“This is the only shortcut.”
…
The Shrieking Mountain Range was one that was forgotten by most people.
It was situated within the wilderness south of Jewel Bay. In fact, it wasn’t drawn in the maps of many southern big cities.
Few people from Jewel Bay would adventure south, because of the Shrieking Mountain Range.
In fact, White River Valley and Jewel Bay were only separated by this mountain range.
As long as they passed through this mountain range, they would be able to set up a trading channel between White River Valley and Jewel Bay.
But no one would do that.
On one hand, White River Valley was a minor territory that didn’t have the ability to open a path. On the other hand, Jewel Bay was even less interested in doing business with such a small rural village.
Monsters and all kinds of lifeforms occupied the Shrieking Mountain Range.
If not for a mysterious force preventing those monsters from leaving the mountain range, Jewel Bay might have been suffering from attacks every day.
Harpies, Wyverns, Blood Ooze, some even claimed to have seen a lurking Green Dragon in the Shrieking Mountain Range.
No one knew how many monsters were in there.
But they suffered from the suppression of a mysterious power and couldn’t come out and cause a disaster.
Some adventurers who didn’t fear death would occasionally go into the Shrieking Mountain Range to hunt for treasure, but this was only a small portion of the desperate.
Most adventurers still cherished their lives, so the Shrieking Mountain Range had always been a forbidden area.
As for White River Valley’s side of the mountains, it was a relatively peaceful place. Apart from that first Gnoll invasion, this place had never met any monster attacks.
Northwest of the castle was the northern mine and River Shore City, and northeast was the entrance of Shrieking Mountain Range.
Marvin and Lola were going to cross the Shrieking Mountain Range tonight!
Night fell, giving a different feeling to the dense fog covering the Shrieking Mountain Range.
The view was very beautiful.
But Lola was going mad!
“Excuse me Sir, are you a Legend?” Lola loudly asked in the still and desolate wilderness.
“Nope,” Marvin answered.
“Excuse me Sir, are you unafraid of death?” Lola was being driven insane.
“Nope,” Marvin answered.
“Excuse me Sir, could you switch to another way of executing me?” Lola looked dejected.
“Nope.”
Marvin dragged Lola along but didn’t say much, occasionally answering with a few words, but constantly hurrying on.
After the eloquent girl failed to get any results with her questions, she finally gave up asking.
The two walked all the way up till the moon was at its summit before arriving at the location Marvin thought of.
That was a desolate field of crushed rocks.
In front of them was a precipitous hillside.
But Marvin continued eastwards, and then moved back and forth in front of the hillside several times before finally stopping in front of a cave.
“What’s in here?” Lola asked nervously.
“This was an unknown tunnel,” Marvin finally responded. “Through this tunnel, we can cross the Shrieking Mountain Range and reach Jewel Bay in one day.”
“It’s a lot safer to use this path.”
“Turns out you had a secret path!” Lola relaxed and displayed a worshipful expression. “Didn’t expect you actually knew that much.”
“Don’t relax so soon.”
Marvin pushed through the undergrowth in front of the entrance and took a step inside. “This place isn’t completely safe.”
“This road has a name.”
“It’s called the [Spider Crypt].”
“As the name implies, there are a lot things waiting for us inside.”
“And they are hungry. Always hungry.”
Chapter 135: Constellation
Chapter 135: Constellation
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
“Spider Cave!?”
Lola’s voice suddenly rose by an octave.
As a fearless girl who dared to adventure in the south by herself, there were very few things that could frighten her!
Furry spiders were clearly among those.
Unfortunately, Marvin ignored her and went in first.
Lola stomped in frustration but could only follow him in.
The air inside was surprisingly pretty good, still carrying faint traces of a fresh breeze.
The crypt’s tunnels were fairly wide, apparently excavated by man. But for all kinds of reasons, they were abandoned.
The ground in the crypt was covered with grass, which spread through the depths of the cavern.
“Pshh.” Marvin took out a torch and used a flint to light it. He then handed it over to Lola.
“Eh?” Lola was somewhat lost, unsure of what he wanted her to do with the torch.
Marvin took out his curved daggers, hinting that he needed to wield daggers with both hands.
At the same time, he took out a small ordinary dagger and passed it to Lola.
The latter’s complexion changed. “Why do I need a weapon?”
“Don’t tell me I’ll have to fight? You know I can’t use any fighting skills? I’ll definitely not use the dagger!”
Lola’s last sentence even carried a sobbing tone.
‘This Marvin, this Masked Twin Blades, how could he be like that? How could he be so unreasonable?’
‘Aren’t I a girl? If you really wanted to fight, why not bring several guards?’
Marvin glanced at her, “When a [Black Spider] is about to inject its venom in your body, you’ll use the dagger.”
“Listen, even if I’ll do my best to protect you, no one knows when we will be attacked.”
“If I don’t have time to save you… then your dagger and your torch are your last hope,” Marvin said while walking to one side of the cave.
