Chapter 219 - Will (Thank you for your support, Stormclouds101!)

Ayla noticed that the town had some guards patrolling. Actually, there were a lot of them. The sun was going to rise soon, so the number of guards was off. Having guards patrolling was already out of the norm for the elves, given that they didn’t have visitors in their territory and crimes rarely happened.

It was only natural since to punish crimes, Elves would have to apply longer sentences or harsher ones, otherwise, the criminals wouldn’t take those punishments seriously.

Putting that aside, Ayla avoided the guards with ease by jumping to the top of a close building and then jumping to the next one. She didn’t make any noise when he leaped or when she landed. It felt like she was truly weightless.

Ayla moved around from roof to roof in order to check all the places, but without getting inside, she couldn’t tell much. She had the skills to invade them, but she couldn’t check all of them.

‘Was that just my imagination?’

Ayla still felt like something was off, but she couldn’t say what it was… it has been three days since she had slept, so she couldn’t help but think that she was tired and that was slowing down her judgment.

After closing her eyes and then thinking for a short while as she rested her mind and body a bit, Ayla soon realized that something was missing in the town… considering how much poison it could be obtained in the closest labyrinth, the smell of it was weak in the town.

‘We should have kept tabs on this place for a while…’

Poison or potion making wasn’t the main form of business in the area, from what Ayla had heard, magic trees appear here quite often and when those trees eventually lose a branch or two, the craftsmen in the area would use them to Fletch the Elven arrows. It was a rather unstable source of income, but since few people could make it and the arrows were pretty valuable, it was enough for the people in the area.

The materials of the labyrinth were a bit less valuable, since elves didn’t value poison when it comes to fighting. Even if they were focused on using bows as their main weapon, poison was considerably too cowardly. The creatures in their labyrinth were also rather creepy looking, so until recently, they only kept tabs on things to a certain extent.

‘This information is outdated… the elder changed five years ago, afterwards. I need to find a place where they might store the poison for at least a day and then check what they are doing with it.’

This was going to be hard given that the sun was rising… heading to the house of the elder seemed like the best option, but it would be hard to not be noticed, she had a feeling that the guard in that place wouldn’t be only made of some elves.

It was hard to track the smell of poison, since all things were stored in magic bags. The best option would be to wait for the next group to come and then return from the labyrinth, following the guards would be a good idea too, but soon things will get out of hand once they realize that someone attacked the guards there and the other group of elves that had come with Rowan.

For Ayla and the other dark elves, capturing people and forcing them to give them information wasn’t possible… for one, they didn’t want to kill their fellow elves, even if they were seen as lesser beings by them. For another, they had to keep their existence hidden, unless they wanted hundreds of elves marching to their labyrinth. Their benefactor, Nylian, was no longer around to cover for them… and his grandson didn’t seem like he would walk in his footsteps.

In the end, the only thing Ayla could do was to wait and observe. They no longer had the advantage of their total sneakiness. The elves in the area didn’t know that the dark elves were involved, so they wouldn’t act against them immediately. They would play it safe and make sure that whatever they were doing, it would remain hidden.

In the end, Ayla’s plan worked… soon the news about the unconscious guards and the new group of elves being found spread around and everyone began to move. Some, not as willingly as the others, but the whole town began to move. Among all that, Ayla caught the glimpse of a certain elf leaving the residence of the elder and then heading west of the town by himself… it was an elf that Regulus had seen before and even from Ayla’s perspective, looked very suspicious. She decided to tail him.

… … 

‘She is taking her time… I guess she took my words to heart.’

It has been two days since Ayla left… I had planned to clean this labyrinth in a day, but this was the third since I started exploring it, since everyone gets their kicks by getting in my way. These people need to get some hobbies.

At first, I thought that the lesser chimeras were multiplying by themselves, but soon I realized that it was impossible… they were part of the labyrinth and spawned by it as well, but they were essentially monsters with different body parts of other monsters. It was impossible for them to reproduce and even if they could, their offspring wouldn’t be something like them.

