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Chapter 122 Corpse Tail
🕑 Added 2023-04-26 06:38:25 +0000 UTCChapter 122 Corpse Tail
"Bees!" Lhorne shouted as he shot at them with his bow. Despite their erratic movements, Lhorne's precision was astonishing as he hit the bees dead center. I depleted my mana reserves, firing homing fireballs at them while Lily expertly blocked any needles aimed at her with her buckler.
Several raptors also met their demise. Lhorne expressed concern that they were working together so effectively, but it proved futile as Lily countered their attacks with deadly precision, taking them down one by one. The raptors, realizing they couldn't break through our defense, eventually fled from the scene, similar to the water monsters we encountered earlier.
"The deeper we go, the smarter the monsters, huh?" Nora remarked.
"If we find the others, we won't need to go any deeper," Lhorne said.
I checked my status screen, noting that it had been over three days since we entered the jungle, and we still hadn't come across any of our comrades from the previous battles. Lily had gained three more levels, reaching level 32 as a warrior. I allocated my points to WIS and INT, while Lily focused on STR and DEX, as per our usual strategy.
I closed the status screen after finishing assigning the points. We meandered around the river, sometimes heading deep into the woods and then returning to the river for supplies. Thanks to Lhorne's excellent cartography skills as a forest ranger, we had mapped half of this jungle.
"Wait, look!" Lhorne interrupted, pointing towards the distance across the river. Lily and I strained our eyes but could not see anything significant except that the trees were cleared out a bit around the area where Lhorne's finger was pointing.
"What is it?" I asked.
"That looks like a campfire made by sentient beings," Lhorne replied.
"I see. No wonder we couldn't find them. They were on the other side, huh?" Nora muttered.
"How are we going to get across? I can swim, but those alligators were a nuisance, and I can't use fire magic in water," I said, considering the situation.
"Good point. Maybe we should clear out all the alligators before we swim?" Lhorne suggested. Now that we had found a clue that our friends might be on the other side of the river, we couldn't afford to not cross.
"But those alligators can dive. There's no surefire way to clear them all out," I replied, echoing Lily's thoughts. Lhorne grunted in dissatisfaction but accepted Lily's reasoning. Lily gazed at the riverbank and then left. Crossing the river was too dangerous at the moment.
"I wonder if we can find a shallower part of the river?" Nora suggested.
"Good idea!" I agreed.
So, the group started searching along the riverbank. Beasts and raptors were no problem, and soon we sensed the river getting narrower. We hastened our search and eventually found a spot where the river was only ten meters wide. Without wasting any time, we swam across, utilizing our skills and abilities.
After crossing, we arrived at the campfire Lhorne had detected earlier and decided to rest there for the night. Lily didn't light the campfire and instead asked me to use my fire magic to create a floating fire the size of a candle. We didn't need a campfire, as I could use my fire magic to provide light, and with Lily's water ring, we could create drinkable water.
"This campfire was abandoned less than a week ago. The wood has not decomposed, and it was properly extinguished by water. The wood was also chopped with axes. Perhaps this campsite was used by our dwarven friends," Lhorne said as he inspected the area.
"But why aren't there any shacks or tents?" Nora asked.
"Maybe our niece is with them? Then, in the worst-case scenario, we can still fulfill the mission. With her item box magic, we can store the ore we found earlier," Lhorne smiled.
"Let's chase them tomorrow. As always, please rest for today. I will share the night watch with Nora," Lhorne said as he prepared bedding with leaves.
"No! I didn't use many spells today. I can't be the only one slacking around forever!" Lily interrupted.
"But the military tactics said that you need to—" Lhorne started to say, only to be interrupted again.
"Teamwork is also important! This is Lord's order! I will rest when I want to, which is not now!" Lily puffed her chest. Lhorne and Nora could only sigh as they followed Lily's order. I wagged my tail in approval. It would not be suitable to spoil Lily just because she is a lord. The group then split their night watch into three.
"Lhorne, where are they?" Lily asked Lhorne, who was a forest ranger. Lhorne touched the grass and the ground here and there, trying to get a sense of their direction, and returned a somewhat ambiguous answer.
"Hm...they are either going this way or that way. But they were—"
"AAHH!!!" Nora screamed, and we all snapped our attention to her at once. However, there were no enemies. What was she yelling at?
"Nora?" Lily asked.
"There! It looks like a corpse." Nora pointed toward the river bank a little bit in the distance.
We quickly made our way to the river bank, and it was true, there was a corpse there. By the looks of it, the corpse was a dwarf. It was mangled beyond recognition, and we could only tell from the size of the armor and bits of flesh that hadn't been eaten.
"Whose corpse is this?" Nora asked.
"Hm...it was bloated by water and is missing chunks of flesh here and there. It's hard to recognize his face. I presume he was bitten and killed by an alligator." Lhorne tried to perform an autopsy on it.
"Definitely not Sig, Niece, or Helmet. Their armor has a different quality and color," Lily said.
"Yeah, either Thorek, Leghorn, or Ugrek then. The other dwarves have different colored armor as well. Only they have the same one," Lhorne nodded. If I remember correctly, dwarves have many different tribes within their kingdom, and their colored armor indicates which tribe they belong to.
"Should we bring them?" Lily asked.
"Nah, that would be too heavy. But one thing is clear now. The other group is in danger, and they have already lost a person."
We then slept through the dark jungle, ensuring there were always at least two people on guard duty. Lily was happy that they counted her too.
