Yarra’s Adventure Notes -
Chapter 663 - 27 Human Corpse_1
Chapter 663: Chapter 27 Human Corpse_1
"Bang," the leopard-type magical beast’s sharp claws hit the metal shield again. The collision of the claw tip and the shield splashed a string of bright sparks, which appeared especially clear in the night. The magical beast was rebuffed by the shield, rolling several times in the snow, and it distanced itself from Catherine. Its hind legs suddenly pushed against the snow surface, and amidst the flying snow, the beast shot towards Catherine, bypassing her shield. Suddenly, it opened its mouth wide, lunging upwards in a fierce attempt to bite Catherine’s abdomen.
However, Catherine just chuckled lightly. Her body twirled gracefully like a dancer on the snow field, deftly avoiding the magical beast’s attack and for the first time, exposing her rear position. But unfortunately for the beast, the expected empty space was already occupied. Pannis had been standing behind her for who knows how long. As Catherine spun, Pannis was perfectly positioned in front of the beast’s wide-open mouth. He wore the polite smile of a shopkeeper welcoming customers, thrusting his longsword straight forward and brutally impaled the beast. The over one-meter long one-handed sword pierced right through the leopard-type magical beast.
"Whack," after the stab, Catherine returned to Pannis’ side. Their hands met mid-air and they gave each other a high-five, while the beast - with a one-handed sword stuck in its belly - charged past them and crashed heavy onto the ground. Its four legs struggled against the snow, and the red blood gushing from its mouth instantly stained a large area of the snow.
Turning back, the only legendary rank snow wolf leader had already bitten off the throat of the remaining leopard-type magical beast. It was curiously observing the two odd creatures in front of it. Its weird kin earlier on had said that these two were friends but no matter what, it couldn’t see how these bipedal beings resembled friends.
Seeing the fight end, Lina – who had transformed into Diana – crawled over like a wolf. She nuzzled her head against the legendary snow wolf leader and they began to exchange in low growls. The snow wolves, which had gathered into a pack, were surrounding their dead comrades, all howling in unison toward the sky emitting a series of mournful screeches. After these sad calls, the wolves individually began to drag the bodies of their fallen packmates away, quietly dispersing into the snowfield.
"The dead comrades, every member of the wolf pack will mourn them before eating them as food," Pannis sotto voce explained to Catherine. "That’s why they drag away the bodies of their own kind killed in battle. You see, those poisoned corpses were left untouched. They’re smart, they know they can’t eat those."
"They eat their own kind?" Catherine looked, surprised, at the fading wolves dragging away the bodies, "In my memory, most normal pack animals, especially wolves, don’t consume their own kind, let alone touch the bodies."
"This is the snowfield, my lady knight," Pannis shook his head, "We cannot judge the situation here based on experiences elsewhere. On the snowfield, especially during winter, every bit of food is extremely valuable, none can be wasted. A single body of their own kind would perhaps allow an entire small tribe to survive the harshest days of winter. So, every carnivorous magical beast on the snowfield considers the dead bodies of their own kind as food. It’s inevitable."
Catherine fell silent for a moment, then nodded, "Right, for magical beasts, the survival of their species is the most important. All other factors are set aside. Okay, I can understand that."
"I’ve talked to them," Lina patted the head of the snow wolf leader, it was a struggle to stand upright in the knee-deep snow. She slowly walked back, "They just said that the human who died had appeared on the snowfield some time ago. He slaughtered several packs of snow wolves and killed many. Therefore, several large wolf packs in the snowfield remembered him. But he left the snowfield later, and the packs couldn’t find him, so they had no other choice. They didn’t expect him to come back voluntarily this time, and even brought two strange magical beasts. Oh, their exact words were much simpler than this. I supplemented based on their meanings. There shouldn’t be any errors."
"I see," Catherine walked slowly to the only human corpse, bent down to examine the clawed and bitten body, "Let’s see who this person is, who would wander around the snowfield with magical beasts that resemble the modified creatures of goblins."
"We need to move quickly." Pannis forcefully hoisted one of the leopard-type magical beast’s bodies that was left behind. After negotiations with Lina, not all the enemy corpses was taken away, leaving the human and one of the magical beast’s bodies for the three to study. Pannis, carrying the corpse, said, "If we don’t go back soon, they’ll start to worry."
