Time Healer Ceres - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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He too had grown deeply suspicious of Cheyenne’s recent behavior.
Nearly everything that came out of his mouth lately was about one thing.
‘Seres treated me like a beggar at first. Even now, she doesn’t really seem to regard me as a Mage Tower Master, but still.’
‘And you’re smiling while saying that? After being treated like a beggar?’
Or something to that effect.
‘Ruka! Seres gave me an extra chunk of meat today!’
‘You don’t usually eat much meat, sir.’
He’d said things like that too.
‘Seres, she… today…’
In any case, Cheyenne had taken to visiting the Stew Shop without fail every single day. Yet whenever Ruka suggested accompanying him, the man’s hackles rose, his guard bristling at once.
‘I thought it was because of the Mana Stone.’
When he’d learned that the shop owner held the Mana Stone Cheyenne had been so desperately seeking, he’d initially assumed the visits were a calculated attempt to obtain it.
‘But that wasn’t it.’
The Mana Stone had apparently been pushed to the periphery of his interest.
Whatever was drawing that man’s fascination lay elsewhere in that shop.
“Could it be… that woman?”
Given that Cheyenne had always fallen easily for things and lost interest just as quickly, Ruka had assumed the same pattern would repeat itself now.
Though he couldn’t say precisely what it was, he’d been certain he would, as always, soon lose interest and turn his attention to something new.
‘But this time something feels different.’
Watching Cheyenne disappear just moments ago using magic with an urgency untypical of him, Ruka sensed that things were taking an odd turn.
“What is it?”
He found himself growing curious—curious about what lay in that shop, and curious about what sort of person its owner truly was.
* * *
Screech-screech-screech!
Crunch!
Squawk!
“If you’re nothing but a rat, then go gnaw in a sewer where you belong. Why the hell are you chewing up buildings?”
The massive rat’s head, which had been contentedly gnawing away at the building’s wall, burst open in an instant and dropped to the ground.
“Been a while, you little Vaculas pest.”
Vaculas.
They looked exactly like rats.
Except for one thing—they were far larger than the average grown man.
They devoured humans and consumed buildings indiscriminately, leaving nothing in their wake.
In places where Vaculas appeared, nothing remained. The saliva that dripped from their mouths was a deadly toxin.
Poison strong enough to dissolve steel.
“I suppose I’ve missed you, in a way.”
Seres clicked her tongue and rushed toward another Vaculas eagerly gnawing away at a different building.
Screech-screech-screech-screech!
The Vaculas that spotted Seres lashed out with sharp claws and sprayed venom.
Crack!
Yelp!
“Disgusting. How old are you, drooling like that?”
But the wooden club in Seres’s hands struck faster, slamming into the creature’s head.
“And you lot haven’t changed a bit?”
Watching the other Vaculas ignore their fallen companion and continue gnawing at the buildings without pause, Seres shook her head slowly.
The Black Forest.
When she lived in Grace, she’d ventured in and out of it countless times.
As the head of House Elrsia, once called the sword of the empire before becoming a healer, it was a burden she could never turn away from.
“You’ve got to know your place and stay within bounds. Do you have any idea how many of your ancestors I’ve sent heavenward? No one’s walked these paths more than I have.”
Well, there was one person.
‘Kai.’
No region harbored more Vaculas than the Fersha Duchy.
Which meant Kai had no choice but to traverse the Black Forest so often that it must have become sickeningly familiar.
“Killing every last one of you would be endless.”
If they were like the others and rushed at her all at once, things would be far simpler. But these creatures forced her to hunt them down one by one, each individually.
There were two ways to escape the Black Forest.
One was to kill every single Monster within.
The other was…
“Where would the boss be lurking?”
Dealing with the final boss of this space.
Once he’s dead, the Black Forest will vanish—no need to slaughter every last rat.
“It’s over there.”
Seres’s gaze, sweeping the perimeter, locked onto a single point.
In the distance, a place pulsed with distinctly powerful energy.
Seres, gripping a wooden club unmarred by a single drop of Monster blood, vanished from her spot in a blur.
* * *
“Vaculas?”
“For crying out loud.”
“This is going to be a nightmare.”
“Why these things, of all creatures?”
The Mercenaries caught sight of the Monsters prowling through the darkness, demolishing buildings and mauling people, and curses erupted from their lips in a chorus.
