Chapter 147 - The Start Of Our Journey To The City

"Let's go," I said after seeing everyone.

They got their equipment, bags, provision, and the other at ready. A long journey won't be a problem for us.

Our destination is the next city in this savanna. 

Now, after gathering some information, I can say with confidence, the city we are going to not have the size of a village like this city, our base camp for a few days.

In that real city, there are three things we going to do.

Buy weapons, look for some way to dispel Diana's curse, and then regroup with the rest of our friends.

We will collect materials to buy weapons along the way. We already have quite a lot of savings. So, with this one hunt, I'm sure we will get enough materials to make a good barter.

So, with plans in mind, we left the village.

Ah! That's right, this morning, before breakfast, I remembered one thing related to the curse.

What I mean by that is about catalyst or trigger that makes the curse affect people. The curse has an extremely powerful effect and is hard to be removed after it has been implanted in someone. But, the curse can be easily blocked using simple items. 

It's just like Medusa's eyes that can be countered by a mirror or one simply doesn't have to see her eyes.

In light of that, I did a little experiment on Diana.

I suspect and from my experience, her curse will take an effect when other people see her. With that said, I want to cover a few parts of her body using fabrics to block the curse.

We would be lucky if the curse she had was being implanted on her body. However, if the curse was implanted in her existence or even her soul, covering one part of the woman's body would have no meaning whatsoever. If it was in her voice, we just ask her not to speak.

We did the little experiment and we know that we were lucky. After covering Diana's entire body with a robe and a piece of cloth, Diana's curse no longer worked on us or more precisely, to a Flugel who become our volunteers.

Yes, that piece of cloth we used to cover Diana's face.

The curse was back on when we took off that piece of cloth. We were surprised by the discovery and that shorten our experiment.

We covered Diana's lips, nose, forehead, and finally, we discovered that the curse was implanted in Diana's eyes. If it had to be more specific, I'd say her right eye.

Of course, we didn't just end the experiment after discovering the truth about her left eye. We continued for some time to find another catalyst.

In the end, Diana had only one catalyst.

That was a piece of great news.

With all of that, the woman gets an eye patch. 

Our goal to seal her curse turned into dispelling her curse.

We're going to help her with that matter and of course, it's not free. If we or I, manage to find a way to dispel her curse, I ask her to be mine.

Diana did not accept the deal immediately. She make a bid, she wanted to pay for our efforts with the Magic Stone and Magic Equipment she had.

She showed us treasures she had in her Space Storage. 

The demonstration of that ability made us freeze for a while. Yes, it was her ability that make us freeze and not her treasures.

I investigated how she had such abilities and I knew, her Space Storage was gained from luck.

Diana found a Skill Orb containing the Space Storage in a treasure box.

Now, back to the deal that we're going to make. I'm not going to let Diana pay us with her treasures. So, I lured her into my clutches with a pretext, she could be part of my family if she wanted to be mine.

The word 'family' had a big influence on her.

Diana's resolve faltered and in the end, she agreed to be mine.

I'm adding too many members to my family?

Maybe that's true but this will be the last. At this moment, I have no other motive to pull that woman into my clutches.

Why would I want Diana?

I wanted her because she's a rare Imperfect Flugel. She's going to be one of the dozens of beautiful women that I will collect.

I know that words sound so wrong in various angles and it was a joke. 

I want her to become my crew. And as long as Diana was happy to live with us, my reason for wanting her wouldn't be a problem.

Yes, I wouldn't mistreat her.

Then, in a fight, Diana surprised us - Ruciel and me - with her abilities. She can manipulate space and she says, she has Space Magic. A type of magic that doesn't exist in Ark Fantasy Online before.

Thanks to that magic, Diana became a short-range and medium-range fighter. Her sword could cut off enemies from a distance of six to nine meters.

So, with all that Diana was a good find.

The wind blew as we walked on this savanna.

"How far is the next city?" Ruciel asked Diana.

"Not too far away, we'll get to the city after walking for an hour and a half. That doesn't include the time we'll spend fighting monsters."

