VOLUME 15: CHAPTER 20

VOLUME 15: CHAPTER 20

Towering ninety meters in length, two primordial, wyrm-like beasts had made the foot of a small mountain their nest.

Innumerable monster bones were scattered about the lair, creating a dreadful scenery that warned others not to enter the territory.

Although the beasts lacked wings, their four limbs were unusually muscular and massive, which would probably provide more than enough mobility. Their scales were obsidian-black, dull and coarse like cooled magma, yet looked so dense and impervious that even mana-infused blades would probably struggle to scratch them.

A ridge of jagged spines ran from their massive skulls down their backs to the end of their tails. Six uneven horns, even darker than their scales, jutted out of their heads.

“They are…”

The Beast King had described these creatures’ appearance to him before.

Without a doubt, those dragon-like creatures were Black Salamanders, one of the apex predators of the Wasteland.

But… how?

The Black Salamander should be dead.

It was a well-known fact that the Beast King had slain one before and even brought its body all the way to the United Grakas Alliance as a trophy.

Lark didn’t expect to encounter one here, one day of flight away from the Iron Mountains.

The Beast King said that the one he’d hunted before was around twenty meters in size. But these two were easily four times that.

Even the Ancient Fire Dragons or the Scylla would look small when placed next to those beasts.

Seeing the numerous bones in the lair, it was apparent that these two Black Salamanders had made this place their hunting ground, killing all of the monster groups nearby.

The two Black Salamanders were so domineering that they’d completely disrupted the ecosystem of this place when they moved.

The monsters that had been crossing over the Iron Mountains before must have been fleeing from them.

As for the reason why these Black Salamanders made their nest in this place, there was currently no way of knowing.

“I see. Was it their child?”

Judging by size alone, the Black Salamander the Beast King had killed several years ago must have been the child of these two.

Or maybe it was mutated and didn’t manage to grow into adulthood? Lark wasn’t sure.

One thing was certain though.

These two should be far stronger and more dangerous than the one the Beast King had hunted.

“Even the Wasteland monsters are avoiding this place.”

The Black Salamanders must have established the pecking order in this region long ago.

Although Lark had seen several monster groups as he flew toward this place, he hadn’t seen a single monster ever since he’d entered the beasts’ territory.

Hovering in the sky, Lark stared for a long time at the two massive beasts openly slumbering in their lair.

Should he kill them?

Without these two wreaking havoc in this part of the Wasteland, fewer monsters would attempt to escape toward the Iron Mountains, greatly reducing the number of monster attacks on the United Grakas Alliance.

“No. Nothing’s certain yet.”

In the end, Lark decided against it.

He felt that outright slaughtering the two Black Salamanders would be a bad move without first confirming if his assumptions were correct.

Moreover, as a general rule, apex creatures like them were usually intelligent enough to be communicated with.

Even if they couldn’t understand human speech, it should be possible to relay his intentions if they were willing to listen.

These two hadn’t attacked the beastmen directly. The hordes of monsters invading the United Grakas Alliance were merely the consequence of these two hunting for prey near their lair every now and then.

Even though they were beasts, it didn’t mean that Lark should mindlessly kill them.

“Let’s try to talk to them first.”

Lark activated the Sword of Morpheus, willing it to completely cover his entire body. With the massive glaive in his right hand and four adamantite cubes floating behind him, he flew closer to the Black Salamanders below.

The Black Salamanders, who’d been sleeping until now, awoke. They slowly opened their eyes, then lifted their heads as Lark approached them from the sky.

The creatures not only looked tough. It was apparent they were also sensitive to mana.

“The two of you,” said Lark as he fearlessly hovered right in front of them. “Can you understand me? Let’s talk. Peacefully.”

In case the two massive beasts could understand human speech, Lark purposely emphasized each word he spoke.

He sincerely hoped he could resolve this matter peacefully, without bloodshed.

The Black Salamanders, seemingly confused as to how Lark had managed to come this close to their lair without immediately alerting them, looked at him warily.

“I’m glad you didn’t attack me right away,” said Lark. “Do you understand me? If you can, I want to discuss some things with you two.”

Several seconds passed.

Lark thought things were going well, but in the end, to his dismay, the Black Salamanders started showing signs of attacking.

Their wariness quickly turned into anger.

The two Black Salamanders roared, and one of them lunged at Lark at a speed comparable to a messenger horse at full gallop.

Instead of dodging, Lark remained floating in place and blocked the attack with his modified left arm.

A loud thud was heard as the beast’s mouth collided with Lark’s left hand.

Lark grinned in satisfaction.

“It’s starting to feel like the old days.”

