Ancient Altar: Black Scorpion Evolution

After forcibly explaining himself, Falan turned and ran.

After all, he had stumbled into the wrong situation and said the wrong thing.

Perhaps they did not hold it against him now, but there was no telling whether they would continue not to hold it against him later.

Of course, a monk could run, but the temple could not. Falan knew that during this mission—

he could not avoid them forever. Still, if he could avoid them for even a little while, that was something.

What a hassle... As that fleeting glimpse of a beautiful figure kept flashing through his mind, Falan shook his head.

Perhaps Hermes's identity as a friend had influenced him too, making him a little less serious now.

Still, it had to be said that the goddess was truly beautiful. Maybe that was simply a biological instinct!

"It's just a pity that I'm only an adventurer, an utterly ordinary adventurer..."

In this world—or rather, in nearly every world—the gap between humans and gods was simply too great. Even if gods possessed the seven emotions and six desires, even if they were no different from mortals apart from their status, that gap remained an insurmountable chasm.

Falan understood that very clearly, so beyond appreciating beauty, he did not dare think too much about it.

"It's getting light..." Watching the faint orange glow gradually emerge from one side, Falan stopped letting his thoughts wander.

After all, it was already daytime. Next, they had to prepare to enter the Ancient Altar dungeon.

No matter what, he had to keep himself alert. Otherwise, things could get dangerous in battle.

Several hours later, Falan and the members of the two Familias had advanced to the front of an Ancient Altar.

It was clear that the water which had once formed a moat had dried up.

And enclosed at the center was the target they had come for this time.

"Lady Artemis!" An adventurer Falan only vaguely recognized called out loudly.

Following the voice, he saw a goddess leap down from above.

Hermes asked in a somewhat relaxed tone, "Artemis, how is it? Any fish down there?"

"How could there be? This is part of the seal. I understand now why the altar has been acting up this time."

Listening to Artemis's explanation, Falan and the other adventurers understood as well.

This Ancient Altar ruin did not merely possess a few simple seals.

For instance, with this Ancient Altar at its center, there were no trees for a certain distance around it.

Farther out stood a circular forest, the outermost seal, aligned with earth.

Then came where they had now arrived: the former moat, or rather, the sealing river, aligned with water.

Of course, now that this second-to-last seal had dried up, the Black Scorpion Monsters had been able to escape yesterday.

This showed that after more than a thousand years, the seals inside the ancient ruin had gradually decayed and thus been broken.

Now, only the outermost circular forest remained.

Hermes said, "Come to think of it, Artemis, I've already figured out what monster is inside."

"Mhm. I've more or less guessed it too."

"Antares!" *2

(Antares: the heart of Scorpius)

"..." Falan could not help but complain internally. There was even Scorpius—could the monsters that descended in ancient times be related to the Zodiac?

The two gods continued their discussion. "But if I remember correctly, wasn't Antares killed back then?"

"It probably did not die completely. After all, it is a monster—a monster deeply hated by us higher gods in this world."

"I see. You mean it did not die completely, and after more than a thousand years, it gradually broke the seal, intending to make the events from over a thousand years ago, when monsters descended from World's End, happen again?"

"I don't know that either. We'll have to go inside and take a look before we can judge."

As the two gods grew cautious, the adventurers naturally became vigilant as well.

After all, they might not know, like Falan did, that Antares represented Scorpius.

But they trusted their gods. If their gods were wary of the monster inside, that was enough for them.

"This really is unexpected. Artemis, what do you plan to do next? Go in and eliminate it directly?"

"Mhm. Otherwise, once the seal breaks, dealing with it will become troublesome. After all, we are only avatars split off from our divine bodies right now."

"In that case, Hermes Familia, listen up. We'll guard the outside later. Remember, do not let a single scorpion escape."

"..." Neither a member of the Hermes Familia nor the Artemis Familia, Falan felt incredibly awkward right now.

Who exactly was he supposed to follow? Following Hermes made sense, since Hermes was leading people to remain outside.

After all, the Hermes Familia mainly dealt in trade and intelligence, and Rivira was an industry Hermes had helped establish behind the scenes.

Although everyone hid their levels, as far as Falan knew, Aphis, the strongest captain of the Hermes Familia, was only level 3.

The Artemis Familia, on the other hand, was a Familia focused on exploration and combat. With only twenty members, it used an elite training approach. From what Falan had heard during the past few days, its captain Letsha was level 6, while even Lanti, the weakest member, was level 3.

"Falan, are you going in too?" Aphis, captain of the Hermes Familia, saw Falan step forward and asked after pushing up his glasses.

"Mhm. You know about my weapon. Besides, no one knows how large the altar is inside. More than a thousand years have passed. If the altar is vast, or if anything has changed, I can replenish supplies in time."

After hearing Falan's words, the members of the Hermes Familia did not try to dissuade him further. They might not know, unlike Hermes or Aphis, that his purpose this time was to unseal a Spirit Weapon.

