The Record of Unusual Creature

Looking at the suspicious dents on the cliff, Becky stared at them for quite a long time without speaking.

“Those rock monsters probably split from the cliff,” Y’zaks frowned, feeling some of the mysterious forces around him, “There is a very weak force coming from the depths of the earth, the mountain is the vent of this power.”

“There were four of them on the east side of the mountain, but there must be more rock monsters out there. We don’t know where the rest of them are now.” Vivian’s tone was tense, and the fact that the cliff caved and a whole bunch of rock monsters could possibly rush out of the mountains reminded her of the Mythological Era on Earth. She was sure this was going to be a disaster— because she had witnessed many similar catastrophes before. “Becky, who should we report to?”

They could not solve the situation in front of them by themselves so, the first task was to inform the “relevant department” in this world, but Vivian did not know who could deal with such a thing.

“The Disciples of Glory… or the Knights of the Kingdom.” Becky had been in a daze since the beginning and now, she finally woke up from it. With cold sweat on her forehead, she spoke hastily, “Let’s go back now! We need to inform the Knights of Leyton Town!”

No one dared to delay and they quickly ran down the hill. Hao Ren found that Becky was in a panic from head to toe and he realized that this kind of incident was unprecedented in The Plane of Dreams. He asked, “You’ve never heard of rock monsters being on Dragonspine Ridge?”

“No!” Becky said loudly to stay calm. “Never has any kind of big monster appeared in the mountains, let alone rock monsters! This must be related to the disappearance of the Orb, I’m afraid the goddess will…”

Becky was afraid to continue. As a native, the tale of the destruction of their world by the goddess, and the atonement of humankind were deeply rooted in her mind. Not to mention, the job of a mercenary was precarious. Therefore, she was quite superstitious. In her mind, there was a secret and ancient connection between the Beinz Blood Lake, Dragonspine Ridge, and the Orb of the Holy Synod. These connections made her even more tempted to associate the situation with a bad course of events.

“Don’t worry too much,” Hao Ren comforted Becky. “Even if the sky is falling, we have Y’zaks here. The Church and those important individuals within the Knights will find a way.”

Becky looked at Hao Ren gratefully and said, “Although I don’t know where your weird words come from, they sound quite reasonable. Thank you.”

Y’zaks, the tallest one in the team, could not help but draw back his neck. Even he felt that Hao Ren was truly not very good at comforting people.

Going down the mountain was much faster than going up the mountain, and with them rushing at full speed, they finally left the mountain range before sunset. They set foot on an old, wide path, which led them straight to Leyton Town.

In the fading daylight, Hao Ren saw a lavender glow, rising from the earth in the far distance. He did not know what it was.

“It looks like a town-level defensive barrier.” Becky saw the lavender glow. It was uncertain if she looked relieved or worried. “The town’s activated the defense, I’m afraid the rock monsters have…”

Hao Ren mounted the horse and said, “Don’t say anymore, let’s go!”

Everybody mounted their horses and rushed away. The urgent situation compelled the foolish Lily to make more errors. She could not mount the horse after trying many times. In the end, she could only give up and barked loudly. She carried her horse and rushed all the way to catch up with them. So basically it looked like this: Hao Ren, Vivian, and Becky were riding horses and rushing in front of the team, the fierce-looking Y’zaks was running wildly behind them, while Lily was carrying the horse and running madly at the back of the team, with sand and stones flying around her. It was chaos. If not for the wrong timing, Hao Ren would have to stopped and recorded Lily. What was the use of this horse?! They might as well have let her run with Y’zaks from the beginning!

After rushing all the way, Leyton, the small town at the foot of the mountain finally appeared in front of them.

This town was slightly smaller than Lamberg, built according to the shape of the mountain. It was located in the middle of a canyon terrain, and this valley was the key road to the Gnarled Grove. It was obvious that the town was built specifically to guard this thoroughfare. Large tracts of lavender light curtains hung from the sky like a waterfall, which sealed both ends of the valley.

On the open ground in front of the valley, there were traces of battle.

The originally flat, triangular rocky beach was still littered with blast pits. Green smoke was still coming out from the pits. Broken swords and fragments of various equipment were scattered everywhere. There were a lot of cracked, dark brown stones scattered on the ground within hundreds of metres of the town entrance, some of which were still slightly trembling. They were probably the remains of the rock monsters.

Large-scale combat spells seemed to have been used at the site. Strange magical energies still remained in the air. Plenty of glimmering, tiny air masses or energy sparks were floating about half a metre above the ground. They were momentary magical life. Although the Disciples of Glory believed that these magical remnants were just ordinary energy reactions, far from being “life”, old-fashioned wizards, especially those from the steeple factions, still called them “magical life” in accordance with their customary tradition.

The battle was just over, and Hao Ren could smell a lot of strange smells in the air, but it seemed that Leyton Town was not damaged by the raids of rock monsters. It was after all, the stronghold that guarded the Beinz Blood Lake, stationed with elite troops, which were far beyond imagination. Obviously, the lavender beams of light that enveloped the whole valley were not created by ordinary people.

In front of the town, a number of half-curved bunkers, built with huge rocks and steel, were urgently being molded by battlefield mages. Just before Hao Ren and the rest reached the bunkers, more than 10 heavily armed knights jumped out of the bunkers. One of the tall men who did not wear a helmet shouted. He looked stronger than the others. “Who are you? Report your identity!”

Becky reined in the horses and dismounted lightly. She shouted before she touched the ground. “Don’t be nervous. We’re humans, not rock monsters!”

The town guards were a little jittery. The surreal battle earlier left them in a state of extreme nervousness. And now, the sky had become increasingly dark, therefore, a group of unidentified strangers suddenly running to them from the mountains made them too nervous. The guards were relieved after Becky spoke to them, but the officer was still pointing nervously to something behind Hao Ren. “What’s that monster over there?”

Hao Ren paused, then turned to see Lily, who was holding her horse, running towards them…

“You are the monster! All of you are monsters!” Lily put down the innocent pony that was frightened by her and shouted with her hands on her waist.

“Oh, it’s a werewolf. What great strength.” The officer stared at Lily for some time, and finally put down his weapon in embarassment. He apologized. “Sorry, I have night blindness.”

Hao Ren was speechless.

Was it really okay for a guy like that to be the sentry captain?

He did not know that the big fellow was also a temporary replacement. The real sentry captain was still lying in the town’s hospital.

Becky came to the sentry captain and said, “We are a mercenary group. We just came from the mountains. We have something important to report to the Knights! Or, the head of the church… Anyway, the official in the highest position in the town, right now!”

When the sentry captain heard this, he could guess what had happened to them in the mountain. He quickly sent a man to find the border mage to unblock the entrance while he looked nervously at the direction of the mountains, and asked, “Is—is it something related to the monster?”

Becky nodded and did not speak.

The protective barrier over the town was maintained by the small church in the middle of town. No one dared to shut it down at such a critical period. However, there were some energy node devices which had been put together on the outskirts of the town. The border mages could temporarily open some passages for people to enter and exit through the barrier by controlling these devices. Soon, they got permission to enter the town. A man with a straight face, dressed in robes flew out of the town and said, “I was instructed to bring you to the rector. It’s an emergency now, the whole town is under martial law. Don’t leave my sight until the rector gives you full permission. I hope you can understand.”

It was a reasonable request. All of them nodded. Then, they followed the serious man in black robes into Leyton Town, which was already in a state of alert.