TL: Uhh, late today. Next chapter will be in a day or so?
Chapter 117 – The nest (1)
Brendel filled up several full bottles of the Hydra’s blood.
As usual, Kodan split the youths up into six groups. The deeper they entered the Dark Forest, the more they found the place to be unaffected by winter. Trentheim was undergoing a harsh season where everything was barren because of the cold, yet the temperature in the Dark Forest was increasing the more they traveled south.
The group led by Carglise discovered a cave next to a steep slope covered with green moss, which was behind a hill approximately two miles away.
The group followed the slope all the way down to the valley, and discovered the cave under massive boulders that were hundreds of meters tall. After the youths parted the overgrown vines that hung down from the boulders, they discovered the putrid nest’s entrance.
Carglise obeyed Brendel’s orders not to search it; they reported back to him. The latter stopped tinkering with the Alchemy tools on his hands and sent out a signal into the air to get the others to gather.
Soon enough, he and his men went through the thick vegetation and went down to the valley. The formation of the land was indeed as reported by Carglise’s messenger. It seemed like the boulders were actually sections of a cliff collapsing onto the ground, but that was probably at a few years ago. The white boulders were covered with green vegetation.
The number of leaves in the valley was as much as one would expect in the summer. Not far away from the cave was a waterfall going past the cliffs.
Brendel found Carglise and his men near the waterfall lake. Merial had twisted her leg when they entered the valley, and she was sitting down on the rocks with a few men caring for her.
Brendel knew that Merial was a bishop at the first glance, but when he saw that she bared her lower leg, he found it to be elegantly shaped and surprisingly white, though her foot was slightly swollen.
He did a double take before he went to Carglise and tapped his pauldron, whispering: “Is your friend really a man?”
Carglise shook his head: “My lord, you should know that there is no gender amongst the chosen children of the gods in the Flame Scriptures. As long as one wears the robes, there is no difference if there are additional bumps anywhere.”
Carglise gave a filthy smile, pointed at his chest and replied in a crude direct manner learned from the military school.
Brendel coughed once and asked: “So you mean your friend is a woman?”
Carglise shrugged: “I didn’t say anything about gender, did I? The first time I saw Merial, well, she had already worn the robes. If she’s not wearing her bishop uniform, then she would be wearing clothes for a male. I think only her parents and her nanny knows about this secret. Her father wanted her to become a member of the Church.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
Carglise laughed mysteriously before he replied: “My lord, let us search the cave.”
Brendel nodded, glancing at Merial one more time as she got up to follow the crowd, before he brought his men into the valley and headed for the cave. He was at the forefront and parted the vines hanging below the massive boulders. Lizards scampered away in fright as he walked through the cave.
The ceiling was approximately seventeen meters high. The waterfall was close to the cave, and there was refracted light at the entrance, showing off the colors of a rainbow.
“It’s quite pretty,” Amandina could not help but utter a gasp when she saw the rainbow. had one of her hand held by Brendel when they entered the cave. She felt at ease in her heart.
“Pretty is pretty, but the smell is a little awful.” Carglise was pinching his nose awkwardly with his fingers through his gauntlets.
A horrible stench that could make someone sick to their stomach was wafting out towards everyone’s noses. Eyes stared into the cave, but only darkness came back. No one knew how deep the cave was.
Brendel pulled out Halran Gaia and his men did the same, causing a series of metallic clangs to ring out. Kodan moved towards the front as he lit up a torch instead of drawing up a sword. The ground was uneven and there were loose rocks which had long shadows because of the light, seemingly pointing towards the darkness.
“Look over there. Hmm, the geology of this place is really bizarre. It’s amazing how the Hydra was able to find this place and build a nest.” Kodan pointed to the largest opening.
The walls were cracked near where Kodan was pointing and there was a huge pit leading deeper into the earth.
