Chapter 72: The Vanished Village

Extremely critical moment! Daina snapped back and struggled wildly, striking the tentacle with her fists.

But the tentacle possessed strong restorative properties. If she didn’t destroy it immediately, it would quickly return to its original state. Daina cried tears of despair. “Help me, Teacher, save me.”

Ace’s eyes were grave, and his movements were sharp. He still used Magical Trickery, but this time, he used his true level of Mana.

“Divine Edge · Wind · Great High-Spin Blade!”

Ace added three keywords to his incantation, using a strange cadence that unified his will, voice, and hand gesture.

Divine Edge: Will for reinforcement, for greater sharpness!

Wind: Will for the wind element, possessing the attributes of speed, lightness, and cutting effect!

Great: Will for magnification. The entire blade would be more than twice the normal size!

A massive, spiraling blade appeared in his hand. Accompanied by Ace’s incantation and posture, it rushed toward the tentacle, cleanly slicing it off. It then smashed into the Monster’s body like a cannonball, severely injuring the creature.

Daina seized the opportunity to break free from the tentacle. She grabbed Ace’s outstretched hand and stood up.

“Run! The Monster is badly injured, but that incantation just now also drained my Mana completely.” Ace said to Daina with an anxious look.

Daina looked at Ace’s somewhat shaky steps. She stomped her foot, gave Ace a princess carry, and quickly fled the severely injured Monster, activating Thrust and Leap Spells.

Ace was bewildered. He had been acting, intending to lead Daina away from danger first.

He was planning to figure out how to destroy the Monster, but he never expected Daina to princess-carry him. His mind briefly crashed.

Daina was breathing heavily. The mixture of the girl’s natural scent and the Monster’s stench was not very pleasant.

Ace felt a little awkward. He turned his head and said to Daina, “We’ve run quite a distance. The Monster shouldn’t be following. You can put me down now.”

Daina was breathing unevenly. Hearing Ace’s soft whisper near her ear, her head felt fuzzy. She set Ace down. Her face quickly flushed from pale to red, then to a burning heat. Visible steam almost emanated from her.

“Hurry up and keep going. Don’t let the Monster catch up! We are quite miserable. Just moments ago, we were complaining about the lack of Monsters, and now we suddenly encounter one and almost lost our lives.” Ace said to alleviate the awkwardness.

“We also lost the carriage. Let’s follow this dirt road and see if we can find a village.” Daina replied in a low voice, also deliberately looking elsewhere.

The two walked quickly along the dirt road. Ace quietly activated Perception Retrieval and found that the Monster had split into dozens of hairless dogs that were running south.

“I must find a way to notify the city-state’s Inspection Squad. This large tumorous growth of hairless dogs is also very powerful, and its mind is chaotic, which likely severely weakens the effect of illusion spells.

If we encounter it again, I will try to apply Mechanized Mind first to weaken its mental power and see if I can control its mind. If that fails, I will set up fire traps and lure it to a fixed location to burn it to ashes.”

Ace thought this while continuing to perceive the surroundings.

Found it. To the northeast, about four kilometers away, there was a village. Ace instinctively grabbed Daina’s hand and headed northeast.

Daina, unexpectedly having her hand grasped by Ace, felt hot all over. She secretly glanced at Ace. Seeing that he wasn’t paying particular attention, she boldly held onto Ace’s hand.

Daina’s small heart pounded rapidly. Her face grew redder. Her mind began to race with fanciful thoughts.

Although Ace was a few years younger than her, he seemed mature and steady, and possessed brilliant wisdom. He had inherited Romon’s genes well: tall and strong, offering a great sense of security.

The two gradually approached the village.

“Ah! Ah!”

A swarm of blood crows circled above the village. Ace and Daina smelled a dense scent of blood. They released their tightly held hands and prepared for battle.

Daina quickly shaped her gauntlets with the Mana Crystal Shaping spell, then reinforced the entire gauntlet with the Mana Crystal Reinforcement spell. Her Inherent Mana was almost depleted. The two exchanged a look and cautiously backed away.

Rushing in recklessly when one is unprepared and low on Mana is the worst possible action.

The two retreated to a patch of gravel ground.

“You meditate first. I’ll keep watch,” Ace immediately instructed Daina.

Daina did not refuse. She nodded, sat down, closed her eyes, and began to meditate.

Ace saw Daina sink into meditation. He activated the Soul Spell Perception Retrieval. The surroundings turned black and white. He quickly scanned the entire village and found no living people.

All that remained were desiccated corpses. Their blood had dried and turned black, converging in the center of the village to form a strange pattern. Ace observed the pattern. It emitted an intense sense of ill omen. He then scanned the surroundings and noticed that the arrangement was very similar to the cave of the Hungry Wolf Mutual Aid Society.

The cave was an immature version, and this site was almost mature, on the verge of giving birth to something ominous.

This must be why the blood crows are circling. These Monsters instinctively crave flesh, yet their instinct also warns them of a massive fear.

If they continue to circle, they will likely become the first sacrifices.

Ace’s eyes sharpened. He quickly set up a few insulating magical arrays that would dissipate when Daina finished meditating. Then, he charged into the village.

He had to destroy the Mana nodes immediately and break this bizarre ritual. If the ritual succeeded, the resulting horror was unimaginable.

Burning Hand. A roaring orange flame quickly destroyed the nodes of the ritual. At the same time, the cowlick on Ace’s head twitched.

The Spirit of the Book’s abilities of recording, understanding, and deduction activated simultaneously. Runes flashed before Ace’s eyes, forming an extremely complex three-dimensional rune structure that directly adhered to his eyes.

His vision instantly changed. The meaning of many bizarre locations was now clear. Ace rapidly destroyed the ritual while recording the structure of the ritual. This was both a danger and an opportunity.

The complex and bizarre ritual was a rare piece of supernatural knowledge. It pointed toward an unknown presence.

As Ace destroyed it, the eerie power of the ritual slowly weakened. Ace continuously kept Perception Retrieval active, monitoring everything around him.

A ritual this complex must have been implemented by a group of people. Perhaps they were watching from somewhere.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Dikens Rona, who had been promoted to Senior Inspector for his excellent performance, was leading a large squad to investigate the recent village massacre.

On the other side of the gravel ground, about 15 or 16 kilometers away, patches of human-high wild grass began to appear. Dikens’s squad was slowly advancing.

“Order from His Excellency the Senior Inspector: All soldiers halt. Reconnaissance team, proceed with investigation.”

The orderly rushed forward, delivering the command to the entire squad.

The reconnaissance team, five soldiers per group, quickly spread out, investigating the condition of the wild grass.

A short, urgent sound of a horn rang out almost immediately.

“Enemy attack! Ambush ahead! All personnel, form ranks immediately and slowly retreat!”