Part 6 The Light-Exporter Chapter 60 Moon City
A night of very low lightning frequency in the Godforsaken Lands.
Several human-like creatures cautiously approached a fleshy mass with six legs and a dozen eyes.
Wrapped in animal skins or simple clothes whose original material could not be seen, they traveled through the deep and infinite darkness with the help of the illumination of a few lanterns, all with very grave expressions.
On their faces, some had dozens and dozens of sarcomas, some had two eyes that were nearly squeezed together, and some directly had no noses, with black holes in that position.
After a fierce battle, they were quite successful in solving that monster, and then split into two groups, one group guarding the surrounding area, and one group harvesting the trophies.
During this process, the man with multiple sarcomas on his face was dissecting the monster’s corpse and gathering edible parts when his movements suddenly stopped.
”Adar, what’s wrong?” The female without a nose asked in a puzzled voice.
The man known as Adar slowly drew back his right hand and displayed an item he had recovered from the monster.
It was a much corroded, stone carved amulet.
”This is ……” the man with two eyes nearly squeezed together seemed to understand the cause and hesitated to finish his sentence.
Adar looked around the room and said:
”Sin, Ruth, this was given to my father when I was a child.
”He chose to leave the city-state on his own into the depths of darkness on the day I came of age, feeling that he could no longer control himself ……”
There was a moment of silence as Sin and Ruth sniffed, both able to empathize with Adar’s feelings.
In Moon City, this was something that would often happen.
Because there weren’t enough safe ingredients, they could only pick mutated plant fruits and collect monster blood and flesh as a way to survive.
This would cause them to accumulate toxins and madness, and after their physical condition slipped, they would either die quickly or gradually lose control.
The latter, in order not to have an impact on their surroundings and cause damage to the city-state, after noticing that their state is not right, will often arrange everything, take a torch and a small amount of food, leave the defense circle, and go far away alone in the never-ending darkness, never to return.
What would happen to them, the residents of Moon City could imagine, either they would be killed by monsters or turned into monsters, and there was no other possibility.
After seven or eight seconds of silence, the nose-less female Sin hesitantly addressed Adar:
”Perhaps, this is the same monster that killed your father.”
”It had a belt made of animal skin wrapped around its body ……,” Adar’s voice gradually became lower, lifted the dagger made of white bone in his hand, and plunged it downward with force, cutting out a piece of flesh that was still normal.
The members of the hunting squad completed their collection skillfully in a hushed silence until Ruth, both eyes nearly squeezed together, suddenly spoke in a low voice:
”There are more and more deformed people among the newborn children ……”
The cost of accumulating toxins and madness from generation to generation was far more than simply a drop in average age; those whose physical condition remained normal would gradually develop certain aberrations, just like Adar, who had more than his fair share of sarcomas on his face.
Likewise, the precipitated toxins and madness could be passed on to offspring, leading to the emergence of aberrations, and Ruth and Sin in the hunting squad fall into this category.
Their lives would be much shorter and more prone to loss of control and mutation.
What more and more deformed children meant was clear in the hearts of the hunting squad present, and that was that perhaps it wouldn’t take more than two or three generations before the residents of Moon City’s bodies grew up and conceived a new generation, and they could go out of control.
In that case, even if there was no external strike, Moon City would fly into oblivion, leaving only stone buildings, wall drawings, and the like to prove that they had once existed.
”I hope the High Priestess and the others can find a new direction ……,” Adar stood up with his lantern and answered unusually feebly.
It wasn’t as if Moon City hadn’t sought a way out of their current situation over the past two or three thousand years; they had sent out one exploratory squad after another to head deeper into the darkness, some returning after serious setbacks with nothing to show for their efforts, and some never heard from again, disappearing like that into the infinite darkness.
In addition, some distance to the east of Moon City, there was a grayish mist that enveloped the sky and the earth.
They were like invisible barriers that not only cut off sight, but also made it impossible for any living being to pass through.
The inhabitants of Moon City used to think that this was the place of hope, that the place covered by the gray and white mist was a normal country, and that on the other side of the gray and white mist was the earth that was not cursed.
Time and time again they tried to enter that gray mist, but failed:
They dug long passages to pass through the earth without invisible barriers, but the area corresponding to the depths of the earth was also shrouded in a gray mist;
They found a way to gain the ability to fly and tried to cross over from a high altitude, but how could they not see the top of the gray mist until they were struck by lightning;
They mobilized the power of all the demigods and seals, attacking their targets over and over again, accumulating day after day for two or three thousand years, but failing to wear down the invisible barrier by a fraction of a millimeter ……
Hearing the words of the captain Adar, the members of the hunting team were desperate and sad, as if they were slipping a little bit from the edge of the “abyss”, but could not save themselves.
