Volume 5, Chapter 36 – The Land of Betrayal

“Refina, the left side is yours.”

“Understood.”

“Mary, how much magic do you have left?”

“I’m almost out, but I can hold on for a little longer!”

“Use a magic potion to replenish your magic! Don’t wait until it’s all gone to drink it!”

“Yes!”

Issuing a series of commands, Camilla also took out a small bottle of magic potion and drank it down.

As the group followed the male porters into the depths of the forest, they soon encountered an unprecedented level of resistance. Hundreds of undead rushed toward them in wave after wave, like the sea. Although their individual strength was generally weak, their numbers became an overwhelming force. Camilla’s team of four was already forced to use magic potions to recover their magic; otherwise, the front line could collapse at any moment.

A skeleton rushed through a gap in the defense line into the middle of the group. The male porters, who were being protected in the center, quickly covered their faces with their hands.

“Eek! D-Don’t come near me!”

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Chopping the skeleton in half at the waist with a hand strike, Yisi patted the man’s back. “Don’t worry. Keep moving.”

It took about two seconds for the man to gradually come to his senses, his face a mask of someone who had just survived a disaster. “O… Okay.”

“Are these Her Majesty the Queen’s guards? They’re on a completely different level from those adventurers. If an ordinary adventurer saw this many undead, they would have been long gone. To think Her Majesty’s guards can push forward against them.” One of the three men couldn’t help but exclaim. Because the three of them had been covered in stinking mud, it had felt inhumane to let them lead the way like that, so Yisi had them take a bath first and change into clean clothes. Of course, this was all done with magic and didn’t take very long.

Yisi glanced at the experience bars of Mary’s group—they had increased by 20% to 40%. The experience from undead was much less than from ordinary monsters. If these were ordinary monsters, they would probably have leveled up by now. While complaining internally about how worthless undead were for experience, Yisi struck up a conversation with the three dumbfounded men.

“Isn’t this the path you usually take? If we encounter this number of undead coming here, shouldn’t others encounter them as well?”

Their group had just stepped into the depths of the fog, and it was as if they had stepped on the fuse of a detonator. Countless undead had swarmed toward them in wave after wave. Adding to that the fact that undead were not very strong monsters, until just now, Yisi had thought that all adventurers would encounter this tide of undead.

The man revealed an awkward smile. “That may be so… but you may not know, my noble lady, that we usually apply something to our bodies to mask our scent before we come here. As long as we don’t stand directly in front of an undead, they won’t sense our presence, and we can quietly sneak into the deeper parts of the Land of Betrayal.”

“Why didn’t you say so before?”

“This…” The man averted his gaze. “Apart from the powder refined by alchemists, we common folk can only use filth to cover our scent. Just as you saw before, my lady, we jumped into the mud to hide from the undead. We felt that would be insulting to you, so we didn’t mention it.”

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No wonder there are so many undead. So it was because of the scent. Yisi’s expression became a little strange. She had been wondering at first how ordinary adventurers could cope with these endless waves of undead. It turned out she had been using the wrong approach.

Well… it doesn’t make a huge difference, I guess. My purpose here was to level up my companions. Yes.

Nodding to herself, Yisi looked at the [Omniscient Map]. At a point five hundred meters ahead, the level of the undead suddenly jumped a tier. According to the porters’ description, that should be the Land of Betrayal.

The earth began to tremble, and a gurgling sound, like boiling water, rose from all around.

“Mary, retreat for now! Something is coming!”

“Th-This kind of commotion—it’s a Bone Dragon! Your Majesty, we should run, shouldn’t we!? We’re no match for a Bone Dragon!”

Moved by the man’s words, Andrea, who had been following beside Yisi, couldn’t help but ask for her opinion. “Lady Yisi…”

Yisi patted Andrea’s head. “Don’t worry.”

The Bone Dragon the porter mentioned was likely an undead creature that had once been an Earth Dragon, not a true Bone Dragon in the proper sense. She had noticed from a long time ago that a Level 30 monster was buried underground, but she hadn’t pointed it out because she wanted to test how Camilla would handle a sudden emergency.

Just before the Bone Dragon—she would call it an Undead Earth Dragon for now—drilled out of the ground, Yisi pulled Andrea to the side. The three men who should have been protected in the middle of the group had already run to the rear in a panic after hearing the name “Bone Dragon,” so Yisi didn’t need to worry about them.

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Burst.

A small mound first appeared on the ground, then a massive body composed entirely of bone with no flesh or skin drilled out. Just like the Earth Dragon Yisi had seen at the foot of the Hermion Snow Mountain, this one also had the appearance of a Triceratops.

“Eeeeeek! It really is a Bone Dragon! Let’s run! My noble lady, even you will be killed!”

Ignoring the man’s scream-like cry, Yisi walked in front of the Earth Dragon. Since she had already confirmed that undead creatures did not provide much experience, there was no need for her companions to exert themselves any further. For them, this Level 30 Earth Dragon was almost unbeatable.

Taking out an iron sword made from the horn of a giant Thunder Dragon from her storage, Yisi infused the sword with magic. She wasn’t triggering the “Weak Electricity” formula within it, but directly forming a Magic Blade on its surface—a method of mana manipulation that coated a weapon with magic to make it indestructible. Yisi swung a single stroke at the Earth Dragon’s neck.

The Earth Dragon’s head fell to the ground, and its body followed, powerlessly disintegrating.

“Ah…” As if they had seen something incredible, the three male porters’ eyes went wide. Edith, who had been preparing to make a move, raised an eyebrow and walked to Yisi’s side, poking her in the waist with her elbow.

“I knew you were ridiculously strong, but I didn’t think you were this strong. Not bad.”

“It was just an ordinary feat.” If Boris were here, he could probably replicate the scene just now, so this didn’t count as revealing her strength. The only thing that Yisi found regrettable was that the Undead Earth Dragon’s bones could not be recovered. After she had dealt with it, the bones had turned to dust and disappeared, as if they had been rapidly weathered. And yet, when her companions had smashed the other undead, they had left behind complete corpses.

After dealing with the Earth Dragon, with Yisi clearing the path, the originally extremely difficult road became exceptionally easy. Apart from the three male guides who strongly requested to withdraw, a total of seven people finally arrived at the Land of Betrayal.

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A plain, silent as the grave, where no living thing existed.

Sunlight could not reach this place. The forest and fog were as if they had never been. This was a barren land with a wide field of vision, where not a single blade of grass grew. The trenches left by the battle were clearly visible, and the ground was littered with rusty weapons and armor. The treasures buried in the earth could be seen even from the edge of the Land of Betrayal. The air was filled with an aura of death, and against the backdrop of the desolate and cold environment, even the sound of breathing became clearly audible.

Casually pulling a longsword stuck in the ground, Edith frowned. “This family crest is… the previous administrator of the Vladimir Territory?”

“I can even see the armor of Pescia Territory soldiers.”

“So the previous Queen fell here.” Gazing at the endless barren plain, Refina’s eyes held an unconcealable shock. Not just Refina, but even Yisi marveled at the preserved battlefield.

“So this is the battlefield that claimed the lives of nearly 500,000 people…”

When it had just been a number, she hadn’t felt much. Now, seeing the remains with her own eyes, she truly realized the cruelty of the battlefield.

“We might find something if we go further in. I remember a lot of Magic Cannons were lost in that battle. If we can transport those cannons back to the territory and repair them, we can further suppress the dragons in the far north.”

Edith took a step forward. And it was at that moment that, in the eyes of the others, half of Edith’s body vanished.