Gacha Leveling

Chapter 206 - 67 – Deep Backcountry 1

To avoid conflicts right out of the gate, the government officials decided to make a line and let in one party at a time with a 15 minutes interval between them.Matthew’s party was back in the line while Catherine managed to be the first ones inside.

Kaoru’s party, herself, a very tall and very fat man with long black hair and a thick beard, a short pretty man with blue eyes and short blond hair, and a black man with very long dreads wearing a gold tabard decorated with a black cross, was somewhere in the middle of the line.

While Matthew and the others waited for their turn to go inside, Eric talked loudly with some other parties that he knew from his time as a guild leader.

"It’s going to be a race to the sword." Vanessa said while pulling some grass from the ground and throwing a bunch inside the lake.

Mia held her red battle dress up while testing the temperature of the water with a bare foot.

"But Kaoru and Catherine are the ones we should be weary of." Faralynn said, while looking at the grass floating away with the river current.

Matthew used his Identify skill on those around him. Most of them were level 20 to 30. Rare exceptions were higher than that. They weren’t strong enough to face that dungeon. More likely, they were chasing a big fight to get a lot of XP and leave.

Between them, Vanessa had the lowest level, 28. Faralynn was at 30, Mia at 31 and Eric was 35. Matthew himself was level 39, same as Catherine. Her husband, Kleb, was level 33. Kaoru, however, was a monster at level 46.

The first thing Matthew and the others felt when it was their time inside the gate was a wave of scorching heat on their skin.

The sun was high up in the sky, the ground was almost white. I was both sandy and rocky. There was almost no grass on the floor, and where it was, the grass was thorny and almost yellow.

The trees were thin, contorted, thorny and more brown and gray than green. Almost leafless, most of them. The greenest thing in the scenery were the cactuses, but even then it was evident the dryness of the region.

It reminded Matthew of Violentia. But the sky was blue and the air was clean.

"We should move." Vanessa took the lead guiding them.

"Can you use your Sense Treasure to find Orpheu’s sword?" Matthew asked while following right behind her.

"Let’s hope I do. But, right now, I can sense nothing." She said moving up the highest hill they could find.

Upon reaching the top of the hill, they saw more of the same scenery.

"This is desolating." Eric commented.

"In the backcountry everything died and they didn’t need coffins. And, in the dry river, they dug wells twice as deep as a christian’s grave. They ate the mice and the frogs. They ate leather and old saddle cloth. They ate their sandals and their bags. After eating everything, they went to the river and ate sand. In the backcountry everything died and they didn’t need coffins." Mia recited in a somber tone.

"What’s that?" Matthew asked.

"An old song from Brazil. It talks about the drought that constantly ravaged the Northeast. This dungeon seems to be based on it. So I read a bit about it before coming." Mia explained.

"They ate everything and nothing was left to bury." Faralynn repeated to herself, surprised.

All around them were dry plants and bones that sank inside the land that cracked under the dry sun.

"So... Where to?" Vanessa interrupted them.

"I don’t know." Matthew said, looking around for any clues.

That’s when they felt the earth shake.

They all turned behind them and saw a creature of impossible proportions.

It was almost human. A giant with 13 feet (4 meters) and dark brown skin. Long straight black hair and two extremely big human ears. Very large triangular eyes and a bat-like nose in a lion snout. A very big mouth with human teeth and four very large canines that barely fit inside its mouth. Its body was very thin, with its ribs showing through its skin as if it were starving for months on end. Its arms were very long and its hands dragged lazily on the floor as it walked with long nails. Its legs were very thin and its feet were twice as big as expected with claws coming out of each toe. It had red painting on its face and around its eyes. It wore just tattered cloth around its waist.

They shuddered. It looked so unnatural that they feared moving and drawing its attention. None of them saw it before.

Matthew dared to use Identify on it. All he saw was a name and a level. Carranca, level 65.

"We should avoid that thing." He said.

The Carranca passed by them without noticing. Each step it took made the ground shake.

"Alright, let’s move." Vanessa said, pointing to the place opposite to where the Carranca went.

"What the hell was that thing?" Mia exclaimed. "I didn’t see anything about it before coming."

"It is a new dungeon. It’s bound to have creatures we know nothing about." Eric tried to tranquilize her.

"Identify said it’s called Carranca. It’s level 60." Matthew explained.

"We faced harder." Faralynn said.

After hours walking in the wilderness, a tough walk upon uneven land where every plant seemed like it wanted to take a piece of them, they found a house made of dried mud and tree branches. If it ever had a roof, it was long gone.

But it was enough shade for them to rest a bit.

"You alright?" Matthew asked Faralynn, handing her a water bottle.

"Yeah." She answered, empty minded. Her eyes were fixed on the skull of a dog that laid near the stump she was sitting on.

"What are you thinking about?" Matthew asked, sharing the stump with her and passing one arm around her body.

"I just got a bit surprised about what Mia said." Faralynn confessed. "Never thought how hard a drought could hit the people. Eating frogs, leather and even sand." She sighed as if she was tired.

"It gets worse than that." Matthew was somber. "If they didn’t need coffins, it implies that they also ate their dead."

Faralyn shuddered.

"It made me think about my uncle." The elf gave Matthew a sad smile. "Because of him a lot of people went hungry. Nothing as bad as this. But even so... It made me scared for when it will be my time to lead the Duchy. One mistake and I can make people suffer like this."

"That is enough for me to know you won’t let it get to that." Matthew kissed her cheek. "I’m sure you will be a great leader."

At this moment they heard the singing of several women. They all looked at each other with their hands on their weapons.

"Easy." Vanessa said while sneaking in the direction of the singing.

The others followed her lead.

The song was eerie and deep. It sounded like a lament that was impossible to turn away.

From the distance they saw a group of old and hungrily thin women by a dry river where only sand remained.

The women were sewing a large tapestry. They recognized themselves portrayed crudely, as if drawn by children, in the cloth the women sewed. As if telling a story, the images the women created showed each of them fighting fiercely enemies made of shadows.

One by one each of them perished under claws made of shadows.

Their song got louder and louder as they extended the tapestry and hit it with their hands making sand drop from it onto the dry river.

When the music got so loud it started to hurt their ears it suddenly stopped and, as soon as it stopped, the women and the tapestry vanished.

"What the fuck was that?" Vanessa cursed.

"I don’t know. Some kind of illusion?" Matthew tried to rationalize what he saw.

"I don’t like it here." Mia hugged herself seeking comfort.

"It was just a few old ladies." Eric laughed trying to ease everyone’s mood, but he was unable to hide the wavering in his voice.

"The sooner we find the sword, the sooner we’ll be out of here." Matthew said, taking the lead and walking towards a random direction.

Deep down, he was the most scared of them all. Even though it was a drawing the shadow creatures reminded him of Belial. A shadow different from his Shadow Form ability. It looked more like the shadow of the blade the Demon King gave him.

However, he wasn’t going to share that with them. It would just cause more trouble.

As his feet clad with dragon leather from his armor made loud sounds while stepping on the loose rocks on the ground, he looked around the dungeon.

He was wrong. He thought it was going to be a dungeon like any other. But something was different there. That dungeon didn’t feel normal at all.