I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

Page 98

"Be careful on the road," Gron shouted from behind. "It's not safe outside."

Lynn quickened his pace and left the village. The unicorn was waiting for him under an old tree outside the village. When it saw him return, it snorted softly as a greeting.

Anna and Lisa were waiting on a grassy area nearby.

Lisa saw him first, her hand on the hilt of her sword, and only relaxed slightly after confirming his identity.

"I'm back."

“Hmm.” Lynn jumped off the unicorn.

"how's it going?"

“The plague has nothing to do with those dwarves.” Lynn sat down opposite Anna and got straight to the point. “They are protected by a woman who used the power of the Abyss to create an isolation array that stopped the plague from spreading.”

"Who is it?" Lisa asked from the side.

“She called herself Vera Noshwan, and looked like a scholar, not a cult member.” Lynn pulled out a map from his pocket and unfolded it. “She gave me a lot of useful things.”

He pointed his finger at the map.

"We are here, in the Beisui Valley. Shengge City is located at the south-west end, about 400 kilometers away as the crow flies."

“Four hundred kilometers isn’t far,” Lisa said.

“Whether it’s far or not depends on the route.” Lynn drew a few lines on the map with his finger. “The cities in the north are all sealed off, and the central plains are the battlefields where the great nobles are fighting, with defeated soldiers and bandits everywhere.”

Anna looked at the map, her gaze sweeping over it for a few seconds.

"Go to the west side."

Lynn glanced at her: "You're quick to notice."

“The terrain around the edge of the Azure Sky Mountains is complex, making it inconvenient for a large army to march, but actually safer,” Anna said calmly. “This is the most reasonable approach.”

Yes. But there's a problem.

Lynn's finger landed on the Dry Bone Canyon.

He recounted everything he had heard from Vera.

“What if we have to take a detour?” Lisa asked.

"It will take another seven days to travel through Duke Gran's territory, which is under complete martial law. Outsiders will be killed on sight. As for Black River Town on the other side..." Lynn paused for a moment, "it is already ravaged by plague. Getting close will result in contamination."

Lisa didn't reply.

The wind blew through the woods, carrying the scent of earth and grass.

Anna paused for a moment, then looked up at Lynn. "Are you confident you can defeat the Plague Core?"

“I’m confident,” Lynn nodded. “But we have to be as fast as possible. I don’t know how far the Plague Core can grow.”

"We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning." Anna stood up and pulled her robe tighter around herself.

......

That night, the three of them ate a simple dinner around the campfire, and Anna quickly fell into a deep sleep, leaning on Lisa's shoulder.

Lisa had one arm around Anna and the other gripping the hilt of her sword; her dark eyes shone brightly in the firelight.

"You go to sleep first." She gestured with her chin at Lynn, "I'll call you to switch shifts in the middle of the night."

"Row."

Lynn wrapped herself in a blanket, lay down, and closed her eyes.

For some reason, the image of Vera standing by the iron pot reappeared in my mind.

That slender figure... I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with it.

Forget it.

Who cares?

We still have to travel tomorrow.

......

The next morning, the three packed up their campsite and set off.

Anna sat on the back of the unicorn, Lynn led the way with the reins, and Lisa brought up the rear with a longsword.

Following the route marked on the map, they traveled south along the eastern edge of the Sky Mountain Range.

The first day was peaceful.

Occasionally, you can see some abandoned villages along the way. The doors of the houses are open, and there is no one inside. The weeds in the yard have grown to the height of the windowsill. In some houses, there are still half-eaten tableware and overturned chairs.

The person left in a hurry and didn't have time to take anything with them.

“The villagers must have all fled to the north,” Anna said softly.

Lynn didn't reply and quickened her pace.

The next day, we started encountering monsters.

The first to appear were a group of rock lizards, about ten of them, around level 15, lurking in the roadside rubble, waiting for an opportunity to ambush.

Lynn didn't even stop walking.

A gust of wind swept out, severing more than a dozen rock lizards in two, their blood splattering onto the rocks.

Lisa glanced at the corpse on the ground and said nothing.

Further south, the frequency of monsters increases.

On the third day, they encountered a one-horned wild boar king, level 38, about the size of a small carriage, which charged down the hillside.

Lynn didn't even bother to change his spell. He simply had the unicorn dodge the charge and, before the boar king could turn around, he hit it squarely on the back of the head with a fireball.

boom.

The wild boar king collapsed with a thud, smoke rising from the back of its head. It kicked its four legs a few times and then lay still.

"Your fireball spell is much stronger than before," Anna commented from horseback.

"is it?"

"Yeah, but the posture is still really awkward."

"..."

A smile appeared on Anna's lips.

Lisa walked over and squatted down to examine the boar king's carcass.

"Is this meat edible?"

"You want to eat?" Lynn raised an eyebrow.

“Princess Anna needs to replenish her nutrition,” Lisa said matter-of-factly. “We’re almost out of food.”

"Okay, okay, then you handle it."

That night, the three of them ate roasted wild boar meat for the first time ever.

......

By the fourth day, there was absolutely no trace of human activity on the road.

There were no villages, no roads, no footprints, only barren bushes and distant, rolling mountain ridges.

Occasionally, you can see animal carcasses scattered along the roadside, their bodies bearing dark purple stains.

The monsters Lynn encountered along the way were all low-level creatures below level 20, and none of them could last a single round against him.

Day .

After setting off in the early morning and walking for about three hours, a faint smell of decay began to permeate the air.

The smell was faint, but Lynn noticed it before Anna and Lisa did.

The unicorn reacted, slowing its pace, its ears twitching, and its front hooves pawing the ground nervously.

"We've arrived," Lisa's voice came from behind.

Lynn stopped and looked up.

The terrain ahead suddenly drops, with bare cliffs on both sides. Not a blade of grass grows on the gray-white rocks. A narrow rift valley stretches across the landscape, as if the earth has been forcibly torn open.

The stench of decay surged up from the depths of the canyon, more than ten times stronger than before.

Lynn walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

A thin layer of grayish-purple mist shrouded the bottom of the canyon, making it difficult to see anything clearly.

But beneath the fog, he could vaguely see something moving.

There were many, and they were densely packed together.

"Don't stare for too long," Anna's voice came from behind. "Abyssal corruption is a special kind of decay that occurs when a corpse is soaked in the power of the abyss. It can erode consciousness through visual means."

She looked towards the canyon, a hint of solemnity appearing in her eyes.

"The concentration is very high, which means there are... a lot of corpses piled up below."

Lynn remained silent for a few seconds.

Vera's information was from five days ago.

How many more undead have appeared in the canyon in the past five days?

How much stronger has that plague core become?

"I'll go down and take a look first."

"Wait a minute," Anna called out to him.

Lynn turned around.

Anna sat on the unicorn's back, her face expressionless.

"Lynn."

"Ok?"