Chapter 183: (2/8): Encampment

In all, the journey through the mountains involved crossing three mountains in the Belrian Range before the fifty-man team finally managed to catch sight of the fourth: Mount Vestian, their destination. However, they saw their goal days before they actually arrived.

Standing at around halfway up the third mountain, they could the remains of the Mount Vestian peak in the fuzzy distance, half-hidden by the fog. Only then did Camilla realize that Victoria had not been exaggerating. Mount Vestian really did collapse. About a quarter of it seemed to have broken loose and fell down, leaving behind giant piles of rubble. The massive boulders that made up the rubble pile were way bigger than anything humans could build by hand and it was a miracle that any of them survived the massive fall intact.

After estimating the amount of material missing based on how much of the mountain collapse, Camilla swallowed and tugged on Kagriss’s sleeve. “Didn’t Victoria say that the first phenomena merely ruined a mining operation with a cave-in? Look how big of an effect this second one has.”

“It’s okay,” Kagriss said, patting her reassuringly. “I don’t think it’s as bad as what you say it is. It looks like a lot of the mountain is gone, but you can’t see the foot of the mountain thanks to all the fog. I’m certain that most of the debris fell and filled up the valley between Vestian and this mountain we’re on.”

Camilla managed to calm down, becoming a little less frightened. Kagriss was right, and Camilla should’ve thought of that sooner without having to be told. But she blamed Victoria for potentially misleading her first.

That said, she couldn’t completely disregard the risk. “Even if most of the rock fell into the value, it still seems like less than there should be. It might just be me though, and I might just be scaring myself, but what if it did happen to be somehow disappearing pieces of the mountain? And if the area of effect was indeed increasing, just how big can it get?”

In the end, she managed to scare herself with her imagination again. The thing they were looking for was no ordinary thing. Nothing ordinary could collapse a mountain after all. How strong would a mana beast have to be to do that?

She looked toward Ismelda. “Ismelda, since Victoria sent you on such a dangerous mission, then you must know something, right? What is the phenomenon?”

Ismelda didn’t reply, but Kagriss’s sharp eyes picked out the brief change in her eyes when Camilla asked her the question. “You know something.” Kagriss left no room for disagreement, utterly sure in her words.

Two pairs of eyes stared expectantly at Ismelda. Although Ismelda initially kept her mouth sealed tight, she eventually relented.

“Fine. But I’m serious when I say that I don’t know much, okay? All I know is that Victoria suspects that the incident this time was due to a certain magic item awakening. As for what the item is, I can’t say. I don’t know anything else.”

“You know something more,” Kagriss insisted.

With her lie easily seen through, Ismelda grimaced. “Victoria is interested in collecting a full series of that item. She’s not sure if this incident is really due to that item, which is why we have to investigate the phenomenon before we do anything. I’m here to increase the chances of us securing that item if Victoria’s guess was indeed correct.”

For some reason, when Ismelda mentioned completing a collection of something, Camilla thought of the box that Victoria had been staring at that night Camilla tried to meet the widow. The box contained three feather-shaped pendants, including the one that Victoria added later on. Her eyes widened as something fell into place.

“That item… is it white and shaped like a feather?” Camilla asked.

“Yes…wait!” Ismelda jumped. “How did you know?!”

“I saw Victoria with three of them.” The surprise in Ismelda’s voice sounded genuine, so it probably wasn’t a lie. Kagriss wasn’t reacting either, so Camilla added another clue to her already-existing pile of hints that led to the truth.

She didn’t know what the truth was about, but Camilla knew that it was going to be something important. The dreams that she had lately flashed to the forefront of her mind before retreating.

White feathers. Undead. Messenger.

The white-winged messengers of the Gods were wielders of holy magic that looked quite like humans. However, they had large white wings that marked them as holy messengers.

Dreams of holy messengers. Undead rising in power. Victoria trying to complete a collection of feather pendants. Camilla’s instincts told her they were all related  to a central truth, but she was still missing an important piece of the puzzle. She had no idea what was coming next, and it was frustrating.

Feeling lost, she poked Ismelda again, hoping to get something out of the older vampire—something that might complete the puzzle for her.

Unfortunately, Ismelda showed the palms of her hands as if she were hiding nothing. “I really don’t know anything more. For some reason, Victoria won’t tell me anything either.” There was a wry smile on her face, so full of helplessness that Camilla could not help but pity her.

Ismelda had been with Victoria for so long, yet Victoria still did not share all of her secrets with Ismelda. It was a sad story, but not one she needed. “Kagriss?” She looked hopefully at Kagriss.

However, she was doomed to be disappointed when Kagriss shook her head.

“Ismelda really knows nothing else,” Kagriss said, not bothering to explain the reason she knew to Camilla. Only she needed to know in her heart: because the look of pain that Ismelda had when she complained was one of the most genuine that Kagriss had ever seen.

Ismelda was pitiful in her way.

In the end, the conversation ended with no one satisfied. Ismelda fell into a silent mood, brooding about her relationship with Victoria. Camilla was deep in thought, shutting out everything as she tried to piece a puzzle despite knowing that there were missing pieces. As for Kagriss, she could only do her best to enjoy Camilla’s silent presence.

