The Will of Detection Finally Activates!
Ian stared at the scenery whipping past like a glitching screen, but the nausea surging up his throat became too much. He squeezed his eyes shut.
Bartin, who had him tucked under one arm, moved as if he were a swordsman who only used his left hand. Or perhaps Ian’s weight felt no different from a sack of potatoes. Every time Bartin surged forward like an explosion, slicing through obstacles along the steep slope, Ian’s body flapped along like a sheet of paper. The dizzying sense of weightlessness and speed slammed into his stomach as unbearable churning.
“Uweeegh—!”
The moment he finally scattered his vomit into the air, a fierce wind whipped up. It felt like he was being shot forward over the steep slope, and then the violent motion suddenly stopped.
Released from Bartin’s thick arm, Ian staggered and barely managed to find his balance. The moment he lifted his head, feeling the dark mana pressing down on his entire body like a soaked overcoat, he froze in horror at the sight before him.
Around the gentle slope, finely crushed bone dust was now fluttering like snowflakes.
As Ian blinked blankly at the scene, short, heavy explosions erupted in rapid succession from ahead. His eyes widened when he turned.
There was Celine. She lightly dodged the lightning bolts fired by the shaman skeletons, zigzagging like light reflecting off a mirror. Then, the moment she swung her pair of curved blades infused with blue mana and slashed their necks, the steel-like bones crumbled into fine powder without even a scream, scattering in all directions.
She did the same to the bone beasts hiding among the shrubs, turning them into the same state in a single breath. It was an overwhelming pulverization that didn’t even allow regeneration.
Lucas, who had approached Ian’s side at some point, spoke in a calm voice.
“Looks like Celine’s starting to get annoyed. She finally pulled out one of her skills.”
At that moment, Zenon approached, dragging three shaman skeletons impaled on each of his twin swords like skewered fish, as if clearing away a fallen dead tree.
The creatures, with their collarbones deeply pierced, let out grotesque sounds and thrashed violently, but they couldn’t overcome Zenon’s monstrous strength. With an indifferent gaze that showed no emotion whatsoever, Zenon drove his swords deep into the ground. Then he shifted his weight onto his toes and crushed the writhing skeletons still skewered on the blades.
Crack. Crunch—
The frail bones were pulverized without even a scream. Zenon repeated the horrifying act several times with a bored expression, as if handling tedious chores. Ian swallowed dryly at the brutally efficient movements that carried neither emotion nor warmth.
Before long, the surroundings settled into silence, as if the storm had never raged. While Lucas let out a small yawn with physiological tears clinging to his eyes, the scattered members of the Shield of Thorny Vines Guild gathered around Ian one by one, as if by prior agreement.
Thus they began climbing the mountain range. Instead of hanging from Bartin’s arm, Ian now staggered forward on his own two feet, treading the soil of the Ephel Mountains. The slope had thankfully grown gentler, but the surrounding landscape was far from welcoming. Despite being daytime, the mountains were submerged in thick lead-gray fog and shadows cast by massive trees, making them eerily dark. It felt like walking through the depths of an abyss where time had stopped, or one that rejected light itself.
The area was silent. But that silence wasn’t peaceful—it resembled the quiet of a predator ready to sink its teeth into a nape at any moment. Ian felt a constant, hair-raising chill.
Occasionally, beyond the dark shrubs in the distance, the fingertips of shaman skeletons would flash a vivid red or purple. It was a hair-trigger moment where destructive magic seemed ready to burst forth. Yet before Ian could even scream, the figures of Celine or Bartin walking beside him would blur like a mirage.
What followed were only dull rupturing sounds or the chilling noise of bones turning to powder. They slaughtered the enemies with indifference and terrifying speed, as if swatting away bothersome branches during a stroll. Rather than reassuring Ian, their overwhelming prowess only intensified the abnormal weight of these mountains.
The higher they climbed, the thicker and more viscous the air became. The dark mana that had once stung his skin now seeped deep into his lungs, freezing his organs with cold. An unidentified black noise buzzed inside his head, and the scenery before his eyes began to twist grotesquely.
Just a little longer… Just… a little… more…
Ian bit his lip until it bled, desperately trying to hold onto consciousness. But the concentration of dark mana amplifying as they approached the heart of the Ephel Mountains far exceeded what an ordinary person could endure.
