by Unknown
With one foot on each cliff, Linley peered across. Off in the distance, he seemed to see the two cliffs draw even closer, then become one.
“Bizarre. Bizarre.”
Having been in these mountains for some time, Linley had seen many things, but he had never encountered such a weird canyon. Looking down through the canyon gap, Linley only saw a white fog, so blurry that he couldn’t see anything at all.
“Immeasurably deep.” Linley felt extremely curious, but was also rather wary what lay within the belly of this mountain gulch.
Making his way along the edges of the canyon, Linley continued peering down, as though hoping he could see what was hidden by white fog. Aside from how close the canyon walls were, there was another oddity to this ravine.
It seemed that the farther down the ravine was, the farther apart the canyon walls drew again.
For example, towards the top of the ravine, the distance between the canyon walls was perhaps a hundred meters or so, but from what Linley could tell, towards the bottom, the distance was perhaps a few thousand meters, or even tens of kilometers.
“Hrm? That’s… “
Linley looked as though he had been struck by lightning. He carefully stared at a small patch of grass that was hidden beneath the fog beneath him. The small patch of grass growing alongside the cliffside was dark green, but the patch of grass emanated a faint blue aura.
“Blueheart Grass. It’s Blueheart Grass!” Linley had seen a picture of Blueheart Grass at the Ernst Institute’s library, and he remembered it clearly. His eyes shone. That ultra-rare, precious grass growing from the cliff was able to counteract the harmful effects which live dragon’s blood would have on the body. Blueheart Grass!
*
Book 3, Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, Chapter 21 – The Foggy Gulch (part 1)
If one desired to train using the ‘Secret Dragonblood Manual’, one must rouse up the Dragonblood in one’s veins. But there were only two possible ways by which one could agitate the Dragonblood in one’s veins. The first was to reach a certain minimum level of Dragonblood density in one’s veins. The second was to drink fresh blood from a live dragon.
But drinking blood from a living dragon was very dangerous.
Dragon’s blood, even when applied topically, would cause terrible pain, to say nothing of drinking it. However, everything in the world had its equal opposite. Blueheart Grass, when paired with dragon’s blood, made for an extremely potent mixture. But Blueheart Grass was extremely rare. Linley had previously asked about the price.
A single patch of Blueheart Grass was worth tens of thousands of gold coins. What’s more, it was a rare item that often couldn’t be bought even if one had the money. Doehring Cowart had once said: “Live dragon’s blood is incredibly powerful. Usually, a single patch of Blueheart Grass is insufficient. If you are going to drink a large amount of live dragon’s blood, you will need even more Blueheart Grass.”
A single patch of Blueheart Grass was already that expensive. How could Linley afford it? Perhaps his entire fortune of 70,000, acquired over this month, would only be enough to buy a single patch.
“Blueheart Grass, Blueheart Grass! Heaven is being so kind to me.” Linley felt unspeakable joy.
Linley energetically leapt down directly, falling several dozen meters before landing against the cliff on the other side. And then, he immediately began to mumble the words to a spell. In a short time, Linley’s entire body was surrounded by flowing air elemental essences, and flows of air began to surround him as well.
Wind-style spell of the fifth rank – Floating Technique.
At his current level, Linley was only able to allow his body to float, rather than actually fly. Floating meant allowing himself to float up or down vertically. Taking a step forward, Linley stood in mid-air before slowly beginning to float down, gradually descending into the deep, foggy canyon. Bebe enviously stood on Linley’s shoulder as they descended. Although Bebe was rather powerful, he wasn’t capable of flight. He wasn’t a flying-type magical beast, thus he would only be able to fly upon becoming a Saint-level magical beast.
This canyon was filled with the white fog, which roiled about. The deeper Linley went, the greater the distance between the canyon walls became. Quite soon, Linley landed near the Blueheart Grass.
“Blueheart Grass is deep green in color, but emanates a faint blue light. Blueheart Grass is cool to the touch. When the blades of grass are torn apart, they will leak out a dark green fluid which is very cool when drunk.” Linley remembered quite well this explanation in the Ernst Institute library about Blueheart Grass.