[The entrance to the Hydra nest? It seems like it was here before the massive boulders crashed down. If I have to take a guess, this place was originally where the waterfall basin was. The water would have eroded this place to form a large hole. What are the chances for an entrance to be made like this?]
The cave’s formation was indeed a little bizarre.
He raised his hand to get everyone to move over to the pit which was large enough for the Hydra to enter. The vile stench was indeed coming from it. There were green spots on the walls; they were possibly wilted moss which came about when water used to pour through the pit.
Though the group was standing beside the pit, they did not enter it immediately. Kodan brought the torch to the hole, but he could only see darkness. It was difficult to tell how deep it was. Scarlett silently tossed a large rock into the pit.
A large crashing sound echoed after several seconds.
The majority of the youths glanced at each other, wondering if they were going to be sent in.
Brendel tapped the pit’s stony entrance with his sword before speaking he spoke to Amandina: “I’ll go down to take a look, the rest of you wait for me here.”
“My lord,” Carglise stood in his way, “I think it is best for us to go first.”
Brendel patted his shoulders and laughed: “When I’m going to use you as my runners I will definitely do so, but your experience in this place cannot compare to me.”
He turned to Felaern with a radiant smile: “Felaern, you’re with me.”
The older Wild Elf sister blinked several times before she placed her hand on her chest: “Me?”
Her face was suffused with displeasure: “I’m an Elementalist, my lord.”
“That’s not a problem. You forgot that your task is to clean up the battlefield. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
“……”
Brendel had to agree that the lucky babe’s luck was still working as usual. The pit was over a hundred meters deep, but Brendel saw something wonderful as soon as he landed on the cave’s ground.
The depths of the pit was a vast space. It was clear that this was indeed the Hydra’s nest. There was a mountain of decaying meat and bones, and at the corner was a bunch of dried tree branches. In the gaps of the tree branches, he found a large quantity of armor and weapon fragments.
[Is that possibly—]
This ordinary metal was not of interest to him, but what truly drew his attention was a pair of metal gloves slotted with fiery-red gems.
Felaern came floating down with a pair of Wings of Wind. She flitted the giant pair of wings that were glowing green once before undoing her magic. She scanned her surroundings, but the pair of gloves also caught her eyes when Brendel rushed over to it.
However, she did not make any inquiries about it. Based on her knowledge of her lord, he would tell her if he wanted to.
Green words rolled out neatly in Brendel’s eyes the moment he picked up the golden metal gloves.
– Crimson blessing, Bahamut’s grasp
– Gloves
– +2 Armor Defense
– +5 Fire Shield Defense
– 10% Fire additional damage with each attack
– Grants the ability [Advanced Magic Formation]
Brendel praised the gods loudly in his mind. This was indeed the legendary gloves of alchemy. Even though it’s just a Fantasy rating, the gamers called it the ‘The Godly Artifact of Fantasy’. It was a pun on how it was the best item amongst the Fantasy-rated items, and also stated that it was even rarer to find compared to a real Godly-rated item.
Obviously, it was just a pay-to-win item to certain gamers, but gaining this item legitimately was one out of a million. Brendel could never believe that he would be able to get one just by going on his first adventure. It was like picking up a million dollars lottery ticket that he had to fish out of a drain, at least in comparison to killing a Hydra and gaining this item for his troubles.
He was about to wear the gloves when she heard Felaern whisper: “My lord, look over there.”
Felaern was pointing at a bunch of pearly-white balls which the size of a coconut. Brendel could hardly believe his eyes when he saw twenty to thirty just at the tip of the nest. There had to be more inside.
[Holy shit! I’m rich! Hydra eggs! Over a hundred!]
The value of the eggs could buy the entire Trentheim. Brendel’s heart started beating loudly. These eggs were the rough equivalent of a treasure vault containing priceless treasures in his eyes. He stared blankly at them before turning around to Felaern, took in a deep breath and spoke:
“Quick, get everyone down here. We need to get these eggs out of here!”