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Chapter 85: The Great Barrier

Following those pollution auras which would appear from time to time, Gawain and company advanced unceasingly in the Dark Range and gradually moved closer to the gap in the mountains that was located in the southwestern direction of the camp. And this gap put Gawain on the alert.

This was a part of the Dark Range with lower relief and also the juncture easiest to cross over. If those monsters had entered through this gap… they would be able to sense the auras of the humans at the pioneering camp soon and charge down from the mountains to drive straight in and attack the camp.

The trio climbed up a huge boulder and surveyed the gap in the mountains from afar. There wasn’t much vegetation covering the rocks there; the exposed grayish-white rocks were lifeless like fractured skeletons. The entire terrain looked as if it had been hacked apart by a sharp ax, and at the bottom of the gap, they could clearly see an unsettling dark mist curling upward.

Gawain immediately had Heidi use spells to hide the various auras on the three of them, including magical power. The capabilities of a level-three mage in this aspect were naturally limited. Such concealment would not work on any professional at the intermediate level and above. However, Gawain was very clear about the aberrations’ weaknesses. After breaking out of the Dark Wave’s environment, their senses would become very obtuse, and their thinking ability would lower. As long as they did not clearly sense magical power or the aura of intelligent beings, they would not react.

After completing the concealment work, the three people cautiously found their way forward. Before they were even halfway there, a putrid odor could be smelt coming from ahead.

“Bleuurp…” Heidi dry-heaved quietly while her fingers tightened around her magic staff. She knew this smell too well. Such an odor had appeared in her nightmares more than once and roused her from her dreams. — A few months ago, the entire old Cecil territory had been ruined amidst this stench.

Knowing that those monsters could sense the fluctuations of magic and that the effect of her concealment spell was limited, Heidi suppressed the urge to release Wind Shield. She carefully treaded behind Gawain to round past the rocks and old trees that were blocking their path ahead.

Gawain, who led them from the front, suddenly made a gesture. “Hide— they’re in front.”

The three hid between the jagged rocks in a single file. Amber boldly poked her head out under Gawain’s shoulder. In the next second, goosebumps flooded her skin.

The mountainous path below was shrouded in a layer of dark mist. The vegetation there was withered and mutated; pricks and feelers crept out from the soil and gaps between the rocks; countless lumped masses resembling a certain type of mollusk squirmed and rolled between those rocks and soil. The sight made one sick to the stomach. And the gory titans were lumbering forward on this path which seemed like the road to hell. Flesh and blood slurries ran down their muddled faces as profane yet low murmurs sounded from their thoracic cavities, forming a buzzing resonance in the air.

What made one shudder even more was that many of these gory titans had decayed and ragged ancient weapons stuck in their bodies. Amber even caught sight of a hollow human skeleton lodged in the abdomen of one of the titans. Such sickening evidence confirmed Gawain’s judgment: This was a contingent of demon troops that had wandered from the Gondor wastelands and originated from hell.

Amber immediately grabbed Gawain’s arm and uttered her clearest thought at this moment in the softest, faintest voice she’d ever had in this life, “Boss, I don’t want my pay any more. Just let me go…”

“Shh—” Gawain held down Amber’s head, but his eyes were scanning through those monsters. He checked again and again and finally lightly heaved a sigh of relief. “Thankfully, this is not the worst situation.”

“This still isn’t terrible?!” Amber felt as if she was staring at a madman when she fixed her gaze on Gawain. “Such a big group is enough to tear down the entire camp three times over!”

“Don’t be scared by appearances. Actually, their numbers aren’t as many as you imagined.” Gawain knew the kind of wrong perception average people would have when they saw the aberration army for the first time. Hence, he explained patiently, “Those mist and paraphytes surging on the ground would give you the illusion that there are lots of them. But count carefully, the actual figure is probably less than a thousand…”

Amber faltered for a moment but then seriously estimated the number of gory titans swaying in sight. “It really seems like there are only a few hundred…”

However, she quickly reacted. “But our entire camp consists of only eight hundred people — and seven hundred of them can’t fight!”

“But this is already much better than my worst expectation,” Gawain replied under his breath. “Initially, I was most worried that their numbers had exceeded the threshold ‘line’ by too much. That way, their numbers would increase rapidly, like they were growing out of the air. Back then, we had a considerably hard time in this. The two thousand enemies in the reports would have multiplied to three or even four thousand by the time we met… However, look at these. There aren’t any new aberrations growing out of the air. This means that their numbers happen to not have exceeded the line, or have exceeded it just slightly but have yet to reach the extent where they would naturally increase…”

“Still, even if there’s only this amount of them, it’s not something that the camp can handle at this point.” Heidi pointed out worriedly in a low voice. “Ancestor, their direction of movement is towards the north of the mountains. They will arrive near the camp sooner or later. Once the camp is exposed within the range of their senses…”

Amber’s pair of pointed ears ceaselessly shivered in the air. “Didn’t you say that those aberrations would randomly roam or stop where they were when they no longer sensed magical power or humans? Who knows, they might halt after walking another stretch and remain there for eight hundred or a thousand years…”

“Don’t put your hopes on that. Although their numbers would not increase, it has exceeded the critical point of natural extinction. Counting on these close-to-a-thousand monsters remaining in the mountains forever and be our neighbors? Dream on.” Gawain frowned. “We have to find a way to get rid of them…”

Amber silently glanced at Gawain. “Then I have a plan…”

Gawain was slightly surprised. “You have a plan?”

