Chapter 113 The Dream Before The North (1)

In the middle of the cold night forest, the crisp clacking sound of a firecamp resounded calmly in throughout the forest. Following the warmth and the smell of cooked delicacies invited some wild animals and beasts to the place, but no magic beasts or other dangerous beasts could touch the one who made the firecamp.

"Good job cleaning up, thanks," (Lyan)

Following their master's words, the hobgoblins and goblin champions' shadow servants bowed before disappearing into the darkness. But they didn't go anywhere far, they just went to make the usual hexagon-like surveillance formation around Lyan's firecamp.

"Did you eat your fill?" Lyan asked the acid ant queen that is vigorously eating a corpse of a northern wolf. When the shadow servants killed the pack of northern wolves that are silently approaching and waiting to ambus Lyan, the acid ant queen sent him a thought to let her face the leader of the pack.

"You surprisingly pack quite a punch, huh?" Lyan pats the acid ant queen as she wriggles its head as if asking for more.

When the acid ant queen approached the northern wolf, she made a feint to make as if she was going to battle it head-on into a battle of strength, but when the distance between them was reduced, she immediately spits a highly corrosive acidic substance, making a hole right on the northern wolves pack leader's head.

"That was quite brutal..." (Lyan)

(But her way of eating is quite neat, isn't it?) (Griselda)

The acid and queen first turn the inside of the northern wolves into a soup with its melting substance, and slurp it until they got shriveled up.

(And she skillfully avoids damaging the skin of the wolves for you to sell them. As expected of a queen, I guess? She possesses a high intellect as well) (Hestia)

"You're right," Lyan grab one of the remainings of the northern wolves that had turned beautifully to only fur. It felt still warm because how not long ago, there are still blood and organs touching directly into them, after all.

"But I'm glad the northern wolves appeared after I finished my meal. Looking at a hole that appeared because of the corrosive acid substance while blood and parts of its brains splattered was not a great image to see while eating, after all," Lyan uttered with a wry smile as he look at the bones of the Norkana sheep on top of his plate.

(You're right. The meat is such a high quality, but I definitely lose my appetite if I saw something like that before my meal...) (Hestia)

Seeming to have gotten full from eating all of the northern wolf soup directly from their bodies, the acid ant queen laid around on the cold grass. Her body had gotten two times bigger after eating, and there are tens of egg-like things lying on the ground with white, green, and black patterns on them.

"That is..." (Lyan)

Slowly, the eggs hatched, and thumb-sized larvaes came out from the eggs.

(Oh! She's laying her future retainers!!) (Arturia)

The acid ant queen went to one by one and seem to feed them with something, and surprisingly, all of them went from thumb-sized larvaes, into fist-sized pupaes, then into house cat-sized ants.

About 20 of them became workers, while about 10 of them have bodies that became twice bigger as the workers.

"She evolved her army in an instant..." (Lyan)

As if telling him that her objective has already been accomplished, the ant acid queen asked Lyan to send her and her new retainers back to the grimoire's space with her thoughts.

"Ah. Right, right. You must need to make your home as soon as possible, right? Go and make a comfortable underground home there," Lyan summoned the summoning grimoire and unsummoned the acid ant queen and her servants. It seems that the servants are being considered as a part of the queen, so there are no obstructions when he attempted to unsummon them and sent them to the grimoire's space.

(The speed of her army's growth is unexpected. I might get new cards to use for battle sooner than I thought I would) (Lyan)

Lyan didn't waste himself and get negligent in his training. He continues his workout using his clothes-cursing magic while constantly attempting to strengthen his summoned creatures.

But because of the battle with the goblins, the shadow goblin lord, deadlight, rock golem, and ice golem had been difficult to level up. It seems that he would need them to whether kill a certain entity in a large number, or defeat a stronger opponent to raise their experience points just like in a game. But it's not easy to encounter such monsters unless he went deeper into the forest.

Since his original plan is to go to the north, Lyan decided to disregard the thought of delving deeper into the forest to experience grinding and proceed further to the north.

(With the spirits except for Lilith being incapable of being summoned, I want to take less risk as possible. Even though I have become a Mythril-ranked mercenary in two weeks, this world is still too foreign to me, after all. I might encounter something I'm not prepared for because of it) (Lyan)

So rather than doing experience grinding, the ice golem is currently absorbing the cold wind in the air, the rock golem is smashing rocks and collecting them into its body, and the shadow goblin lord is absorbing the darkness of the night.

(Since they look like there is something improving in them when they do so, it won't hurt for them to try doing that for a while. Now...) (Lyan)

"The first town of the north, huh... Looks like it's near. I guess I'll head there after right away in the morning," Lyan uttered as he stretched and went inside the wagon to sleep.

Actually, he could bear not sleeping longer. But the reason for his stop and rest period is that the black horse couldn't continuously walk for hours without any rest. And if it gets a lack of sleep and nutrients, its stamina will get a considerable damage, and it might get sick as well.

"I'm slowing down all because of you, you hear me, you an aggressive horse? You better be thankful to me *Yawn~* Ah, I guess I'm tired as well. Hobu, I'm counting on you," (Lyan)

Lyan feels like he saw a shadow giving a nod at the corner of his eyes before he closed them, but before he could even ask himself whether its Hobu or not, a single blue screen appeared in the middle of the darkness.

[Force transferring the host's consciousness]

[Entering the world of memories: Lilith Nyx Shyama]

"Eh?" (Lyan)

Then suddenly the sensation of getting pulled by a powerful sucking force hits Lyan's whole body, and in the next moment-

Nothing happened.

He was still closing his eyes, and he could feel himself lying on his body. But for some reason, he feels like the bed he installed on the wagon had become harder.

(I should have given the guy more golds... Getting lots of things including the wagon with just one gold, no wonder he would give me such a bad-quality... bed...) (Lyan)

"Eh?" Lyan exclaimed in surprise as he saw the unfamiliar ceiling.

Lyan raise his body and scanned his surroundings, only to find out that he was in an unfamiliar room. But looking at the room, it sure feels like it is a room with someone living inside.

But the strange part is not that.

"This... It's a room that perfectly suits my taste..." Lyan uttered in admiration as he saw the neatly organized big bookshelf, the weapons tidily hanged and polished, and a lazy chair to read the book and organize one's thoughts.

"I wonder whose room this is..." (Lyan)

As Lyan wondered about the room's owner while his hand was about to stretch to the book on the bookshelf, a powerful sound of the door getting knocked several times sounded.

*Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!*

"Eh? Don't tell me, it's the owner of the room?" (Lyan)

*Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!*

"But I guess the owner of the room wouldn't be knocking on the door like that, huh... So maybe..." Lyan slowly approached the door before opening it gently.

"Newspaper guy?" (Lyan)

Wrong.

"Newspaper guy?"

What appeared is not a guy, and especially not a person who spread newspapers as well.

(Ah. There are no newspapers in this world, isn't it?) (Lyan)

Lyan once again observed the person standing in front of the door.

She's wearing a full-plate armor, a polished sword on her hips, and a beautiful long blonde hair that compliments her somehow familiar beautiful face. Unfortunately, she's looking at him with a frown on her face.

(Ah...) (Lyan)

"The somehow woman and strong-willed castle guard captain," (Lyan)

___________________________________________________________________________

<Acid Ant Queen Lv. 1 -> Lv. 9>

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary

Money: 3,298,721,000 Elnes / 3298 gold 72 big silver 1 silver

Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow

Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1)

Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army