Skeleton Knight in Another World Vol. 3

by Ennki Hakari

  However, my long-range teleportation spell, Transport Gate, only worked for places I could call to mind, and the short-range teleportation spell, Dimensional Step, only worked for places I could physically see. Here in the forest, both were of little use.

  “So, that’s how elves are able to safely travel through monster-filled forests?”

  “Well, everyone’s abilities are different of course. Legend has it that Evanjulin, the founding elder of Canada, was only faintly able to see mana.”

  From everything I’d heard, the founding elder of Canada—and Maple, its capital—sounded like a person from another world, just like me. He might have looked like an elf, but it sounded like he didn’t have any of their abilities.

  However, there was a marked difference between “faintly able” and “totally unable.” Did that mean he’d at least been able to see mana on some level? Unfortunately, there was no way I could check, since he was long dead.

  The sky continued to brighten at our backs as we marched on, my mind mulling over the meaning of all this. The fog that had rolled down from the valley between the mountains began burning off as the sun rose, the rest of it blown away across the plains by a gentle wind. The grass and trees rustled in the breeze, as if eager for the morning’s warmth. As the air cleared, I could see fields running along the side of the road and a village off in the distance—a short journey by foot. Behind me, the capital city was still a vague outline in the fog.

  “Now that we can see, let’s speed things along before people start coming outside.”

  Ariane gave a quick nod and, in a well-practiced motion, grabbed onto my shoulder. I focused on a location in the distance and summoned my short-range teleportation magic.

  “Dimensional Step.”

  A moment later, we were much farther down the road, the capital behind us a mere shadow. We repeated the process, finding new landmarks and teleporting in short bursts along the road toward Lamburt, our movements somewhat obscured by lingering fog.

  The morning air brought a slight chill to my skin…well, my bones anyway. I didn’t have skin.

  Other than Ariane, me, and Ponta atop my head, there were no signs of life on the road. Actually, calling it a road hardly seemed appropriate. It wasn’t paved with brick or stone, merely a lane of packed earth where no grass grew.

  We continued teleporting until we hit a fork in the road. Given my abysmal sense of direction, I asked Ariane to navigate.

  “Which road leads to Lamburt?”

  But she just looked up at me with half-lidded eyes and offered a curt response.

  “You’re guiding us, Arc. I don’t know anything about human lands, remember?”

  She was right on all counts. I was the one who’d uncovered the information about Lamburt back in the capital. It was the town where we believed we’d find the next group of enslaved elves.

  I’d yet to see any maps of this area for sale, much less maps of the entire kingdom. Asking locals was the only surefire way to get to where you were going.

  The man I’d asked for directions to Lamburt had told me to head west out of the capital then north when I hit the coast. He hadn’t said anything about a giant rock and two roads splitting off. Both roads continued west, but the one on the right seemed to be heading slightly north, while the one on the left angled south. Still, since they were both going west, I figured either road should be fine.

  Unlike in my world, it was uncommon to find truly straight roads here, since they usually followed the lay of the land. They might veer around hills or even take large detours to circumnavigate cliffs, which greatly increased the time it took to travel anywhere in this world.

  I wasn’t sure what the roads were splitting off to avoid, but I figured I could just use my teleportation magic to return us to this spot if we went down the wrong one.

  I glanced around and found a fallen tree branch by the side of the road. That would work perfectly. I picked it up, returned to the fork, and stood the branch upright where the road split. As soon as I let go, the branch toppled to the ground with a crack. It was pointing toward the northwest road. I nodded, pleased with the outcome.

  “Well, I guess we’re going right.”

  The voice behind me, however, sounded less impressed. I turned to find Ariane, her eyes defiant, her cheeks slightly puffed out.

  “You’re really going to choose our path by chance? You told me you’d asked about the route to Lamburt back at the capital!”

  “I did ask, but he didn’t say anything about the road splitting like this.”

  Ariane let out a loud sigh and rubbed her temples. “So you thought it would be a good idea to just randomly pick the direction?” Her eyebrow twitched as she spoke.

  “No, I’m leaving our fate up to god!”

  “Well, I never agreed to that!”

  Ariane knelt beside the branch. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, as if in prayer.

  “I beg you, spirits, guide us down the right path…”

  She stood the tree branch on end and let it fall again. Just like before, it hit the ground pointing toward the northwest.

  “Harrumph. Looks like the right path is where we need to go.”

  Ariane didn’t sound entirely convinced, but she grabbed onto my shoulder all the same, evidently willing to leave her fate up to the spirits.

  I decided to try and lighten the mood.

  “What’s the matter? If we go down the wrong road, we can always teleport back here.”

  With that, I turned toward the northwest and cast Dimensional Step, once again making short hops along the empty road as the sun continued its slow journey into the sky.

  ***

  The environment slowly began changing as we traveled down the road.

  Flat, expansive plains gave way to rocky hills the color of umber. The road took on the consistency of fine sand. To our right, a sprawling forest stretched to the base of a mountain range off in the distance. To our left was a desolate wasteland. Without any vegetation to mark where the boundaries of the road were, I worried we’d soon stray from it.

