"Siliat!"

The shouts of the people started to subside all of a sudden as the voice of a elderly woman rang out. A good thing, as I was getting pretty annoyed by all the fuss. The crowd parted, revealing an old lady heading towards me and Rocky, who had popped it's head out after the noise subsided.

"Arbas daun bea dea dooda umakota?"

The old woman stood before us, allowing me to get a good look at her. Wrinkles covered her entire face, reminding me of a wrinkled prune. She had spoken in a serene voice, in gibberish that I did not understand.

"I don't speak your language."

What, don't look at me like that! I said that only so she could get the hint that we spoke different languages!

The elderly woman's wrinkles deepened as she frowned, intensifying her prune-like appearance, and she shouted in a loud voice. A young man raised his hand and shouted something back, then ran off somewhere, the crowd letting him pass.

The crowd stood in a circle around me and Rocky, staring hard, making us feel very uncomfortable. Or at least it seemed that way to me, as Rocky was oddly quiet, not even flashing his orb with colours. It wasn't easy to tell the emotions of a featureless rock. On a side note, the lantern under my clothing was chaffing me, and the heat was making my abdomen covered in sweat.

In a minute or so, the crowd parted yet again, letting a thin old man who held a white book walk through.

The old man scrutinised both of us for seconds, before flashing a smile in greeting. I smiled back in a attempt to be polite, although I was sure it looked forced. He nodded his head, then raised the book in his hands, flipping it to a page and saying something aloud. I assumed he was reading something from the book.

"Ued ois truyer, peech grent! Arisdita avitas Xenon envork!"

The chant was very short, and I wondered if it was some sort of religious thing. Another odd thing was, he mentioned the name of a goddess I had heard of back in the village. I found out about the goddess when a bunch of delusional twits came knocking on the door of my house right smack in the middle of the night back then, preaching the name of Xenon. They got chased away by my cursing. My mother wasn't too pleased at my cursing, but who the fuck goes to spread their religion in the dead of the night like that?

A sudden white speck formed in mid air, making the people around us kneel and bow their heads to the ground. I was sure at this point that the people were worshipping some deity, but I didn't believe the speck to be summoned by a divine being. I had no idea how the old man conjured that illusion, but I was sure the old man did it as a fraud to gather faith for the religion.

The old man bowed to the speck, then reached into his pocket and threw out a multicoloured crystal into the speck of light causing both the light and the crystal to vanish without a trace. I was beyond shocked, how did he make it vanish completely without a trace just like that?

"Success! Great Xenon accept!"

The old man shouted ecstatically, in English to my shock.

"Praise Goddess!"

The crowd around me chanted as one, bowing yet again. Even the atheist that I was wondered if a goddess had really shown her divine favour for a second.

"Human communicate possible?"

Rocky said in a odd and gruff voice. It seemed that the translation wasn't that perfect, especially with simplistic languages.

"Speak fast. Goddess favour not last long!"

The old man said in a hurry. I had an urge to inquired about the book in his hands but I refrained. There wasn't much time to speak if what he said were to be trusted.

"Erreeerughhhh want know why human angry."

Rocky mumbled. His name was too long to remember and hard to pronounce, so I decided to call call him Rocky anyway.

It didn't take long to explain to Rocky what it had done wrong. Rocky removed the stone wall in a hurry apologising to the girl, who decided to forgive it.

As we spoke, a sudden tremor in the ground shook all of us for second, but not long enough to damage even the structures of the buildings however. It was like that time in the forest.

"What was that?"

I was curious why tremors would shake the ground deep underground, seemingly without reason.

"Bad many Treknuken monster attack mighty pillar cause shake! Mighty pillar soon collapse, make doom all!"

The old man seemed very agitated and uneased, him body trembling all over. I probed for more information from him and found out that a colony of monsters were drilling a huge pillar supporting the world above for mana crystals! I wondered if the pillar was like a artery, a huge vein of mana that branched out into smaller veins, spreading the mana to the surface more evenly.

Whatever it was, this was bad. If the pillar were to collapse, the capital and the villages were likely to be destroyed! Heck, I would be crushed here as well!

"Me curious, where come from you two?

The old man finally managed to push the conversation to the direction of what he originally wanted to ask.

"Me and the golem have come from the surface above."

"Surface hero from prophecy!"

He looked very excited at his conclusion. I was very confused by his sudden statement, me, a low ranked mage as a hero? If anything, the golem was more likely to be the one he was talking about. It wasn't pleasant thinking about how even a monster was better suited as a hero than I was.

"What prophecy?"

"Erreeerughhhh is hero?"

The old man answered our questions right after, talking about a prophecy given by the great goddess Xenon. The prophecy spoke of a powerful being from above that would save the pillar from destruction. From how enthusiastic he looked, I doubted he was faking the religious act. It made me wonder if some deities truly existed, from both his attitude and the response after the prayer.

The effect of the blessing wore off suddenly and we were unable to communicate properly yet again. The elderly man seemed frustrated, but beckoned towards us both, and we headed towards an unknown direction. He constantly spoke gibberish the whole time along the way, which was very annoying. Didn't he know we didn't understand a thing he said? Despite that, I could tell he was leading us towards the infested pillar, from him mentioning the word "Treknuken" a few times. It seemed the name of the monsters was not directly translated, remaining as the raw word.

Leading us for what seemed forever to me across a rocky terrain without life, we arrived before a gigantic pillar glowing blue. I was glad the pillar was glowing, else I wouldn't be able to even see it properly in the darkness. The pillar was so gigantic, I couldn't see the ends of it. However, something ruined it's majesty appearance.

I could see the vague figures of hundreds of monsters attacking the pillar with strange tools, having created countless holes already. Some of them carried bags of glowing blue crystals in a unknown direction.

"Seknok tey pestor Treknuken terrier!"

The old man shouted as he pointed at them. What amused me was that he almost seemed to be calling the Treknukens terriers. One of the Treknukens carrying a bag of blue crystals a distance away heard the old man, making a horrifying expression resembling a grin on it's face as it turned to head towards us. I smacked the idiotic old man in the face. Was he trying to get us killed? The old man looked shocked but didn't retort, laughing awkardly while making a guilty expression.

It was a good thing the Treknuken was confident enough to face us alone. As it neared us, I got a clear look at the terrifying creature.

The Treknuken was humanoid, but a lot more bulky than humans would be, and around three metres tall. Blue scales covered it's entire being, from it's bald head to toes. Many small but very sharp looking yellow spikes protruded all over it's body directly through the scales, and it's claws were tipped with very long and sharp yellow nails. Three black horns protruded from it's head, giving it a very monstrous vibe. It reminded me of the powerful demons depicted in legends, long extinct.

The demonic creature gave us a sinister look, making me and the old man cower in terror as it towered over us. Rocky was even more cowardly, hiding behind us two as if we were shields. Damned golem! You should be showing off your power at a time like this!

How the fuck where we supposed to fight this thing?