"A room full of gold coins and a magic scroll?"
Inside the temporary campsite, Shane had changed back into his own clothes.
The four of them sat around the campfire, listening to him recount what had happened.
When Shane ntioned that "after learning the magic written on the parchnt, all the gold coins in the treasury vanished," Frieren imdiately confird the identity of the treasury's creator. Just as she had suspected before, it had to be an elf.
"This is an ancient spell that used to be widely circulated among the elves. It's called [The River God's Ga]."
"This magic presents the participant with two reward choices. But no matter which reward you choose, the ga ends in failure, and you receive nothing. The only way to win is to choose nothing at all. If you do that, then after the ga ends, you receive every reward instead."
"What a boring magic trick," Frieren complained.
"But Mr. Shane successfully obtained the reward though—"
Frieren rubbed her chin and thought for a mont.
"Hmm... it seems the creator of the spell never accounted for a Sage being able to learn magic this quickly."
"Maybe because he didn't follow the ga's rules, the spell malfunctioned when it should have teleported him back, sending him sowhere else instead."
Hearing Frieren's analysis, Fern recalled the half-finished magic circle the three of them had seen earlier, as well as that smooth, featureless phantom silhouette—
At the ti, Frieren had thought the teleportation circle had completely failed and even wanted to blast open the ground to dig Shane out.
Fortunately, Stark stopped her.
"Although this spell seems to have a strong logical correction function, it apparently doesn't interfere with ti—"
At this point, Frieren looked toward Shane.
The two of them had stayed with Heiter for a period of ti, then traveled together ever since. Even Fern had already grown up. By calculation, several years should have passed, yet Shane himself had barely changed.
Combined with the clearly mismatched flow of ti between both sides this ti, a trace of doubt gradually surfaced within her.
"So Shane, are you actually still—"
Before Frieren could finish speaking, a sharp scraping noise suddenly rang out beside them.
Everyone's attention was instantly drawn away.
All four pairs of eyes turned toward the uniform robe lying on the open ground nearby.
Creak— Creak—
It was as if an invisible pair of giant hands had appeared in the air, violently twisting and pulling at the robe while producing horrifying sounds.
Within only a few seconds, the robe had been shredded into pieces.
Shane wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
If Frieren hadn't told him to take the robe off imdiately, then the him wearing it would probably have already beco a puddle of wandering spirits.
Just as Ehre and Frieren had said, the price of a [Teleportation Failure] was terrifying.
Thinking of this, Shane rolled a bean between his fingertips. While changing clothes earlier, he had also transferred the blue attribute [Shape-Shifting (Blue/Rare)] onto the bean. The bean hadn't been shredded, which ant attribute transfer wasn't bound by spatial laws.
Unconsciously, he thought back to the magic circle the Mad Sage Sharl had used to summon him into this world.
Those failed test subjects...
Those shattered bodies...
Every ti he recalled them, a chill ran down his spine.
So that evil ritual had also been a similar form of teleportation magic?
What an unpleasant thought—
After confirming that Shane was unhard, Fern and Stark began packing up the campsite.
Everyone prepared to leave the canyon and continue traveling. After all, they had already been delayed here for quite so ti.
Along the way, Shane brought up Aura and her undead army.
"One of the Seven Sages of Destruction under the Demon King, Aura the Guillotine. It's said she can use the strongest combat magic in the world, Scales of Obedience. During battle, she places her opponent's soul upon a scale. As long as the opponent's mana is weaker than hers, [Obedience] takes effect. Until their physical body completely rots away, they remain under Aura's control forever... She's a terrifying Great Demon from legend."
"Not bad, Fern. You rembered it well."
Frieren stood on her toes and gently patted Fern's head.
"The nas you told to rember before—Aura, Macht, Solitär—I've been seriously morizing them all."
"Good. These are among the strongest demons in existence today. If you ever encounter them, never let your guard down."
"Besides that, if you encounter demons not on this list, you should be even more cautious. Demons who excel at disguising and hiding themselves may not necessarily possess the greatest strength, but they're absolutely outstanding when it cos to cunning and deceit."
As she spoke, Frieren's gaze crossed the mountain forest and drifted toward the distant horizon, her voice carrying a trace of mory.
"Back when we fought Aura in the Northern Plateau, we destroyed her puppet army. I never expected that in only eighty short years, she'd create another one..."
"This ti, we absolutely cannot let her escape again."
Shane agreed.
If Aura were allowed to continue wreaking havoc, who knew how many innocent humans would suffer.
A lunatic like that couldn't simply be ignored. Better to eliminate her sooner rather than later.
"So where exactly is she?"
Frieren tilted her head.
"Sowhere in the forests outside the Graf Granat Domain."
"The Graf Granat Domain? That's not too far from us. We should arrive pretty quickly—"
Hearing that, Stark nodded imdiately.
"Then let's head out right now."
Nearby, Shane and Fern exchanged a glance. Both saw the sa mixture of shock and helplessness in each other's eyes—
Stark was still too young.
When words like "not far" and "pretty quickly" ca out of Frieren's mouth, it was best not to believe a single one of them.
After all, she described eighty years as "only a short ti."
The next morning—
Because of Frieren's shocking statent, Fern hired a carriage in advance.
After all, thanks to the one hundred gold coins Shane had earned, they now had complete freedom regarding travel expenses. Renting a carriage was no longer sothing worth hesitating over.
After expending trendous effort dragging Frieren out of bed and onto the carriage—
The four of them left the village.
The villagers warmly saw Stark off, stuffing him with food. Quite a few children even chased after the carriage for a long distance before finally stopping.
Stark leaned out from the back of the carriage, waving continuously toward them.
Only after the village completely disappeared from sight did he finally stop.
Creak— Creak—
As the carriage advanced, the scenery along the roadside slowly drifted backward.
Inside the carriage, the group chatted casually.
Stark was extrely curious about Shane's Sage training. Along the way, he chattered nonstop just like Fern used to, curious about everything.
Shane explained whatever he could.
anwhile, as Fern watched the two of them grow more and more engrossed in conversation, she beca slightly jealous. Her cheeks visibly puffed up little by little.
As for Frieren, she looked completely detached from the whole thing. As usual, she hugged a grimoire while leaning against the carriage wall, quietly studying magic by herself.
The journey continued with constant stops and starts. After nearly ten days of travel, the four of them finally entered the territory of the Graf Granat Domain—
User Comments
0 comments from readers