The Man Picked up by the Gods Volume 3 Chapter 39

TL Note: This'll be the only chapter for this week. I have two papers that I need to pass by the end of February, and I'm not done with them yet, so the next chapter will be on Saturday. 

Volume 3 Chapter 39

Fifth Day

A night passed after getting rid of the horde of undeads. And when morning came, I once again made way for Cormi Village, battling the undead as I went along. As I got closer to the village, the atmosphere became gloomy like that in the previous labyrinth. It doesn’t have the same feeling of magic power being gathered, but it felt peculiarly stagnated.

After walking for a bit more, the walls of Cormi Village finally entered my sight. But instead of entering right away, I used the dark magic, Hide, and hid my presence. Then I climbed up a nearby large tree, and took a peek at the other side of the wall.

“Didn’t know Cormi Village would be so big. From what I can see, it’s square shaped, and each side is about 400 meters long. There are plenty of villages bigger than this outside the Great Forest of Shurus, but it’s still massive compared to the camps.”

This village should’ve been built sturdily, but after becoming an abandoned village, even its sturdily built gate has fallen. And although it should’ve only had one entrance, because the walls have also crumbled in some areas, anyone can now freely enter the village.

Weeds could be seen growing uninhibited past the village walls where undead jostled about freely. While above them, in the sky, were fraids of wraiths floating about as they pleased.

“…Horrible… To think it was actually because of the village that there were so many undead in the area.” [Ryouma]

After observing for a bit, I came to understand that the skeletons, the zombies, and other human-shaped undead would create traps, and then hunt preys which they would then bring to their village. It’s still morning, so they’re only hunting from time to time, but once night hits, they’ll probably start hunting vigorously.

The hunted preys are gathered in the centermost plaza-like area where it is then distributed, and then eaten. It wouldn’t have been strange for the undead to just eat as they caught, but for whatever reason, they’re gathering their food in one place first before eating.

And because they’re gathering their preys and leaving it in the village, undead would sometimes be born out of the pile of corpses. It’s not really all that strange for the corpses to turn undead though, considering the state of all those corpses.

“And because of that the numbers ended up that many; what a pain…” [Ryouma]

No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of undead. There’s about 700 of them, and that’s only from what I can see right now. There should still be zombiefied small beasts that are hiding in the weeds, or in the fallen walls or in the shadows of other undead. And on top of their numbers, the undead that go out to hunt are also stronger than the ghouls as they are wearing armors and swords.

But if I were to honestly say it, I think it’s a doable fight. Only, their numbers are too great, so I’m worried I might run out of magic power and stamina in the heat of battle. Should I just whittle them down then? Or should I after all try to kill them all in one gulp?

After some time of strategizing, I finally decided to fight the undead during the afternoon when they won’t be able to show their full abilities. And in the case where I am unable to defeat them in one day, I will retreat, and hide within my Dimension Home until the night passes. Upon which, I will then resume my attack.

Aside from the fact that I have something to do in the village, it also doesn’t seem like it’ll be possible for me to avoid fighting the undead. So in that case, I might as well reduce their numbers here, and ensure a smooth retrieval of my inheritance.

And besides… no one in this world wishes for someone to turn undead after passing away. There are also people who considers turning undead after death to be a humiliation, so defeating the undead here can be thought of as a form of memorial service. And considering how it’s highly probable that the human-type undead here are the former residents of this village, it’s all the more reason that I can’t just leave them here like this.

Fortunately, I have the slimes to rely on, and I also have Remiri-san’s light magic to aid me. On top of that, I’ve also prepared a number of unique and improved anti-undead magic. And although I’d normally be anxious of running out of magic power because of the power and scope of my magic, I don’t have to defeat all of the undead in one day this time, so that’s not an issue either.

There are no humans who live in this sort of environment either, so…

“I guess I’ll throw ‘em a barrage of magic the whole day then.” [Ryouma]

As I muttered that to myself, I began the operation.

First, I jumped down the tree, then I closed in to the gate in one breath. There, I fired off two shots of Light Shot at the five undead that were keeping watch at the village gate. The undead keeping watch were all human-type, so they all vanished upon contact with Light Shot.

“’Holy Space’ ‘Light Shot’” [Ryouma]

I casted Holy Space by the gate, and then fired off a shot of Light Shot to restrain the undead that noticed me.

Being surrounded would be problematic, so to avoid that I casted that Holy Space to block the gate. Of course, I could still be surrounded if the undead exited the village from somewhere else, but I’ll just think about that when the time comes. For now, it’s enough that I’ve made it harder for them to surround me.

“Then once the undead have clumped up nicely… ‘Holy Flame Carpet’ !!” [Ryouma]

As I chanted that, a great, bright flame appeared from my hands. It turned into a ball of flame, and it shot toward the undead before me. The raptors that were above the ball of flame’s course, lost their lower bodies. And when the ball of flame hit the ground, the flames spread, and a great number of undead were burnt away. But the flames did not cease there as it caught onto the weeds, spreading the flame, and burning even more undead.

This magic is something I came up with after combining the intermediate flame magic I learned from Rheinbach-sama, ‘Flame Carpet’, and the spell, ‘Exorcism’ that was directly transmitted to me by Remiri-sama, on the way back home from the Town of Departed Spirits.

Flame Carpet is a kind of magic that spreads a thin layer of flame-attribute magic power to attack one’s foe. The flame birthed is a result of magic power, so it can be used even in rocky places with no flammable objects. But in a place like this one where flammable objects like weeds are growing abound, the effect is intensified.