He had Darksight so he didn’t need a torch, but the torch was lit for many reasons. First, it could temporarily conceal his night vision ability. Second, it could also let Lola see the path. Third…
In this kind of dark place, a flame would be very noticeable, even if it was far away.
Spiders are very sensitive lifeforms, especially the Black Spiders. This kind of voracious female spider could see fire from very long distance.
In fact, when trying to kill one, it would be better to draw it over and then get rid of it.
…
The crypt was filled with somewhat damp air. Marvin face appeared very relaxed, and was still in the mood to teach Lola some general knowledge.
“Look, this is a North Grass. If you follow the direction it was pointing to, you could accurately walk north.”
“There is an interesting story about North Grass. It’s said that if a tireless traveler kept following the North Grass, all the way to the most northern part of Feinan’s wilderness, he could reach the sky’s [Wizard Ruler].”
“Want to know why this story exists? It’s because the Wizard Ruler is made up of 12 stars. And the North Grass also has 12 sawteeth.”
Lola was looking at Marvin, stunned.
She had been mixing with many people since she was a child, but she had never heard of this story. Maybe only a noble could have this kind of extensive knowledge.
Lola had always envied those noble young ladies even since she was a child. Able to eat and drink while not needing to work, wearing the most expensive clothes, able to pursue some personal freedom.
A poor girl like her would never be able to do this.
‘The story he told me was certainly told to quite a lot of noble girls, wasn’t it?’
‘It definitely was, he looks like that kind of old noble. Even if he’s young, the number of young
ladies he’s deceived is definitely not just a few.’
‘But why did he bring me alone on this path? I heard what those bad boys were like… Wrong! If he truly wanted to bully me, he could have done so that day in that warehouse. This guy has no interest in me!’
‘Oh? It seems like I’ve never heard which girl the White River Valley’s Overlord was interested in? Could this guy like boys?’
Just as Lola’s was going wild, Marvin suddenly stopped.
A pitch-black shadow quickly crawled its way over from some area in the crypt!
That was a Black Spider.
Marvin discovered her first.
Even if it looked like he was chatting with Lola, in fact, his mind was completely focused on the potential hidden enemy in front.
‘The first Black Spider?’
Marvin whispered, “Move back, I’ll go.”
Lola cleverly answered, “Okay.”
She moved back a few steps, raising the torch high overhead while standing on her toes, afraid Marvin wouldn’t be able to clearly see his enemy because of the dim light.
All of a sudden, she abruptly asked:
“Hey, by the way, Sir Marvin, what is your astrological sign?”
Astrological sign?
Marvin’s face darkened, but the Black Spider had already rushed over!
…
The Black Spider was different from other spiders. This kind of spider wasn’t good at weaving sticky webs, but the silk they spat out was very venomous.
And this silk was also very different from that of other spiders, as it was hard as iron and extremely sharp. It also had an extremely fierce penetrating strength.
If one wanted to escape unscathed from a Black Spider attack, one had to attack first.
Marvin ignored Lola’s foolish question, rushing toward that Black Spider to kill first!
“Pshhhh!”
The Black Spider raised two legs and suddenly spit out a large amount of solid silk.
She spit out twelve thin and short threads in one breath!
Each thread seemed as sharp as an arrow!
But Marvin was already prepared, avoiding the first wave of attacks by rolling on the ground, arriving under the spider’s belly!
The Black Spider hurriedly moved back, trying to use her jaws to attack Marvin.
Unfortunately, she was too slow.
Marvin had killed countless numbers of spiders before, so dealing with one of them was simply a piece of cake!
He immediately kicked the spider’s jaws with both feet, before directly pulling himself up after springing up from the ground!
“Shh! Shh!”
Two daggers spun, forming blade shadows. Each blade shadow was cutting the vital joints of one of the six rear legs of the Black Spider.
“Snap!” The joints broke and the Black Spider couldn’t help but fall down!
Marvin rolled forward and then leaped up high.
Burst!
Instantly, he jumped on the Spider’s head, both daggers ruthlessly stabbing down!
A simple and basic flip!
Both feet kicked the daggers’ handles, completely nailing the Black Spider to the ground.
The whole scene felt smooth and natural, with no hesitation. It was the pure strength of instinct and fighting experience.
The Black Spider twitched a few times, miserably dying.
Lola was simply watching foolishly from the side.
In just a few breaths, Marvin personally killed such a fierce spider?
Black Spiders were 2nd rank monsters… Ordinary class holders would have a hard time fighting them one on one.
But it felt so easy for Marvin.
“Pop!““Pop!”
Marvin walked up to the spider’s body and retrieved his daggers, taking a glance a Lola:
“Please don’t ask such a foolish question when I’m about to fight, okay?”
Lola pitifully came over while holding the torch and kept apologizing.
Looking at her sincere expression, Marvin couldn’t help but almost forgive her.
However, after apologizing, she only hesitated for an instant before saying, “But I really want to know your astrological sign!”
Marvin was speechless.
He retrieved his daggers and walked toward the darkness.
