Chapter 190

Mental Preparation
Chapter 190. Preparation of the Mind

— I will explain about the Devil’s Land to you.
After resolving the situation that almost spiraled out of control, Erica explained the information in the operation document.
— As you all know, the Devil’s Land is the base of the race called demons and monsters that Godwin created. A massive amount of demonic energy still lingers there.
The main reason why the Devil’s Land could not be conquered was precisely that demonic energy.
— Demonic energy serves as great nourishment for demons and monsters, but for people like us, it is an existence similar to poison that disrupts the flow of life.
— You don’t seem different from us, so is there any way to solve that?
— Of course.
Erica took out an amulet and showed it.
— This is an item backed by the Blue Eye, who sponsor our Adventurer’s Guild. I heard it is called the Anti-Demon Amulet.
— Is it an item that purifies demonic energy?
— No. Its function is to expel demonic energy from within the amulet. It creates a space where we can breathe.
— Then, if we just have the amulets, there is nothing to worry about!
If the story had flowed so easily, there would have been nothing to worry about, but Erica’s expression said otherwise.
— Unfortunately, they say that expelling all demonic energy is impossible. The efficiency decreases according to the concentration of demonic energy, so it cannot be considered a panacea.
— What a pity.
— I heard that the Blue Eye is the best in magic, but I suppose that is just ancient fame.
— …Well, that may be true, but don’t you think speaking ill of our sponsors is a bad idea?
— Ugh… I’m sorry.
The adventurer lowered his head at Erica’s words.
That bastard who blurted out such nonsense probably doesn’t even know how lucky he is that his head didn’t fly off.
— Anyway, then that means we are exposed to demonic energy, so we have to take the risk?
— There is not much to worry about. It blocks 95% of demonic energy.
— How much time do we have?
— The safe level is 24 hours. Even if we take the risk, we only need to leave the Demonic Land within 48 hours.
— If we want to do it safely, the time is terribly tight.
— May I ask where exactly the place we are going is?
— I will show you on the map.
Erica spread a large map over the table.
Pointing to a mark indicated in red, she spoke.
— We plan to explore this place. According to what we found out upon requesting from Escolea, it was once a place called Gyeonghui Palace.
— Do you think there are treasures here?
— In the East, they handled magic in a form called ‘Do’, and this is a place where they trained in that Do. So it is similar to a magic training hall.
— There will be magic tools.
In their eyes, a mountain of gold coins seemed visible.
Magic tools are more precious and valuable than simple gold, silver, and jewels.
But it was not something to simply get excited about.
On the other hand, there was also the risk they had to take.
As experienced adventurers, their estimates were solid.
— This will not end in a single day, absolutely.
— Is this a job where we must take the risk no matter what?
Their common question was one.
Is this an exploration that can be resolved in 24 hours, relying only on an Anti-Demon Amulet?
If it does not end in a day, retreating is the most profitable option.
That was also within Erica’s calculations.
— That is why I prepared a means to shorten travel time.
She took out a scroll, pushed it onto the table, and unrolled it.
It looked a bit unfamiliar to everyone, but Ferda recognized it instantly.
— We will use a transportation tool called a mana automobile.
— Mana automobile?
— Think of it as a wagon that moves using mana stones made by condensing and refining demonic energy.
They had thought about attaching Anti-Demon Amulets to horses and moving, but the demonic energy constantly stimulated their survival instincts, so they would get scared and flee after advancing a little further, ending in failure.
— How much time can you shorten with that mana automobile?
— After a test drive to check the speed, 2 hours are sufficient.
— 2 hours!
They could not help but feel shocked.
Marching takes at least 6 hours, and even riding a horse barely reduces it to 2 hours, doesn’t it?
Reducing it to 1/3 within the risk of ‘demonic energy’ is no ordinary feat.
— But there is a problem.
But as always, it couldn’t all be good news.
— Originally, we tried to make it so that we could replace the mana stones detachably to use it longer, but they said that is not possible.
— May I ask the reason?
— Since it is an object made by condensing and refining demonic energy, it easily loses its essence when it comes into contact with demonic energy. With a blocking rate of barely 95% like ours, it cannot exert its true performance. So it will be integrated and only used to transport us.
— That means the mana automobile is disposable. How many hours does it run?
— 2 hours. We can conserve energy going to Gyeonghui Palace, but instead, we will have to return walking.