At one point, the heavy pressure crushing his entire body suddenly snapped. A soundless vacuum of darkness swallowed him. The sensation beneath his feet faded, and the world tilted sharply. The last thing Ian heard was Zenon’s urgent voice calling his name before he plummeted into a deep, cold abyss of unconsciousness.
How much time had passed?
When Ian opened his eyes atop a soft pile of leaves, he blankly stared at the shapes darting busily around him for a while. Massive gray objects were slicing swiftly through the air, deflecting flashing trajectories. As his hazy mind scanned the surroundings, he realized those gray masses had formed a solid wall encircling him.
—Kwaaaaang! Boom, boom!
Muffled explosions flowed faintly into his dulled ears. Ian slowly blinked, trying to hold onto his whitening vision. His thoughts had fragmented and drifted sluggishly through his mind.
What… is this? What am I doing here…?
He couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. Then, from beyond his faint consciousness, he heard someone calling him.
Ian— If you’re awake, get a grip!
Huh? Someone’s calling me…
Ian! Resist like last time! You can do it!
It’s Bartin’s voice. But resist? Resist what…?
Ian’s eyelids fluttered faster. Then, as if struck by lightning, his mind snapped awake. That’s right! This was the Ephel Mountains, teeming with bone monsters!
“Haaah—! Haaah!”
Ian gasped harshly and struggled to sit up. His previously blurry vision had cleared completely. From within the barrier of Shields of Thorny Vines protecting him, he looked outside.
Except for the giant trees around where he had been lying, the entire area had been forcibly carved away into a desolate clearing. The trees that should have covered the ground lay in miserable heaps, their trunks severed and shattered into large and small fragments. Amid that scene of destruction, the Shield of Thorny Vines Guild members were battling shaman skeletons twice as large and ferocious as ordinary ones.
Ian unconsciously held his breath at the superhuman movements Zenon displayed.
When a shaman skeleton swung its bone staff, dark-red flaming arrows poured in every direction. Zenon lightly leaped, crossed his swords in midair, and unleashed a massive X-shaped slash that neatly deflected the incoming arrows.
In that instant, the shaman skeleton teleported behind him. But Zenon didn’t panic. He twisted in the air like a forward roll, landed flexibly, and instantly spun to swing his sword. The shaman skeleton facing him was sliced into three pieces with a single strike.
Zenon didn’t stop there. He spun like a whirlwind around the crumbling remains, his twin swords flashing countless times. After dozens of lightning-fast strikes, when he finally halted, the creature scattered into fine powder across the ground without a chance to regenerate.
Just as Ian was marveling at that overwhelming display, a massive clump of lightning shot straight toward him from afar. At the same time, two of the Shields of Thorny Vines floating in the air moved like magnets, bouncing the lightning back exactly the way it had come.
—Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The eardrum-shattering roar snapped Ian fully awake.
This is no time to stand around! I have to activate the Detection skill now!
As Ian staggered to his feet, the massive Shields of Thorny Vines guarding him adjusted their positions in perfect sync with their target. After catching his breath for a moment, Ian inhaled the cold, settled air and calmed his mind. He clearly visualized the single target he needed to find.
The source endlessly spewing this thick dark mana and creating an army of bone monsters that summoned death. The moment the horrifying magic tool known as the ‘dark crystal’ was vividly imprinted in his mind, he shouted inwardly with force.
Detection
In that instant, golden circular waves that sought their target erupted from beneath Ian’s feet and surged outward without hesitation.
Ian instinctively sensed there were no targets nearby and began walking forward without delay. At the same time, the Shields of Thorny Vines layered around him maintained mechanical order and matched his stride.
Bone wolves that had been lurking in the underbrush charged at him like starving beasts. But before their sharp fangs could reach him, the mercilessly swung Shields of Thorny Vines sent them flying helplessly into the distance. Meanwhile, his entire body’s senses felt strange. Perhaps it was because he had lost and regained consciousness. The presence of the dark mana pressing down on his surroundings felt eerily clear and three-dimensional.
Even as his sharpened senses made him shiver, Ian almost broke into a run, accelerating rapidly. The Shield of Thorny Vines Guild members followed their guide, maintaining combat formation as they moved. On the surface it looked like a purposeless sprint, but the reality was different. Ian was heading straight for the mouth of hell where the dark mana flowed thickest and most virulently.
Toward the terrible darkness waiting at the end.