“It goes like this. I will first sneak over and finish off one. Then you, the legendary knight, will leap in like a god descending on the mortal world. At the end of the battle, you would have gotten rid of the remaining nine hundred and ninety-something of them. Then this gorgeous great-granddaughter of yours will set off some arcane magic fireworks to add to the fun. And when we’ve returned, we will claim that these one thousand monsters have been defeated with the joint effort of both of us. You can then continue to be the Lord that you are and farm with peace of mind, while I’ll go brag in the taverns… Hey! Don’t go. I’m not done…”

Gawain knew midway through her speech that she’d actually fallen into the state of feeling severely nervous with her careless analysis. Hence, he did not even pay attention to the remaining half. Instead, he lifted his head and focused on the surrounding terrain. At this point, he finally found a route that could bypass those monsters. Thus, he tugged on Heidi’s magic robe and then cautiously started on the detour.

Amber was stumped for a moment. Ending her mindless analysis, she obediently disappeared into the shadows and followed Gawain’s steps.

The trio skirted around the route of those slow-moving aberrations and found a trail between the rocks. Moving along the direction where that decayed path pointed to, they trudged closer to the gap in the mountains of the Dark Range and finally found a highland that was enough for their line of sight to go beyond the rocks and look out to the northern side of the Dark Range.

Gawain climbed up the rocks and gazed into the distance.

That side of the mountains… That was close, it reminded him of The Smurfs by accident.

There wasn’t a group of adorable smurfs on that side of the mountain. There were only the ruins of civilization, only the wreckage of world order, only the Gondor wastelands shrouded in chaos and darkness.

Despite the actual Gondor wastelands being somewhere even farther, the aura of that polluted ground was being presented in the skies on the far side of the Dark Range. After crossing a certain boundary, the skies on that side exhibited a state of dimness and chaos like an eternal sunset. Swarms of foul, dense clouds hung from the skyline, creating an oppressive sensation, as if it was about to swallow the world. And under the cast of such a peculiar sky, the world displayed a strange bearing, like a twisted otherworld.

Starting from the plains by the southern foot of the Dark Range, a boundless dark forest covered the entire mountain and a small half of the banded flatlands. Though he was very far away, Gawain could still spot — in that warped forest known as the ‘Black Forest’ — many mutated giantwood that grew right up into the horizon, slowly swaying and spreading toxic feeler-like branches towards the sky. Whereas at the banded flatlands even farther out, there was dense mist rising up. The mist constantly displayed the past city, forts, palaces, and similar figments. Looking past those visions, one would be able to see an aurora-like barrier.

That aurora-like barrier seemed to be the only thing in sight that could put people at ease and was also pleasant to the eyes. From this distance, it looked like a hazy shimmering ribbon, but in reality, it was extremely tall and grand. That layer of ‘glimmer’ connected to the sky and ground; though it looked to be a sheet of weak fluorescence, it was even thicker and sturdier than mountains. And at the base of that fluorescent screen, a neatly arranged row of towers could be seen.

The fluorescent screen was sustained by the powerful energy released from those towers.

That screen was the Great Barrier, and the towers beneath the fluorescent screen were the sentinel towers. This setup sealed up the entire Gondor wastelands and prevented the deaths of all living creatures on the whole continent.

Everyone knew that this barrier was built by the elves’ Silver Empire, but in reality, it had been so utterly beyond imagination, such that the skills and resources required to build it had exceeded the limit that any intelligent species could shoulder alone. Even the powerful and prosperous elvish Silver Empire was unable to independently undertake it. In actual fact, the elves back then had taken the lead to provide half of the resources and all of the skills, and then all the other forces on the continent — including the Dwarf Kingdom and the survivors of Gondor — jointly took responsibility for the other half of goods and materials before they managed to build this barrier.

That was truly a heart-stirring era.

…But also an era where terror enveloped the continent, and no one could sleep peacefully.

Amber’s head swung here and there under Gawain’s shoulder. She looked nervously at the polluted grounds on the northern side yet marveled at the barrier that was even farther out.

Even with the obstruction of the Great Barrier, the aura of the Dark Wave had still polluted a considerably vast area outside of it. But compared to the inside of the barrier, even the Black Forest was a total paradise.

Gawain shifted his gaze away from the fluorescent screen. He exhaled lightly. “The barrier is still there.”