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Chapter 176: Enemy from the Abyss

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

That night was no different than any other. A light breeze swept across the camp, and the smell of early autumn brought a refreshing scent. A few young magicians were standing guard. They sat around a campfire and chattered in low voices, occasionally letting out faint laughers. Under the distant light of the stars, the scene in the forest appeared rather poetic.

Everything seemed normal, except for Chipango!

Han Jin had yet to allow him to leave. Chipango knew full well he had seen too much. He really considered himself lucky to even be alive at this point, so he kept strictly to himself and quietly stuck around.

Chipango didn’t even dare to build a shed for himself – who knows if he was considered a prisoner or not? He didn’t want to attract attention, so he instead found some dried grass and branches to build himself a little nest. Truth be told, it wasn’t much better than a doghouse, but since there was a place for him to stay and meals for him to eat, he was quite satisfied.

The forest was so quiet that Chipango could hear his own rapid breathing, while his forehead, face, chest, back, and hands were all covered in cold sweat. With the occasional blow of the cold breeze, he felt chilled to the bone.

He had to thank the eyesight he had inherited from his mother for surviving for so long in such a treacherous environment. No one else in the camp had noticed anything unusual, yet he could clearly see an enormous creature silently approaching!

He knew exactly what the enormous creature was, and even knew which master it served! Two years ago, he happened to witness a conflict between a minor mercenary team and the Dragon Singer Mercenary Corps. At the time, the mercenary team had a lot of men, while Dragon Singer only had five of its members. Despite that, Dragon Singer’s captain, Draconid Knight Dwightsteel, was present, and it was reasonable to assume they had the upper hand. Dwightsteel could have easily slaughtered the other team by himself, and on top of that, he had his close friends, who had gone through hundreds of battles with him, by his side.

But to everyone’s amazement, after the mercenary team quietly released the enormous creature, Dwightsteel personally calmed his angry friend and cheerfully negotiated with the other mercenary Chipango was very much baffled. With how powerful the Dragon Singers were and how influential Draconid Knight Dwightsteel was, there was no reason for them to concede! He had happened to have a lot of time on his hands and had decided to investigate secretly. However, he had given up after only a few days, because the more information he found, the more scared he got – to the point of eventually discontinuing his investigation.

The invisible creature looked like a wyvern, but many times bigger. Chipango had checked many ancient texts because of it, and had eventually determined it was an Abyssal Ghost Snake! Abyssal Ghost Snakes were even rarer than dragons, and served as the mounts of the Abyssal Demon-God. They were born with the ability to become invisible at well, but the scariest part about these creatures was the third eye on their forehead: the Cursed Eyes of the Demon-God!

The Cursed Eyes of the Demon-God could instantly turn any living creature into a statue, which was different from the petrify effect of the Medusa Nobilities. Petrify was magic based, which meant one could dispel it, or even just wait until its effect ran out and return to normal. The Cursed Eyes of Demon-God, on the other hand, possessed an irreversible element of annihilation. Becoming a statue meant death in this case.

Maybe because they controlled an Abyssal Ghost Snake, or maybe because they wanted to showcase the origins of their leader, but the mercenary team was named Abyss! And the only reason why the Abyss Mercenary Team was so obscure was because they rarely accepted tasks, and instead spent most of their time inside the Forest of Holy Animals. They would only occasionally return to Isolated Cliff City, and would only remain for a few days to rest and replenish supplies. For a mercenary organization to gain fame, they must focus their attention on tasks. The more tasks they accepted, and the more difficult they were, the more attention they would attract. It was natural for a mercenary team who acted the way Abyss did to be unnoticed. Did they expect everyone to follow them around and see what they were up to all the time?

Chipango stopped where he was. Someone who could challenge Dwightsteel was definitely not someone he wanted to cross. If his investigation was discovered, he would meet a horrible end.

The enormous creature was less than a hundred meters away from the camp already, and Chipango’s body had started to tremble slightly. He could see two balls of red light on the Abyssal Ghost Snake’s back. One of them should be its master, the captain of the Abyss Mercenary team, a mysterious summoner. The other should be a magician, because none of the magic sentries sounded any alarms. They had all been obviously disabled by the magician! On top of that, he was a powerful magician, or at least, one who excelled in magic sentries, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to disable the sentries established by a magus.

But they moved very slowly. Clearly the magic sentries that covered the entire hill had caused some inconveniences, but they were still only inconveniences!