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A tiny spark rose up into the sky, exploding into a massive fireball with an ear shattering boom. The fireball lit up the night sky, almost like a rising phoenix. Once, Camilla would have been impressed by the display of fire magic, but since coming to the vampires’ land, she had become numb to magic she once considered unique. That old man from the Moltrost underground seemed much less impressive nowadays.

A few seconds later, a column of light rose into the sky in response, visible for miles. And good riddance too. Kagriss had been right. The bottom of Mount Vestian was completely buried by rubble and every step was treacherous. A rock that someone carelessly stepped on could easily slip and fall into a gap underneath, with the once-supported rubble around it to fall in and crush a foot.

It took just one incident before everyone wised up and armored their feet with magic—a draining but necessary action.

But the bad footing wasn’t all. Huge boulders littered the rubble field. It hadn’t looked like much coming down from the third mountain, but now that Camilla was up close, she could appreciate the scale. The boulders were the size of hills and blocked vision all around.

It would have been impossible to find another person in a place like this, especially since voices echoed.

A grizzled swordsman, the leader of one of the B-rank parties, pointed at the radiant beacon. “Someone got here before us. Let’s go join them.”

Without complaint, the team changed course and headed toward the light.

According to Ismelda, their fifty-man team wasn’t the only ones to join. There were hunters from other cities that accepted the same request from Victoria, just in case fifty people weren’t enough.

“I wonder who the others are?” Camilla muttered.

“Who can they be? Just a bunch of hunters that are full of themselves.” Kagriss’s mouth twitched in annoyance. “So what if they’re members of B-ranked parties? It’s not like they’re any stronger than us individually.

Camilla laughed. “You’re right. Rats grow stronger with numbers. But even cats can be brought down by a pack of rats so let’s not offend anyone we don’t have to.”

“Yes, yes.”

It was hard to navigate through the boulder field. The boulders meant frequent turns had to be made. Thankfully, the moon kept them on track, and soon the team came across an encampment of hunters. There were a dozen or so fires with many shadows gathered around each one.

“So many?” Camilla gasped, stared in surprise at the encampment.

“Well, they do come from several cities. Fifty from us, fifty from another. Altogether, that looks like some two hundred hunters.”

Although what Ismelda said made sense, it was still a lot of people. According to the rules, most of the hunters should be from B-ranked parties, which made them more skilled than average.

If all of them were around the same strength as a weaker templar, then the encampment alone had enough strength to threaten the Cloud Order, considering the entire Cloud Order only had five hundred or so templars during its golden days. And the Cloud Order was nowhere near the height of its strength.

“The large number of people makes me nervous. What kind of mission requires so many people?”

“Better safe than sorry,” Ismelda said. “Victoria has three feather pendants. One of them she had from the start, but the other two she got from dungeons. The first one was hidden in an underwater cave with a bunch of marine beasts with holy magic that she conquered with her old ten-man party, but the second one was too difficult for her party alone. It was a massive cave complex that looked carved out by something. After she was repelled the first time, she gathered some hundred other hunters.”

“Dungeons?”

Ismelda twitched. “You don’t know what a dungeon is?” She looked at Camilla like she would an immature child.

“I do know! It’s a prison. But why would the keys be in a prison, and why would Victoria have to conquer one? Can’t she just negotiate with the owner?” Camilla asked.

“…it’s not that kind of dungeon. A dungeon is what we call mana-mutated zones. Mana beasts are animals mutated by mana. Same for plants. Places can be mutated as well once it becomes saturated with too much mana.”

Realization struck Camilla. “Oh! I know now. We have those too, but of the undead variety. Here and there, we have regions of past battles that are completely overwhelmed by undead mana. We call them desecrated zones.” She swung Kagriss’s hand playfully. “I met Kagriss in one of them.”

“A romance in a dungeon, huh? How…enviable…” Ismelda grew wistful, though the expression disappeared as soon as it came. “That sounds about right.”

“But wait, you said that the beasts wielded holy magic?” Camilla asked. She suddenly remembered a detail she discarded during Ismelda’s explanation. She hoped she heard wrong, but her memory rarely lied…

Ismelda nodded. “Both dungeons were grounds saturated by holy mana, which was why I’m a bit confused about why Victoria would ask you to come to such a lethal place for undead. However, things might be a bit different this time, and is also the reason Victoria didn’t come personally.”

“What?”

“There were no reports of holy mana this time. The mana from the mountain seemed more like raw mana. That didn’t match with the locations that the previous feathers were found, so there’s a chance we might be wrong.” Ismelda shrugged. “For your sake, I hope we’re wrong.”

Camilla sighed. “I hope so too.”

They had been walking the whole time Camilla and Ismelda chatted, and they reached the edge of the encampment, the low murmur of conversation reaching their ears. Several of the seated hunters looked up at their arrival.

One of the hunters stood up and walked over to them, his head held high. Described nicely, he was proud. When put in a negative light, he was arrogant. Camilla favored the latter. However, several of the hunters in her team gasped at his appearance.

The hunter, a towering man with stony skin and a face that could be considered handsome, stared down his nose at the fifty newcomers. “Welcome to the camp, newbies. I’m in charge here.”