The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

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Chapter 639: At This Point, It’s Just a Trip. (1)

[The crystal golem was exuding a sinister aura, but once it lost its life, that aura disappeared, returning it to a mere crystal. With that, many accessories were created, greatly aiding the finances of the Kingdom of Pani.]

[The crystal golem, being a monster deep within the Forest of Monsters, boasted a powerful defense. Even when the knights attacked with mana, it only left minor scratches. Moreover, its magic resistance was high, so we were struggling…]

Kaboom!

As Parniel swung her gigantic mace, the charging crystal golems were instantly shattered into pieces.

“Hmm, the defense isn’t that great.”

Ghislaine looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

“Don’t you think your strength is a bit too much?”

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Ghislaine also swung her sword at the approaching crystal golem.

Even the aura blade was withstanding the crystal golem. Ghislaine couldn’t cut cleanly when hitting normally.

But she gathered a bit more strength.

Kaboom!

With each swing of her sword, the crystal golem’s body began to shatter.

Parniel muttered as she watched.

“Same old, same old.”

Boom! Boom! Bam!

Yulien, Gillian, Tenant, Kaor, and the superhumans all effortlessly took down the crystal golems.

The soldiers and wizards didn’t even need to move. Their role was simply to keep watch and protect the laborers from any unexpected attacks.

There were also those fighting up front, despite not being superhumans.

“Yahhh!”

Boom!

Elena swung her gigantic hammer with all her might. The amount of mana she had was only at the knight level.

Thus, the crystal golems only swayed a little after being hit by Elena’s attacks.

“Why isn’t it breaking?!”

Elena gritted her teeth and put even more effort into it. Normally, she wouldn’t exert herself to this extent, but the opponent was too tough.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every time her terrifying strength-laden hammer hit, cracks began to form on the body of the crystal golem. She was smashing it down with sheer force, something the knights couldn’t do properly.

Elena wasn’t a superhuman, so her attacks were rough around the edges. With each blow she landed, the crystal golems exploded into fragments.

Seeing that, the soldiers unconsciously leaned back and muttered.

“Whoa…”

“Poor golem…”

“Truly the Destruction Princess…”

Boom! Boom! Bam!

Thanks to the superhumans’ efforts, hundreds of crystal golems were brutally shattered in an instant.

The lifeless crystal fragments soon radiated a brilliant blue light.

Ghislaine swirled her arms and said, “Ah, this is… so boring?”

It didn’t even scratch the surface. She hadn’t used half her strength.

No matter how dangerous the Forest of Monsters was, it was no match for those who had taken down dragons.

Ghislaine looked back at Yulien and smiled.

“How’s that? Comfortable? At this point, it’s just a trip.”

“…Hmm.”

Yulien pondered for a moment. He wasn’t sure if it was right to say this was a trip, but it wasn’t really difficult. Eventually, he nodded.

This forest evoked strange emotions in him. The aura emanating from the forest and the monsters felt strangely familiar.

“How interesting.”

Yulien thought it was due to the dragon’s aura that had seeped into him. Otherwise, the sinister aura present in the forest shouldn’t feel so familiar.

The bizarre monsters were quite an intriguing spectacle. Yulien thought of it as just a relaxing time.

Unbeknownst to him, it was the first time he felt such emotions.

In no time at all, the crystal golems were cleared away, and work resumed.

Kuh-woom! Kuh-woom! Kuh-woom!

As they felled trees and secured the area, Jerome looked ahead and said, “Hmm, the aura interfering with mana is getting stronger.”

As they approached the center, it became harder to see far. Jerome found this intriguing.

Even he, now at the 8th circle, couldn’t precisely feel the aura spreading throughout the forest.

It felt like something was there, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it.

There was no problem using magic. However, when it came to seeing far, there was an interference clouding his vision.

“Would it be different from the sky?”

Ghislaine shook her head.

“There’s no point in going up. That’s why we’re not using the hot air balloon right now.”

“Why?”

“If you go up, something will attack you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well… I tried an experiment once.”

This was something recorded from her past life, but Ghislaine just made something up.

Still, Jerome seemed eager to check for himself as he slowly lifted off.

“I’ll just take a quick look.”

“Go ahead.”

Jerome should be able to handle himself. She didn’t intend to stop him with his curiosity.

When Jerome soared high, he marveled at the scenery below.

“Wow.”

The forest truly was vast. Even in his line of sight, he couldn’t see the end of the forest.

The tightly packed giant trees didn’t reveal what was inside.

It felt like darkness was spreading out. It was indeed a region worthy of being called a Demon Realm.

Excited Jerome flew a bit further forward. He was curious about what lay at the center.

“Should I take a quick peek?”

Regardless, he would have to turn back to clear a path again. But he wanted to sneak a look at the center first.

As he moved a bit further ahead…

Bam!

A massive tree uprooted and came hurtling towards him from the center of the forest at an astonishing speed.

“Whoa!”

Jerome was startled and barely dodged it. If he had been a moment later, he would have been impaled.

“What was that?”

Bam!

Before he could collect himself, another tree flew at him. Jerome had no choice but to dive down.

“What the heck? What’s attacking us?”

“I don’t know. But it seems like there’s a fearsome creature lurking around.”

“Uh… It’s not some dragon again, right?”

The speed of the flying trees was extraordinary. Even as a superhuman, he could only narrowly avoid them.

Ghislaine chuckled and shook her head.

“Come on, it’s not a dragon. If it was, we’d already be dead.”

There was indeed something powerful out there, but not on the level of a dragon. There was no need to panic before seeing it.

Jerome breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, “Phew, I almost got taken out for trying to sneak a peek first.”

Disappointing, but there was nothing to be done. They had no choice but to advance their exploration work together.