“How are we supposed to catch all of them?”
Individually, Vaculas weren’t much of a problem.
They were large, yes, and their saliva was lethally venomous, but they weren’t high-tier Monsters beyond their capacity to handle.
The issue was their sheer, infuriating numbers.
They had to exterminate every last one to escape the Black Forest.
“So what, we go after the boss?”
Who? How?
“Are you insane? That’s suicide for all of us!”
The Vaculas boss was far too formidable for ordinary Mercenaries to approach.
The toxic miasma radiating from its entire body was suffocating, and its grotesque size alone was enough to make men’s skin crawl.
For the force assembled here to assault the boss would be nothing short of suicide.
“We’d need the Guild Master.”
At the very least, Skal, the Black Guild’s leader, would stand a chance against it.
Dozens of Mercenaries like them could throw themselves at the creature and not ruffle a hair.
“For now, let’s just deal with these things until reinforcements arrive.”
“Yeah, we’d better.”
Squeeeeeak!
As if sensing murderous intent, the Vaculas that had been ravaging the surroundings turned one by one toward the Mercenaries.
In the darkness of the Black Forest, the Mercenaries found themselves staring into dozens of pairs of bloodred eyes belonging to rats larger than men, and every last one of them swallowed hard.
Uuuuuoooong—
“…?!”
That was when it happened.
The Mercenaries, swords already drawn, had no choice but to freeze in bewilderment—the Vaculas, which had seemed ready to charge them in the next instant, were suddenly lifted into the air as one.
Squeak?
Whoooosh!
Screeeeeeeech!
Then came a massive inferno that crashed down upon the Vaculas’ bodies.
Their anguished shrieks split the air as the creatures burned and vanished in the sky.
“What—what is this?”
The Mercenaries’ faces went slack as they watched the Vaculas disappear without a trace in moments.
Were Vaculas really creatures that could be dispatched so easily?
“Excuse me.”
“…!”
A cheerful voice suddenly cut through the silence.
The Mercenaries turned to see a young man ambling toward them, his gait lazy and unhurried.
‘Isn’t that guy the one? You know, that young fellow who’s been showing up at the Stew Shop a lot lately?’
‘Yeah, I think so—the one who makes those stupid jokes and’s always trying to cut in line when nobody’s looking.’
‘Has to be him.’
The Mercenaries began whispering among themselves at the sight of the familiar face.
They’d caught wind that he was some kind of mage, but… could that spell just now have been his doing?
“Say, you haven’t happened to see the proprietor of the Stew Shop, have you?”
Cheyenne, the Mage Tower Master, posed his question, and the Mercenaries slowly shook their heads, their minds clearly elsewhere.
A long sigh escaped Cheyenne’s lips.
“Where in the world did she go?”
Earlier, when Cheyenne had stopped by where Seres lodged, he’d found only her younger sister and the shop staff huddled together.
Told that Seres had gone out on some errand, he’d rushed after her, but no matter how much he searched the area, she was nowhere to be found.
“What is she up to, really.”
Cheyenne’s gaze drifted downward.
A small black stone rested in his hand.
‘What is that?’ Cheyenne asked.
‘A gift from Miss Seres. She called it a Defense Stone.’
……
The black stone Colin had been holding.
Upon seeing that object imbued with Defense Magic—what was known as a Defense Stone—Cheyenne found himself speechless for a long moment.
He barely restrained the urge to dash straight to his laboratory and dismantle the stone to study it.
‘How on earth are such formulas possible……’
No matter how many times he examined it, wonder consumed him.
After a brief study of the magical formula embedded in this small Defense Stone, Cheyenne was struck with such force that he felt as though his head had been caved in by a club.
‘And this tremendous mana output on top of everything else.’
It would last perhaps three hours, but frankly, it contained enough defensive power to withstand even a dragon’s breath.
‘Wasting something like this on mere creatures like that is simply absurd.’
So he’d pestered and pleaded until he finally obtained it.
After layering several protective barriers around the shop, Cheyenne collected the Defense Stone in exchange and immediately set out to find Seres.
‘How in the world does she possess something like this?’
First a Mana Stone, now a Defense Stone with formulas he’d never encountered before.
Every single item that came from Seres was extraordinary.
Just who was that woman?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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