Chapter 101

Chapter 101

Garron saw the horde of undead swarming down Arelioth’s Pass. There was at least a hundred of them— mostly skeletons and a handful of ghouls, charging mindlessly to destroy the three adventurers. The Steel Tank immediately tensed up, raising his signature shield.

It was a tower shield. It was as tall as he was, and it was wide enough to protect about two individuals behind it. Not only that, it was an enchanted artifact. An artifact that suited any B-ranked adventurer. Except, Garron had wielded it ever since he was a D-rank on the cusp of reaching C-rank. In fact, it was the reason why he was able to even survive as an adventurer for so long.

But wear and tear was finally starting to afflict his shield. Despite getting it repaired and re-enchanted numerous times, it was in a far worse shape than when the Steel Tank had found it. Bits of its sides were chipped off, and the metal dented far easier now more than ever.

Perhaps this may have been a byproduct of regularly facing enemies far higher-leveled than he was. It all started with the Goblin Lord’s attack of Windrip, but ever since then, Garron had been embroiled in multiple battles with enemies who were at least A-rank in threat. Meanwhile, before he had met Amelia or Noele, he had only ever stayed in his lane, fighting monsters who he actually stood a chance against.

So that was a very plausible explanation as to why the tower shield was now constantly in such a shoddy state. Honestly, Garron knew that it was finally time for him to upgrade his equipment. And not just that, he, himself, needed to get stronger too.

But even as the Steel Tank resolved himself to do this, he found it hard to even... do anything with Noele around. He just watched as she cut down the horde of skeletons with ease, dancing between their numbers as her two blades sliced through their bones like butter.

The undead barely put up any resistance. Even the juggernaut ghoul leading them was defeated after a very brief scuffle. All it took was a single Elegant Noble Slash, followed by a blast of her [Grand Blade], and the juggernaut ghoul was reduced to nothing but ashes.

And it wasn’t just her wiping out the swarm of undead. Saros the Gnome Inventor was here too. While he was not quite as strong as she was, he was capable of wiping out vast numbers of weak enemies on his own with his variety of tools, artifacts, and equipment. He opened a small bag, unleashing a wave of black flames and incinerating dozens of skeletons a second. He didn’t even need to raise a blade to wipe them out. He just walked forward fearlessly as the number of enemies dwindled to nothing.

Garron looked on, lowering his tower shield. The two A-ranked adventurers had wiped out the undead without his help. He pursed his lips as he sheathed his sword, and he wondered what was the point of his presence. They clearly could deal with this without him. But if they couldn’t... it wasn’t like he would even be able to help them.

“That’s all of them,” Noele said as she drew back from the crater where the juggernaut ghoul once stood. “Where’s Z357?”

Saros furrowed his brows in response. “The Guardian Angel? How should we know? He just took off!”

“That’s... concerning. Why would he just leave us like that? ” She shook her head and glanced up— towards where the angel had disappeared to.

Garron took in a deep breath, steeling himself. He strode forward as he nodded at the blonde girl. “Should we follow the angel? Maybe he found Ar’elith’s phylactery.”

Noele bit her lower lip. “I’m not so sure about that. I feel like he would have mentioned something...right?”

“Bah, you probably chased the angel off with your constant pestering,” Saros said as he waved a hand dismissively. He started forward until he reached a fork in the path. “But if we follow the direction the undead came from—”

Another... rift? He stared through the walls at a second fracture in space.

He shook his head and quickly zipped forward, but before he could reach his destination, he paused. Two of his eyes flickered, looking back as a third rift formed at the entrance of the cavern. He moved to close the second rift, but a fourth and a fifth had opened at that point.

Guardian Angel Z357 swept his gaze over his surroundings as these tiny little rifts began to open up across the network of tunnels. It seemed like he was going to be busy, dealing with these rifts for a while.

So he got to work.

—--

As the three adventurers and an angel wandered aimlessly around Arelioth’s Pass...

I sighed wistfully to myself as I stretched my back. “This is relaxing...”

The sun was shining. The sky was without a cloud in sight. I could hear the birds chirping amidst the rustling of the leaves. It was serene and tranquil here.

For the first time in quite a while, I was no longer in civilization. Windrip had been a city that was bustling with too much activity. And Wolfwater, while a nice change of pace compared to the city, was still a relatively busy place for a village, especially with having to deal with my restaurant.

But right now, I was in a dense jungle. The foliage here was thick with bushes blocking every turn and curtains of vines crawling down the sides of the trees. The canopy of leaves overhead blotted out just enough of the sun so it wasn’t too hot, but let in enough sunlight so that everything beneath was just bathed in shadows.

The fact that I could now finally have a quick getaway to nature was quite relaxing...even if this wasn’t a vacation. I was here because of a request.

I shook my head as I turned to face Dorien. The [Druid] had his arms crossed, waiting for me expectantly.

“Sorry,” I said as I slowly sauntered up to him. “I was taking in the view— are we at the Vox Forest yet?”

“Indeed we are,” he replied, turning away from me. “But we should hurry. Before it gets to sundown.”

I raised a brow at him. “What happens at sundown?”

“Well...” And he began to explain.