While the laborers were working, Ghislaine called out to Lumina.

“How’s it going? We’ve come deeper in than before. Is the forest still trying to speak to you? Are you okay?”

“Yes, it keeps trying to talk to me about joining with it,” Lumina replied with a dark expression. She hadn’t held back in participating this time either.

Previously, the forest had continuously whispered ominous words to Lumina, urging her to merge with it.

Now it was understood that it was the thoughts of the Demon Lords, the call of the Demon Realm.

Ereness had warned her.

“Be careful. That is the thought of the Demon Lord spreading throughout the world. If you become colored by that thought, you will end up with the same aims as the followers of the Salvation Society.”

Unlike the priests of the Salvation Society, who were artificially created, those purely drawn by the call of the Demon Realm were Lumina.

Although the Demon Realm had been sealed, the thoughts of the Demon Lord still remained in the world. That was why the number of priests in the Salvation Society had increased and they could wield power.

Moreover, it was said that as time passed, their king would gain power to be resurrected. This meant the thoughts were growing stronger.

Ghislaine said to Lumina, “Do you want to go back? It’s okay to leave if you want.”

Lumina shook her head. She trusted the people here. She wanted to hear more of what the forest had to say.

Perhaps, it might provide a clue to unveil the secrets of the Salvation Society.

At first, Ghislaine had intended to exclude Lumina from this expedition. However, she jostled her way through to follow them, wanting to help.

To be prepared for any unexpected situation, Piote continuously blessed Lumina. Thanks to that, Lumina showed no signs of any major issues so far.

As soon as the cleaning was done, the Northern Army continued to advance.

Ka-ah-ahk!

The name Forest of Monsters was no empty title. Monsters charged at them in increasing numbers. There had been times when they had rushed in thousands at once.

However, even that number was no match for the combat-trained Northern Army. The sheer difference in numbers meant the regular monster horde could not overcome that.

This was an army that had faced the Cracked Beings numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Regardless of what monster appeared, they overwhelmed them and kept pushing forward.

In fact, the injured soldiers were so lacking in training that they were getting scolded by the commanders.

The laborers cast aside even the minor anxieties they had felt.

“Truly, the kingdom’s strongest army.”

“Not just the kingdom’s strongest, but the strongest in the continent.”

“No army can defeat the Northern Army.”

Even before this, the Northern Army had been celebrated as an undefeated army. Now, they were simply illustrating that to the people.

Ascon murmured while watching the atmosphere around him.

“This place isn’t the Forest of Monsters anymore; it’s the forest of X-bastards…”

Once more, he found himself just grumbling instead of actually fighting. He was assigned with the laborers, needing to chop trees and work alongside them.

Kuh-woom! Kuh-woom!

While chopping, Ascon muttered without pause.

“Damn, why isn’t this work ever done? When is the liberation of labor coming?”

He dreamed of a world without labor.

With thousands of people coming in at once, the densely grown trees impeded their way. They chopped relentlessly, and in no time, they created a wide open space.

Naturally, the forest was in an uproar. The monsters that had lived in their respective areas were caught off guard.

As the giant trees fell, the monsters lost their hiding spots and began rampaging, charging at the Northern Army.

Ka-ah-ahk!

Boom! Boom! Bam!

Most of it was simply the superhumans sweeping through. When they couldn’t handle the swarm of monsters charging from all sides, the wizards and soldiers took over and eradicated them.

The wizards had little else to do but support during combat.

But they were excellent workers. They proficiently assisted in logging and neatly cut the trees to load onto wagons.

Thanks to the wizards, the work was sped up, but the speed of their advancement wasn’t that fast.

“Hey, hurry up and load it!”

“Convey that we need more timber at the fortress!”

“We need to bring more wagons!”

The laborers shouted as they busily moved around.

It was no longer the silent Forest of Monsters where they couldn’t even breathe. Now, the priority was to finish the work quickly.

The tasks of organizing the felled trees and moving them to the rear, building fortifications in the newly cleared area, and securing discovered resources were all happening simultaneously.

Thus, even with overwhelming power, pushing back the monsters slowed their progress significantly.

“Whoa, what’s this!”

“I can’t believe something like this was here!”

“What on earth isn’t here? It feels like all the rare resources are here!”

Every time they secured areas with rare herbs and ores, chaos erupted among the people.

Ghislaine also had a satisfied smile. Regardless of anything else, the herbs could be sold for a high price throughout the continent right now.

The Northern Army had spent nearly two months living in the Forest of Monsters, doing both exploration and hunting.

Though their speed was slow, they were inching closer to the center without major issues.

Ghislaine examined the diary she had written based on her memories and thought.

‘We’re slowly nearing the next point.’

Before long, they arrived at an open plain with barely any trees. Given how vast the forest was, it didn’t feel out of place for a plain to appear within it.

Beyond the plain, the trees grew densely again.

As they advanced a bit further, those with sharp eyes noticed something hanging numerous things from the trees.

“What’s that?”

“Is it… a person?”

“Strange, isn’t it?”

It resembled a person wrapped in a cocoon, hanging upside down. The grotesqueness of it made the soldiers frown and adopt a combat stance.

As the army got closer, it began to twitch slightly.

Ghislaine turned around and gave the command.

“Archers, wizards. Get ready. We’ll be the first to attack.”

Immediately, the archers nocked their arrows, and the wizards summoned their magic.

Ghislaine extended her hand forward and said, “Let’s make sure to clear those things hanging there.”

Pew!

No one bore questions. With the command, arrows blackened the sky and flew. Following them, various spells were unleashed.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Kreeek!

The wriggling cocoons burst open, and something rushed out.

The expressions of those watching twisted again.

Countless giant bats, each with a human face, soared into the sky.