Chapter 44: To Protect (2)

Never had I thought that there would come a day when I will have to think about the wellbeing of a bunch of monsters. In the first place, wasn’t I summoned to this world to slay these monsters?

The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. However, after getting reborn as a monster and forming various bonds with the monsters, I felt protective of these newfound friends. Perhaps calling them a friend was stretching it a bit too much. Nonetheless, I didn’t want anything to happen to them.

Ever so silently, I followed behind the two warriors. At the same time, I concentrated on their conversation. After listening for a while, I found it very interesting and wanted to know more about what they were talking. After all, it was not every day I get to hear some intense discussions about the matters involving the outside world.

“Who do you think the fifth princess was supporting?” One of the armored knights asked as they walked deeper into the floor. Since I couldn’t see their physical appearance due to their full-body armor, I decided to call them Knight A and Knight B, respectively. The one who asked the question was the knight with a blue-painted shield. He was Knight A.

“Maybe be the first prince.” Knight B, who had a yellow shield strapped to his back, replied after thinking about it for a bit. His voice was a bit deeper than Knight A. Although I was no expert, from my experience, I could tell that Knight B was older than Knight A. After a brief pause, he continued, “Compared to the second prince, he would be easier to control.”

“Control!? You mean the princess wanted to establish a puppet emperor?” Knight A asked in surprise as his volume increased by a few decibels. I couldn’t see his face, but I was pretty sure he must have sported an expression of extreme surprise. Forget about him, after hearing it even I was surprised. I haven’t expected to witness a talk about a classic drama-esque reality. I felt excited the more I listened to their conversation.

“Yeah. Everyone knows that the first prince’s mother didn’t hold any power in her family. Moreover, Dura Family is already boarding the fifth princess’s ship. They would support her more than him, as they knew who would bring them more benefits. Most likely, she had chosen the first prince for that reason only.” Knight B said.

I fought hard to suppress a gasp of surprise that threatened to leave my mouth. The plot and story were surprisingly similar to how TV-drama goes. But I still didn’t know why they were here, and I hoped they would talk about that, giving me some vital info. The political matters of the outside world do not concern me. As long as they keep out of this place, I won't feel the need to even care about it.

“By the way, I heard there is an orc living in this place. What do you think about that?” Knight B asked as they strode into the forest. By now, they passed through the long dark tunnel and entered the forest that marked the inner layer of the first floor. My ears perked as I began listening attentively.

“Yeah, those Owl Bandits claimed that they met an orc here. However, I am not buying it.” Knight A said firmly. I frowned as I heard Logier getting exposed. I must be those men who escaped that time who spread this news. I was also glad that they didn’t believe the news. It gave us an advantage in the form of a surprise element. Since they didn’t believe in the rumor, that’s all the good.

Initially, I only planned to scare them away. I changed that kind of naïve thinking after hearing about how those humans before them spread the news. No one believed them probably because they were bandits with a bad reputation. But these guys were soldiers to whom everyone will belive. I didn’t know how to deal with this.

I couldn’t kill them here as it would put us in more trouble. Those people outside would run away and come back with more people to deal with us. With Logier and other’s strength and intelligence, they couldn’t survive an organized charge of well equipped and armed humans. I have to protect them.

By now, I was already walking behind them, but these guys were yet to realize my presence. I just realized then that the passive Shadow Meld was just too sick. Even when I was walking right behind them, they weren’t able to discover me. My confidence in my abilities soared to a new height. These things were all new to me; therefore, every little source of confidence was indispensable.

The two armored knights strode into the forest, searching for their target, namely, the goblins. Their conversation also stropped. Back then, when I was dealing with the hobgoblin, a message in the form of tip appeared, saying that I should avoid getting spotted. Then recalling that time when I pulled that man into the nightmare realm by using the skill Nightmare Manifest, I had an idea that I wanted to test out.

I pointed my index finger at the back of the man’s head and whispered, “Nightmare Manifest.” I did it twice, aiming at the two guys consecutively. Suddenly my vision swam as I found myself in a strange forest. It was strenge because, in place of lush greenery, what greeted me was charred remains of what once should be a beautiful landscape. In front of me, the two men were standing with glazed eyes.

Nightmare Manifest Succeeded.

The target will be under your effect for 10 seconds.

Diego Brooks (Human)

Lv 2 Warrior

HP: 500/500 MP: 90/90

Nightmare Manifest Succeeded.

The target will be under your effect for 15 seconds.

Jimmy Rees (Human)

Lv 1 Warrior

HP: 450/450 MP: 50/50

As the two notification appeared before me, I let out a sigh in relief. This whole time, I had my Infrared Vision activated. From the moment I used my skill to the time when this notification appeared, I had observed every minute detail. Needless to say, my prediction was correct. The moment I activated the skill, a thick ‘magic sword’ manifested from the tip of the finger and zoomed at their backs.

As soon as it reached their heart region, the yellow energy un their bodies formed a barrier of sorts that tried to resist the sword. However, the yellow barrier did nothing to stop the advance of my skill’s manifested sword. And then I realized why I had failed to plant a Nightmare Seed into the goblin lord.

Before I could think more of the situation, a barrage of information appeared in my head. It was about a monster born from an active volcano. It had insane strength and could spat out flames as hot as the volcano itself. No matter where it goes, the area around would be burned to charcoal just from the mere presence of it.

Jimmy Rees was an inhabitant of Santum Village which located at the foot of a huge mountain. When he was eleven years old, his village was burned to the crisp by this monster. In that fire, his parents and nearly all his relatives died. This event scarred him for life as he still had nightmares about it.

I looked down on my body as I went through this new memory. My body was made of burning red embers. I didn’t have a face, but two black dots were acting as my eyes. As for my height, it was huge. From my position, I saw the two humans look like six years old children to me.

“What! What happened?” And then suddenly the two guys came to their senses. Seeing the greenery turned into a burnt wasteland, they frowned. From their perspective, they only blinked and lost focus for a few seconds. They couldn’t understand how such changes occoured in that short time frame.

Diego, who was Knight B, turned around and found me standing behind him and did a double-take, accompanied by a horrified scream. As for Knight A, who was Jimmy Rees, he was already statued by my presence. The current me was directly out of his scariest nightmares, no matter how courageous he was, he wasn’t going to stand his ground any time soon.

“Shit! We have fallen to an illusion! There is an illusion monster here.” Contrary to my expectations, Diego instantly realized he was in an illusion. It was a testament to his rich experience in dealing with such situations. He unsheathed his sword and jumped at me.

Unfortunately for him, this was my realm. Here, I’m the god. The moment it came closer to me, I swatted him away like swatting a fly. My palms were half of his body’s size, the moment it tocuehd his armor, they made a sizzling sound and showed signs of melting. At the same time, despite having an ember body, I could interact physically with the man as I threw him away with that swat.

While he was busy removing his armor, I garbbed Jimmy Rees. Despite realizing this to be an illusion, Diego couldn’t do anything to break it. He could only struggle as he removed the half-molten armor from his body. I found this very intriguing. Knowing that he wasn’t going to come, for the time being, I gently touched Jimmy’s head and tried to use the skill Nightmare Seed.