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Seth Chapter 71
🕑 Added 2024-02-28 15:15:24 +0000 UTCChapter 71
The Stormweavers ruins were deep into the mountainous terrains, down a ridge to the side of them. It was a few miles away from the city and fortunately, they found a carriage that took them to the base of it.
Travelling there took a few hours and in it, Seth checked his armour and weapons as well as the guide that Kalrus had given him.
Once they started climbing the ridge, Seth kept on a lookout for monsters. The closer they moved towards the ruins, the worse he felt.
He couldn't pinpoint whether it was the increasing mana density or his instincts were warning him about a monster.
“Do adventurers come here often?” He asked, looking up at the treacherous slope as loose scree scrunched under his boots. “I didn't see a lot of people down at the base.”
“For a long time, yes,” she muttered, the wind pulling back on her cloak. “A lot of people used to move inside of it to find treasures, but it's been so long that most of the valuable things have been stripped away, and you only get monsters and traps. So, the number of people entering it had significantly decreased overtime. I don't think we will cross paths with anyone.”
“That's good to know.”
The last thing he needed was for people to realise they have the location of a hidden path. If he could, he wanted to find the Weather Staff and return by afternoon tomorrow, but he doubted it was going to be that simple.
“According to the map Kalrus gave us, we would have to move underground,” he said.
“There are few remains of the buildings, but there's one that has stairs leading down. I think the bandits used that one.”
He nodded and they kept on walking for an hour or two, stopping from time to time to look over for any monsters before continuing again.
Finally, they came up to an outcropping that led down to the ruins and made a stop. Seth stared at the ruins which were more or less, broken down yellow buildings that seemed to have stood for centuries.
A lot of them were simply stone slabs, but others seemed to be in better shape.
As he watched over them, he soon noticed something else. Along the boundaries of the stone slabs, unfamiliar monsters stood.
They were like an amalgamation of black rats mixed with muscles and a hulking frame. With beady black eyes and a curved back, they stood on two legs and were easily as big as Seth, if not bigger.
Hulking Scatterer - Level 25
There were five of them in total, ranging from Level 21 to 25. Three of them seemed to be resting in front of a stone slab while the others were walking around, scratching their claws on trees.
“I have fought them before,” Rebecca said, standing beside him. “A lot of them gather around the ruins, so the academy sometimes holds exterminations against them. They are mostly not fast enough and get taken down easily with offensive magic.”
“What about a dagger?”
“I think that will work too. Attack the area around the neck. The patches around the fur are an easy way to kill them.”
He nodded his head before looking back to the ruins. His eyes stopped at one of the bigger buildings with an open entrance. The roof of it was broken, but a large part was still standing.
He could look at the stairs that seemed to be there from the gaps.
We need to go inside, but sneaking inside won't be possible with the scatterers around.
He thought before coming to a decision. Looking at Rebecca, it seems like she was thinking the same thing.
“I would go over to the ruins and land on top of a building before taking them by the neck. If I'm lucky, I will be able to take two of them until they notice us.”
“Let's do that.”
They took a small break as they watched out for any more monsters that might be in the vicinity. When they found no one, Seth took the lead in descending, watching to hide behind large rocks before vaulting and landing on one of the buildings.
The scatterers didn't seem to have a clue about him as he whipped closer and craned his neck to look over one of them. Another one chewed on a rock in the distance.
Turning to look, he saw Rebecca taking a position in the distance and nodded at her.
Pulling out his dagger, he took a deep breath and jumped down, using Backstab as his dagger dug into the patches around its neck. The hulking scatterer had no way of defending itself and it cried out in pain as Seth's dagger tore through his flesh.
Blood splattered as the monster fell on the ground, squirming.
Seth stabbed it again before conjuring up one blade to launch towards a scatterer that stood in a distance and was heading his way.
The blade dug into its neck at a breakneck speed and he took the opportunity to send another stab towards his chest that did less damage than expected.
It seemed like the fur was far sturdier than expected in certain areas.
“Seth, look back!”
Rebecca's voice called him from the back and he turned around just in time to jump over a charging hulking scatterer. Another slashed its claws from the side, but only hit a barrier.
Taking a breath, Seth took a few steps back to stand besides Rebecca, looking at the three hulking scatterers that surrounded them. One of them was dead and another was in the process, but the rest looked angry.
“Protect me,” he said. “I will deal with them.”
He leapt up as a claw came for his face. Vaulting over the monster, he slashed at his neck as another scatterer charged up at him only to hit its head on a barrier. It stumbled back in pain as Seth sent a few blades towards it.
Like that, he kept slashing up at the scatterers and jumping around. They were tall, but he was far more quick. His blade slashed through their fur and Rebecca did the rest with her barriers holding them in at one place.
