Chương 31: The Road Inland

With three predators around them, Ren was the biggest variable. Rys could take care of herself, and Ivan trusted his own reactions. Ren was the one likely to chase the obvious shot and forget what the other two were doing. As a responsible adult, Ivan had already thought of it.

"Ren. Don't shoot until one moves. If you get the tail, take it. I know the eye looks like a more attractive shot, but don't chase it. Just follow the flow." Ren nodded and drew.

"Rys, above us."

"I have it." Her eyes stayed on the slope.

"Keep the glyphs on the road." Pulling mana into his fingers, Ivan sketched a [Glyph Suspension] circuit low to the ground. He didn't have time for a proper trap field, so he kept the circuit simple, something he could still follow once everything started moving. The first glyph held a gravity drag just off the road, where the largest manticore would land if it pounced from the right. The second carried a [Minor Force] shove angled upward at the foreleg.

It wasn't strong, but it only needed to ruin the joint's timing, and all that armor wouldn't help the manticore recover its footing. For the third, he compressed a [Lightning Spear] lattice and suspended it waist high. Using [Architecture of Mana], he tightened the trigger threshold and bound it to a mana-density spike instead of direct contact. He'd taken the idea from the ship beacons. Physical touch was reliable, but a monster passing close enough should count if he made the boundary narrow.

If he set it too loose, wind would fire the spell and waste his mana. On the other hand if he made it too tight, the manticore would pass straight through, leaving Ivan half a second to understand his mistake before it mauled him. The Level 58 manticore moved first, coming down the slope so fast that its claws threw pebbles behind it. Ren's arrow snapped out and struck the base of the tail. It didn't pierce deep, but the beast jerked the tail sideways by instinct. Ren had listened.

He'd aimed at the tail instead of trying to be clever, and the manticore gave Ivan the angle he needed. The boy was a quick learner, indeed. Its front half slowed as it hit the gravity drag, while the rear kept coming and broke the creature's stride. A heartbeat later, the [Minor Force] shove struck the foreleg at the joint and kicked it outward. Then the suspended [Lightning Spear] fired. The manticore's mana core crossed the boundary and tripped the glyph, exactly the density spike he'd tuned it for.

Blue-white light flashed across the road as the spear punched into the exposed gap under its shoulder plate and blew out the other side. He ignored the kill notification. The line under it earned a glance. [Glyph Suspension has leveled up!] [Glyph Suspension – Level 8]. Great. The beast crashed into the road, carving a furrow through the dust, but Ivan was already moving his hand.

The second manticore leaped from the slope, aiming over the first corpse and straight for him with green mana flashing through its tail barbs. Rys crossed the road in a blur and intercepted it from the side, meeting it in the air with both scimitars. She kept her tails hidden and her foxfire untouched, relying on clean footwork and the new blades as she cut across the manticore's left eye. Then she kicked off its chest before the creature could clamp down on her. It landed poorly but didn't fall.

Before Ivan could turn back toward Rys, the third manticore jumped from above and [Instinct of the Prey] flared down his spine. Oh, shit. Ivan turned just enough to see stone claws filling his vision, activating [Lattice Guard] before they closed around him. The manticore's full weight struck the lattice and drove him backward. Pain spread through the guard under his skin instead of concentrating in his ribs, and his HP dipped as his boots left the ground.

He hit the road hard enough to make him clench his teeth so hard that he tasted blood, but his bones held. [Lattice Guard] spread the damage like it was supposed to, but Ivan's back still hurt like shit and every breath now poked at his ribs. But…

"Haha." A few months ago, the impact would have crushed his ribs before he ever reached the ground. Now Ivan coughed, tasted blood, and shoved his palm against the beast's underside. And he couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Too close." Then he fired [Frost Nova]. [Frost Nova] was the same spell he gained after accidentally flipping [Ice Spike]'s projection angle inward, which caused a radial freezing burst centered on himself. Emergency crowd control, basically. Cold cracked outward, crawling across the manticore's stone plates, locking its shoulder muscles for a heartbeat. The creature tried to pull back, but Ivan rolled under the tail as its barbs stabbed into the road where his thigh had been.

Ren shot again, striking one of the frozen plates hard enough to crack it. While the beast twisted toward the boy, Ivan traced [Lightning Spear] with two fingers and let [Architecture of Mana] map the damage Ren had made. The weak point ran deeper than the surface, following a narrow channel where the plate overlapped softer flesh. Nice. He fed the spell less mana than usual and tightened the containment lattice.