Blocking that attack had reminded him of the old days when he was still Evander Alaester.

During his peak, Evander’s body had long surpassed the limits of mortals, and he could even withstand the breath attacks of several dragons at once.

Using his modified left arm to block the attack, Lark felt nostalgic about that time.

Seeing their attack blocked, the other Black Salamander also lunged at Lark. Lark kicked the first Black Salamander, sending its head upward. Using his now free modified arm, he punched the second Black Salamander, twisting its head and long neck leftward.

Lark used this split-second opportunity to pour mana into the magic formation engraved on the adamantite bone of his left arm.

Due to the size of his targets, Lark poured more mana into the spell than usual. Moreover, he cast not just one but five of them at once.

Grand Scale Magic: Domain of the Earth and the Forest.

It was the same spell he’d used against Alecto and the mages of Wizzert Tower.

Immediately, heavy pressure descended on the battlefield.

The two Black Salamanders hissed as they felt their weight increase severalfold.

The ground below them cracked, and the innumerable bones scattered about their lair turned to dust from the pressure.

Although Lark felt a significant portion of his mana drained from overloading five Grand Scale spells with mana at once, seeing the results, he was more than satisfied.

The two adult Black Salamanders, considered one of the apex predators of the Wasteland, could hardly move their bodies.

The two serpentine eyes that had looked at Lark haughtily before had become meek and fearful.

“Did I overdo it? Maybe three instead of five would have been enough to suppress them.”

The Grand Scale Magic he’d used was really effective when dealing with a small number of opponents, after all.

The downside before was the small radius of the spell. Although it was powerful, Lark couldn’t effectively use it in battle since the opponents could easily dodge it.

But after engraving the runes and formations into his modified left arm, Lark could now cast such a powerful spell in just a second. All he needed to do was pour enough mana into the formation and activate it.

For a moment, Lark wondered if he should have toned down the spell. If he’d been more prudent, maybe he would have conserved more mana in this battle.

In the end, he stopped thinking about unnecessary things.

What mattered most right now was that he’d managed to suppress these two massive beasts without sustaining a single injury.

He’d consumed quite a lot of mana, that’s true, but the results were more than worth it.

“I’ll give the two of you one last chance,” said Lark. “I don’t like unnecessary slaughter, and it’s not like you’ve directly attacked the Alliance. If you can understand me, move your lair elsewhere.”

Lark didn’t care about the hierarchical battles of the Wasteland.

He didn’t care whether or not these Black Salamanders were suppressing or slaughtering the other monsters.

But if their actions were causing countless deaths in the United Grakas Alliance, he would step in.

“I will remove the gravity spell,” said Lark. “I’ll take your actions after the spells are gone as your answer.”

Lark observed the two Black Salamanders for some time. Although it seemed like they didn’t understand him, he kept his promise and removed the Grand Scale spells preventing the two from moving.

The tremendous pressure enveloping the lair vanished. The two Black Salamanders hissed in confusion and slowly slithered backward in panic.

“Go. Leave this place,” said Lark. “Make a lair somewhere else.”

One of the Black Salamanders seemed to have understood Lark’s intentions. It continued slithering backward even more. The other Black Salamander, on the other hand, continued glaring at Lark with its fierce eyes.

Suppressing its fear, the Black Salamander glaring at Lark roared. Over a hundred small pores started opening from the gaps in its scales. From the pores, black smoke oozed out, enveloping the Black Salamander’s entire body.

The fearful Black Salamander hissed at its partner. It seemed to be telling it to stop and run away from here, but the other Black Salamander didn’t listen.

After its entire body had been enveloped by the black smoke, the Black Salamander shot toward Lark at a speed incomparable to before.

This time, Lark didn’t block the attack and evaded by flying several hundred meters backward.

His decision to evade was correct.

Lark realized that the smoke shrouding that Black Salamander wasn’t ordinary. Everything it touched decayed. Even the already barren ground it struck had turned even more lifeless.

The Black Salamander roared once again. This time, its roar was accompanied by a paralyzing shockwave that spread several kilometers wide.

An attack that would be the bane of any army trying to subjugate the beast.

Unfortunately for the Black Salamander, Lark was currently wearing the Sword of Morpheus as armor, and he wasn’t affected by its paralyzing effect even for a bit.

The Black Salamander lunged at Lark several times, using its tail to follow up its attacks every now and then.

Despite its size, the beast was incredibly fast. At its peak speed, it even looked like a blur to Lark.

“Ah, my bag.”

To Lark’s horror, one of the Black Salamander’s attacks had scratched the bag floating near him. Although only the smoke enveloping its body had reached the bag, it was enough to corrode the black ogre hide.

