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My hands clutched tighter at my staff, there was no sound at the summit of this gigantic mountain and honestly, I was surprised to even reach it this fast.
Only the sounds of our footsteps hitting the dirt ground resounded as we search the summit and then a bush from our left was heard. Our weapons were aimed at that bush, but none of us moved from our spot.
I decided to take the initiative and walked towards the bush, my staff ready to hit or stab whatever was rustling in there and then; A rabbit. A white fluffy and cute rabbit came out of the bushes.
The area on its mouth had a bit of red but I knew it wasn't blood since I didn't smell it.
"Phew, I forgot this can be accessed by other creatures as well" Astoria approached the rabbit, laughing slightly, and put her hand in front of its mouth in response, the rabbit's head splits in three revealing a grotesque mouth, and tried to bite Astoria's entire head off.
She was shocked but also became fearful at the last moment however, I was still there and so I kicked the rabbit and rolled to the ground.
I left Astoria in her shocked and fearful state and raised my staff before using my full strength, I crushed the body of that rabbit using the area where the gem was embedded.
I pulled my staff away from its body and looked at the rabbit. Its insides were now outside due to the force that I used on it and only its white furry skin remained intact.
"Looks like we're still not safe even with this barrier, not to mention we also can't use our mana," I said to Astoria.
'Not like I can use it anyway' I said self-deprecatingly.
Astoria, still a bit fearful, responded to me with her usual smile. "Yeah."
We took a short rest before exploring again and this time, we made a promise to ourselves to not let our guard down again, after all, this barrier isn't exactly exclusive to us.
At the very top of the mountain was an old decrepit house, without speaking a word with each other, we looked at our faces and nodded. Astoria puts her ear on the ground and listened, elf ears are very sensitive to the point of hearing the sound of footsteps from a mile away.
"One...two heartbeats, no living being around us then." She started with that before becoming silent again.
"The grass is calm, no floors are creaking, and no breathing," Astoria speaks again, this time she confirms that there was no monster of any kind inside of that house but we didn't let our guard down.
Astoria draws three arrows and nocks one on her bow leaving the other two on her left hand
and I readied my steel staff, this time, the gem was the one on the front since if there was a monster, I would have a better chance of survival by hitting it instead of stabbing it since I didn't know what danger lies ahead.
With a kick on the door which flew off easily, I did a sweeping move in front of me but only hit the air. Half a second later, Astoria follows but like her, we only saw nothing.
Actually, there wasn't exactly anything in the house because there was a skeleton in front of us which was being shined by the sun. There was only a small notebook in its hand which I grabbed respectfully and put on the table.
I then turned to Astoria and spoke. "Let's bury him first."
She nods respectfully and we left the house and started digging using some boards as our makeshift shovel but sadly, I could only make a shallow grave for it since the sun was shining on me even under this tree, looking up slightly, I could know that it was approaching noon.
After burying the skeleton successfully, I prayed for the skeleton's safety in the next life before we returned to the house, grabbing the small notebook, I started reading its blood-stained filled contents:
"If you...reading this then that must have already been five years since my death. Whatever, hello Freya and Astoria, m.. name is, Flanner and I'm an Astro..ger so no need to be surprised how I knew your names.
Hahah.... Wel.. I'll stop beating around the bush and just say your fate then since that's my jo... as an astrologer.
In short, using the power of the stars, I called upon the being beyond the stars and ask about y.ur fate after finding no f.ture after your party's en...ry to this territory.
Basically, you are the ones that will save us from the imminent demise of our poor town... well mostl... Himura but that's not importa..
Trust each other and don't trust anyone and protect both relics on the table, Himura will get the third relic and Alice will get the fourth.
Follow Himura's lead since he will try to do this by himself and although he will defeat those demons by himself, a future battle will cause his death because of the damages he caused from this battle"
There were still more pages left so I turned it and saw writing made using blood:
"DO nO.. tru.t an.yon. and foll.w the fut.e whi.. I have fore.old and prevent Himura's...future death and mos. important.. do n.. tell anybody abo.. this, even Himura"
I turned to the last page, this time it was still the same but now it was clear:
"And then, when you reach the door which can lead to your freedom with Himura, your fate will be yours to weave.
If you read far, that means the barrier is broken, RUN"
After I finished reading it out loud, I heard a loud noise outside. Astoria wears a black glove where the thumb to the middle finger was exposed.
Astoria looks at her inventory. "Glove of accuracy! It increases my accuracy level by five!" She exclaimed.
As she says that, she nocked an arrow onto her bow and fires at a nearby spider before it even appears. She smiles a bit but we needed to run so I grabbed the silver gauntlet with some sort of machinery on the top of it.
We both jumped for the window and immediately jumped into some trees.
I wore the silver gauntlet in my left hand whilst I fell, I wanted to inspect but I needed to stay true to my religion though, I didn't exactly know whether I couldn't or not since Hu has never responded to my prayer before.
I only knew this was a relic making it something similar to a magic item, and with a single thought, I activated the relic and faced the millions of spiders shooting acid at me.
Both me and Astoria safely and I finally looked at my left hand and saw a magnificent rectangular shield that blocked all of the acids fired at me without sustaining any damage. A shield gauntlet!
However, it wasn't just any regular shield gauntlet, it was still a relic and so using my mana which I transferred to this relic, I easily changed it into a lighter and smaller circular shield.
Both I and Astoria didn't comment since the astrologist, Flanner probably knew this future and so after Astoria killed fourteen spiders, we jumped our way down.
Thanks to Astoria's glove of accuracy, she easily took care of the spiders and humanoid monsters coming at me, and thanks to my shield gauntlet I easily protected her.
Along the way, we met Lino who was surprised when we met her but that wasn't important right now since we were being chased so I jumped next to her and grabbed her before jumping into the trees again.
"What's happening?!" She asked, fear in her tone as she looked at the monsters, I couldn't blame her, I too was scared but we had an objective now and so I didn't let fear take over.
"The nest is near the top of the mountains," I said briefly but that answer was enough as she instead got off my arm and started jumping as well.
Looking at Astoria, she was silent, it seems she too knows what our objective is. It wasn't about protecting the town but it was so that Himura could live. Honestly, I almost wanted to laugh, for months Himura has barely shown any of his personality and now it took an astrologer to see his future so that we could know what kind of person he was.
We landed at the foot of the mountain but we still kept running away, just to confirm I looked a bit to the point where my eye which could only see mana could look behind me, and then I saw a sea of blue behind me.
"They're still behind us, don't stop!" I said to them and they nod in response.
Thankfully, elves are naturally light on their feet and have naturally high stamina so we easily outran them.
Then finally, we reached the gates of the town and we breathed a sigh of relief and then after three days of scouting, we finally came back.