But they did know that, just as Falan had said, over a thousand years had passed. Even the Adventurer Guild's records regarding the ancient ruins at World's End were incredibly vague, much less after all that time.

Who was to say the inside of the altar had not changed? Perhaps the monsters had dug everywhere to expand their territory in order to break the seal.

"Falan, you came along too?" This was the rather lively human girl, Lanti.

"Mhm. I'm worried something unexpected might happen this time. This is already an abnormal situation, after all."

"Falan, Lanti, quiet down. We're in a dangerous area right now."

"..." *2 Falan and the girl who had come over both immediately shut their mouths.

Just as Artemis had said, this was the Ancient Altar sealing the monster-spawning point of World's End.

But Antares of the Zodiac was now here, so no amount of caution would be excessive.

As the twenty-two-person team, including Falan, advanced inward step by step,

monsters occasionally surged out from the surroundings, and Falan found it rather strange.

It was like the abnormal incidents in the Dungeon, where monsters erupted in a mad frenzy.

However, those Black Scorpion Monsters were swiftly defeated by the adventurers of the Artemis Familia.

After several cries of [Clear!], the monsters surging from his side were wiped out.

Falan immediately pulled out a bottle of magic-restoring potion and drank it in one gulp.

As had been said before, Free Chant made casting convenient. For example, with [Dark Spirit, mysterious beyond measure, clear everything before me! Clear!], he only needed to chant [Clear!].

However, without communicating with spirits, even though there was no longer the initial equivalent exchange that required the price of life, mana consumption multiplied. That was the consequence of casting with a single-word shortcut. If he was not careful, running out of mana in this Ancient Altar would be disastrous.

"Falan, are you all right?" Lanti hurried over and supported him.

"I'm fine... The monsters are coming out too quickly and in too great a number. Also, another wave is coming. Deal with them quickly." As he spoke, Falan swung his battered, ruined longsword.

Based on what they had observed so far, those Black Scorpion Monsters were constantly evolving and growing stronger.

Taking the Artemis Familia, which mainly relied on physical attacks, as an example, the thickness and hardness of the Black Scorpion Monsters' shells—

according to what Lanti had told him, their outer shells were already comparable to level 2.5 monsters in the Dungeon.

Although he had followed two expeditions already, this was Falan's first time cutting down monsters this tough. After all, when he could use magic for wide-range AOE attacks, who would want to chop monsters apart one by one with a longsword? If not for how frequently and quickly they were emerging, he absolutely would not have used a longsword in battle.

As he fought those Black Scorpion Monsters, Falan began to feel afraid.

These monsters were far more troublesome than Dungeon monsters. It was not that their individual strength was so overwhelming, but rather their numbers, their visibly observable recovery ability, and their defensive capabilities that were gradually evolving.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—countless arrows flew out, fired by a goddess and her Familia members.

Falan did not know how long had passed, but he could see that around the place where they had stopped to fight, Black Scorpion corpses lay piled everywhere. Even this world's speed of clearing away corpses was beginning to fall behind.

"Falan, take out some recovery items. Everyone, rest for a while."

"Okay..." Hearing that, Falan took out several stamina-restoring potions from his Backpack and tossed them to several Artemis Familia adventurers nearby. In fact, he had already taken out quite a few during the battle and had them pass them around to drink.

After all, with such high-frequency combat, even this Ancient Altar exploration team, with a powerful goddess and a level 6 adventurer like Letsha, was struggling to endure.

"Lady Artemis, what should we do next?" An Artemis Familia adventurer asked. "Everyone has quite a few wounds. It's really difficult to treat them here."

"We've already made it this far. We'll push straight ahead after this. Otherwise, do you want all our efforts to go to waste?"

"You need to understand that the reason those monsters did not emerge again yesterday was likely because they had all been eliminated. Antares produced so many monsters in just one night. Facing creatures that keep evolving, we will only be at a greater and greater disadvantage."

After hearing Artemis, the adventurers lowered their heads and began resting seriously.

Just as Artemis had said, the Black Scorpion Monsters evolved far too quickly.

If they could not eliminate them all in one go this time, what remained would only be an even greater disaster.

After resting for quite a while, Falan felt that both his stamina and mana had mostly recovered.

The Artemis Familia had also rested enough after two rotations.

As Artemis had said, it seemed those Black Scorpion Monsters had truly been wiped out.

They had rested in place for more than ten minutes, yet not a single Black Scorpion Monster attacked them.

"Let's move out. I don't think Antares is so simple. It is probably evolving based on the results of its battle with us just now."

At those words, the Artemis Familia panicked, and Falan felt nervous as well. He had used plenty of magic in the previous battle.

From the Concurrent Chanting when the monsters had first appeared, to later having no choice but to rapidly chant while cutting down monsters with his longsword—

if Artemis was right, and Antares could analyze the results of battle and evolve in response to the attacks it suffered,

then it would certainly be even harder to deal with next. Thinking of his magic striking it and having no effect at all,

Falan felt deeply uneasy. There were already enough of those monsters; if they also gained magic resistance, then things would truly become unpleasant.