186 The Ancient Relic
—–
What could the demons be after? Shade had thought about it for a while, until he decided to share his thoughts with Allan. He had already made up a plan to bring the people out, but the major danger was now in what they were trying to take away from this place.
After all, this jungle wasn’t just a plain old place where nature flourished and that was it... No, it was way more than that. It wasn’t considered a sanctuary that not even the other human Kingdoms dared to touch for no reason.
“They’re after the core...” said Shade.
The core.
A name that made Allan rise an eyebrow in curiosity, the young man didn’t knew what it was.
“The core?” asked Allan.
Shade sighed in disappointment over his friend’s bad memory, he really didn’t remember the most basic of things sometimes.
He quickly told him what he knew about “the core” while Allan heard attentively.
.....
“Don’t tell me you even forgot this, don’t you? Aside from protecting the Amazon, there is something very important guarded in the depths of this jungle, the ruins of the ancient God Civilization...” sighed Shade.
Allan’s face slowly changed from confused to serious in a few seconds, realizing that “the core” was something of a treasure related with the Gods themselves, and the ancient civilization they once had in the surface of the world, long ago.
Similarly to the continent of Cloudia, this Jungle was an important area of this place, a place that was once populated by these Gods.
“The Civilization of the Gods... You’re right, it was so long ago I almost forgot... When we explored this place... Those ruins where we stopped that Demon from getting into, where Ninhursag told us to not step into...” said Allan.
“Yes, those ruins... The ones behind the waterfall...” said Shade.
“That’s... Did you ever explored that place? I know that you and Nepheline have spent more time here and all of us...” muttered Allan.
“Yes, we went there a few years ago. We have decided to protect this place not only because of Nepheline’s tribe, but because of the ruins of the Gods. We received their oracles asking us to protect those ruins with everything we had...” said Shade.
“So they did that?” asked Allan.
Shade nodded as he looked at Allan.
“The core that I talked about, you remember a bit of that, right?” asked Shade.
“The core...” said Allan.
Allan didn’t knew much about it, but from what he knew, the core was a special artifact left by the Gods, an incredible artifact capable of holding an incredible amount of magic power. Anyone that could get their hands on it would instantly become someone incredibly powerful, and it is said that the power of the gods themselves could be achieved by obtaining it.
“So they really want that...” said Allan.
“They want to get into the ruins and probably steal it, their forces and all... It is made to distract us, but I got my spirits guarding the entrance, they cannot get there easily. They probably will try to attack the Amazon Tribe so we are distracted guarding it, and then, move there, I bet...” said Shade.
“So what do you plan to do? I would guess you want to bring the people with us before doing anything else?” asked Allan.
“Yes, we are moving them out... We’ll have to face more of these monsters, they’re infesting the entire jungle by now, it will be harsh... If we had teleportation magic, things would be easier but its hard to come by with a teleportation stone strong enough to teleport so many people.” Said Shade.
“At most we can use summons and other things to carry them all...” said Allan.
“Yeah, but that’s about it...” said Shade.
“Then let’s begin, how long will the preparations take?” asked Allan.
“I have calculated that roughly a week... It will take its time, we have to be alert for any danger though...” said Shade.
“Got it.” said Allan.
As the two stood up once more to walk back to the village, they suddenly noticed a blue slime wandering around, devouring the corpses of all the goblins they ate, and then the cores as well, while slowly gaining small boosts of power...
It was a bit off-putting to see, but instead of attacking they realized it was the slime friend that the girls had tamed...
What was it doing here?
“Is that Pyuku?” asked Allan.
“So you don’t remember anything else, but you can clearly remember this monster’s name?” asked Shade.
“Well... they brought it yesterday.” Said Allan.
“Pyuuu!”
Shade quickly grabbed Pyuku by shaping his shadows into a large claw.
“What are you doing here, slime? You’re planning something?” asked Shade while squinting his eyes.
“Pyuuuuu...”
Pyuku was being pressed rather tightly and felt that it was slowly asphyxiating.
“Oi! Don’t be so rough with the creature, it is friendly and the girls like it, leave it be.” Said Allan.
“But isn’t it weird that it showed up out of nowhere?” asked Shade.
“Well, let’s bring it back, maybe the kids got an explanation.” Said Allan.
“Okay...” said Shade.
The duo quickly walked back home, as Pyuku was trapped in between shadows and wasn’t freed by Shade until they reached the village.
“Here’s your slime, it ran away.” Said Shade.
“Pyuuu...”
Pyuku felt like it could melt away, Shade was really rough at carrying him around.
“Pyuuuuku!” said Aquarina.
“You brought him back! Thanks...” said Sylph.
The two girls grabbed the slime, as Pyuku sighed in relief that it was being carried around.
“Please don’t go around like that again! It was very dangerous! What if you end up dying or something?” asked Aquarina.
“Pyuu!” said Pyuku.
“Yeah, yeah! What if an accident happens?” asked Sylph angrily.
“Pyuuukuuu...” sighed Pyuku, it seemed to be apologizing.
“He is very hungry, he ate all the corpses left by us...” said Allan.
“He ate every single goblin, I never thought there would be something so gluttonous before...” said Shade.
“Pyuu, pyuu!”
Pyuku was certainly a rather mysterious monster, but it seemed to be kind-hearted, and the heroes didn’t felt any threatening aura nor bad intention from him.
—–
Follow current novℯls on f(r)eewebnov𝒆l