Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: The Garuda
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Garuda were a rare race living at the northwestern edge of the Third Continent.
Unlike the low mountains of the northern coast, they inhabited the Sky Mountains, the tallest range on the Third Continent, and even after players appeared, it took quite a while for them to be discovered.
The first to find the Garuda were the Troll Mask Tribe, who had claimed the Sky Mountains as their territory, and Wisdom.
At that point, Wisdom pondered what to do with the rare race of Garuda.
The Garuda resembled birds.
Their faces unmistakably looked like hawks, with sharp beaks, and besides their two arms and two legs, they had enormous wings.
They were a race with high physical abilities and intelligence compared to other races, possessing more than enough value.
As a rare race, the likelihood of other tribes existing on the continent was low, giving Wisdom a chance to monopolize them.
But Wisdom did not make the Garuda his second or third race.
"They're a bird race, but with wings they can't fly— isn't that a waste?"
That was Wisdom's thinking.
In fact, the Garuda had wings large enough to cover their bodies, but they couldn't fly with them.
That was why, in Lost World, the Garuda's nickname was "chicken."
It was a nickname given because they had wings but couldn't fly.
Of course, Seong-un's view on the Garuda was a bit different.
"Even if they can't fly, the wings themselves are useful. They provide insulation when clothing is rudimentary early on, and in combat, they can strike or deflect attacks."
But even if Seong-un had started in the northwest, his choice wouldn't have been much different from Wisdom's.
"There's no need to pick a rare race, is there?"
The problem with the Garuda was that, while the race itself was capable, they suffered from the typical drawback of rare races: a low birth rate.
From the data Seong-un had seen, their abilities weren't much different from humans.
Humans had a much higher chance of having children, so their population grew much faster.
At the early tribal stage, the Garuda had an edge in average capability, but as the human population increased, the number of humans as combat-capable or as intelligent as Garuda also grew.
And when forming groups, sheer numbers mattered too.
Even incompetent humans could handle one Garuda with three people after basic training.
There was no need for everyone to be capable and smart.
Of course, this alone—aside from Wisdom's view of the wings as wasted potential—was reason enough not to choose Garuda.
By then, the Mask Tribe had grown strong enough to overwhelm the entire Garuda tribe without using divine power.
The Garuda tribe split into those who wanted to surrender to the Mask Tribe, comply with their demands, and receive protection, and those who insisted on fighting to the last Garuda.
Wisdom, anticipating some casualties if battle ensued, skillfully manipulated the pro-surrender faction with divine power.
The Garuda traitors then captured and killed Tribal Chief Ahuran, who had rallied for total resistance, along with all his blood kin, and surrendered to the Mask Tribe.
Before meeting his end, Garuda Tribal Chief Ahuran said sorrowfully,
"We have been abandoned by the gods once more."
Afterward, the Garuda cooperated with the Mask Tribe.
What the Mask Tribe demanded were Garuda warriors to fill the most dangerous frontline positions in battle, and the Garuda accepted this as an honorable role.
As the Mask Tribe expanded its territory, young Garuda returned home dead or maimed.
Only after most young Garuda had been depleted did the Mask Tribe crown a king and proclaim the nation of Sekmyeon.
But the trolls gave the Garuda no rewards whatsoever.
Too late, the Garuda realized they had been deceived by the Mask Tribe trolls.
The Garuda valued honor, but their tribe had weakened too much to oppose Sekmyeon, and they had become too pathetic to demand honor from it.
Many Garuda could only mull over Tribal Chief Ahuran's words: "abandoned once more."
Many races in Lost World had legends passed down, mostly about ancient evils.
Those tales were fragmented or lacked valuable info, so players paid them little mind, but some races preserved stories about their own kind.
The Garuda said they were once called the "Emperor's Race," and even their now cumbersome wings were once strong enough to soar the skies.
When the ancient evil appeared, the Garuda, proud of their noble blood, fought on the front lines.
But as defeat loomed, the gods fled, and whether due to losing divine power or a curse from the ancient evil, the Garuda lost the ability to fly.
After the "world's end"—whose outcome no one yet knows—the Garuda wandered aimlessly with their flightless wings on their backs.
This was the Garuda's tribal legend, and Ahuran's words meant they had not been chosen by the new gods either, only abandoned again.
Of course, the Garuda didn't vanish entirely.
Like with the Black Scales, as Sekmyeon stabilized, it sought to incorporate the many races used or discarded during unification into its system.
The already weakened Garuda formed servant villages and continued surviving in the northwestern continent under Sekmyeon, along the Sky Mountains beneath the heavens.
Wisdom believed he had handled the potentially problematic rare race of Garuda well.
"But I will no longer trust the gods."
Garuda "Rotten Hand" Mazdari was descending a snow-covered mountain.
Rotten Hand was Mazdari's nickname, one so obvious that anyone seeing him would immediately think of it.
Mazdari's left arm was black.
It should have been covered in feathers like any Garuda's hand, but from his left hand up to his forearm, Mazdari's left arm was bald, emaciated, and charred.
Born with a pitch-black left arm, his tribesfolk feared he was cursed.
Even his parents didn't raise him in the servant village but entrusted him to an elderly exiled Garuda living alone. If civilization had been even less advanced, Mazdari would have been abandoned in the mountains to die.