— Mmm…
It was a subtle reaction, but still better than at the beginning.
We shortened an impressive 4 hours, and during those 2 hours of travel, we do not need to consume stamina.
Thus, the energy we can concentrate on the exploration itself has increased greatly, and the burden of risk has also decreased considerably.
The reckless act of walking toward death became a challenge worth attempting.
It lit a fire in the hearts of the adventurers.
Erica enjoyed that reaction and continued speaking.
— From now on, I will explain the outline of the operation to you.
They spent time discussing the details to explore the Devil’s Land.
During more than 3 hours of discussion, they developed the outlined operation into a decent framework.
The rest were parts that had to be substituted with the flexibility of the adventurers.
— Then we will depart in three days. Is there anyone with suggestions?
At Erica’s question, someone raised a hand.
It was a large hand that could be identified without even lowering one’s head.
— Speak, Jonathan.
— Captain Eri. I think we need to establish the rank, what do you think?
— Establish the rank…
— They say there cannot be two suns under the sky, right?
Jonathan Sina said, pointing with his chin at the Armored Knight.
— Shouldn’t we compete to see who is the muscle of this expedition?
Jonathan Sina, of the lineage of the Great Warrior of the North, one of the 12-Person Expedition, bearing the name of Man of Herculean Strength.
His descendant, the current Jonathan, had also established himself as a synonym for monstrous strength and was making great strides.
They said he did not back down at all even in a contest of strength with a ferocious ogre, and that his strength continued to grow as he aged.
The place was instantly tinged with interest.
Useless competitive spirit should be rebuked, but
— If there is mutual consent, we will proceed.
Erica was also curious internally.
What would happen if Jonathan Sina and the Armored Knight faced off?
“I know Jonathan’s potential and current strength.”
She thoroughly knew the lineage of the past Jonathan Sina and the exploits of the current Jonathan Sina.
But the Armored Knight?
“Unknown.”
She had seen the realm that was someone’s limit, but felt that even that was not the limit.
Thanks to the provocation of the bellicose Sina family, it was a moment she could verify with her own eyes.
What would the Armored Knight do?
She thought the possibility of refusing was higher.
But the Armored Knight’s reaction seemed quite positive.
“Finally I’ll be able to do this arm wrestling thing!”
Valdrova was extremely delighted with this proposal.
Arm wrestling is a means often used by men to display their masculinity, and construction workers also did it frequently.
She always had to limit herself to observing the arm wrestling.
It was something natural.
Who could beat her lifting logs?
Valdrova, unaware of that fact, was terribly upset about being excluded.
Valdrova gladly shook that hand the size of a pot lid.
Although the armor was made significantly larger than that of a normal adult man, her hand looked like a baby’s hand.
— Then… begin!
With Erica’s signal, prominent veins bulged on Jonathan’s hand.
A dull thud!
The clothes could not withstand the muscle expansion and tore.
Creak!
The sturdy old wooden table could not properly support the weight.
— Haaaaah!
Jonathan’s battle cry and its repercussions made the table shake.
Valdrova also admired.
“This person is strong.”
The strength felt in the hand was hard to believe was human.
She even wondered if he could easily win fighting Dragon Hatchlings alone.
“He really is strong, but…”
That was only according to the standards of the monsters of this land.
The one he is facing right now is a dragon.
Among them, Valdrova, who loses to no one in strength, is the Phase of Power.
For Valdrova, the weight class difference was so severe that it was like arm wrestling with a three-year-old child.
‘So that’s why no one wanted to do it…’
Upon doing so, she felt a sense of disillusionment.
— Oh…! As expected of the lineage of the Great Warrior of the North!
— It is truly a fight between a dragon and a tiger!
She hears the people making an uproar.
With reactions as if they could not predict even an inch, Jonathan burned.
— Hup!
Every time he exerted force, the bulging veins eventually swelled up to his head, looking as if they were going to burst.
Now it was becoming terrifying.
She worried that the bulging veins on his head might kill him just like that.
‘If I win like this, won’t he resent me?’
Valdrova did not particularly want to win.
Beating this person would only give him a sense of humiliation.
That was why Valdrova chose.
Tap—.
To lose on purpose.
The tense point of contact ended in an instant, and cheers praising Jonathan erupted.
— Oh! The Great Warrior of the North won!
— As expected of the Ogre Slayer!