“I need a hobby too, since this thought keeps bothering me.”

“Awoo, awoo!”

“Who are you to say anything? You chase your own tail.”

“Squeak! Squeak!”

It looked like Glacien didn’t like my words. Regardless, two days without being bothered again left me a bit on edge… it made me feel like once I leave the labyrinth, the largest elf army known in the world would be waiting for me outside.

I was approaching the final parts of the labyrinth, the air growing heavier with every step. The once-overwhelming presence of the countless lesser chimeras that had swarmed us was now reduced to silence. We had fought through them all, and yet, despite all we had overcome and the strength we had gained along the way, an uneasy knot of doubt sat in my chest.

The source of my worry was clear. My arm was still a glaring weakness. it was far from healed, barely even halfway through its recovery. Every movement reminded me of its frailty, and the searing ache made it impossible to wield my bow with the ease I relied on. My bow, which had always been my weapon of choice, felt more like dead weight now, a painful reminder of how much I’d lost in flexibility and range.

On the other hand, I had to rely a lot on Glacien and she also had gotten quite stronger… At some point, she began to devour my reserves of meat since she began to grow again insanely fast. She was also glaring at the bodies of the chimeras, but she always calmed down when she saw me looking at her suspiciously… eating that was simply no good, no matter what.

“This doesn’t make any sense… you can’t just grow fifty centimeters in two days.”

“Awooo! Awooo!”

Glacien probably could be used as a mount now, or even pulling a small vehicle. Since I was going to work on making potions from now on, I would need that much assistance to move as well. Glacien had too much energy, so I was sure that she wouldn’t mind, as long as she had a few kilograms of meat to eat every day… Was that actually a good trade? It should be as long as it makes me gain time.

While I was thinking about that, Glacien managed to defeat some more chimeras by herself and then the entrance of the final boss chamber in this labyrinth finally appeared before us. The final boss should be a Minotaur… quite the odd creature given that we faced chimeras until now in this section, but I had a theory as to why it was the case.

“Let’s take a break before challenging the final guardian.”

“Awooo! Awooo!”

I wanted to be done with this place once the boss was defeated, so I began to work on taking the poison of the tails of the final chimeras we defeated. While I could use both hands for doing simple and not strenuous work, I used my head instead to help with that. By tying the tails with a single rope and tightening their base and putting them upside down, I could make the poison fall by itself. It was a bit of a slow process, but it worked when it was done with dozens of them at a time. It also gave me room to take a breath.

Given how strong Glacien had become, a simple strategy would work here. Perhaps I could also fight the Minotaur with a single arm and sword, I should have gotten stronger enough to do that. My sword skills needed some polishing as well… Instead of just using them to surprise enemies or use them when I am bored, I should at least be skilled enough to defeat tougher opponents with them.

It was an odd time to think of doing that… I checked my left arm by closing my left hand a few times. I didn’t feel any pain, but it felt sluggish… I wanted to sigh, but this much recovery on such a short notice was already impressive enough. I could no longer see the stitches of mana in my arm, but the scar was still pretty fresh… it was pretty similar to what the chimeras had…

‘Why would a labyrinth spawn these kinds of creatures? The ice phoenix said something about this, but…’

The words of the ice phoenix were: Labyrinths and dungeons are similar to living beings. While they don’t have proper bodies and a single consciousness, they emerge when the spiritual energy of many beings gather in a single spot… was that the will of those spirits that decided to spawn the chimeras? If yes, why? I think that the answer would be pretty worrisome, so perhaps I shouldn’t think too much about it.

‘I wonder if the rifts are like the dungeons and labyrinths as well… in that case, would that be the will of the dead to make other beings come to this world?’

There were a lot of types of monsters that one could find in those places, but not outside… It made me question the will of the dead. It wouldn’t be funny if their only goal was to keep increasing their will or something.