In the end, only one of them was left who tried to grab Seth and flung him, but one Savage Flurry was enough for him to take its head.
As soon as it fell on the floor, notifications rang out.
You have defeated a Level 23 Hulking Scatterer!
You have gotten experience!
You have defeated a Level 25 Hulking Scatterer!
Looking up at the notifications, he frowned. No level up this time. It seemed like it was the opposite with Rebecca as she was smiling, seeing something in the air.
Noticing his gaze, she grinned, “Got to Level 27!”
“So, very soon, you will be ranked 3.”
“Yes, I'm hoping to take my time with it. I don't want to deal with some strong monster inside,” she said, looking up at the entrance to the stairs.
Both of them looked at each other before walking towards it before any more monster arrived. The stairs descending down looked very identical to what he had seen back at the Tunnels of Grithza. He could only hope that there were no lizards or rats inside.
Going by the map Kalrus had given them and the instructions on it, they might be dealing with undead and other protectors that were guarding the place.
They descended down the steps as Rebecca used a forceball as a source of light.
“I have never been here, but from what I have heard, we need to look at where we step. I don't want to foot down a trap,” she whispered as they walked.
Few minutes passed by before the stairs ended, revealing a long tunnel with vines covering parts of it.
Rebecca hovered around the forceball on parts of it, and he saw more vines going down a narrow path. A few bones seemed to be scattered around too, making him wonder if they were from a human or an undead.
When they saw no monsters up ahead, they started walking.
The path around the tunnels was quiet and going by the map, there wasn't going to be any danger around here. The tunnels were anyway too narrow to have a battle in and the ceiling was almost hitting his head.
Thankfully, they soon saw light after turning around for a while. Stepping out of the tunnel, Seth widened his eyes at the room they found themselves in.
“It's huge,” Rebecca muttered next to him.
The cold stone floor laid out in front of them with dust all over it. Footprints were displayed on top of them haphazardly, probably made by people who had been here before. They seem old enough that he didn't need to worry about someone else being here.
Moss and vines covered the walls and the room was big enough for them to play soccer here.
There didn't seem to be any monsters around and two doors were situated on the other side.
Checking up the guide Kalrus had given them, Seth pointed at the door on the left, “We need to take that. Keep an eye out for traps, even though I don't think they will be a problem.”
He looked at the footsteps and they simply followed them. Most of the traps in the ruins were activated by stepping onto something, so they avoided it easily and got to the door.
From there, it was an easy way till the hidden path.
Since the ruins were already ransacked and old, a lot of the traps weren't working. He also saw a lot of undead monsters on the floor as they skipped each room.
Since the ruins weren't a dungeon, the monsters guarding it were fairly limited in quality.
For rooms that still had monsters, both of them simply avoided them, using the guide to fill use.
Finally, they stood in front of the hidden path that led to the Weather Staff.
“You sure this is it?” Rebecca asked, squinting her eyes at the crack on the wall in front of them.
They were in a small room with empty treasure cheats laid out on a platform. Next to it, a crack had formed in the wall which seemed to lead to the hidden path.
“Yes, the guide points to it. It seems narrow enough for us to move in it and I see light on the other side.”
“You want to go first?” she asked.
“Sure.”
Seth nodded and took one last look at the room. He still felt a bit odd in the place, but he didn't focus much on it and took the plunge into the jagged maw of the fissure.
He twisted his body to fit in and slowly made his way to the other side. Rocks brushed against his shoulders and arms, making him move faster to get out of the narrow zone.
Finally, after a few minutes, he saw the end and put a foot outside the crack before lowering his head to exit.
“Seth, are you okay?” Rebecca asked, shifting her body in the crack to escape rocks jutting out at her legs.
“Yes, just keep moving.”
He said before turning away from the hole in the wall and dusting off his cloak.
Raising his eyes, he saw that he was in a room even bigger than the first one with a stone floor divided in black and white patterns. Chandeliers stood on the ceilings and walls seemed to be covered in moss and vines.
The whole room felt hot, but he ignored it as his eyes glued to what stood in the centre of the room.
It was a monument that stood 12 feet tall and was made up of grey stones with long arms and legs. It held an axe in one of them and its head was in a square shape with two glass circles for eyes.
“That's a…” Rebecca said, her words trailing as she appeared next to him.
“A stone golem.”
He completed her sentence as both of them looked at the golden. It seemed to look at their directions, but didn't seem to be active.
“I think we are safe,” Rebecca said, taking a step into the room, but just then, a loud screeching voice rang out as the golem moved.
“Intruders Detected!”
It spoke, its voice harsh and grating.
“Oh fuck!” Seth cursed out
