Records from the Old World part I
Part 1
Morning had arrived, and the sunlight streamed into the carriage, striking Zal’s eyes and causing him to slowly open them with a groggily.
“Umm…
huh?
Where did Sandro go?”
Not seeing Sandro on the opposite seat, Zal tried to sit up and immediately felt something unusual.
“What…
what’s this?”
Upon examining his surroundings more carefully, Zal was shocked to find that he was actually lying on top of Sandro.
’Hey!
What…
Why!?
Was I sleepwalking or something!?’
Zal glanced again at the seat across from him, which was at the front of the carriage by the driver’s seat and where Sandro had originally been sitting.
This meant he had not moved from his spot by mistake.
’Why was she sleeping here!?’
He tried to calm himself, but it was not easy.
This was the closest he had ever been to a woman, causing him to feel nervous and unsure of what to do.
’Okay…
calm down…
I didn’t do anything wrong…
She’s the one who came to sleep here…
I’m the victim here!’
Once he felt somewhat calmer, Zal surveyed his surroundings and realized he was lying right across Sandro’s chest, which made his heart beat even faster.
’Is this…
is this a woman’s chest?
But…
why is it so flat and hard…
It’s nothing like what I’ve heard about…’
Zal tried to calm down again before lifting his face to see what Sandro’s sleeping face looked like.
But what Zal saw instead was a skull with its mouth agape, leaning against the seat back, seemingly staring down at him with its empty, dark eye sockets.
“AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
Zal rolled off the seat, his head banging against the seat on the other side.
The pain was so intense he could not even scream, only rolling around on the floor of the carriage.
When she heard the scream, the dark eye sockets of the skull flickered with green flames, indicating Sandro was waking up.
“Hmm…?
Is it morning already…?”
“Hey!
You!
You did that on purpose, didn’t you!?
Are you trying to shock me to death!!?”
“What are you talking about…
Oh…
I must have accidentally reverted to my skeletal form while sleeping…
That’s unfortunate…
I’m not quite used to it yet…”
It seemed Sandro had unintentionally returned to her lich form in her sleep.
Even though she transformed back into her human form immediately, Zal still felt like he had been pranked, leaving him irritated for a good while longer.
Sandro steered the carriage off the road to a secluded spot before getting out and creating a dimensional portal, resembling a dungeon portal, behind a row of trees, inviting Zal in.
Inside, Zal found himself in the mansion where Sandro had previously confined him after taking away him from the Ejis Academy.
Sandro directed Zal to shower, and change clothes in the room he had stayed in before, while she prepared breakfast.
By the time Zal came down again, a variety of foods filled the table.
There was still more food than what one woman and one boy could possibly eat, but soon all the food vanished.
After finishing breakfast, Sandro led Zal out of the mansion, snapped her fingers once to dissolve the dimensional portal to the mansion, then took him back to the carriage to continue their journey.
During the trip, Zal continued practicing magic and studying rune structures as usual.
He enjoyed learning both subjects, making time pass quickly.
In the late morning, the carriage left the main road and entered a forest border.
Less than twenty minutes later, the carriage stopped at a particular place, and Sandro instructed him to get out.
“From here, we have to go on foot…”
After saying this, Sandro got out of the carriage, and Zal quickly followed.
Once they stored the carriage and all minions, Sandro led him deep into the forest, with Zal following closely.
Sandro guided him through various unusual areas, including tunnels formed by dense trees, caves behind waterfalls, and even paths along cliff edges.
The distance was not far, but due to the winding and challenging route, Zal felt as if they had been walking for half a day and could not help but complain.
“Aren’t we there yet?
It feels like we’re crossing into another continent.”
“This is the closest entrance.
There’s a teleportation circle that would be more convenient, but it’s almost a half day’s journey away.
So, it’s quicker to endure this path…”
Finally, after emerging from the tunnel beneath the cliff, the two reached a small lake in a sparse forest.
“This is it…”
Sandro gestured towards the lake, and suddenly the water parted, revealing the lakebed.
At the bottom of the lake, a long stone path extended, and at the end of the path, there stood a stone platform almost in the middle of the lakebed.
Sandro led Zal to the platform, as she was nearing it, glowing runes appeared on the stone.
Soon, a transparent green dimensional door materialized.
She grasped Zal’s hand, causing him a bit of surprise, then led him through the portal.
Part 2
Sandro released his hand and led the way to the cave’s exit, which was only a short distance away, and Zal quickly followed.
Stepping out of the cave, Zal was stunned speechless by what lay before him.
Outside the cave was a vast open area that stretched as far as the eye could see, resembling an external world more than a dungeon.
However, the otherworldly atmosphere and the landscape, and the time suggested it was not a natural world.
The area consisted of huge dark mountains with sharp peaks resembling the fangs of a carnivorous animal.
The entire region was so high it seemed to pierce the clouds, or perhaps it was a land that had emerged above the cloud layer.
