Chapter 22: Encounter With a Venomous Beauty
Once he reached the sandy shores, Edmund lay on his back his gaze fixed on the silhouette of the big guy far above.
A PROLONGED SIGH OF RELIEF.
He finally had time to know what the strange sounds he had been hearing were about.
"Beauty Goddess, that was really annoying. How could you whisper into someone’s ears while in the middle of a deadly battle? Did you want me to die?"
The Goddess of Beauty didn’t respond.
"Trying to ignore me, eh? You know I can come inside there and teach you a lesson, right? You better tell me now!"
"Take it easy, tough guy! I’m not trying to ignore you. You seem to be having many questions you want to ask at the same time. That’s why I’m only trying to let you finish so I can answer them in one go. I mean, there’s only one answer for all of them."
Edmund wanted to hear what it was.
"I’m done!"
"OK! The answer is this, I’m not the one who whispered to you. It’s the..."
Edmund cut her off.
"Don’t play with me, goddess! You might regret it in our next lesson."
Edmund thought she was trying to play with his mind. Though whispers sounded nothing like her voice, he was sure no one else could have spoken to him internally. Perhaps, she could change her voice too.
However, what could have been her intention to do so? Edmund didn’t understand.
The goddess giggled.
"Hehe! Though I would like to regret it, I was not the one who had whispered to you. I’m not lying. It’s the AI."
Edmund was about to ask himself how the Artificial Intelligence had reached into his mind when he remembered about the Almighty Interpreter. Could it be...
Hell yeah! The voice sounded like when his father gave him the Transport Portal. He should have noticed it.
Come to think of it, the Almighty Interpreter was the referee for the war of gods. Since both him and the Infected Monsters had a god’s blood flowing in their veins, AI considered them the followers of gods fighting for their gods hence announcing the winner and the rewards.
’Damn!’
With that, Edmund thought of opening Almighty Interpreter to see all about it. With that, mysterious runes appeared in front of him, displaying a screen of a kind he had never seen before.
With the most colour being dark brown as if written on a paper, Edmund saw his name. The language was not something he had ever seen, but the original Edmund knew how to read it.
Name: Edmund Drumline
Bloodlines: None
Rank: Follower.
Pigment Pot: Active.
Legacies: 3
Replicas: —
Attributes: —
Aspect: [Arcane Trickster].
Aspect Description: [A trickster is someone who feeds on tricks, starving when his opponents are too much of fools to get tricked. Most people, especially powerful ones, are fools. They are too strong to care about logic. Even the monsters are like that. You’re simply a dead meat.]
...
’What the fuck!’
That was confusing and without any logic. When one is powerful, discerning tricks is a sure thing. About monsters, if not by tricks, Edmund wouldn’t have defeated the Ruby Wolves.
Also, if he was a master of tricks, he didn’t think he was a dead meat. Was there any hidden meaning to the Almighty Interpreter’s words?
After a series of cursing and insulting the AI, Edmund spent a few more minutes studying the information in front of him, his mind getting weaker and weaker thanks to how confusing and unjust everything seemed to be.
He also felt dizzy and tired from a two-day journey through the deserted fields, not to mention the battle minutes ago.
Luckily, he had a Goddess to turn to. Fishing a candy from the brown pillow under his head, Edmund asked, "Does it mean once I kill a monster my Pigment will become more powerful?"
Her answer was only two words.
"Of course!"
"Why don’t people from the Drumline Castle come hunting then?"
If people could become more powerful by killing monsters and earn some replicas and legacies, why didn’t people do it?
That was in human nature. Even the anime he used to watch were like that. There would be hunters, hunting monsters and treasures.
"They do!" Answered the goddess.
Edmund was confused but this opened his other memories. Once a month, the strongest hunters at the Drumline Castle gather and set out, killing any monster near their settlement.
That’s why Edmund had to traverse this long to encounter the first monsters. The hunters had whipped them out.
Nevertheless, this didn’t make it less confusing. When in search of power, some crazy people can even go alone to hunt as many monsters as they can to grow powerful and become more influential. Covering long distances in search of monsters would not be a problem for hunters.
"That’s how it’s like in other places," explained the Goddess of Beauty who could hear his thoughts. "Places like Flaming Realms and Nexus Regions are like that."
"People hunt every second and minute to collect as many Pigment Pots as they can. Around the Drumline Castle, there is nothing to attract Infected Monsters there. Monsters are few. That’s why they gather once a month to hunt those who have gone rogue."
Edmund was yet to feel satisfied.
"Why don’t they make a journey into the places where monsters are abundant then?"
"That’s how the Patriarch’s brother died. It was common and allowed back then. When he perished with all the hunters he was with, the Patriarch forbade anyone from his castle to go out. His population was too little to allow another person to die or leave."
"OK! Now I understand!"
Edmund knew better not to rush things. Almighty Interpreter was not something he could learn on a whim. He was sure things would get clearer and clearer by time. Surviving was the only way to buy that time. So, despite feeling dizzy, he rose to his feet.
"Time to know what kind of a sick joke this lake and plants are."
His eyes landed on a narrow river where the water seemed to be coming from. As his gaze followed the thin river, he soon saw flowers, a wide entrance to a cave that was as wide and bright as the outside coming into his view.
’Interesting!’
With unsteady slow steps which were reminiscent of how sore his feet were and how numb his entire body felt, Edmund approached the entrance and entered without a second thought.
His gaze fell on several apple trees, orange trees... too many plants, too many flowers and too strong a sweet fragrance.
His vision was blurred by mental fatigue, but he could tell they were real.
Could he have found another Dungeon of Desires?
’So interesting!’
However much beautiful the view in front of his eyes looked, he didn’t feel comfortable. He felt like something bad would happen to him.
Because, with how neat everything seemed, there was no doubt that the cave had an owner. Someone or something that could kill him for invading its territories.
Nevertheless, he didn’t stop. Instead, his steps became more cautious and light, almost silent as his boots kept landing on the rock floor.
Like a swat member entering a criminal’s den, Edmund looked here and there, not forgetting to look above him where a crack in the ground had created an opening, so long and wide for the sunlight to pass through it and brighten the whole cave.
Soon, still following the thin river, sounds like the ones he used to hear whenever he would turn on his shower back on earth assaulted his ears. It was as if...
’Oh Gods!’
Edmund was about to say that it was as if there was a waterfall nearby when an awe-inspiring view of a waterfall came into his view. He would have taken another step if not for the creature taking a bath inside the waterfall.
The Goddess of Beauty didn’t take long to react to the unexpected encounter.
"That’s a Venomous Beauty!"
"A venomous what? I can’t..."
His words stuck in his throat when the naked creature suddenly turned around, piercing him with a gaze that carried killing intent.
’I’m doomed!’
