Chapter 1060 – Woouk

000

When Kuon proudly refuted the Guardian’s opinion and declared that they would move forward, the Guardian did not say anything for a moment and then disappeared.

Was he tired of the reactions of his companions, or did he feel something?

Since the faces beyond the visor were not shown until the end, it would have been impossible for the group to know, but what is more important than worrying about such things is to move up this mountain as quickly as possible and reach the destination.

Just like yesterday, the members of the expedition formed a linear formation and moved to their assigned positions, heading up the mountain with Layla and Sasha at the forefront.

Even though we broke up without really understanding each other, it seemed like her words that she had no intention of breaking the promise she made were not lies.

In this mountain full of plants, if you look around, there are plenty of enemies who wouldn’t be surprised if they attacked you at any time.

They didn’t move, they just stood there and looked at us.

Lila still didn’t believe it, though she held her wand tight, and her nerves were tense.

And as they continued to move forward, they realized that the atmosphere of where they were standing had changed.

Although the mountain area was not divided by a river like the one between Inryongsan Mountain and Cheonryongsan Mountain, she could see that the vegetation around either mountain had noticeably decreased.

Compared to the previous mountain, which was closer to gray, the color here was closer to ‘red’.

The red color is not the natural red color of autumn leaves or anything-

The appearance of the ground and the few plants that were not visible were interspersed with an unnatural red color that hurt the eyes.

It looked as if someone had painted it with paint.

It wasn’t just that.

“Eup…”

Sasha lowered her head, covering her mouth with her hand, unable to bear the stench that was slowly becoming stronger.

“Oh, definitely. This might be hard for Sasha.”

The stench was nothing short of the smell of a corpse.

Although I didn’t immediately see a smelly corpse right in front of me, the stench of ‘death’ and ‘corpse’ continued to emanate from everywhere and somewhere inside Naryongsan Mountain.

“It’s hard to breathe…”

In particular, it was an unbearable environment for Sasha, who had a sense of smell that was close to that of an animal.

The stench of corruption that penetrates her lungs at the slightest touch of her nose.

Even if she breathed ‘hoo, haa’ through her mouth, if she let her guard down even a little, the stench would come in, and it was literally hell.

What should Leila do, she ponders a little, then she approaches Sasha, and she pulls her head towards herself.

“Boo!”

Then, Sasha’s head is buried in the thin, hard wall, close to Lila’s shoulder or chest…

Since she had no flesh to bury, she just hit the bean.

“I’m sorry for being harsh.”

“Oh, I didn’t say anything yet…”

Sasha says that to Lila who doesn’t free her face.

“Okay. Just take a breath in that situation.”

“Huh? Suuuuu…”

“No. Not with your mouth, but with your nose!”

As Sasha naturally opened her mouth and took a deep breath and exhaled, Laila couldn’t help but criticize her.

“B-but…”

Naturally, Sasha, who had almost retched a moment ago when she breathed her nose, looked reluctant.

However, when Lila shook her head once, Sasha couldn’t help but breathe through her nose.

“Huh?”

Then Sasha will make a curious voice.

“How do you feel? A little, no. It’s quite a bit better, right?”

As Layla said, if she was breathing close to Layla, the stench of her corpse would not reach Sasha’s nose as much.

Rather, it was more like a refreshing mint scent that seemed to clear up her clogged nose.

“This is…”

“You know that I always bathe in a medicinal bath made with herbs, right? I’ve been doing it for over 10 years, so the scent of herbs permeates my body. I usually put perfume on it to make it a little weaker, but if I get my face this close… Huh. !?”

“Sniff, sniff…!”

“Now, wait a minute, Sasha…! If you bury her like that and make her nose cry…!”

Apparently, among the herbs Lila used for bathing, there seemed to be a class that excited animals.

Well, even Sasha wouldn’t be turned on just by her scent.

Anyway, despite being hindered by Sasha who was clinging to her so much that it was difficult to walk, Lila somehow managed to walk forward.

She sighs and realizes that there are ‘two more’ prisoners in her group.

‘It must be quite difficult for them too…’

Then, she glanced back.

“Keuuuuu!”