Although it was daytime in the outside the dungeon, it was night here, illuminated by a large bright moon whose light turned the sky a greenish hue, adding a chill to the nocturnal atmosphere.
Farther ahead on the mountain range, there was a cluster of dark black structures crowded together.
These included towering spires that reached into the sky, large buildings resembling cathedrals, and formidable fortresses, all uniformly black.
These structures contrasted with the green light that emanated from the doorways and windows.
These buildings covered an area as large as a city, but due to their density and design, they resembled a massive factory more than anything else.
Zal was both excited and amazed, having never seen a dimensional space of such magnitude before.
“Is this?
Really inside a dungeon!?”
“This is a ‘Realm,’ a dimension with higher level than dungeons…
It’s a large dimensional expanse…
with territories ranging from the size of a small town to an entire kingdom…
depending on the amount of magical stones that were its core…”
“A Realm, you say!?
The interdimensional world rumored to be the haven for demons!?
I thought they were all wiped out!”
“Naturally occurring Realms were indeed wiped out…
But this Realm is the one I created myself by merging several magical stones to expand its capacity…”
“You can create them!?
And what about that black city over there?”
“That is Malachite Keep, which you might call…
my home…
It started with just a few buildings…
But as I needed space for laboratories and various production cycles, it had to expand…
resulting in what you see now…”
“Y…you built all this yourself!?
That’s incredible!”
Hearing Zal’s compliment, Sandro looked slightly pleased but continued leading the way without looking back.
The path to Malachite Keep was like a mountain ridge stretching from one side to the other, resembling a giant stone bridge.
The path sloped down to a plain below the gorge.
As they walked along the path, Zal noticed something in the gorge below.
There, numerous green lights moved as if they were waves.
On closer inspection, Zal realized that all these lights were the glowing eyes of a massive number of skeleton warriors, standing so densely packed they resembled ocean waves.
“Is that!
Skeletons!?
Why are there so many skeletons here!?”
“…Ah…
those are low-level minions…
I ran out of storage space inside, so they ended up here…”
“No storage!?
So, all of these are ‘Permanent Pets’!?”
A Permanent Pet was a minion with no time limitation on its use.
Its general characteristics were the same as that of time-limited minions, except once summoned, they remained indefinitely, at the cost of significantly more magical power, sometimes nearly doubling or more depending on the minion’s level.
“Why did you summon so many and keep them waiting like this?
And how many are there?”
“There’s a way to save the magical energy…
I’ll explain later.
As for the number, I’m not sure exactly…
Probably tens of thousands by now.”
“Tens of thousands!?
These are level 3 monsters!
More importantly, this scene…
this is the scene I’ve dreamed of!”
Zal spoke with excitement, his eyes sparkling, while Sandro seemed to not understand why he was so thrilled, as most people would be stunned or fearful.
“…The scene…?”
“Yes!
A vast number that can dye the earth!
Just the sight of thousands marching in unison shakes the heavens!
The sound of their footsteps synchronously hitting the ground is the most delightful music!”
“…Your taste is more unusual than I thought…”
Zal did not mind Sandro’s comment as he was too excited.
He ran back and forth between the left and right flanks of the skeleton army like a child on his first visit to a zoo, until something else caught his eye.
“What’s that over there?”
Zal pointed at a towering pile of bones about ten meters high, which seemed to have several large glowing skulls.
“That’s a Bone Golem…
kind of like taking a bunch of skeletons, mashing them together, and forming something bigger…
They might not be very agile, but their attack power and durability are pretty good.”
Sandro waved her hand lightly in the air, and immediately, the piles of bones assembled themselves into large golems each standing about ten meters tall.
“Awesome!
And there are hundreds of them!
Wow!”
As the little boy in front of her continued to express his excitement without pause, Sandro began to enjoy herself more and waved to call other types of minions.
“This is the Dreadknight army…”
As she finished speaking, a thousand cavalrymen clad in pitch-black armor galloped to assemble at the front of the plain.
“Dreadknights!
And so many of them!
Incredible!”
“…And these are Gargoyles, the main force of the air fleet…”
Suddenly, the stone statues decorating the walls and roofs of buildings in Malachite Keep stretched their wings and took flight into the sky, like thousands of bats emerging from a cave at dusk to hunt.
“Gargoyles, huh!
Level 4 minions in such numbers!
And their flight in formation is just stunning!
Absolutely amazing!”
“…The true spearheads of the air force are the Bone Dragons…”
As she spoke, skeletal dragons glowing with a green aura as if they were dragon skeletons with flaming bones, rose from the ground along the mountain cliffs and began to fly.
“Bone Dragons!
There are even dragons!?
Sandro, you’re incredible!”
Zal watched the minions with sparkling eyes and unceasing praise, while Sandro, receiving the compliments, kept calling minions to show off non-stop, secretly smiling with pride.
Originally, Zal did not quite get along with Sandro, as she spoke in complex ways and liked to provoke him occasionally to observe his reactions, as if she was testing him.
He disliked feeling like a plaything under her scrutiny.