"We will be done soon," Catherine conducted a brief examination and her expression changed. She raised her voice and said, "You two, come over and see. The clothes this man is wearing, doesn’t it look familiar? I didn’t expect this person to be one of them too."
"Whose man is this?" Pannis looked up and his pupils suddenly shrank. He moved a few steps to Catherine, carrying the corpse, and frowned at the torn coat of the corpse. Hidden under the coat was a purple robe. The black he had seen from afar was just a visual misperception in the darkness. Pannis squinted at the purple robe on the corpse and clicked his tongue, "I didn’t expect to run into them in the village. It’s interesting that they belong to the same church but they choose to roam outside the village rather than staying in it. Hmm, I think I understand something."
"He must be the Undead Mage who left early." Catherine quickly responded, inspected the wounds on the body, and lifted the body, saying, "Looking at the blood in the wounds, he must have been alive when he died, so he couldn’t have been a ghoul from the Divine Servants. He left Icebound Town three months ago, then made contact with the Divine Servants in the north. Perhaps he has received some new orders and brought these two magical beasts back to the Snowfield. But it’s strange to me that the Divine Servants didn’t provide them ghouls as support. These magical beasts may be powerful, but ghouls are far more reliable."
"I’d wager they don’t have as many ghouls on hand as we think," said Pannis. "Even if they’ve been working on creating ghouls for a hundred years, there aren’t many people who are willing to offer their soul to be resurrected. And it’s even rarer for those who are on the Legendary Rank to do so, let alone have ghouls to spare."
"A hundred years?" Catherine asked in confusion, "Is it not earlier or later?"
"The number is just an offhand guess," Pannis laughed unconvincingly and changed the topic, "The main problem right now isn’t ghouls or magical beasts. The real question is, where did these modified magical beasts come from?"
"Could it be they also found a fragment of the Goblin Research Center?" Catherine questioned uncertainly, "And found a way to control these magical beasts?"
"These magical beasts definitely didn’t come from the Goblin Research Center," Lina said confidently, "Maybe the Divine Servants found another way to modify them."
"I agree they aren’t goblin-made," Pannis nodded. "Those magical beasts beneath Angus Village that we fought, were nowhere near as powerful as these two. And those beasts died after a period of high-intensity combat, they dissolved into a disgusting pool of blood. I asked Ava about this a few days ago. According to their records, goblin modification techniques are not perfect. Modified animals will lose control and dissolve if they use up too much energy in intensive activity. Looking at these modified magical beasts today, the modification technology is now perfect. These magical beasts are not only much stronger, but they don’t automatically die either. I wonder if they have other magical beasts at their disposal, like creatures on the Demigod Rank for example. If they can modify and control Demigod Rank beasts, we could be facing a serious problem. The threat of dozens of such beasts appearing on the outside of Death Forest... Wait, the Forest of Death, I understand."
"What did you realize?" Catherine asked, "Does it have anything to do with the Forest of Death?"
"The Divine Servants’ biggest problem is that their whereabouts are hard to uncover. At present, over half the forces of Yara are frantically searching for them. They have looked everywhere on this continent, even getting the Sea Race to help check the islands overseas, but there’s not a clue in sight. After examining the body I noticed that the modifications on the magical beasts only amplify their existing strength without helping them break through their rank. If they are indeed researching how to modify magical beasts, their ultimate goal should be the modification of Demigods. To do that, they will have to choose a place where Demigod beasts are regularly found. The only place in the world that fits this criterion other than the deep sea, would be..."
"The Forest of Death?" Catherine mused, "In theory, it does seem to be the most likely place. But is it possible for humans to live there long-term?"
"Theoretically, it isn’t." Pannis shook his head, "the Forest of Death hasn’t been fully explored yet, there’s so much we don’t know about it. They could be hiding anywhere. But anyway, now’s not the time to discuss this. We should take these bodies back and ask Ava. Let’s have Vivian check them too, we might find more clues."
"Okay," Catherine nodded, "Let’s hope suddenly bringing back two corpses won’t surprise them too much." (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my utmost motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
Report