  With no sign of any human settlements, I began wondering if we’d picked the wrong path.

  Suddenly, a heavy wind blew in from the south, enveloping us in red dust and blocking our vision.

  “Kyiii!”

  Ponta clung to the top of my helmet as Ariane’s and my cloaks snapped in the wind, adding to the cacophony.

  As soon as the wind died, I began searching the horizon for a spot we could teleport to, hoping to move us away from whatever had conjured up the wind. I looked to Ariane, but she was frozen, as if listening for something.

  “What is it?”

  She brought a finger to her lips, her eyes scanning our surroundings. Ponta darted its head around rapidly, just as alert.

  I wanted to ask what she thought was out there, but I knew better than to speak again. I glanced about the red earth and the various fang-like stones jutting up from the ground, but nothing stood out as a threat.

  Then I heard the faint sound of flapping wings.

  I turned toward the sound to see over a dozen creatures flying in our direction. They were still a fair distance away, so I couldn’t get a good read on their size, but they looked like large birds.

  “Wyverns?!”

  Ariane glared up at the shadowy beasts. They were close enough that I could count them now. There were twenty-four of the winged creatures—wyverns, as she’d called them—in total, flapping their massive wings and heading straight for us.

  Ponta hopped down from my helmet and wrapped itself around my neck like a scarf, flattening its ears against its head.

  “Huh. So, those are wyverns?”

  As they drew closer, I was finally able to get a good look at them.

  They had a wingspan of around eight meters, with bird-like heads at the end of their long necks, and small, reptilian bodies. A dusky yellow, striped pattern mottled their skin. The wyverns were about three meters from hea
d to tail, the latter slicing deftly through the air as they flew, almost like a rudder.

  These were nothing like the wyverns I’d faced in the game.

  Ariane seemed confused as well.

  “These aren’t anything like the wyverns I know. I’ve never seen anything like them before. Plus, they typically only hunt in the heat of the afternoon. It’s way too early for them to be out like this.”

  Hmm. Maybe she was just unfamiliar with this particular type of wyvern. Or maybe this was a subspecies. Or a species similar to wyverns. It made sense that the characteristics and appearance of a given creature would change depending on their environment.

  But there were more pressing matters than identification at the moment.

  “Are wyverns powerful?” I kept my eyes on the sky as I asked Ariane.

  Compared with other monsters in the game, wyverns weren’t all that strong. They maxed out around Level 100 and didn’t have any special attacks. But even though they were mid-tier enemies in the game, I wasn’t sure if that applied to the ones coming toward us.

  Ariane shot me a glance.

  “One or two on their own? Not really. But numbers like these… I think we’d better just teleport away from there.”

  She had a point. Our short-range weapons wouldn’t be much use against them.

  It was easy to beat down wyverns in the game, even with just a sword, since they hovered about a meter off the ground. These ones, however, were way out of strike range. Running was probably the best plan.

  But I also though this might be a good opportunity to test out my abilities, especially considering future situations I might find myself in. Better to try things out now, when the stakes were low, than to have a spell backfire when it mattered most. Plus, we could still teleport out of danger if need be.

  “I’d like to try something out. Would you step back a bit, Ariane?”

  I stepped forward to face the oncoming wyvern swarm. I could hear Ariane start saying something, but then she decided against it. I swung my bag down from my shoulder and set it to the ground before taking a proper battle stance.

  “Rock Shot!”

  I decided to start out small, with one of the basic spells from the Magus job class.

  Large stones shot from my outstretched palm straight toward the wyverns. However, in the ten meters between them and me, they were easily able to evade my attack. I tried the spell again and again, but I never came close to hitting any of the wyverns. Not only was the attack easy to read, but the wyverns were also quite adept at dodging.

  The creatures were now right above us, circling like vultures. My magical barrage was the only thing keeping them at bay.

  “Let’s see if you can dodge this. Lightning Damper!”

  Judging by the wyverns’ harried response, they must have sensed the sudden change in atmospheric pressure brought on by the spell.

  The next moment, a bright flash tore across the sky, followed by a thunderous, reverberating roar. Tendrils of light shot through the air and down onto the wyverns, almost as if the sky were raining lightning.

  I’d known this kind of mid-tier area-of-effect magic was pretty powerful, but seeing it in action took my breath away. It definitely didn’t disappoint. I watched as, one by one, the wyverns who’d been hit fell into tailspins and dropped to the ground.

  However, more than half of them were still in the air.

  “Hmm. Not exactly the most accurate of attacks…”

  That was an understatement. Despite how impressive it looked, the lightning’s hit rate was abysmal. If it had been modern-day weaponry, it would have been considered broken. Moreover, the spell wasn’t even a fast-hitting attack. It was like taking shots with a single-action revolver. Add on the fact that it hit indiscriminately, and it didn’t seem to be all that useful.

  However, the unexpected lightning did seem to strike fear into the wyverns circling above us. They began scattering.

  Ariane, who’d been watching all this from behind me, finally piped up.

  “Warn me next time before you pull out something powerful like that! That was terrifying!”