Mazdari didn't resent his parents.
It was clear he was cursed.
—Oh, but is this pitiful fate finally coming to an end?
'Shut up, you monster.'
—Mazdari, I'm no monster. I'm a spirit.
'According to my studies, minions of the ancient evil are spirits or monsters— no real difference.'
—Well, think what you like.
Mazdari tried to ignore the voice from within him— precisely from his left arm.
But the more he did, the louder it chattered.
—But shaking the pursuit squad will be tough. Garuda tend to overestimate their physical prowess, but even so, you can't outrun elk in the snow.
'I know that much.'
Mazdari was being chased.
The average Garuda height was 2.5 meters. Mazdari was around 2.7 meters, a natural disaster rivaling even ogres.
Yet the elk knights pursuing him were Sekmyeon's boasted elite warriors.
Trained trolls with advanced combat skills, riding war elk that were monsters in their own right.
'Once I get through this forest, there's a river. Not far now.'
—The frozen river? Elk knights can cross it too.
'I'll melt the river.'
—Your power alone won't suffice.
'......'
Mazdari stopped thinking and focused on walking.
But with the river in sight, a massive beast burst through the trees, revealing its head.
An elk with horns thick enough to cover a Garuda's face, a long snout, and a huge nose.
Atop it sat a troll in breastplate and helmet.
There were two of them.
The elk knight shouted,
"You there, Garuda! Halt!"
"Sir knight, that's him. His left hand is rotten."
"Is that so? Then are you the one called 'Rotten Hand' Mazdari?"
The inner voice chuckled.
—Not behind you, but ahead too.
'But they're not pursuers. They don't know exactly who I am yet.'
—Then they probably don't know what those vials at your waist mean either.
Mazdari spread his hands and said,
"Mazdari? That's not my name. I'm Ahuran, born and raised in a Garuda servant village."
"What about your left arm?"
"I got burned as a child, and it scarred black."
"Doesn't look like a burn scar."
"Burns look different on trolls and Garuda, just like our bodies."
"Hmph."
"Are you looking for a Garuda named Mazdari?"
The elk knight nodded.
"Yes. You know the Alchemist's Tower, right?"
"Pardon? Oh, yes. The tower behind the Sky Mountains, where those eccentric alchemists live."
"'Was' the tower. Sekmyeon's knights have fully occupied it. But some alchemists escaped. By His Majesty's order, we're pursuing them to prevent the spread of forbidden knowledge."
"A Garuda alchemist? Haha. With so few Garuda, you should find him easily. If I encounter a Garuda by that name..."
The elk knight cut Mazdari off.
"I can't trust your words. Come closer."
"I'm no alchemist. Just an herbalist. There's a tuberculosis patient in the next village..."
"If you're cleared of involvement, we'll let you go. No need to worry."
"...Understood."
Mazdari raised his hands and walked slowly forward.
"First, hand over your bag..."
When close enough, Mazdari moved.
Like his ancestors flying the skies of old, he flared his two wings wide.
His cloak flew up, blocking the knights' vision.
"You bastard!"
A sword thrust blindly through the cloak, but Mazdari had already stepped back.
Mazdari drew a glass vial from his waist and hurled it at the knight's face the moment the cloak fell away.
"Argh!"
The knight clutched his face as white smoke rose.
The vial contained sulfuric acid.
The troll's face was melting.
"Alchemist, you scum!"
The second knight yanked the elk's reins and charged.
But Garuda physical prowess was swift enough.
Rolling to dodge, Mazdari drew the sword at his waist.
Dodging the elk's horns and front hooves while parrying the elk knight's blade repeatedly, time was not on Mazdari's side.
"Over there!"
"Rotten Hand is there!"
This time, the pursuers.
They were the same as the elk knights he'd just fought, but now fully alerted. Tougher opponents for Mazdari.
And there were five of them.
—What's left at your waist?
'One sulfuric acid, one smoke bomb, two oils.'
—Time to borrow my power, no?
'...Damn it.'
—You planned to use my power to melt the river anyway.
'No choice.'
Mazdari pulled two vials from his pouch.
"He's got vials out! Shields up!"
His superior physique allowed precise throws; the vials hit the knights' shields in sequence.
Checking their shields, the knights sniffed and realized.
"...Oil?"
Mazdari raised his left hand toward the knights.
It looked empty, so they approached without much guard.
The heat gathering in his palm was invisible.
—Whoosh!
A conical pillar of fire erupted from Mazdari's palm, engulfing the knights.
The troll knights shrieked like deflating balloons as their lungs expanded from the hot air.
'Enough!'
As Mazdari withdrew his hand, the charred elk and knights collapsed on the blackened ground.
Seeing this, the surviving elk knight who'd dueled swords with him until moments ago bolted toward the river.
'I need to kill him.'
—Regrettably, my flames can't reach that far. If you'd relied on me more, I'd have grown stronger...
But Mazdari realized regrets were useless as he reached the riverbank.
Over three hundred soldiers had already gathered to capture him.
The lead elk knight shouted,
"Mazdari! Archers have you targeted! Unbuckle your belt and drop your gear!"
"Damn it."