In reality, Sandro just wanted to get to know Zal better, but she was not great with interpersonal skills, so she tried to build a relationship using a method she read about in records from the old world called ‘teasing.’ Without realizing it was meant for people who were somewhat close, not for someone she barely knew, thus the opposite effect.
But upon seeing these armies, Zal’s feelings towards Sandro changed, as creating such a magnificent personal force was his dream.
Sandro was the one who made it possible, fulfilling his dreams.
Zal finally began to respect her.
Because they were distracted by this, it took them almost half an hour to reach the gates of Malachite Keep.
Even though they had arrived, Zal was still excited and felt incredibly bold.
“All this military power is on the level of a Doombringer!
We could just invade now!”
“You’re thinking too simply…
While it seem there are many and some are high-level minions, if they encounter a large group of ‘Peace Makers’…
they would be wiped out in no time…”
“Huh?
Are Peace Makers that powerful?”
“If compared to adventurers…
Peace Makers could be as skilled as S-ranked adventurers…
If they are really top-tier, they might even reach SS (Double S)…
Moreover, nowadays, Peace Keepers’ communication and assembly of forces are very efficient, and there are countless high-ranked adventurers and Peace Makers…
This entire army, if it encounters about forty Peace Makers, will be eradicated with some time…”
Zal was stunned by what he heard.
Although he knew of their reputation, he had not imagined that Peace Makers were such formidable beings.
Even if there were hundreds of S-ranked adventurers or Peace Makers, it would not be easy to contend with monsters in such vast numbers, but Sandro warned Zal, who was too easy-going not to be too confident.
“So, a single Peace Maker can withstand an army of thousands?”
“…One could fight less than a hundred…
but ten can withstand tens of thousands…
That’s the power of party and teamwork…”
This referred to the coordination in battle, a fundamental aspect for adventurers, which Zal had heard about.
Most adventurers operated at a rank higher than their actual capability, primarily because when they were in a party, they could undertake missions or clear dungeons several levels above their own.
This was because the synergy of each team member elevated their combat effectiveness beyond individual limits.
Zal glanced back at the army behind him and then asked Sandro with a hopeful expression,
“Will I ever be able to create an army like this?”
“…That depends on you…
but remember, quantity isn’t as important as quality…”
As they reached the entrance of Malachite Keep, the large gates of the high black iron-like walls opened, and two masked men walked out to greet them.
One man had shoulder-length golden hair and wore a long black coat adorned with yellow pattern, his outfit reminiscent of European nobility’s attire.
The other was a young man with short grey hair, dressed in a crisp white suit and tie, appearing much like a lawyer.
However, both were wearing iron skull masks, the same as the one Sandro had worn, obscuring their faces from Zal’s view.
The two men stood by the left and right sides of the gate without speaking, simply raising their right hands to their chests in a salute when Sandro passed as a sign of respect, but Sandro did not respond to the gesture and continued walking.
Zal hurried after her, stealing only brief glances at the two men.
Unable to contain his curiosity, he eventually asked,
“Sandro, who were those two men just now?”
Sandro continued walking without saying anything, as if she had not heard his question.
But as he was about to ask again, she answered,
“…They are my ‘Revenants’…”
“Revenants?
The summoned beings born from the lingering spirits of warriors who died in battle?
Hmm…
but those two seemed different from typical revenants.”
“…Because they are revenants I created with the ‘Reanimate’ spell…”
Zal pondered for a moment about the ‘Reanimate’ spell Sandro had mentioned, but once he understood, his expression turned to shock.
Because ‘Reanimate’ was a forbidden spell used to revive humans.
This spell brought back the souls or bodies of the deceased to create zombies.
It was considered a heretic ritual with severe penalties in all three continents.
If caught violating this rule, the violator had to be burned at the stake.
Necromancers in earlier times invented this spell to save effort in creating high-level minions.
Since making a pact with powerful individuals was difficult and creating minions with high-rank adventurer skills were even harder, they developed the ‘Reanimate’ spell.
These people would steal the corpses or soulless bodies of talented adventurers who had failed and died in battle.
Then, they would resurrect these corpses with dark magic, turning them into loyal minions of the necromancers.
Despite how it seemed, this was not a resurrection.
The souls of the deceased traveled to heaven or hell shortly after death, and once the flesh died, there was no way to put the soul back into the body.
What the ‘Reanimate’ spell did was merely creating a pseudo-spirit, using the lingering emotions within the corpse as a template, resulting in a ‘puppet’ that possessed capabilities, similar to that body when it was alive.
This was because they used the actual corpse as a vessel and drove the body with a pseudo-spirit created from the lingering emotions in the corpse.
If Sandro said they were ‘Revenants’ she created using the ‘Reanimate’ spell, it meant they were members of the group of dark scholars or her deceased friends, whom Sandro had revived.
Observing her demeanor, Zal thought Sandro might not be entirely pleased with having to keep them in this state, so he decided it was inappropriate to speak or ask too much about it and refrained from mentioning it again.
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