What now? Run? Chipango asked himself. He didn’t want to fight the few strange and scary mercenaries in the camp, but wanted to work for them even less.

Just then, Irwin, who was sitting beside the campfire, sniffed loudly. He noticed a faint, stinky smell, which according to the experience he had gained in the past while, meant a holy animal was approaching.

“Irwin, what’s wrong?” another young magician asked.

“I’ll go check over there.” Irwin pointed his finger. “Something feels odd.”

The magician shrugged. With the headmaster personally there, and the defense matrix in the camp, he felt quite safe.

“It’s your fault!” A female magician laughed. “You shouldn’t have told the story about the necromancer; that must have spooked Irwin!”

“My God... Poor Irwin.” Another magician smiled as well.

Irwin ignored the mocking laughs behind him and continued on. He had always been a serious person, and always wanted to make sure everything was proper.

Soon, he walked up next to the barricade and quietly fazed outside. Under the distant starlight, everything appeared normal, but the stench seemed to have become more obvious.

Irwin incanted a spell. A flashing ball of light shot out, and instantly illuminated the whole hill. Irwin’s spell startled his friends, who all ran to him, but aside from the swaying grass, there was nothing there.

“Irwin, what was that?” The female magician frowned.

“I... I just feel like something’s off!” Irwin scratched his head with an embarrassed expression. “Do you guys smell a stench?”

“Stench?” The female magician sniffed then stepped back, her eyes wide with anger. “You... when was the last time you took bathed?”

“I bathed yesterday!” the magician responded, though he was obviously not confident in that statement, and discretely smelled his armpits.

“Come on...” The female magician waved her hand in front of her nose. “Fine, you people can be on guard yourself!”

“Wait, don’t leave!” the other magicians shouted in unison. As the saying goes, work is easier when boys and girls are together. With a female companion, the night would have passed quickly with chatter. Now that there were only a bunch of men left, it would be much more boring.

“I don’t want to smell your stench!” The female magician rolled her eyes and walked toward her shed.

“Irwin, it’s your fault!” another magician complained helplessly.

“Sigh... Our Irwin is probably the first magician to be scared by his own stinky sweat right?” another magician giggled.

Irwin’s face turned bright red. He sniffed his cloth, and as expected, it stunk of sweat. He hadn’t taken a shower in three days.

Irwin took in a deep breath, then said with difficulty, “But... I feel like the stench came from outside.”

“Do you know what’s outside? It’s the Tarasha Forest! The Forest of Holy Animals!!” The magician clearly didn’t want to continue the debate and said with a chiding tone, “This is the smell of the forest! Irwin, this isn’t your home, so you should adapt! Do you understand?”

Irwin helplessly put his hands up in defeat. He was convinced by his friends; maybe it was just his imagination. Irwin turned, about to follow his friends back to the campfire, but suddenly something strike a chord in his brain! He had finally realized what felt so off; it was because the stench was sometimes obvious and sometimes not, like something was breathing in front of him!

Something was wrong! Irwin abruptly turned, and just as he was about to open his eyes wide to see what was wrong, his whole body froze. Even his robe and hair solidified and fell onto the ground, turning into pieces as a breeze swept by. The shine in Irwin’s eyes gradually disappeared, and his eyes and face quickly turned rough. The curse required some time, and Irwin knew what was happening to him. He used the last drop of strength left in him to open his left palm, which was the only thing he could do.

Irwin was a vigilant and intelligent lad, and had grown extremely quick. Yalina valued both he and Asa, though he lacked in luck! Dying young was nothing out of the ordinary in a chaotic continent world like this, even though it often caused great sadness.

“Irwin!” a magician yelled in an irked tone.

“Be quiet, don’t wake the masters!” another magician said.

“But look at him...” The magician suddenly stopped halfway through the sentence, because the wand dropped from Irwin’s hand and shattered like a rock onto the ground!

Unfortunately, Irwin’s last effort failed to alert his friends, because they couldn’t even see their enemy yet. A few magicians even had the courage to walk toward Irwin’s statue, but before taking even two steps, all of them were simultaneously petrified.

Chipango had been quietly observing the commotion the entire time. He suddenly thought of something, and his face instantly twisted in horror. He jumped up, and a series of sharp screams ripped across the quiet sky. “Attack!! There is an attack!!!”