Staring at the Blueheart Grass growing out from the cliff, rustling gently in the wind, Linley took a deep breath, then carefully uprooted the Blueheart Grass.
“It really is cold.” When he touched the Blueheart Grass, he felt as though he had touched a piece of ice. He immediately placed the Blueheart Grass into his backpack, and then looked all around. “I wonder if there is any more Blueheart Grass here!”
A place which was capable of giving birth to one patch of Blueheart Grass was capable of giving birth to a second.
Using the Floating Technique, Linley continued to drift downwards into the roiling white fog. At the same time, Linley kept a close eye out, despite the fog making everything blurry. He could make out countless vines twisting about the cliffs.
“That’s huge!”
The farther down into the canyon he went, the more Linley realized how enormous this place truly was. At the top of the canyon, the distance between the two walls was perhaps only a few hundred meters, but by now, Linley was certain that the distance was absolutely at least several thousand meters. He continued to float close to the wall. Using his vision, his flotation speed, and his angle against the wall, he was able to guesstimate this distance.
“Roar… “
“Grrr… .”
All sorts of low-pitched growls emanated from below, occasionally sounding out. They came from all over the place. Just judging from the sound alone, there had to be over a hundred magical beasts below. Linley couldn’t help but feel his heart quail. “Magical beasts. There are many magical beasts below!” Just from hearing the sound, Linley could tell.
Linley fixed himself against the cliff walls while gripping onto the vines with his hands as he descended more slowly and more carefully.
“Boss, I can sense great danger below.” Bebe suddenly said to Linley through their mental link.
Linley also felt as though his heart was tightening. The further down he went, the clearer the growls of the magical beasts became. Those low growls were powerful. Clearly, they were coming from magical beasts of large size. Generally speaking, large magical beasts were not weak. Powerful magical beasts weren’t necessarily large, but large magical beasts were generally powerful.
“Blueheart Grass!”
Linley suddenly saw that directly below him, far away, was another patch of Blueheart Grass. Surrounding the Blueheart Grass was many green vines and shrubs. As Linley was not a fearful person to begin with, upon seeing the Blueheart Grass, Linley began float down while keeping his hands gripped to the rattan vines.
But at this point in time, Linley totally failed to notice…
Coiled up amidst the green vines surrounding the Blueheart Grass was a giant green python snake, at least twenty meters long and thick enough that it would take two men to put their arms around it. That giant python was very green and also coiled up like a rattan vine. Given that it was also covered slightly by the fog, Linley didn’t notice that it was there at all.
As he descended, Linley drew nearer and nearer to the Blueheart Grass.
“Boss, careful! That’s a monstrous python!” Bebe suddenly, urgently said to Linley through their link.
“Python?” Linley was startled.
Virtually all python-type magical beasts were exceedingly powerful. Even the weakest Trihorn Python was a magical beast of the sixth rank. Linley immediately surveyed his surroundi
ngs carefully. By now, Linley was roughly around a hundred meters away from the giant python. After carefully searching for it, he quickly located the giant python.
“Whoah.” Linley sucked in a deep breath.
That thirty-meter long python, as thick as a water barrel, made Linley’s heart quail. “Green Tattooed Python. A magical beast of the seventh rank – the Green Tattooed Python.” The information he knew about this type of Python immediately sprang to mind.
By now, Linley also realized why it was that this canyon had so much white fog.
“The Mist Technique is just a water-style technique of the first rank. A single Green Tattooed Python, a magical beast of the seventh rank, can generate enormous, almost unlimited amounts of white mist in its surroundings. With this canyon having so much mist of such density, there’s definitely more than one Green Tattooed Python here.”
Linley immediately came to this realization.
The canyon had a depth and width of around ten kilometers long. For such a huge canyon to be totally covered in white mist, one could only imagine how many Pythons were here. That Green Tattooed Python which lay hidden amidst the vines suddenly moved. Its enormous head turned to stare at Linley, and its two cold eyes stared death at him.
“Grrrr… .”
A terrifying sound rumbled out from the Green Tattooed Python’s maw, and at the same time, it shot forward at high speed.
