Chapter 337

Four hours after leaving for the dungeon . The golem carriage, traveling north, was approaching the Border Mountains much faster than I thought it would . Although its travel speed is slow, it can run tirelessly on any terrain, without the need for breaks .

"It's, giant!"

About one hour ago, Fran woke up from a deep sleep, and, peeking her head out of the carriage hood, looked up at the approaching Border Mountains and shouted . I would have liked her to sleep longer, but it seems she was unable to because of all the excitement . Still, it seems she's fully recovered from her fatigue, so the rest was worth it .

(It really is huge, isn't it... . I can't even see the top with all those clouds . )

It might even be taller than Everest . Though, I can't get a good grasp of the size from this distance, so I don't know the exact altitude .

The height of the mountains along the mountain range was striking .

Moreover, unlike normal mountain ranges, there are almost no plains at its base . From a distance, it just looks like a giant vertical wall . It was almost like it was a waterfall of stone, flowing through the clouds from the sky and pouring down to the ground .

Looking closer, one can see that the slope is just extremely steep . Still, it certainly looked more like a cliff than a normal mountain .

"We will be arriving at our destination soon . Kiara-shishou, how are you doing?"

"I am alright now . I drank the potion . All things considered, we arrived faster than I thought . "

"Nn . In the blink of an eye . "

"It's because those two spent the entire time talking, isn't it?"

Just as Mia says, Kiara and Fran have been talking since she woke up . Though, it wasn't a conversation between an elder and a child, or about fighting or how to use Senka Jinrai . Instead, it was a brutal conversation in which Kiara talked about Magic Beasts and warriors she had defeated in the past, and how to use intimidation to efficiently break the opponents spirit . I was foolish, expecting a warm-hearted conversation between a grandmother and grandchild from these two .

Still, it turned out to be an intense conversation . Senka Jinrai really does have a further level to it, just as expected . Just as Fran instinctually grasps the Black Lightningstrike, Kiara can use the Rolling Black Lightning freely . The reason Fran can't use it, is that Fran lacks sufficient combat experience, it seems . Even when I tried to show her using myself as an example, it didn't work .

"Difficult . "

"It's nothing to worry about . At your age, you've already achieved it . If you don't neglect your practice, you will be able to use it before you know it . "

"Nn . I'll do my best . "

The topic is brutal, but Fran seems to be having fun . It seems conversation between family really is special .

"Ojou-sama . " Quina, who was in the driver's seat, called out to Mia . It sounded like her normal voice to me, but it seemed that the tension in her voice was properly picked up by Mia .

"What is it? Did something happen?" While immediately preparing herself for battle, Mia asked a question of Mia in return .

"There is an abnormal situation . "

Hearing that, Mia and Fran poked their heads into the driver's side of the carriage .

"That..."

"Wha... . What happened... . ?"

Quina is pointing in shock, and for good reason . Ahead of the carriage, a large number of magic beast remains littered the ground . That was several hundreds of magical beasts, atrociously rendered into corpses, and scattered across the land .

"Magic beasts from a dungeon? But, the way they were defeated... . "

"Yes, it's abnormal . "

As Quina said, the magical beasts were abnormally killed . Every last one of them was squashed flat, as if crushed from above .

Weak small fry, visibly powerful dragon-like creatures, and evil beings were all similarly pressed into the ground and crushed . Furthermore, it was over a vast area . Looking over the wilderness, everywhere else seems to be in a similar condition .

We disembarked from the carriage and began investigating the area . It wasn't just the monster corpses that were unusual .

"The ground is too flat . "

"Nn . "

As Mia said, the entire area was flat, as if the ground were flattened by a road roller . No, this would be overwhelmingly flatter than a highway . It would be shameful to even compare .

Examining the surroundings, I was able to spot the flat parts and the border where it meets the usual wilderness . It looked exactly like a boundary . The normal wilderness past the boundary suddenly stopped, and became a step more than one meter deep .

How should I put this... . ? If a giant iron box 100 meters in length and width were pressed against the ground with enormous force, something like this might be the result .

Furthermore, as I walked around, I saw many similar steps . Apparently, the creator of this spectacle performed the compression of the iron box many times . At each time, depending on the number and quality of the magical beasts to be crushed, the degree of power may have been changed slightly . Because of that, the areas where the steps overlap each other look like stairs .

Thinking there might be some materials or magic stones I could use, I started searching seriously, but there was nothing decent enough left . Everything was crushed so flat they couldn't be used, and the magic stones were shattered altogether .

Slowly lifting a large dead body, I examined it closely and found it was a lizard monster . It was almost like a cracker . Most of its adamant scales were shattered, and the remaining scales were cracked through .

When Fran knocked on the ground as a test, she found that it was compacted and as hard as rock . Even Fran or myself could do something similar, if it was over a much smaller area . However, just how much power would be needed to compress such a wide area at once?

"Just who... could have done this...?"

"You don't know either, Mia?"

"Mm . I cannot think of any common technique which could do this . Quina, do you have any idea what did this?"

"I'm afraid not . "

"Kiara-shishou! Would you know what happened here?"

"Yes . "

Neither Mia nor Quina seem to know, but Kiara seems to have an idea . As expected of one who has lived so long . Mia is surprised as well .

"Eh? You know what could do this?"

"Yes, there's just one person I can think of . "