Chereads / Volition / Chapter 175 - Small House

Chapter 175 - Small House

Nilrem inspected the corpse of the creature closer, the body kept on twitching and groaning for a few seconds after death, it's maws, never stopped moving however, as if they had a will of their own.

The pieces of armor the creature was wearing wasn't exactly common, it had a blue tint to it and seemed somewhat infused with the element of water.

'An armor from Lacam? Does her victim not die when she devours them and instead turn into this?' he couldn't tell if remnants of awareness remained but it would be preferable for them if not.

Nilrem searched the rest of the building but found no other craving ones, he did see some moving through the sea of blood however, dragging body parts and corpses around.

'How do I know where to go? Everwhere looks the same...' he wondered before he heard a splashing noise coming from behind him.

There was nothing around when he turned around but the body of the craving one he killed was missing.

'Did he reanimate?' Nilrem pulled out his wand, unlike in the academy, the mana in the air wasn't thin at all, he could cast spells freely, as long as they weren't too visible and quiet.

He approached the spot where the body had been, he could see a trail of blood leading somewhere else, seemed like the body had been dragged away into the blood sea.

The fact that Nilrem had noticed nothing until the body reached the sea of blood meant that something was fairly stealthy around here, he would need to be exceptionally careful of his surroundings.

As he looked into the distance, he noticed a house he hadn't noticed before, he didn't know if it was because it had just appeared or if it was due to it being much smaller than the rest but this house seemed weirdly important, there was even light coming from the inside.

'Huh? Why does it seem a bit distorted?' he wondered as stepped forward, it was as if some large amount of gaz wa suddenly in front of him.

Before he could think more deeply about it, the distortion moved by itself as he felt two hands grasp his neck and trying to strangle him.

His attacker revealed itself as it attacked, a humanoid being wearing ample pants and shirt, which seemed fitted for someone receiving healing, its head head bore no features anymore, leaving place to a large, vertical maw on his head, it opened widely, it definitely didn't have a brain or anything other than this mouth.

Saliva flowed in excess from it as it prepared to bite Nilrem's face off but before it could enjoy its meal, he stuck the end of his wand on the temple of the creature and blasted a wind spell, exploding its head and covering everything around in gorey bits.

The headless corpse kept on thightening its grip for a few moments before going completely limp.

'Some can even camouflage themselves... What kind of horrors lurk in there?' Nilrem wiped the disgusting blood of his face and decided to head for the small house.

Everything seemed dangerous here and he couldn't hope to leave by staying in one place.

He dropped down into the blood slowly and started making his way toward his destination, keeping an eye on the various creatures walking around, all of them seemed to be the same as the first one he saw and the lack of ripple in the water without any source indicated that no camouflaging ones were around.

Nilrem's expected to be grabbed by something hiding under the blood but he made it to the house, he had to hoist himself up to get in, thankfully the door was left open, allowing him to open it by simply pushing it.

All in all, this house certainly seemed different from the rest, the place seemed to not be held together by the strange floating of every parts of it but simply being a floating house, things inside were clean and somewhat tidy.

The monsters seemed to be avoiding this place as well, this was either a sign of danger or of security.

He quickly made his way through the small home and arrived to what appeared to be a modest living room, there was a single armchair and an unlit fireplace, the room was illuminated by a bright lantern laid on the coffe table.

Sitting in the armchair was perfectly normal looking man, Nilrem could only see him from his left side, the man grey hair and a thick mustache, the wrinkles on his face were pronounced, his face was sunken and rough.

Similarly, his hands were deeply callused, his eyes were unusually bright and he was staring in a seemingly random direction.

Nilrem grabbed a small item and threw it on the other side of the room, causing the old man to raise his head and move his head around, his gaze fell on Nilrem but he didn't notice him at all.

'He's blind' remarked the young mage, the other side of his face was also perfectly normal, he had expected another maw but nothing was visibly wrong with the man.

"Is somebody here?" asked the old man as he tried to stand up but he found himself unable to stand back up at the moment.

Nilrem didn't respond and stayed perfectly still, breathing slowly and calmly.

"No monsters ever come here, I rarely encounter anyone around here, the smallest of wounds is enough to quickly turn someone into one of them after all..." the old man spoke by himself as he sunk back into his seat.

"You must have been unharmed by her then, that never happened as far as I know, well, except for me" Nilrem listened as the old man rambled, seemingly convinced the sound he had heard was the cause of a person.

"Well then, you must be meaning to leave from here then, right? I don't exactly an answer to that you see, I am too old to go anywhere but I can tell you about something else..." he scratched his mustache in thought.

"Would you like to know how Gluttony came to be?" he asked and even if it wouldn't tell him where the exit was, Nilrem was definitely interested.