“Rawr!” “Hiss!” “Grrr!” The entire canyon began to fill up with the calls of various beasts. At the same time, loud, sonorous movement sounds could be heard. Glancing below, Linley saw that over ten enormous creatures were moving towards him. And, Linley could tell that these ten made up just a tiny fraction of the creatures in this gorge.
“Flee!”
Faced with the attack by the Green Tattooed Python, Linley immediately began floating up at maximum speed. Controlling the force of the wind, he was able to make the flotation pressure exceed his body weight, causing him to rocket upwards at an astonishing speed. While flying upwards, Linley could already see a monstrously large Green Tattooed Python crawl up after him along the cliff walls. Its cold, serpentine eyes stared at Linley, promising death while the serpent itself hissed nonstop.
“Screech! Screech!”
A high-pierced bird cry split the air, and from below, dozens of giant birds suddenly charged forward in pursuit of Linley.
“Dragonhawks! Those are Dragonhawks!” Linley’s face immediately turned paper white.
*
Book 3, The Mountain Range of Magical Beasts – Chapter 22, The Foggy Gulch (part 2)
Over ten Dragonhawks, each larger than a Griffon, were flying in fast pursuit of Linley. Through the Coiling Dragon ring, Linley immediately expended his mageforce to make himself rise even faster, while at the same time beginning to mumble the words to the Earthguard spell.
“Whoosh!”
Only the roaring wind could be heard. Linley had long since left the Green Tattooed Python behind, but the Dragonhawks flew at an amazing speed, and were drawing closer and closer to Linley. Even after Linley flew out of the canyon, those ten Dragonhawks continued in hot pursuit of Linley, following him outside.
Running at his maximum speed, Linley made his way through the forest as quickly as possible, but no matter how fast his legs were, how could he compare with the speed of the winged Dragonhawks?
“Screeeech!” The Dragonhawks issued piercing cries.
The wingspan of the Dragonhawks, at maximum extension, was over twenty meters long. These ten-plus Dragonhawks blotted out the sky as they all flew directly at Linley. Linley felt as though the entire world was growing dark. As the Dragonhawks descended upon Linley, they all opened their beaks and belched forth plumes of flame at him, immediately turning the surrounding trees into blazing pyres.
Fortunately, the Earthguard armor which Linley summoned continued to protect him, covering his entire body.
“Crackle, crackle.” The fires roared and blazed against the Earthguard armor. Earth-colored elemental essence swirled all about Linley.
Amongst the dragon-type creatures, Dragonhawks and Landwyrms were the weakest of their kin, but even they, the weakest of dragon-type creatures, were magical beasts of the sixth rank. What’s more, Landwyrms and Dragonhawks were pack-type beasts. Faced with an aerial assault from over ten magical beasts of the sixth rank, even a warrior of the seventh rank would flee.
The Dragonhawks charged forward, descending upon Linley… .
“Smash!” A Dragonhawk’s sharp talons smote Linley’s Earthguard armor a mighty blow. The Earthguard armor shuddered visibly, and specks of golden light began to gently flicker on top of it.
“I can’t take those hits head on!”
That clawed attack terrified Linley. At the highest speed he could muster, he scurried deeper into the forest, charging into the densest, hardest-to-traverse area. Jumping, leaping, crawling… Linley went all out in his attempt to flee. But those Dragonhawk’s continued to strike viciously at Linley’s head with their vicious claws.
“Hissss!”
Bebe let out a fierce screech of his own, and then he rose on his hind legs, suddenly transforming in size from twenty centimeters to half a meter tall. But compared to the Dragonhawks, with their 20-meter long wingspans, Bebe was still just a small speck.
“Swish!” Bebe leapt off of Linley’s shoulders, transforming into a black blur as he shot directly towards the closest attacking Dragonhawk.
The terrifying sound of bones splintering could suddenly be heard, along with the agonized cries of the Dragonhawk. That Dragonhawk directly fell from the sky, but before it did, Bebe used it as a launchpad to leap at the next closest Dragonhawk. With two vicious bites, he directly bit this one to death as well.
