While Shien was grumbling inwardly, Roxie truly seemed to trust the blessing on her and began wandering around the area.
Sometimes, she plunged into the forest.
Sometimes, she climbed up slopes.
Sometimes, she jumped into pits.
Sometimes, she followed narrow paths.
Roxie wandered about aimlessly like this, yet she was not slow at all. Even Shien, following behind her, was starting to feel tired.
Just as Shien was about to grow impatient, Roxie arrived before a towering mountain.
"..."
Before that mountain, Shien and Roxie both abruptly came to a halt.
"No way?"
As though he had sensed something, Shien muttered to himself.
"Looks like we hit it."
Roxie stared fixedly at the mountain ahead, her gaze becoming incredibly sharp.
"We really found it by luck?"
Shien did not know whether to laugh or cry, but his eyes never left the mountain before them.
Through the feedback from Mana Perception, Shien could clearly sense waves of obscure mana rising and falling within the mountain.
That mana was extremely faint. If it had not been Shien and Roxie, it might truly have gone unnoticed.
Yet, that mana carried an exceptionally evil, dark, even savage feeling, telling them that something extraordinary seemed to be inside.
No matter how one looked at it, this situation was unusual.
So perhaps, just as Roxie had said, they had found it.
Especially since, amid that evil, dark, savage mana, there were also vast amounts of unusual mana lingering around.
Shien was certain that mana belonged to monsters.
In other words, there was something inside this mountain, along with a great many monsters.
"Could all the monsters around the royal capital have gathered here?"
Shien remembered Roxie saying that quite a few monsters had left their fixed habitats, and no one knew where they had gone.
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