Chapter 136: Monuments of the Ancient Race
Miles and Jelly traveled in the forest for many days. After helping Miles get three more minerals, Jelly didnt deviate from the main path to get more, firstly Miles had no more space to store the minerals, secondly the monsters were getting stronger as they walked further, to no ones surprise. It was against the pattern observed by humans ever since they entered the Portal World but he got used to it by now.
Monsters were always rigid with their territories. Very rarely a higher-level monster would enter a lower circle and when they did wouldnt stay long, but the same couldnt be said for lower-tier monsters. Monsters would travel to inner circles because of more abundant energy, but even those who didnt risk would have to relocate after they advanced. But in the outer edge of the G-circle, Miles saw not only Frenzy-Rank monsters but Evil-Rank too.
Miles looked at the scaled monster and looked like armadillos and felt the death itself is eying him in those bloodthirsty small beady eyes. The monster wasnt big, on the contrary, it was as big as Earth armadillos, but the breath of the monster was so suppressing Miles felt his knees giving up. He instinctively wanted to prostrate on the ground. The eyes of the small monster looked at Miless soul and turned to Jelly. This time the silent conversation took only a second before the armadillo-like monster walked away and Jelly continued with Miles.
They, one monster and one human, walked for days. At this point, Miles didnt even know how to return even if he wanted to. Of course, Coin recorded the surroundings to his map and they wouldnt have any problem finding their way back, but the path was too damn complicated. After a week of walking, the forest ended.
He didnt see any monster stronger than Evil-Rank but saw many nests covered with Elemental Minerals. But Miles dared not to approach, and Jelly avoided them all the same. Even with its aggro repelling ability, it wouldnt antagonize those strong monsters.
After the forest ended, they arrived at an opening. The cave was still illuminated as before thanks to stones on the walls, so Miles could see the opening clearly. But what he saw there surprised him nonetheless.
There were countless monuments of humanoid creatures placed in two rows, all the way to where his eyes could see. The creatures looked like humans in many ways. Except for having three eyes one vertical eye on their forehead the rest of their heads looked pretty much similar.
Miles couldnt judge their height because monuments were tens of meters long, but proportionally they looked similar in height to humans, maybe a little taller. They all had accessories on their heads or necks that looked like they were made of plants. Just from that, Miles could see they were close to nature. There were also many animal monuments staying close to them.
He was an exception to that and had Coin a lot younger because he didnt want it to be deleted. And they hit it off, and they have been best buddies ever since. But just like in Miles's friend Carls situation, AI watches and their life companions most of the time wouldnt be so compatible. Miles would occasionally wonder why Mother AI didn't make wristwatch companions more in tune with their partners.
That is something we cannot figure out by just thinking. We talked about it a lot, and couldnt come up with an idea. Coin said. Clearly didnt want to argue over it once again.
Yeah, you are right. Miles shook his head helplessly.
I wonder if Unity knew about this cave, what would they do? He chuckled. This trip was bountiful. Not only did he discover an ancient mausoleum-like place, he even found a place filled with Elemental Minerals.
Unfortunately, this mausoleum wasnt a place where treasures were hidden. There were only monuments, and nothing else. After passing two rows of monuments, they arrived at a thin log placed over an abyss-like rift. Miles couldnt see the bottom of the endless darkness, but the log over it looked sturdy but Miles wasnt willing to gamble his life to pass on it. He looked at the jelly monster and wanted confirmation.
You really want me to walk over it? Miles was too scared to try that. He grabbed a rock and let it free fall to the abyss, but the sound he was expecting to hear never came. How deep is this hole? Miles was baffled.
Alright, alright. Miles shook his head and approached the log. Of course, he wasnt going to gamble with his life. He tied a rope around his body and knotted it to one of the monuments. After making sure it was safe and could carry his weight he started to walk on the thin log. He was also ready to deploy the wing orb as soon as something was wrong.
The reason he didnt use it directly, was because he wasnt sure if the gravitational force plummeting him to the ground was active in the cave or not. After all, he was still in range of the mountain and flying might not be possible there.