Chapter 37: Taking the Tunnel

Spread out on the table before Herbie was a map of the Giant Kingdom. A small flag marked the territory of Duke Faist, which was also the domain where Balkan City was located.

Although the kingdom was called the Giant Kingdom, it did not mean it was ruled by Giants. Rather, it was a kingdom ravaged by Giants, forced to survive beneath their heels.

This was somewhat of a self-deprecating joke. Furthermore, even though the Titan Giants had been defeated, their shadows had not dissipated. The Hundred-Womb Ganges had taken the Titan Giants’ place, continuing to ravage the kingdom. What was once a threat solely to the Giant Kingdom had evolved into a threat to the entire world.

"We’re planning to confirm our route. Come take a look; we could use some alternative suggestions." Herbie tapped the map and invited Blaze to take a seat.

"While you’re at it, why don’t you guess which territory belongs to Audrey?"

Before Blaze’s butt even fully settled into his chair, Herbie pushed him into a trap. Audrey cooperatively raised her chin, waiting proudly.

"Then..." Blaze swallowed nervously and pointed to the smallest territory. "This one?"

Audrey’s expression immediately darkened, while Herbie couldn’t stop laughing gloatingly.

"I-I thought your background setting was about becoming an idol to save a territory on the brink of bankruptcy, and that returning to inherit the noble title was just a fig leaf." Blaze smiled awkwardly, then pointed to the largest territory.

This time, it was Audrey’s turn to feel a bit embarrassed.

"W-Well, it’s not quite that big. But if I work hard and fight a few battles, it could get a bit bigger."

"Say, bro Blaze, it seems like you’ve been trying to avoid something." Herbie patted Blaze’s back and smirked, drawing a circle around the areas he had pointed out. "Why are they all on the same side of the Hundred-Womb Ganges?"

"..." Blaze’s eye twitched. Ever since he saw the map, he had been desperately hoping to avoid one specific outcome: that this escort mission would require crossing the Hundred-Womb Ganges.

The Hundred-Womb Ganges was a Blood River that birthed strange monsters. Someone had once run along it, hoping to find its source or end. However, that person ran all the way to the edge of the world, only to stare in despair at a bloody waterfall plunging into the Abyss.

The Hundred-Womb Ganges had no end. It cleanly divided the world.

Crossing the Hundred-Womb Ganges was basically an absurd joke. Every drop of the Evil God’s Blood in the river could spawn a monster. Flying over it was equally impossible, as the sky above the Hundred-Womb Ganges was swarming with flying monsters as thick as dark clouds.

Fortunately, this world possessed Teleportation Magic. By utilizing several massive Teleportation Towers, one could easily cross the Hundred-Womb Ganges.

These colossal Teleportation Towers were also extremely important to Hermes’ Travel Hat, which primarily dealt in commerce. Back when the Magic Association planned to build these towers but lacked the funding, the then-not-so-wealthy Hermes’ Travel Hat made a massive gamble, providing the money and manpower to construct them.

In return, Hermes’ Travel Hat demanded a singular reward: at any time, for any amount of cargo, middle and high-ranking members of Hermes’ Travel Hat could use the Teleportation Towers for free.

Consequently, Hermes’ Travel Hat seized the initiative in all trades, gradually monopolizing the market until they stood completely unrivaled.

To get back on track—if they used a Teleportation Tower to reach the opposite side of the Hundred-Womb Ganges, they would have to face the inevitable issue of their location being exposed.

The Blessed possessed Identification abilities. With even the simplest Identification, Audrey’s identity would be exposed regardless of how she disguised herself.

It was impossible for the assassin group Asasel to constantly monitor every city and every entrance, but keeping an eye on the few available Teleportation Towers wasn’t difficult at all.

"Therefore, we aren’t going to use the Teleportation Towers. We’re going here." Herbie pointed to the mountain range north of Balkan City. "We’ll go through the Broken Steel Mountain Range. It has tunnels left behind by Dwarfs who mined Refined Gold Ore in the past, and one of those routes passes beneath the Hundred-Womb Ganges."

"The Broken Steel Mountain Range is indeed quite safe."

Mines were generally extremely dangerous places, hiding many terrifying monsters. Among the most dangerous was an ancient Demonic Puppet called a Golem. They could absorb special metals to level themselves up, and top-tier materials like Refined Gold were enough to turn them into terrifying Level 90+ monsters.

Fortunately, the Refined Gold Ore in the Broken Steel Mountain Range had been completely mined out a century or two ago. No Special Monsters could spawn inside anymore; now, it only housed pests like giant rats.

Furthermore, the Evil God’s Blood only eroded life and the soil that nurtured life. Thus, isolated places like mines were paradoxically safer.

Most importantly, Foreigners rarely went there.

Because Titan Hybrids, being Chimera-type monsters, provided significantly more experience than regular monsters of the same level, and the materials they dropped were far more precious. Additionally, the monsters in the Broken Steel Mountain Range would actively choose to escape, whereas Titan Hybrids would actively choose to fight. Over time, Foreigners simply stopped bothering with the Broken Steel Mountain Range.

"When do you plan to set off?"

"In three days. I’ll arrange for two merchant caravans to leave with great fanfare, and then arrange for another caravan to take a hidden path."

"You’re overly cautious."

Meanwhile, to the northeast of Balkan City, near the Hundred-Womb Ganges, a Knight Foreigner wearing a Griffin-hem cape was currently slaughtering his way through a Nemean Lioness Group.

However, this Knight Foreigner looked incredibly bizarre. His right arm was normal, yet he wielded a ghastly Bone Sword that seemed almost alive. His left-hand weapon was less a Great Sword and more a massive boulder, and the left hand gripping it was a grotesque Monkey Hand.

He was none other than the legendary man who had defeated Yamata—Flying Brick.

Currently, he was dual-wielding Great Swords at the Hundred-Womb Ganges, completing the quest given to him by Blaze.

"The spawn rate for a Nemean Lioness is only 12 percent, but after I accepted the Black Beast Knight’s quest..."

A Nemean Lioness lunged at him from the right while Flying Brick was muttering to himself. It wore a sinister expression; while the stone Great Sword in his left hand had crushed countless of its companions, the weapon in his right hand was just an ordinary blade whose damage it could easily ignore.

"...The probability shot up to around 75 percent, right?"

Flying Brick raised his right hand, and Ama no Murakumo pierced flawlessly into the Nemean Lioness’s foul-smelling maw.

[Chef] Advanced Skill: [Whole Chicken Deboned].

Flying Brick yanked his right hand back. Ama no Murakumo hooked a perfectly intact skeleton, pulling it smoothly out of the Nemean Lioness’s mouth.

"It didn’t drop. And I even used the Monkey Hand." Flying Brick checked the loot and sighed regretfully.

Flying Brick scrolled his inventory down to the very bottom and clicked to inspect his final item: Star Fragments.

[Cannot Be Used]

If it had said [Requirements Not Met], he could have tried to figure something out. But a prompt like [Cannot Be Used] only appeared on exclusive items, meaning there was truly nothing he could do.

"There’s nothing about it on the forums, either... Looks like it’s a quest item meant to be handed over to Blaze."