Those deformed people originally belonged to the type of emotion that was difficult to control, and at this time, they more or less felt that they were suppressing something in their hearts and wanted to explode.
–In Moon City, two or three hundred years ago, deformed people could not become extraordinary people and join the hunting team, they could only go to do the gathering aspect of the work, but as the manpower became more and more strained, the High Priest and the rest of the senior management relaxed the restrictions.
”Let’s go, this isn’t enough food.” Adar looked around the room, carrying his lantern and traveling deeper into the darkness.
They didn’t risk extinguishing the fire and letting the darkness swarm with monsters, as those would likely be too much for them to deal with.
In the quiet to suffocating environment, the members of this hunting squad of Moon City couldn’t help but have the feeling that the darkness had no end.
It was as if Moon City was now in a situation where they could never find hope, and the lantern in their hands could burn for less and less time.
When that last trace of light dissipated, they would be completely swallowed by the darkness without a sound.
As they walked, a dim yellow color was suddenly reflected in Adar’s eyes.
It was a bit of firelight, a firelight that did not belong to the hunting squad!
This bit of firelight then shone into the eyes of all the members of the entire hunting squad, filling their pupils.
Adar, Xin, Ruth, and the others could hardly contain their eyes from widening, and strong emotions of surprise welled up in their hearts.
In their lifetime, in the historical records of Moon City after the Cataclysm, there had never been a fire from anywhere else!
Admittedly, quite a few monsters possessed the ability of flames or solar domains, but before launching their attacks, they all lurked in the darkness, showing no light at all.
And now, a flash of fire surfaced in the depths of the darkness!
The bodies of Adar, Sin, and Ruth trembled slightly, and for a moment they thought of many, many things, but couldn’t figure out what the answer was.
They quickly recalled the arrangements for this hunt and confirmed that it was impossible for any more residents of Moon City to appear nearby.
Since that firelight did not belong to Moon City, where did it come from?
The entire hunting squad slowed down, they were at once shocked, dismayed, curious, fearful, worried, and panicked.
–They had also discovered some destroyed city-states and knew that any abnormality in this darkness could be fatal.
”…… Alert!” Adar finally snapped back and gave the order.
The hunting squad immediately unfolded into battle formation, waiting for the dim light of the fire to approach this side.
Time seemed to freeze at this moment, every second was that slow, and finally, after that bit of firelight became bigger, it shone out a silhouette.
The silhouette …… was only one person …… The members of the Moon City Hunting Squad held their breath at the same time.
It seemed that they were, perhaps, possibly about to meet an outsider!
Two or three thousand years had passed, and finally another person had set foot on this land.
This forsaken world was no longer just them.
And just who could have traveled through the endless darkness and arrived here, Adar and the others had no experience to guess.
As that firelight grew larger and more obvious, the members of the hunting squad gradually saw the figure clearly:
It was a slender young man, he had black hair and brown pupils, his expression was cold, he was not a deformed person, and he did not appear to have a mutation.
He wore a strange hat, strange clothes, and carried a lantern made of special material, walking step by step from the depths of darkness.
The light from his lantern was brighter than the hunting squad’s combined, causing the deep gloom around him to recede quickly.
It didn’t take long for the light to reach the likes of Adar, Sin, and Ruth.
The figure stopped, looked at the hunting squad from Moon City, and spoke in a low voice:
”Where do you come from.”
Speaking the language of the giants …… eyes awake and communicable …… Adar opened his mouth and stopped the urge to answer subconsciously.
He asked in return:
”Who are you?”
The figure carrying the glass lantern responded evenly:
”Germaine Sparrow.”
After most of the year’s trekking and overcoming one difficulty after another, Klein’s spiritual intuition finally told him that he was nearing his destination.
And he met the first living people on his “trip” to the godforsaken land.
”Where are you from?” Adar asked, keeping his guard up.
Klein swept his gaze over their faces and said in an unchanged tone:
”I come from Silver City.”
”Also from outside the Cursed Lands.”
Upon hearing this answer, all the members of the hunting squad went into a trance, wondering if they had been so expectant that they had hallucinated.
……
In the fall of 1351, Birkeland in the midst of war.
Since Feneport also declared war on Rune, the war that had been drawn out for some time had finally lost its balance, and Rune and his allies Lemberg, Marthy, and Segal had lost a great deal of territory, leaving only the last few lines of defense making a hard, faltering resistance.
After seeing the long line of people exiting the food distribution point through the carriage window, Audrey slowly withdrew her gaze and spoke to her personal maid, Anne:
”Go to St. Samuel’s Church …….”