I can easily visualize this spell by imagining the picture of spilled alcohol being lit up. Then on top of that image, I would imagine the light from the flames to have the effect of Exorcism, making this spell the first of my anti-undead area magic attacks. The downside to this spell is that it’s difficult to control, so one cast will consume up to 40,000 magic power, but its strength is unquestionable. And right now, that effect can be seen as all the undead within an area of 60m from the gate has been annihilated. Even the wraiths floating in the sky have been reduced to some extent.

It was already hard to combine two spells with differing attributes into one, but combining light magic with another attribute was especially difficult. I think I’ll investigate why after this. Oh, incidentally, I used the food of the grave slimes and the undead that they have stored in them as test subjects when I was making this spell.

“’Dimension Home’” [Ryouma]

I brought out some light slimes and grave slimes from the Dimension Home. Then as the grave slimes gathered the undead, I took a look at the situation.

I was anxious about the fire spreading due to the sparks, but it seems there weren’t any problems. That’s probably because the humidity here in the Great Forest of Shurus is high. As for the fire spreading inside the village… I don’t really mind. That aside, the fire catching onto the weeds here and burning it was a huge boon. Because now I can see the small undead easily.

When I saw undead coming again, I fired off my magic.

“’Flash Grenade’” [Ryouma]

As I chanted that, I fired off a ball of light toward the sky. Then I closed my eyes and covered them with one of my hands. In the next instant, the ball of light exploded, releasing magic power and light. The momentary light shot off by that ball dyed my closed sight in red.

The magic I had used just now might look no different from a normal Light Ball, but it’s actually a successfully improved version of the Light Shot. If I were to put it in simple words, it’s a bomb of light.

It explodes with light-attribute magic power, so it’s potent against undead. It may have a wide area of effect, but it’s magic power consumption is only half that of the Holy Flame Carpet, putting it at a consumption of 20,000 magic power points. Its downsides are that its effect can be weakened by hiding beneath the shade of a shelter and that the light emitted is too strong, so if you look straight into it, you’ll be blinded temporarily. One day, I plan to combine this spell with the wind magic, ‘Sound Boom’, to create the magic, Stun Grenade, but I’ll put that off for later.

Going back to the topic…

I had my slimes encircle me as we passed by a path overgrown with grass. We also passed over some bent spiked-fences. The fences were stretched around inside the village, so they must have been put up to stop magical beasts that have already invaded the village.

But in one side of the fences was a large building with traces of divisions and, although already mostly ruined, was a small house with many divisions. The spiked-fences were also there in the divisions of the small house, so I guess they weren’t put up just to stop invading magical beasts.

After a bit more of walking, I finally arrived to the western edge of the village. My grandparent’s house was situated somewhat separate from the other houses.

“So this is the house of the Sage and the Martial God… Although it’s not all bad, it doesn’t look like the house two amazing people would live in.” [Ryouma]

It might look somewhat big from the outside, but in the end, it’s a plain, square-shaped house with five chimneys.

Its walls are made out of rock, while its roof and windows are made out of wood. Overall, it looks like a house that was carved out of a rock. Chances are my grandparents used earth magic to create this house. Similar to the other areas of the village, this house has also been overgrown with weed. There are even vines twined around its walls.

The house looked worn-out, but when I touched it, its walls were surprisingly rigid, not moving one bit. It’s been left all alone for so long, yet it still feels safe.

I entered the building while keeping wary of the undead.

When I entered, the floors creaked. The floors were also made out of wood, so its deterioration wasn’t something unexpected.

“It’s probably a good idea not to be too rough here considering the state of the flooring…” [Ryouma]

As I muttered that to myself, I searched the house. For the meantime, it looks like there’re no undead here.

There was nothing at all in the building. Places that would normally be expected to have something were completely empty. It was as if a robber had gone in and ransacked the whole place. At most, the only things that I could find were broken objects.

“The closet should at least have clothes, so I guess the people here took it away after my grandparents died. Did they take even the beds too? They thoroughly emptied the place, didn’t they?” [Ryouma]

I muttered that to myself, reporting the situation out loud, as I walked through the house until I finally reached my goal.

“It’s here.” [Ryouma]

It was one of the rooms of the building. Inside, broken medicine cabinets and desks could be seen, along with three hearths with differing sizes lined up. It was my grandparent’s laboratory. This is the room where my grandmother, the sage, concocts medicine. Out of the five chimneys that could be seen from outside, three of them are connected to the hearths here. The remaining two are connected to the kitchen and the smithy that my grandfather uses.

I walked toward the middle hearth, the biggest of the group, and I took down the cauldron that was big enough for a plump man to fit into easily. I then scraped out the ashes and cinders that have piled up to reveal the bottom of the hearth.

When I did so, a circular outline with two ditches over its flat surface entered my sight. This is the entrance to the hidden area where my inheritance is.

As I inched into the hearth, I stuck out my hands into the two ditches, curving my fingers inside. Then reinforcing my body with qi gong, I pulled it up open.

The interior of the hearth’s bottommost area made a scraping sound as I pulled that circular outline up. And after I had brought it up all the way up my thighs, I was finally able to completely pull out that cylindrical stone flooring. When I left that outside the hearth, and took a look down the now open floor, what I saw was a wide passage underground.

It was dark, so I shot a Light Ball down.

“About 3 meters until the bottom, huh? The surrounding area down there seems to be completely made out of stone with dents here and there, so… there should be more than enough space for my hands and feet for me to climb down.” [Ryouma]

I threw a burning cloth down the passage, and I watched it burn until it completely burned up. After confirming that there’s air down the hole, I used wind magic to provide ventilation for myself, and then I climbed down it.

Gayn only gave me information up to this passage here, so I don’t know what to expect once I get down. He did however mention there being no traps, but…. just in case, I better proceed with caution.

Chapter end