Like ears of wheat being devoured by a locust swarm, the bag made of black ogre hide ‘melted’ away, including the rations inside it. Even the vial containing the elixir wasn’t spared.

“Damn it.”

Lark remembered the Beast King’s proud expression as he handed this bag to him before.

The Beast King was confident that the bag wouldn’t break easily. And he also told Lark to use everything inside, including the legendary elixir, unsparingly.

Lark wondered what the Beast King would feel once he learned that everything had been destroyed in battle.

Lark glared at the Black Salamander. Even after destroying his bag, the beast incessantly continued its attacks.

It was really insistent on ending Lark’s life right now.

“That’s enough,” growled Lark.

He wasn’t really pissed at the fact that the Black Salamander had been trying to kill him. That much, he could understand.

What angered him the most was the fact that he’d lost the items entrusted to him by the Beast King.

“I’ve already given you a chance.”

Lark instantly cast the same Grand Scale gravity spell again, stacking it three times this time.

Maybe because the Black Salamander was in its berserk state, but it still managed to move somewhat.

Seeing this, Lark spammed the spell one more time.

After receiving four stacks of the Grand Scale gravity spell, the Black Salamander finally stopped its attacks. It could hardly move, its entire body pinned to the ground by the heavy pressure.

Due to overloading each spell, including the previous ones, with more mana than required to ensure it was effective against a target of this size, the amount of mana Lark had used in this battle was already comparable to a pinnacle-grade spell.

Lark had already splurged too much mana trying to see if it was worth sparing these two beasts from the Wasteland.

Lark infused mana into the glaive in his hand, sharpening its blade severalfold. Without hesitation, he swung it toward the Black Salamander’s neck with his full force.

“It’s tough.”

Surprisingly, despite infusing mana into the maginus, Lark failed to sever the Black Salamander’s head.

He’d managed to create a small cut on its scale, but that was all.

Shrieeeek!

The Black Salamander, feeling its impending death, shrieked in defiance. It squirmed its body, blocked the pores where the black smoke was coming out, and closed all of the gaps in its scales by tightening its muscles.

The Black Salamander started shooting out the spikes on the back of its body toward Lark, but he easily dodged them by flying left and right.

“Again.”

Although the scales of the Black Salamander were incredibly tough, Lark didn’t lose heart and decided to continuously hack away at its neck with the maginus.

If one attack wasn’t enough, then he would do it a dozen, even a hundred times.

It didn’t matter how tough this creature was.

The Black Salamander was currently nothing but an immobilized, oversized target, after all.

Lark swung his glaive again and again, striking the same place every time. By his eighth strike, he finally pierced flesh. And by his eleventh, Lark finally managed to sever the beast’s head.

Red blood spouted out of the headless neck like a fountain. The Black Salamander’s body fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Lark turned to the direction of the remaining Black Salamander.

“It’s gone?”

But to his surprise, the other Black Salamander was no longer at the lair. It had run away the moment it saw its partner suppressed by Lark’s gravity spell.

Despite its intelligent appearance, the beast didn’t have any sense of loyalty to its kind.

Well, Lark didn’t care about that.

“This is for the best.”

The remaining Black Salamander would probably run far away and create a new lair somewhere.

With this, the Wasteland monsters would no longer be displaced and cross over the Iron Mountains.

Occasional monsters would still probably be able to reach Talverton Stronghold, but their numbers would be significantly fewer than before.

Lark approached the dead Black Salamander. He knocked on its black scales.

“The beastmen should have some use for this.”

Even after death, the scales of the Black Salamander remained tough.

It should be more than suitable as material for shields or armor, since it was capable of enduring several attacks from the mana-infused maginus.

It would be a waste to just leave the corpse here.

“I’ll take this back to Talverton.”

Using gravity magic, Lark lifted the entire corpse up. He flew up, taking it with him.

Upon reaching the Iron Mountains, he spread some of the Black Salamander’s blood on the ground, in case it would be effective as a deterrent against other monsters.

If they were lucky, maybe the blood would dissuade the Wasteland monsters from approaching this place for the next couple of years.

They wouldn’t dare enter the territory of an apex predator, after all.

***

[Talverton Stronghold]

The Beast King was helping out with the repairs of the fortress when he suddenly received a report.

“Lark is back? Are you sure?”

It felt too soon.

It had only been several days since he’d left for the Wasteland.

“Yes, Your Majesty! And…”

“And what?”

“H-He… the human king. He’s brought a massive monster corpse with him!”