  When I looked back, the corners of Ariane’s eyes were damp, and her hands were firmly clamped over her ears.

  It was only natural, I supposed. Anyone would have been shocked to witness such a sudden display of thunder and lightning right in front of them. I quickly offered my apologies. Ponta simply blinked a few times—still wrapped around my neck—and engaged in a bit of self-grooming with its tongue. The lightning didn’t seem to have fazed the cottontail fox, but the static electricity had made its fur stand on end.

  “I have to admit, that was pretty impressive. Is there nothing you can’t do?” Ariane let out a sigh, her expression a mix of awe and exasperation. Several wyverns had crashed to the ground just in front of us.

  A phrase I’d heard somewhere before came to mind. “There are many things I cannot do, but I try my best.”

  I approached one of the dead wyverns. Despite a few scorch marks, it was still in pretty good condition.

  “Can this be used for anything?” I turned the body over, looking back at Ariane. Despite its massive size, the wyvern was lighter than I’d thought it would be.

  “Hmm. I know wyvern hides can be made into leather armor, but again, these looks different from the wyverns I’ve seen. They also don’t taste very good, so that just leaves their rune stones.”

  In the game, the materials you could gather from wyverns were only useful early on. It made sense they’d be about the same here.

  “What leather is your armor made out of, Miss Ariane?”

  If common armor was made from wyvern hides, then I had to imagine her armor was made of something far better. I was quite curious.

  “This armor was made using leather from a grand dragon.”

  I let out a loud gasp. “Whoa!”

  I had no way of knowing if grand dragons here looked anything like they did in the game, but it was clearly a high-grade material regardless.

  Ariane muttered a response under her breath. “It’s still nothing like what you have on.”

  The Belenus Holy Armor I wore was from the mythical-class line of equipment—the highest attainable. Merely gathering the supplies to make it was a harrowing endeavor.

  I had my doubts such materials even existed in this world. My armor was probably one of a kind.

  While we bantered back and forth, I pulled a dagger from my bag and began cutting open one of the dead wyvern’s bodies. Up close, they almost looked like pterosaurs.

  “Miss Ariane, do you know where the rune stone is located?”

  “If they’re anything like the wyverns I’m familiar with, it should be over here.”

  She pointed to a spot just below the rib cage. I jammed the dagger in and sliced the wyvern’s chest open, revealing a small, glimmering purple stone. After collecting the rune stones from the seven other dead wyverns, I put them and the dagger into my bag.

  “What should we do about their bodies?”

  Ariane seemed entirely uninterested in the topic. “Why not just leave them? If someone wants them, they can cart them off.”

  She had a point. If the hides could be used to make leather armor, then we may as well leave them for whoever wandered past. Even if no one did, at least some scavenger could make a meal of them. There was no harm in leaving them behind.

  “You’re probably right. Shall we get going?”

  I hefted the bag over my shoulder, and we continued down the road using Dimensional Step.

  After some time, we finally caught sight of a stone-walled town atop a hill beside to the road. Beyond the wall, several tall, boxy buildings peaked out from inside. The whole thing had a rather simple, dull appearance—nothing like the highly decorated towns I’d been to thus far. I wasn’t even sure “town” was the right word for it. It looked more like a fort to me.

  The area around the hill was full of lush greenery, in stark contrast to the deep red earth alon
g the road. Fields had been cut into the side of the hill, stacked like a massive staircase. I could see the tiny outlines of people tending to the crops, though there were relatively few compared to the size of the fields.

  “Maybe we should stop and ask for directions.”

  “I agree. The road is starting to turn north anyway.”

  I was surprised to realize she was right. Out here, along a winding path and with no compass, it was a lot harder to keep my bearings. I tried not to show how worried I was by this and instead started walking confidently toward the town.

  Set against the expansive scene that lay before us, the town initially looked rather small. However, the closer we got to it, the larger it seemed to grow. The town’s walls were around five meters tall, the stones perfectly aligned, sporting a walkway along the top where several guards patrolled.

  The massive gate had been left open, with just a single guard standing watch. When he noticed our approach, he jumped to attention.

  I offered up a wave and called out to him. “Excuse me, I’d like to ask for directions. We’re on our way to Lamburt, but I’m not sure if this is the right road.”

  The guard cocked his head to the side, looking me up and down before turning his gaze to Ariane. She kept the hood of her cloak low over her face to conceal her identity. The guard turned back to me.

  “Lamburt? Never heard of it. But I never done left this town before neither, so I only know the villages ’round these parts.”

  The man frowned slightly and scratched his head.

  Unlike in my world, where you could easily travel to another town or even another country, it seemed unlikely we’d be able to find the best route to reach such a faraway town.

  I reached into the leather pouch that served as my wallet.

  “Hm. In that case, maybe we’ll ask around town. How much is the entrance tax?”

  The man just shook his head and moved out of our way, waving us in.

  “We don’t levy taxes on people entering here. Given how few visitors we get as it is, no one would ever bother to stop by the town if we did. We do collect a nominal fee when you leave though.”