The False Hero, Volume 2 by Michael Plymel

Author:Michael Plymel [Plymel, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7: Display of Devotion

----- Lutz -----

It only takes a few minutes for me to reach the section of town destroyed by the slimes. A makeshift barricade has been erected around the perimeter of the area. The buildings within have been partially dissolved, many to the point of collapsing from the structural damage.

Hiding in the rubble of a fallen building, I search the nearby presences and sense several groups of patrolling guards nearby. I choose my next destination based on their movement patterns, using an opening in their patrol to move into the darkness of another collapsed house further inside.

My feet never touch the ground as I move. I stride atop my translucent steps about a foot above the surface to avoid trip hazard and to prevent making noise.

Using this method, I make steady progress. The deeper I go, the more desolate my surroundings become. It’s not long before it gets difficult to find a shadow to hide in because of how dissolved the buildings are. At the same time, that gives me a clue to my destination. The middle of the outbreak will naturally have more damage to the buildings, so as long as I move with that in mind, I can stay on course.

This reminds me of one of my favorite video games series. Hiding in the shadows, avoiding patrolling guards as I attempt to reach my objective. It’s too bad this world doesn’t have cardboard boxes; I’d love to try hiding in one to prevent being spotted.

After a couple more moves, I reach an area so barren that it’s no longer possible for me to move forward. The buildings are virtually gone, so the ground ahead of me is flat and open. However, when I look around, I can see a circular pattern of partially dissolved houses surrounding the barren area in front of me.

If this section has the most damage to the buildings, then that must mean it’s the epicenter of the slime outbreak.

However, the whole area is almost completely open; it’d be impossible to hide hundreds of slimes.

What does that mean, then? Surely they’ve thoroughly explored this section, considering it’s the obvious conclusion as the source of the outbreak.

I focus on the mana around me, searching for any sign of monsters nearby. If there were an army of slimes, my spell would pick them up in an instant, yet there’s no obvious gathering of monsters.

There is a strange source of mana coming from below me. It feels close, yet it’s somehow muffled. Perhaps the ground is obscuring my ability to sense it. Ah, there’re more mana signals beneath the ground as well. What’s going on down there?

On top of that, there’s a slight mana signal coming from somewhere ahead of me. It’s so weak that I almost didn’t notice, but it’s certainly there.

It doesn’t feel like a creature. It’s similar to the mana signal I sense from my enchanted equipment, but much more powerful.

Anything with mana produces a signal that can be detected with [Sense

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