"Thank you," she told Diana. The girl then saw me. "What do you want, Eclaite? Visit the city and hunt around it or continue to hunt and then visit the city when the afternoon arrives."

"Hmm... Let's visit the city as soon as possible."

Ruciel's long ears make a jolt. "That's unusual from you."

"Okay... What do you mean by unusual?"

"You always tend to fight and keep fighting until you are exhausted. So, when you turn down the opportunity to shed blood and kill monsters, it was unusual. Why would you want to visit the city without hunting?"

"Because I-"

Tremble! Tremble!

An earthquake that appeared suddenly cut my words. 

Everyone became alert because of this episode.

I scanned the surroundings to find out what was happening and not far from us, I found a large golden-colored Magic Circle emitting a bright light.

"Oh no, it's Monster House," Diana said. The woman's face turned pale.

Monster House?

That term was used to refer to one of the many traps in the Dungeon. 

A trap that would usually imprison the adventurers inside a place and force them to fight against dozens of monsters appeared from within the Summoning Magic Circle. That was the definition of Monster House. 

"Diana, does the Monster House in this place have a Barrier that imprisons us?" I asked as I draw my spear.

"No, but-"

"Then, run!" I shouted, cutting Diana's words.

Everyone followed my orders. We ran away from the great Magic Circle.

"Escaping from the Monster House wasn't easy," said Diana, who was flying low beside us. "One of the types of summoned monsters in that deadly trap can run quickly, they will hinder us and buy time for the other monsters to catch up."

"It wouldn't be a problem, I had a plan to shake them off if they catch up with us," I told Diana.

"They're coming!" Ruciel shouted, giving us a warning. "Seventeen Tear Antelope is approaching quickly!"

I looked back to find the Tear Antelopes who usually avoided fighting to emit a killing intent. They were a little scary because they had blood-red eyes.

Those monsters will catch up with us in dozen or so seconds. So...

"Keep running!" I shouted and reduced my running speed.

"Big sis!" Kimi exclaimed.

"Eclaite! What are you doing!?" Ruciel scolded me.

"I want to swallow them with a white mist. So, keep running, lest you be swallowed by the most too."

The faces of the kids and Ruciel turned pale. Without any hesitation remains, they ran and this time, they were faster than before. Diana who didn't know what to do decided to follow everyone after I said, "go with them."

Looking at their reactions, excluding Diana, I couldn't help but guess that they were more afraid of my mist than the Monster House.

Does the mist give them trauma?

I shook my head to forget that stupid question. I took a deep breath to carry out my plan.

Right, the Tear Antelope caught up with me. Now, they surrounded me. Of course, they started attacking me. The monsters used their small horns as spears.

I have no problem dodging two or three Tear Antelope simultaneously. However, for the dozens of Tear Antelope that kept coming and going, inevitably, I had to use Swift Gale. And that still makes me unable to completely dodge the monsters' attacks.

I don't use Swift Movements because that skill will be my way out.

Yes, I didn't use the Mist of Nightmare Illusion at the moment the Tear Antelope surrounded me because Ruciel and the others were still within the reach of my skill.

Taking a peek at my back for a second, I found a collection of monsters consisting of the Small Earth Lion, Boulder Mammoth, Black Cheetah, and Reatle Red Snake.

I gulped when I saw the last two monsters, the Black Cheetah and the Reatle Red Snake. They're extremely dangerous. One could say, they were Sub Bosses.

Black Cheetah is faster than Tear Antelope. They can catch up with us easily. I don't know why they held back but I know it's not a good thing.

Then, after I got tens or more wounds, everyone finally got out of my skill range. Heat Perception already made sure of it...

"[Mist of Nightmare Illusion]"

A blast of white mist was created from my body. In an instant, all the Tear Antelope and the few monsters behind me were swallowed up by the blast.

I made it, we survived, I thought but I was wrong.

Tear Antelope and the other monsters did not fall asleep. They were completely unaffected by this mist! Heat Perception tells me that they're moving around!

My mist only limited their vision.

This is bad! Extremely bad!