The Beast King noticed that the messenger’s shoulders were quivering, as though he were remembering something horrifying.

“Corpse?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I… don’t know how to describe it. It’s better if you see it for yourself.”

“Alright. Lead the way.”

Following the messenger, the Beast King arrived at the second stone tower of Talverton Stronghold.

Hundreds of beastmen had already gathered there, crowding around something black and massive.

Even from afar, the Beast King could feel the sinister aura from the monster corpse.

“Isn’t it that monster?”

“I-I think so?”

“B-But why is it so big? I’ve seen the corpse of the one hunted by His Majesty before, and it’s way smaller than this.”

Numerous murmurs from the beastmen warriors were heard. Tension and disbelief filled the air.

“Move. Make way,” said the Beast King.

The crowd parted the moment the Beast King arrived, revealing the colossal corpse lying on the ground. Lark stood next to the corpse and leisurely waved his hand at the White Lion.

“You’re here,” said Lark.

The Beast King froze upon seeing the corpse.

“…Black Salamander.”

The Beast King unconsciously swallowed. Just like the other warriors, he wondered why this one was a lot bigger than the one he’d hunted before.

It was at least three—no, four—times the size of the one he’d killed.

Even the scales covering its body seemed thicker and sturdier.

For a moment, the Beast King wondered if it was even possible to hunt such a monster.

“L-Lark, why… why is there a corpse of a Black Salamander here?”

“So, my guess was right. They’re really Black Salamanders, huh?”

“They? There is more than one?”

Lark nodded. “There are two, to be exact. The other one fled, so I spared its life.”

Judging by the way Lark phrased his words, it sounded as though he could have also killed the other Black Salamander if he wanted to.

Instinctively, the Beast King felt that Lark was speaking the truth. If it was this human, he would really be able to do it.

“The two Black Salamanders are the cause of the recent monster attacks on the United Grakas Alliance. The two made a lair nearby, and the monsters fleeing from them started crossing over the Iron Mountains.”

It felt so surreal that some beastmen started questioning what they were seeing.

Although the monster before them was already a corpse, they could feel tremendous pressure emanating from it.

The beastmen were certain that if it were alive, they would probably need to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives to slay it.

It was preposterous that a single human had killed this beast on his own. And he even said that there was not one, but two of them.

“I also saw the crevices on the Iron Mountains where the monsters are passing through, and I’ve repaired them,” said Lark. “The number of monster attacks should decrease significantly. Hopefully.”

Unable to find the proper words to reply, the Beast King decided to utter words of gratitude to Lark instead. “T-Thank you.”

Lark awkwardly scratched his head. “Gaorux.”

“Yes?”

“About the bag you gave me before…”

“What about it?”

“…Haha. It got… destroyed during the battle.”

Lark seemed more concerned about the bag rather than slaying the monster. Everyone, including the hundreds of beastmen warriors nearby, found it ridiculous.

The Beast King smiled wryly.

Maybe this was the difference between them and the truly powerful.

“Forget it,” smiled the Beast King. “That bag is yours anyway. Lost or destroyed, it doesn’t matter.”

Lark sighed in relief. He touched the scales of the Black Salamander.

“I’ve brought the corpse here since the scales seem usable. You can have it, Gaorux.”

“You’re giving it to us?”

The eyes of the Beast King widened.

As someone who’d fought a Black Salamander before, he knew firsthand how tough its scales were. If a young Black Salamander’s scales were already that tough, he could only imagine how durable an adult’s scales were.

“I don’t really need it,” said Lark.

“Still…”

Lark smiled. “Just accept it. Giving gifts is normal between friends.”

Hearing the friend card again, the Beast King couldn’t help but grin.

This human was really something.

Once again, the White Lion regretted not having a daughter. It would be a dream come true if his daughter married King Lark. Even just as a concubine would do.

“Are you going straight to the Dukedom of Mauko?” said the Beast King.

“I’m planning to rest for a day or two,” said Lark. “I’ve used quite a bit of mana fighting the Black Salamanders.”

The Beast King’s eyes lit up upon hearing this.

He roared, “You heard that, men? Lark will be staying here for two days! To celebrate the death of the adult Black Salamander, I, the Beast King, declare that today until tomorrow shall be a festival!”

“Woooaah!”

“A festival!”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been to one!”

The Beast King laughed, “Drink! Eat! Today until tomorrow, let’s get drunk until we vomit and pass out!”

That day, the entire Talverton Stronghold celebrated the return of Lark and the death of the adult Black Salamander.

And,

On that same day, the news of the human king killing an adult Black Salamander also started slowly spreading through the entire United Grakas Alliance.