A long time later, a very unwilling voice came from the darkness:
“I am the [Swimming Fish].”
…
Marvin and Lola kept advancing through the darkness of the crypt.
Black Spiders weren’t particularly difficult for Marvin to deal with. After killing two of those monsters, he completely stopped worrying about them.
The whole crypt’s structure was very simple, as it was a perfectly straight tunnel. There were a total of twelve Black Spider nests, but their entrances were relatively hidden.
From what he remembered, Spider Crypt was the first instance of the Shrieking Mountain Range.
Using conventional methods, this instance’s twelve Black Spiders were very difficult to handle. But with Marvin’s high bodily coordination, along with his personal skills like Burst, the difficulty was very ordinary.
As long as he carefully dodged when the Black Spider was preparing to throw silk.
It originally was because of poor vision that the Black Spider’s animation couldn’t be seen.
But Marvin had Darksight so he was able to see all details clearly. Predicting was very easy for him.
On their journey, Marvin ruthlessly killed four spiders.
Each Black Spider’s death was more or less the same. At the beginning, Lola was still cheered in admiration, but after a while, the young girl gradually began to look down on the Black Spiders.
Not that frightening. It only needed a few slashes from Sir Marvin to be killed.
This was what had surfaced in the girl’s mind, and she had relaxed quite a lot.
In the silent darkness, she once again started to talk due to being bored.
“I heard male Swimming Fish especially like to shower affection on an uninterested party…”
“I am the [Snow Woman]. Based on the Jiska people’s myths, a Swimming Fish and Snow Woman matches quite well.”
“Ah. That’s right, Swimming Fish!”
Lola suddenly jumped up, “Isn’t it going to be your birthday soon?”
Marvin gave her a strange look, before eventually nodding.
A fork appeared in the tunnel. The North Grass spread through one of the paths.
And on the other side was dense darkness with all kinds of crushed rocks littering the ground.
Marvin unhesitantly moved toward the path without North Grass.
“Hey? Aren’t you going the wrong way?” Lola hurriedly asked.
“Nope,” Marvin answered.
“I am indeed going to Jewel Bay, but first, I’ll go take a look at an old friend.”
Old friend?
A weird expression appeared on Lola’s face.
Who could live in this damnable place?
Sir Marvin was friends with that person?
She closely followed behind Marvin. After roughly ten minutes, a large cave appeared.
Not far from there was a small lake with two small wooden houses by its side.
Two shadows were jumping up and down by the lake.
But the weird part was that they were too short, they were only half as tall as a regular person!
Marvin quickly walked over.
Chapter 136: Elizabeth
Chapter 136: Elizabeth
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
“Who?”
As soon as Marvin and Lola appeared at the entrance of the large cave, one of the silhouettes by the lakeside noticed their existence.
The large cave was a naturally formed hole which faintly glimmered. Those were some precious stones, probably night pearls.
There was a house by the lakeside with two braziers on fire, illuminating the surroundi
ngs.
The other side’s perception must be quite high to be able to spot them arriving from so far away.
But Marvin also didn’t bother to hide.
He confidently walked in.
The two figures by the lakeside met the newcomer with vigilance. They were each holding onto two daggers.
They were both Thieves.
“Halflings?”
Only when they were rather close did Lola suddenly cry out in alarm.
Marvin frowned and turned to glare at her. Lola immediately didn’t dare to say anything else.
But her eyes were still curiously sizing up these two Halflings living in seclusion in this place.
‘Didn’t Sir Marvin say he was going to meet an old friend? Why didn’t these two Halflings recognize him?”
The girl’s thoughts were filled with doubts.
“Hello, Mister Tucker, please allow me to introduce myself. I am White River Valley’s current Overlord, Marvin.”
“Your neighbor, that is.”
Marvin displayed a sincere smile, and extended a hand toward the older Halfling.
The latter hesitated before forcing himself to shake hands with Marvin.
“You know my name?”
Marvin explained, “A scholar told me about this tunnel. My territory urgently needs food, and I need to go to Jewel Bay to buy it. There would definitely not be enough time if I went through the main road. I could only take the risk and fight. The scholar told me you might give me some guidance.”
“Scholar?” Old Tucker coldly snorted, “Which senseless Wizard?”
“Only those Wizards able to use Divination and Inspection spells could check this place.”
“Even hiding under this mountain isn’t peaceful.”
The old Halfling muttered to himself for a while before looking at Marvin and saying,“You seem somewhat familiar.”
“Oh that’s right, you said you were some place’s Overlord?”
Marvin froze for a moment. He knew from his past life that there was a secluded Halfling expert living in seclusion in the Spider Crypt that could help with the most difficult part of the mountain pass. Thus he came here to try his luck.
Marvin had run a few instances of the Spider Crypt in the past, and thus was very familiar with Old Tucker. Saying he was an old friend wasn’t pushing it.
But he hadn’t expected that him being the Overlord of White River City would lead to some unexpected matter.
Night Ranger - Full Series - 735 Chapters Page 79