Chapter 10

The celebration went well, we all partied until midnight.

I mean we, the men. The ladies went home to sleep in the middle of the party.

I drank so much rum last night, my head still hurts in the morning.

Sarah looked like she wanted to scold me for drinking too much, but she held back when she realised I got a hangover.

What a caring girl.

I really like how she shows her affection for me, that's her affection, right?

After having breakfast with the girls, I went back into the forest.

This time, I'll focus on finding the tomb that Adela mentioned yesterday.

And my guess is that it's probably at the top of the mountain in the centre of the island.

I mean, where else? That's how they usually do it in fairy tales or legends.

It's just my guess, though.

Well, I'll just look for it somewhere else if I don't find it there.

But that mountain peak is my first destination.

After all, even if the tomb isn't there, I can use the height of the mountain peak as an observation point.

I might be able to see something from there.

I summoned all my shadows, whose number had now almost reached 50, to help me reach the mountain top.

I got some resistance from the new monsters, but nothing too tough for me to overcome.

So I kept moving deeper and deeper into the island, until finally, I arrived at a large plain that seemed to be right at the top of the mountain.

It was kind of tiring to get in here actually, I have to climb a few hundred meters of rock just to get here.

I turned around and looked back.

"This seems to be the highest point on the island."

I could see the village of the Magnoras tribe and my ship in the distance.

But I couldn't see my base, it was covered by trees.

What a bummer, I wanted to try shouting at Sarah and the others from here.

Well, that's not important now.

"Alright, lads. Let's start looking for clues, I don't care what they are, if you find anything strange, let me know right away."

I ordered my shadows to spread out, looking for clues while I sit down and drank my tea.

"Ahh... Damn it, I'm drinking tea again. This is not the right time for this."

Ever since I knew that my tea supply would never run out again due to the arrival of the Magnoras, I've been drinking tea every day.

Even when it's not the right time.

But what else could I do, Sarah's brewed tea was very good, so I feel like it's a waste not to drink the tea she made.

While I enjoy the scenery and drink my tea, suddenly one of my shadows finds a cave not far from my location.

I packed up my tea utensils and rushed there.

Since the cave was too narrow, I couldn't get all my shadows to enter, so I only summoned 4 shadows and had them walk in front and behind me.

"Oh wow, I didn't know my shadows had another function like this."

It was dark in the cave, but since my shadow was naturally made of fire, I didn't need a light.

The illumination from my shadow's fire was enough to make me see well in the dark cave.

With their help, I was able to go deeper into the dark cave with ease.

At first I thought the cave was a dungeon so I expected to encounter some monsters on the way, but I had been walking for quite a while, and hadn't encountered a single monster.

I mean, there were some giant insects I met on the way, but they were just insects, right?

I don't think they're monsters, probably.

Anyway, the deeper I went, the wider the cave passage became.

And at some point, I seemed to have arrived at the end of the cave.

There I found some kind of altar that had a 4 or 5 metre tall statue that looked....

I don't know how to put it.

It definitely wasn't a human statue and I don't think it was a monster statue either.

Monsters usually resemble animals, insects, or something like that.

But this one.... It's a very absurd shape.

The body looks like a human, but the arms and legs are too skinny with sharp claws.

It also has wings that look like... I don't know, a rose stem full of thorns?

Then the head.... It only had one big eyeball, no nose or mouth.

"What the hell is this place? Did I accidentally wander into hell or something?"

I called out to some of my shadows to look around, but I doubt they could find anything, since I couldn't see anything in this place other than the strange carvings on the floor and that hideous statue.

While my shadows wandered around, I used the statue's stand as a seat to drink my tea.

"Hmm?"

Alas, before I could sip my tea, I felt a movement behind me.

I turned around and saw that the statue was shaking, I backed away slowly while keeping an eye on it.

"Oh, you must be joking. I hope this isn't what I think it is."

As I feared, the outside part of the statue started to peel off little by little, until finally, it became alive.

Or rather, the monster inside the statue broke free.

"Kiiieeeeekkkk!!!"

I think he just shouted, FREEDOM!!!

Somehow, the monster was able to let out a horrible screeching sound, even though it had no mouth.

"Bollocks, I haven't finished my tea."

I quickly placed my tea on a rock by the altar, and summoned all my shadows.

"Alright, lads. Beat that thing up."

All my shadows immediately surrounded the monster.

I planned to just watch, but...

The monster was much stronger than I thought.

It only swung its skinny arm once, but the swing was so fast and powerful that my shadows couldn't dodge or parry its attack.

*Brrrruk*

I saw about 11 of my shadows slammed into the wall and disappear into a little spark, like a firefly.

That meant they were dead and I couldn't summon them again until tomorrow.

"Blast."

I instantly dispelled all my shadows before they all died for nothing and summoned my armour as well as my spear.

"Looks like I'll have to step in this time."

I ran towards the monster and jumped at the large eye on its head, I assumed it was its weakness.

I mean, it's pretty obvious, right?

It tried to block me with it's skinny arms, but with my speed I managed to dodge it.

"Got you, cunt."

However, before I managed to stab it's big eye, I realised that it's spiny wings were glittering.

That's when my instinct realised something was wrong.

I twisted my body in the air, but it was too late, the thorns on its wings were flying towards me.

I managed to dodge most of them, but two of them hit my stomach and shoulder.

It was the first time something had pierced my armour.

I rolled on the floor as I watched the monster's movements while my wounds healed.

It looks surprised to see my wounds recover so quickly, which means this monster is smart, or at least has some intelligence.

Alright, change of plans, I should aim for its legs first.

Let's hope it can't regenerate like me.

Increasing my speed, I charged at its legs, the monster tried to block me with its skinny arms, but I was faster.

My spear hit its right leg.

*Kiiieeekkk*

It clearly felt it.

Wounded in the leg, now it can't move too much.

I attempted to injure another leg, but it seemed like that tactic was too obvious, since the monster was now fully defending its one functioning leg.

Taking advantage of that, I charged towards its already injured leg, and cut it off completely.

*Kiiieeekkk*

"Hahaha... Yeah, that must have hurt, right?"

With its right leg completely cut off, the monster fell to the ground.

It swung its wings full of thorns, but I dodged it, got closer towards it, and cut off both of its wings.

It then attempted to attack me with both its hands and sharp claws, but since its range wasn't too far, I just needed to take the distance, and blasted away both of those hands with my spear.

Having lost its wings and hands, now the monster couldn't do anything.

I climbed on top of it and prepared to stab its big eye with my spear.

I raised my spear with both hands above my head and said.

"Any last words?"

Instead of last words, I could only see the monster's eyes suddenly bleeding and some strange carvings inside its eyeballs started to appear.

That's when I knew, I fucked up.

I tried to jump away from the monster, but it was too late.

*Boom*

The monster's eyeball suddenly let out a powerful explosion, and all I could see was fire or blood.