章 97: Chapter 52.1: Hallmenta (4)
After looking down for a while, I used space leap and came down.
When I suddenly appeared in front of them, it startled the two who had just stood up.
"Te, teleport…?"
The woman muttered with a look of astonishment.
I asked them.
"Who are you?"
A woman who was a wizard and a man who was a swordsman.
In particular, the level of the man was quite high at 73.
I never thought I would meet people like this in the center of the demonic land. What were they doing?
The man was silent. He looked alternately between me and Vulcantier who had fallen behind me. I saved them, but he seemed to still be pretty wary of me.
Instead, the woman answered with a bewildered voice, wiping the dirt off her head.
"Yes, yes. We are just adventurers."
"Adventurers? Were the two of you roaming around like this?"
"Yes, just like that…"
"Why?"
"Hey, were adventurers, so we just want to go on an adventure…?"
She smiled awkwardly and glanced at the man.
He was still showing signs of being wary.
"Thank you for saving us. May I ask who you are?"
I thought about what to say and answered.
"An adventurer."
"…Why is an adventurer in the demonic land?"
"Because I want to go on an adventure?"
Silence fell for a moment.
I was just a stranger they ran into unexpectedly in the middle of the demonic land.
There was no need to explain my circumstances to them, pretending to be an adventurer was an appropriate answer.
I decided not to pay any more attention to them, thinking that they might have their own situation.
"I don't know what's going on, but please be careful.
Saying that, I tried to turn around.
"Ah, wait…!"
"Sir, wait a minute."
They both called out to me at the same time.
When I glanced back to ask why they were calling me, the woman spoke first.
"Hey, if it's not rude, just for a moment, can we ask something…"
The life or death of Asher was still unknown.
I needed to find her as soon as possible. I didn't have time to worry about anything else.
I was about to tell the two that I had no time when the man suddenly spoke.
"There's a monster we're looking for, and I want to ask if you've ever seen it."
"···Monster?"
I shook my head.
"I'm sorry, but…"
I stopped while talking.
I didn't know who they were, but since they were wandering around the central area of Hallmenta alone, I thought they might know something.
"There is something I want to ask you first."
"Yes?"
"My colleague suddenly disappeared."
Without high expectations, I told them quickly and concisely about my situation.
Even the fact that Asher disappeared while I was away for a while, that there was no trace of the battle at the scene, and that I was currently wandering around this forest in pursuit of the traces.
They silently listened to my nonsensical explanation.
"Can you guess what happened?"
When the explanation was over, the man looked at the woman.
"Well… Ah."
She tilted her head and let out a small sigh.
"Maybe it was something that put your companion to sleep, or caused hallucinations, or was it captured by a monster with that kind of ability?"
That was also my guess.
However, since Asher had a high level, I thought it would only make sense unless the monster had stronger abilities.
And if that's the case, I didn't know why it dragged her out instead of dealing with her on the spot.
Above all, according to my game knowledge, there were no monsters specialized in hallucinogenic abilities in Hallmenta.
"Oh, come to think of it, there is a monster that comes to mind…"
But the woman seemed to have remembered something. She said that as if trying to recall the memory.
"A few years ago, there was a time when I was in the middle of walking around Hallmenta with my colleagues. I ran into it at that time and almost died."
"What kind of monster are you?"
"Well, I still don't know what it was, actually. I just lost my mind at some point, and when I came back, I found myself tied to something like a plant stem."
··Plant stem?
I looked down at the traces on the ground that I was chasing.
It was a description that somewhat coincided with the image of something I was imagining.
"But while I was tied to the stem, my colleagues later said to me they all had nightmares. We were all lost in memories that were painful to recall. In the end, one person woke up and saved all the others, so we barely survived."
Nightmare···
I furrowed my brow. I was slowly getting the full picture.
Many of the monsters in the demonic land had all kinds of bizarre abilities.
And among them, there were those who dug into the weak part of another person's heart and used that pain as their own food.
In particular, it was the kind of ability that people with weak mental power or great trauma were more prone to.
Is it that monster…?
As far as I remembered, there were no monsters like that in Hallmenta, but since this was in the past, there could be many monsters that I didn't know.
What if this guy was a monster with that kind of hallucinogenic ability, so he easily subdued and dragged Asher away?
I followed the trail again and started walking.
The two hurriedly followed me.
"Where are you going?
"I'm chasing the trail it left behind."
"Trace···?"
The man narrowed his eyes and looked down at the ground where my gaze was directed, then opened his eyes wide and muttered.
"Were you chasing this faint trail?"
"Yes."
"Uh, what do you see? Why can't my eyes see anything?"
The woman looked around the ground, nodded her head, and said.
"Anyway, if you're going to rescue your colleague, we'll help you first."
"Thanks for the information, but I don't think I really need any help."
"Uh, you look really strong, so it's true… But there could still be something that we might be of help, right?"
The woman asked the man for consent.
He looked like he was going to say something, but he just nodded.
So, two unexpected strangers suddenly accompanied me and started the chase together. There was no need to refuse the help.
"It turned that way."
And the man was well versed in tracking, so whenever I was confused by the traces, he correctly identified the direction and pointed them out.
Thanks to this, I saved time and gained speed. The traces were getting clearer, showing that they were not too far off.
"···"
And it didn't take long before I finally found what I was looking for.
I looked at the landscape unfolding in front of me, lost for words.
[Lv. 70]
A plant stem that wrapped around the surrounding trees and stretches into the air. In the middle of it, a person was tied like a prey caught in a spider's web.
It was Asher.
"Hey, it's that monster!"
The woman, who had been in awe for a moment, shouted that, and the man immediately drew his sword and prepared for battle.
Woo woo.
At that moment, a wave spread like a force field around the plant.
The two people who were exposed to the waves staggered precariously and collapsed to the floor.
I looked at those two with bewildered eyes, then moved my gaze back to the plant stem.
What?
Was this its ability?
But because of the [Soul of the King], it didn't seem to work on me.
From the moment I heard that its ability had something to do with illusions, I expected this to happen.
I took a step back.
Seeing that I was fine, it started wriggling as if in bewilderment, and then shot out waves one after another. But there was no way to get through.
As the mental attack failed, it swung the few remaining stems like a whip at me. But those were blocked as well by the floating veil.
The high level was all because of the hallucination ability, so it was a terrible destructive power.
Piis.
Drops of blood from my fingers hit its trunk.
It died instantly, and no longer writhed annoyingly.
I teleported to the upper stem where Asher was tied and stood in front of her.
"···"
I had to pause for a moment.
It was because she could see Asher's face exposed through the stems, and the tears that were constantly flowing down her cheeks.
I roughly guessed what kind of nightmare she was having now.
I silently tore off the stems tied to her body one by one.
Her whole body was tangled up in the stalks, so it looked like I would have to struggle a bit to get her out.
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