Dragonhawks were just beasts of the sixth rank, while Bebe was able to force a magical beast of the seventh rank, a Velocidragon, to flee in defeat.
What’s more…
There was a huge gap in difficulty to advance as well as in power from the sixth rank to the seventh rank. Bebe wasn’t capable of flight, but once he got into physical contact with a Dragonhawk, it was as good as dead. In a few short moments, three of the ten-plus Dragonhawks were dead.
The other Dragonhawks all flew higher in terror. Seeing them fly higher, there was nothing that Bebe could do either, as he himself could not fly.
Those Dragonhawks hovered around Linley for a while, before finally letting out a few mournful cries as they began flying back towards the canyon.
“What a terrifying gorge.” Only now did Linley finally let out a sigh.
While collecting the magicite cores of the three dead Dragonhawks, Linley pondered the question of the Foggy Gorge.
“Grandpa Doehring.” Linley suddenly called out, and Doehring Cowart flew out of the Coiling Dragon ring. Still appearing to wear a pristine, moon-white robe, Doehring Cowart smiled as he spoke to Linley. “Linley, is there something you need?”
Linley had not yet calmed down.
“Grandpa Doehring, just now, I entered a foggy gorge. I didn’t expect the place to be brimming with magical beasts. There was a Green Tattooed Python there, and huge crawling creatures. I didn’t get a good look at them, but in terms of size, they definitely were not any smaller than a Velocidragon. There were Dragonhawks there as well… and I could tell that this was in just a small portion of the gorge. I have no idea how large the entirety of the Foggy Gorge was.”
Thinking back, Linley felt a surge of fear again. He had actually stumbled into such a gathering spot for magical beasts in that gorge.
“Oh?”
Doehring Cowart seemed rather surprised. “This Foggy Gorge had so many magical beasts? Interesting. Generally speaking, only magical beasts of the same type will gather together, but the magical beasts you just mentioned were all of different types. They actually all gathered together in this Foggy Gorge? Interesting. How interesting. If I were still alive, I would most likely go inside and take a look myself.”
Linley shook his head helplessly and laughed, “That gorge even contained Blueheart Grass. There was one patch that I didn’t have time to gather. I was only able to gather one.”
“Blueheart Grass?” Doehring Cowart’s eyes lit up. “Any place where Blueheart Grass can grow definitely is no ordinary place. There definitely must be some sort of precious treasure within that Foggy Gorge, or perhaps some extremely powerful magical beast, such as a magical beast of the ninth rank, or even a Saint-level magical beast. However… “
Doehring Cowart began to frown. “Generally speaking, powerful magical beasts are very territorial. If there was a powerful magical beast there, they probably wouldn’t permit creatures like Dragonhawks and Green Tattooed Pythons to live there as well.”
“But Dragonhawks, Green Tattooed Pythons, and those huge crawling beasts you mentioned are all able to live there together? Bizarre. How bizarre.” Doehring Cowart couldn’t understand either. This Foggy Gorge seemed to be full of contradictions.
Linley laughed. “Grandpa Doehring, don’t overthink it. When I become a magus of the seventh rank, I’ll be able to use the ‘Soaring Technique’. At that time, we’ll come for another investigation.
Upon becoming a magus of the seventh rank, his Earthguard would have reached the level of generating jadestone armor. The additional speed granted by the Supersonic spell would also dramatically improve. By then, Linley would have full confidence in his ability to deal with the Dragonhawks. And with the ability to use the Soaring Technique to fly, Linley would be able to easily enter and leave the gorge.
“Magus of the seventh rank? You are only a magus of the fifth rank right now. You have a long way to go.” Doehring Cowart said, pouring cold water over Linley’s enthusiasm.
In his heart, Linley knew this as well.
Perhaps becoming a magus of the sixth rank wouldn’t be too hard, but there was a huge gap between the sixth rank and the seventh rank.
“All roads are traversed one step at a time.” Linley smiled. “It’s been about two months since I entered the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. It is about time for me to go back. It’ll take several days to get back anyhow. I’ll use that time to do some more training.”