“Sasha! Do it in moderation!”

001

“Uh oh…”

There was a girl walking slowly, limp and making a voice like an undead.

On top of her black hair, droopy black cat ears that resembled her posture were stuck to her hair.

“Schrödinger, are you okay?”

“No… It’s not okay…”

She is also a being close to a cat beast.

Her normally sharp sense of smell felt like it would destroy her brain if she sensed a stench that even humans couldn’t tolerate.

Thanks to this, my whole body is drained of energy, and it seems difficult to walk properly.

“Do you want to get on the cart?”

“Ugh… I’d like to… But then I feel sorry for the people pulling the cart…”

The ones pulling the cart are men among Attis’ disciples.

With the stamina he honed at the excavation site, he was able to pull a cart containing quite a lot of luggage without any problems.

Of course, if it were a small girl like Schrödinger, there would be no problem getting on top of it, but it was also true that the weight increased, and it became difficult to pull it.

“Well, here, do as Kuon says and preserve your physical and mental strength.”

Artis spoke to Schrödinger, who was about to refuse.

She wore a mask over her mouth to keep dust from entering her respiratory tract as she did her digging.

Even though it does not completely block odor, it blocks odor to an extent that is incomparable to when not worn.

Even Schrödinger was wearing the same thing.

When Artis said that, Schrödinger glanced at the cart behind him with a pondering expression for a moment.

“Well, if you say it that way…”

Then she trudged on and threw herself onto her cart.

It was a refreshing dive that was a bit difficult to imagine from the way he refused so much.

“You don’t have to overdo it. Kshat too.”

And then, Artis’ next gaze turns to another beastman who was walking behind them.

Then, there was a woman who didn’t look any different from usual, her back was straight, and there wasn’t a single wrinkle in the house clothes she wore, smiling as if she was in trouble. 〉

“No, I’m fine. Where I belong is always by my lady’s side.”

She declines Artis’ offer in a polite tone.

Kshat is a shark fishman.

Sharks are famous for their keen sense of smell, and naturally, Kshat also had a very good sense of smell.

Even when compared to Schrödinger or Sasha, the beasts of earthly animals.

However, Kshat, who prides himself on being Fleur’s perfect butler, did not show any displeasure at the scent coming from her –

Even though she wasn’t wearing the mask that everyone else was wearing, she was proudly maintaining her position.

In terms of her patience and composure, she is better than anyone else here.

She was enduring a stench that made her want to break her nose.

“Shu-ko…”

And next to Kshat, Fleur made a sound through her gas mask.

She probably couldn’t smell any odor thanks to her gas mask, but thanks to the reactions of others, she could tell that it was a very difficult odor to endure.

Her Fleur looked up at her, worried about her own butler, but her Kshat shook her head.

“You don’t have to worry, lady. I’m fine. Besides, someone has to predict what’s coming through their sense of smell.”

“… Sure. If it’s a place with such a characteristic smell, I might be able to figure out what’s in front of it by smell.”

Attis also nodded her head as if she understood what Kshat said.

“If even I, who don’t have much talent, can be of help.”

Kshat who said that seemed more trustworthy than ever before.

And looking at Kshat like that, Fleur seemed to think for a moment and then—

“Oh, lady!?”

There was a reason why Kshat sounded surprised.

That was because Fleur slightly removed her mask in front of Kshat, exposing her mouth.

“Ugh…”

Fleur, who touched the air for a moment and inhaled the stench coming from outside her, immediately turned blue and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Miss, it’s dangerous. Put your gas mask back on…”

“Gwae, it’s okay. Kshat is also enduring it… So, you shouldn’t overdo it. Kshat.”

This was said to Kshat clearly enough for others to hear.

“… I understand, young lady. Of course, I have to protect her, so I won’t overdo it.”

And, looking at Fleur’s struggle, Kshat had an expression of both pride and worry.

Although that face was much closer to that of his parents than to the guardian he had seen on the mountain a moment ago.

Fleur seemed a little relieved after hearing Kshat talk, and she put her mask back on.

Now, in order to stop the young lady from worrying, we need to get out of this mountain quickly.