If someone could be happy, that was enough.
Valdrova thought so, but it was not easily resolved.
The eyes of Jonathan, the person directly involved, looked at Valdrova in an unusual manner.
— What was that just now?
?
— Damned bastard!
??
What returned with a reddened face was rage.
As he tried to get up and grab the Armored Knight by the collar, the adventurers barely managed to hold him back.
Jonathan shouted.
— Did you think I would like it if you lost the match on purpose? Do it again!
Valdrova could not understand.
He was dying to win, so she let him win, why was that not fine?
Jonathan shouted at the top of his lungs telling him to attack him with all his strength several times, but in the end, everything dissipated with Erica’s mediation.
Valdrova still could not understand his feelings.
On the day of the conquest of the Devil’s Land, in the cave beneath Valdrova Castle, Valdrova finished preparing to go on the expedition.
‘There will be no problem.’
Now all that is needed is the preparation of the mind.
Valdrova sat in her place and quietly gathered her heart.
‘Those monsters appeared yesterday, so it should be fine for a while.’
In the worst case, I can just return.
‘Then… many people would be surprised, right?’
Valdrova could not measure how they would react.
Whether they would rejoice, added to the fame of the Armored Knight
Or they would feel betrayed because she was just an evil dragon.
Valdrova still held that heavy feeling in her heart.
Valdrova stopped thinking about that problem.
Anyway, the bigger problem was separate.
— Why do you try to go to that land?
She raises her head at the voice that comes.
There, the form of a man existed.
Valdrova knows.
That man is nothing more than the weakness created from her own heart.
The name of that weakness was this.
— Godwin…
Black Dragon Godwin.
The one who had already died and disappeared had assimilated with this darkness and was making his way into Valdrova.
Valdrova unconsciously placed her hand over her chest.
Her heart beat with a thud-thud.
— You know it too, right? If you go there, I will show myself.
He spoke softly as if it were nothing.
That stimulates Valdrova’s emotions.
— Yes…
— The anger toward me becomes great power for you.
— So it will be.
— But if you cannot get angry, you will repeat the mistake of that time.
— …
— Look, Valdrova.
At his words, something revealed its form beside him.
It was Ferda.
An excessively kind man.
A man who gave her a love she believed she did not deserve, no matter how she thought about it.
— Valdrova. Who is this?
— …
— Don’t think I won’t know just because you don’t answer. I am nothing more than a fantasy that you arbitrarily created.
True words.
All the spirits she sees are just things she created.
— How would it be if this man died by your hand?
— …
— Or if my children killed this man?
— …
— Would you be angry with me?
— …
— Or would you simply watch like that time?
That time.
Valdrova knew when that time was.
Godwin killed the humans Valdrova cherished.
What Valdrova felt was despair.
And rage.
Godwin was hateful, his offspring were hateful, everything of his that disturbed the continent was hateful.
However, she could not get angry.
Because her power was too enormous.
Because she already knew what result her anger would bring, she could do nothing.
— If Ferda… dies…
Ferda’s form overlaps with the corpses she had seen.
Valdrova’s eyebrows trembled.
Her head grew heavy, as if a thousand muscles were pressing down on it, and dropped.
She tries to look away from that scene.
— Godwin.
But she did not brush it off.
She raised her head and looked at Godwin.
The form of Ferda, slaughtered, returned to its original state.
And dispersed.
— I am afraid of you. But even so, I cannot back down.
— So you say it doesn’t matter if this man dies?
— Ferda… did a lot for me.
Ferda is human.
A human who dies in the blink of an eye and returns to dust.
A human where joy exists, but the end leads to sadness.
But what did that human do?
He was moving to revive the Far East, the land of despair.
He was telling her how pleasant it is to be alive.
— I cannot do much, but… I have to overcome at least the despair you show me.
That was why Valdrova tried to move forward.
Terrifying and painful, but carrying that burden in her heart that she cannot pretend not to see.
Godwin’s form gradually dispersed.
He whispered into Valdrova’s ear with a satisfied tone.
— It pleases me to see how you solidify your resolution.
— …
— But it will not be possible.
— …
— Because you have been that kind of existence since you took up your spear in the primordial era. Our King.
Thus he disappeared within Valdrova’s consciousness.
Her heart calmed, and Valdrova put on her armor.
Now it is time to go to the Devil’s Land.