Chapter 318 - Ancient City
Theo watched the final soul disappear into a cloud of purple particles from a distance.
’That didn’t seem too difficult,’ he thought. ’Were they really the ’strongest’ C-ranks?’
Sure, Isabelle had struggled a bit due to a lack of control.
But Lucienne and Jim had easily dispatched theirs.
’’I thought they’d be stronger,’’ Feng admitted internally. ’’But it also helps that their light elements are perfect counters.’’
Theo nodded slowly.
With bodies purely made of curse mana, it was kind of to be expected.
Snapping out of his thoughts, he quickly raised his hand.
Everyone gathered back around him within seconds.
’’Alright,’’ he started seriously. ’’Good job, everyone.’’
’’Let’s keep moving now.’’
Everyone nodded right away.
With that, Theo took the lead and started moving towards the large opening.
But he’d just barely taken a few steps when hurried footsteps sounded behind him.
’’Yo, Theo.’’
Theo glanced back with a raised eyebrow.
Jim was catching up to him with an unusually strange expression on his face.
’’What’s up?’’
Jim scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
’’Those ghost thingies,’’ he started slowly. ’’They said something to me before they disappeared.’’
A slight frown appeared on Theo’s face.
’’They spoke?’’
’’Yeah,’’ Jim nodded enthusiastically. ’’Trust me, I definitely heard them speak.’’
’’No fucking clue what they said, though. It sounded like... Shakavara or something.’’
Theo’s brows furrowed deeply.
’Feng?’
The answer came almost immediately.
’’It is not particularly surprising,’’ Feng replied calmly. ’’The light mana purified the curse mana infesting their souls.’’
Theo’s expression shifted slightly.
’Purified?’ he repeated strangely. ’As in removed it?’
’’Yes,’’ the little unicorn said. ’’The words he heard were probably something the civilian said in his final moments after he was freed from the influence.’’
Theo fell silent right away.
A strange feeling started to set in his stomach, unsure of what to think.
With a forced smile, he turned back to Jim.
’’Don’t worry about it,’’ he said weakly. ’’It’s nothing that’ll affect us.’’
Jim nodded and slowed his pace again, falling back beside Nadia.
At the same time, Theo pushed the thoughts out of his mind as well.
They were almost at the entrance of the big room.
He needed to concentrate on that now.
Before long, they were at the large opening.
Unlike the dark passage behind them, the massive space ahead was lit up by tens of thousands of blue mana crystals that stuck to the ceiling.
But that wasn’t even the most impressive part.
The space ahead held rows of ancient stone buildings, only separated by fields, narrow streets and alleyways.
Some had partially collapsed over time, while others remained almost completely intact.
Theo slowly looked around with wide eyes.
’So this really was where another civilization used to live...’
Though it clearly wasn’t something technologically advanced, it was still amazing to look at.
The others clearly shared his thoughts, each staring out with wide eyes.
’’Contractor,’’ Feng’s voice rang out. ’’I sense dozens of the same altered soul creatures here.’’
’’Though they are quite a bit weaker than the ones from before.’’
Theo snapped out of his amazement right away.
’Got it,’ he replied.
Quickly raising his hand, he turned back to the others.
’’There are more of those creatures ahead,’’ he warned. ’’They number in the dozens but are weaker.’’
Jim groaned immediately.
’’Got it, got it,’’ he said, waving his hand. ’’We’ll take care of it.’’
Theo nodded once.
But his gaze had already shifted back to the countless buildings.
With the previous six being guards, the ones scattered throughout this place were probably ordinary civilians.
His expression slowly began darkening.
’Whoever or whatever made them like this are true monsters,’ he thought. ’They didn’t even let the civilians die in peace.’
Theo let out a quiet breath.
At least they could do something for them now.
’’Let’s go,’’ he said.
The group quickly began descending into the ancient city.
The closer they got, the more impressive everything became.
Some of the stone buildings stood three stories tall, their walls covered in strange carvings Theo couldn’t recognize.
There were dried fountains, small courtyards and even the remains of what looked like market stalls scattered throughout the streets.
’It really was an entire city...’
Unfortunately, they didn’t get much time to admire it.
’’Seven approaching on the right,’’ Feng suddenly warned.
Theo immediately stopped.
He’d barely pointed to the right when a shout rang out behind him.
’’Already on it!’’ Jim shouted as he dashed forward.
Several purple figures wandered out from between the buildings ahead.
And much to Theo’s discomfort, they looked completely different from the guards.
No armor covered their bodies. Some had hoes as weapons, while others didn’t even have that.
But just as quickly, golden light illuminated the streets.
BOOM!
Jim punched his light sphere through them one after another.
Lucienne and Isabelle didn’t even need to move.
Within only half a minute, all of them had dissipated into purple specks.
’’Good,’’ Theo nodded solemnly.
Without wasting any time, the group continued forward.
The same thing happened repeatedly over the next hour.
Small groups of souls appeared throughout the residential area, but none posed much of a threat.
Eventually, Theo stopped paying much attention to the fights.
Instead, his gaze wandered through the buildings they passed.
’Nothing there... nothing there...’
Everything inside most of the houses had decayed long ago.
Theo sighed quietly.
’At this rate, we’re not going to find anything valuable here,’ he thought. ’We’ll have to try to find another room for that herb.’
But there wasn’t much they could do about it.
They continued searching for another half an hour, occasionally entering buildings that looked slightly different from the rest.
Unfortunately, the result remained the same.
Eventually, Theo glanced back at everyone’s tired faces.
’’Let’s stop for a bit,’’ he said. ’’Recover your mana and eat something.’’
Nobody complained even one bit.
Within moments, backpacks were dropped onto the ground as everyone began finding somewhere to sit.
Theo sat down as well.
With a flick of his hand, several bottles of water and containers of food appeared on the ground.
Nadia’s eyes immediately widened.
’’Wait, where did you just—’’
WHOOSH!
Before she could finish, everything around them suddenly went dark.