Thinking like that, Kshat, who was trying to cheer himself up, could feel his nose ringing with a ‘sniff’ and a slightly different smell from before entering his nasal passages.

If the smell from just a moment ago was the smell of a ‘rotting corpse’.

The smell I felt now was close to the smell of ‘a living creature dying while shedding its live blood.’

“… Um. This is…”

And her gaze goes beyond the crowds of the expedition team and looks into the distance.

“What’s wrong? Do you feel something?”

“Yes. I guess… Someone is fighting nearby… ─No.”

Kshat stopped what she was saying and shook her head.

“Someone may be carrying out a ‘slaughter.'”

“Slaughter…?”

At those ominous words, everyone else must have sensed that something was out of the ordinary and frowned.

“… Let’s stop the expedition. It would be a good idea to send an advance party to check the future. If we want to divide the advance party with the personnel who will guard the main force…”

“It would be a good idea to consult with Lila.”

Artis nodded his head, and Kuon immediately called out to Lyla through his imprint.

It was finally time to face the challenge of the third mountain.

001

“—If we’re talking about a starting team, it’s inevitable that this combination will be included.”

What I mean by that is that Aine was able to resume his activities after healing with a night of rest, Kuon’s recovery techniques, and his own medical techniques.

“My nose is still tingling…”

Sasha muttering while wearing her mask, looking around her.

“Why me…”

And lastly, it was Schrödinger, who didn’t even care that his limp tail was dragging on the ground.

In particular, just when I was thinking that I would be able to get on the cart and go a little more comfortably, she was dragged out to work, wearing several layers of her mask ─

On top of that, I applied a strong-smelling medicinal ingredient to make her smell a little less noticeable, so I could barely stand the smell of the corpse.

“Zwei and Drayne haven’t recovered yet… I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no. Normally, this is something I should be responsible for at parties.”

Sasha responded to Aine’s apology like that, and Schrödinger sighed once again.

The three people moved forward a little away from the expedition team, and were moving forward in search of the identity of the smell that Kshat had smelled – the ‘scene of slaughter’.

Even so, it was difficult to move forward while hiding in this place where there were not many plants, so the best thing to do was to quietly move forward, suppressing the sound of footsteps and signs of presence as much as possible.

“If you go a little further, it will be the location Mr. Kshat mentioned.”

“Mr. Kshat is amazing… My nose is already numb, and I can barely smell anything.”

When Sasha said that, Schrödinger responded.

“I want to grab my nose and rip it off…”

“Ahaha…”

Sasha only smiled slightly at Schrödinger’s words.

I agree, but I think it would hurt…

“Shh.”

And he is the one who tells those two people to lower their voices.

Then, Sasha and Schrödinger naturally closed their mouths, and their ears perked up and moved.

As soon as the sound of the two people stopped talking, I could clearly see that something was flowing into my ears.

“… This.”

“Screaming… Shouting… And the sound of something hard hitting.”

[It’s the sound of war.]

Even in Sasha’s head, if Ruben speaks, Sasha will nod her head.

“As Mr. Kshat said, it seems like there is a battle going on in front of here.”

“… Then let us be more careful. If you don’t want to get caught up in battle, it would be best to hide yourself as much as possible.”

At Aine’s words, the two nodded and moved forward, moving from shadow to shadow as much as possible.

As they got closer, the sound they heard became louder, and it became so loud that the sound started to bother them more than the smell.

The group was able to see that the road in front of them led to a cliff that sank down.

“This, this…”

Then, they slightly stick their heads out from the cliff to check underneath and either keep their mouths shut or open their mouths wide open.

I had no choice but to show two extreme reactions.

Because─

This is because, as Kshat said, a ‘scene of slaughter’ unfolded there.

And at the same time, I could clearly see where the ‘smell of rotting corpses’ that was currently wafting across this mountain came from.

What was spread out was countless corpses.

Nevertheless, the ‘guys’ were fighting desperately while carrying the corpse and stepping on it.

Surrounded by mountains and cliffs with nowhere to escape – a canyon like a circular arena.

At the center, monsters kill and eat each other, constantly creating corpses—

‘Chaos’ unfolded.