote the revised formula in the dirt.
You continue to show me the most absurd sights.
Proveng was speechless. Magical formulas were like writing itself—change a single stroke and the meaning becomes something else entirely. The same held true for spells: alter one element and you create an entirely different magic. True refinement meant preserving the original form while enhancing or adding effects. Yet Ellen was performing that highly specialized art on a spell he had just encountered for the first time.
Ellen ran several careful tests to ensure the spell would not mutate or simply collapse.
Modify.
Mana flowed from his hand and sank into the hobgoblin.
“Kieeeeeek!”
The alien mana invading its body sent the creature thrashing again, but it could not keep the energy out. Inside it, the original formula rewrote itself.
A soft hum resonated.
So it was a control spell.
The moment the rewrite finished, Ellen saw himself through the hobgoblin’s eyes. He still did not know the spell’s true name, but its nature was clear: control magic.
They slap a simple berserk enchantment on ordinary monsters, and for commander-class creatures like this one they add full control as well.
The hobgoblin moved exactly as Ellen willed. Its own will had not been erased; Ellen simply possessed the power to override its actions.
He ordered it to continue toward the place it had been taking the cart.
“Kiiik.”
Without hesitation the creature strode deeper into the Peer Mountains.
At last—a real lead.
The hobgoblin led Ellen deep into the mountains. After a long march it suddenly stopped.
A cave? Magically formed?
The tunnel mouth was far too smooth to be natural.
So this is their base.
Ellen settled a short distance away and sent the hobgoblin inside.
Definitely magical construction.
Sharing the creature’s vision, he saw that the interior remained bright despite the complete absence of light sources. Deeper in, the passage opened into a vast cavern.
This… this is…
Ellen could scarcely believe his eyes.
Goblins, orcs, gnolls, trolls…
Every species that lived in the Peer Mountains seemed to have been gathered here. The cavern floor seethed with monsters of every kind.
Is that an ogre?
Even an ogre—one of the strongest creatures that walked the earth—stood among them. He had never heard of any human successfully controlling an ogre. Yet the one before him was unmistakably under a berserk enchantment.
“Damn it all!”
A human voice cut through the constant growling of the monsters.
Finally, the mastermind shows himself.
Hope flared in Ellen’s chest as the hobgoblin carried the sound to him.
“I opened a Little Gate for you and even scattered the garrison. I set ambushes along their return routes—so how the hell did you fail to break through one flimsy gate?”
The speaker was clearly furious. Ellen guided the hobgoblin closer.
“The Prode Kingdom dispatched a high-ranking mage, my lord. He joined them from the moment of the ambush.”
“How many monsters did we commit to that operation, and you’re telling me one Prode mage stopped them all?”
“His ability far exceeded that of ordinary—”
“Silence!”
A heavy impact sounded. An orc crumpled to the ground with a pained grunt.
“His patience is wearing thin, do you understand me?”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The man vented his rage by kicking the orc mercilessly. The creature only wheezed and absorbed every blow.
“You know why I’ve been stuck in this stinking hole with these beasts, don’t you?”
“Of course, my lord.”
A subordinate answered at once.
“Haa…”
After a long bout of stomping, the man finally drew a steadying breath. His next course of action had already solidified in his mind.
“In that case…”
He rummaged in his coat and produced a glass sphere of unknown nature—something that resembled a communication or amplifying orb at a glance.
“We launch an all-out assault on Kenipra Gate. It must fall before He arrives. Gather every monster under our command at the rally point.”
A low hum rose from the crystal. Dark crimson light erupted from it, growing brighter and brighter until even the monsters standing beside him vanished in the glare.
Then, in a single flash—
The link with the hobgoblin snapped.