Chapter 176

176 Run, please! part It is said that places where mana overflows are truly magical filled with natural beauty and a sacred atmosphere. Such places do exist in this world, although nobody knows what produces them or how to find them, making it the stuff of old legends that people tend to forget.

Unknown to most people, wars have been fought with the sole purpose of controlling such places. It wasn’t just because of the unexplicable phenomena that usually afflicted such places, but also because some rare products could only be found over there.

Quarrydew was the name of the small town at the foothill of a mountain that produced Imperial stones, and the whole town thrived thanks to that.

Imperial stones are a sturdy building material that is able to become even stronger the more mana gets poured into it, when Ryu found them in the river before arriving at Ironwoods, he took advantage of this strange property without even knowing it, and used imperial stones to craft an axe for chopping wood.

There was, however, no chance of him knowing the importance of such material at the time, and now the group traversed through the biggest imperial stone quarry in the whole kingdom. They could have taken the main road back to the town of Quarrydew, but Lea suggested otherwise.

If they were being chased by the members of the church of the sacred empire like Ryu thought, they were most likely to come from the town.

A quarry is simply what they call a place from where it is possible to extract a certain type of stone material in large qunatities and,in theory, it should be pretty safe to walk by. But given the magical nature of the imperial stone, it was actually filled with beasts, especially at night.

“Tell me again, why can’t we just fight our way through the quarry?”

Risa asked

.....

“Miss Risa, it’s late night already, and we can’t really afford to be taken by surprise by the agents of the sacred empire. Stefan is one thing, but if he finds us with better equipped soldiers, we won’t be able to hold our ground against them, especially if we have to fight beasts at the same time”

Risa seemed to understand and kept the pace, threading lightly on her feet. She was still an apprentice archer, but the light step skill was already showing its effects.

Anne walked in the front, not only because she was the most experienced in sorting obstacles and finding the best pathway, but also because her perception was outstanding. particularly, her sense of smell was akin to that of a beast, although no one was brave enough to say that to her face.

Anne was followed by Ryu and Risa, both were quick on their feet and were skilled enough to keep an enemy distracted. After them came Sera riding the amarok and Bob was besides her carrying a tied up Lea. She had completely given up to her fate and didn’t fight back thinking that she was, again, turned into a prisoner when in reality Ryu had her tied up just in case they did encounter people from the sacred empire, to make them believe she was with them against their will in hopes that they would spare her.

Last in line was Luke, he was the fastest of them all and could move easily to the front if they needed, but his skills were more effective if he remained undetected.

Ryu had come up with this formation after they set off, it was a bit improvised but better than just walking disorderly. Risa was actually very impressed with Ryu’s leadership skills, not because he gave the correct orders, but because instead of shouting commands, he taught everyone what their role was and how to properly perform it during battle, making it unnecessary to give any commands at all.

Everyone knew exactly what they had to do, so they didn’t waste any time and simply focused on their own duty. It also explained Bob’s and Luke’s behavior, they always worked together in an efficient teamwork without speaking their minds out loud, and it took her some time to get accustomed to their fighting style. If ryu had been with them while they travelled from Celarent to rescue Sera, things would have been a lot easier.

The quarry was just an open field next to a part of the mountain that had been mined for centuries, it looked like a huge stone wall crowned by dirt on top, and the only cover that was available was that of the big chunks of rock lying around the field.

Since the party came from above, they were able to catch a glimpse of the entire path ahead of them. The road went down to the quarry and it eventually connected to the western forest, which was their goal for the night, the only problem was to get there unnoticed.

There were many beasts lurking in the shadows, while others were strong enough to be out in the open minding their own business.

The party stopped for a few minutes, allowing Anne to study the road properly and Ryu to spot any dangerous beast. They were the only ones with the night vision skill developed to a point where they could actually see as far at night as they would during the day. They couldn’t discern colors, but it was a nice tradeoff all things considered.

“I think I got it”

Anne nodded to the rest of the team and they resumed their march downhill. Sera, being the only one riding a beast, was also the only one who could focus entirely on their surroundings.

It was a beautiful night that held the secrets of the land covered with imperial stone. But almost all of her focus was situated on the landscape, growing up she had never set foot outside her hometown, and now she was so far she couldn’t believe it. She did her best engrave into her memory everything she could, and then she noticed something in the north.

“What is that thing in the north? it looks like a black tree without any branches”

“That’s the sacred obelisk”

Lea replied from her awkward position on top of Bob’s shoulder. She was being carried just like luggage. Her reply didn’t actually answer Sera’s question in the slightest, but she was amazed at everything and simply moved on to the next thing that caught her attention.