A thinner shape meant less splash and better penetration, so he forced the spear through the cracked plate and into the manticore's chest. Its mana core flickered once and collapsed. [You have slain Stonehide Manticore – Level 59] [Human (F) has leveled up!] [Human (F) has reached Level 48!] Warmth from the level-up moved through Ivan's body, easing his bruises as the scrape along his back closed, making the worst of the sting fade. His mana refilled along with it, clearing the fuzz from his head.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The warmth had barely finished before Ivan looked back to the fight. Rys was still dealing with the Level 61. The manticore had lost its left eye to her first pass, and somewhere in the exchanges since, part of its tail. The pain had only made it more vicious. Rys kept it turning and stayed just outside its claws, cutting between armor plates whenever the creature gave her even a little room.

For a moment, he wondered what the point even was. She was clearly much stronger than this, having dealt with the massive octopus, but… Whatever, he'd give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that was a special case and she typically wasn't that strong. Getting to his feet, Ivan drew a fresh glyph in the air. There was no time for a mine, so he used [Glyph Suspension] as a held cast instead, forming [Chain Lightning] with only two branches. Rys saw his hand move and ducked low.

"Move left!" Rys was already moving left while he was still calling it. Ivan was quick to trigger the spell, sending lightning into the broken tail first. It jumped to the exposed eye socket before grounding through the beast's front leg, locking its entire body long enough for Rys to step in and drive both blades under its jaw. The manticore kicked once and went still. [You have assisted in slaying Stonehide Manticore – Level 61] [Inscriber of Principles has leveled up!] [Inscriber of Principles has reached Level 48!] [Architecture of Mana has leveled up!] [Architecture of Mana – Level 24] Lowering his hand, Ivan looked over the bodies. Three monsters in the high fifties and low sixties. The manticore had hit him with enough force to crush a normal scribe's ribs, but [Lattice Guard] had spread the damage and left Ivan standing. Somehow, the fight had still felt manageable. Ivan wasn't even breathing heavily… He blinked to himself, looking down at his hands.

It felt too confident, so Ivan went through the fight again just to make sure everything was right. The manticore had caught him from above and the poisoned tail had come close, while Rys had needed to handle the strongest one alone until he recovered. Even after the third manticore knocked him down, Ivan had known what he needed to try next. He hadn't spent the fight waiting for someone stronger to save him.

The manticores hadn't underestimated him, and there had been no collapsed tower, Wyvern trap, or Elizabeth pouring a river of mana through his arm. Ren's first arrow had opened the trap, with Rys moving as soon as Ivan called. He'd been able to build around both of them without stopping to explain the whole plan.

"Ivan, you smile like an idiot sometimes." He ignored Rys, his smile turning into a laugh. He was Level 48 now, but he didn't feel like one. He felt much stronger, mostly through the bruise lessening under [Lattice Guard] as the System healed him. Ren lowered his bow. His hands were shaking a little, but he didn't drop it.

"D-did you guys see?? I hit both of them." Right, this wasn't just his moment. Happiness was better shared. Ivan walked over and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Yes, you did. The first arrow pulled the tail out of line, and the second cracked the plate enough for my spell to get through." Ren stared at him, waiting. Ivan wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Your elbow still came up on the second shot, though. Leo would have made you take that one again." Looking at the dead manticore and then back at Ivan, Ren frowned.

"But I didn't miss."

"No, you didn't. Fix it now, so you don't miss next time." Rys walked over while cleaning one blade on the manticore's mane.

"Don't glare at him like that, Ren. That was praise." Sliding the blade back into its sheath, she added, "He'll correct you either way, so take it when it comes." Ren's shoulders finally loosened. Ivan knelt by the nearest corpse and checked the tail barbs with [Mana Sense]. The poison sacs were intact and probably useful, assuming he found a vial and had the patience to do something with them.

The stone plates might sell too, but they were heavy, and Ivan wasn't dragging half a monster across New Europe on the chance that someone would buy them. Should I maybe empty some stuff from my Inventory? But they're all so valuable… In the end, he just took the barbs and a few core fragments. Rys watched him work.

"You look so happy, what's going on?"

"Do I need a reason to smile?" She waited. Ivan set one of the barbs aside.

"Maybe because the shadow of Victor is gone, I finally realized how strong I am now. Compared to… well, a few months ago when I was just rotting in that office." One corner of her mouth lifted. She was about to reply when her attention caught on something farther down the road and the smile disappeared. Following her gaze, Ivan saw smoke drifting low beyond a bend screened by olive trees. They approached slowly, watching the trees as much as the smoke. The wreck came into view piece by piece.

Ivan saw the shattered wheel first, followed by the travel wagon lying on its side with two dead draft animals still tangled in the traces. Flies had already found them. The cargo had been opened without being scattered, and whoever attacked had taken what they wanted and left the rest. Three shallow graves sat beside the road, with stones marking each mound and fresh dirt still piled around them. Someone had either survived long enough to bury the dead, or the graves were bait.

Three fresh mounds were exactly the thing that made travelers stop, dismount, and stand still in the open while somebody watched from cover. Ivan checked the olive trees again. Ren stopped behind Rys.

"Are there bandits nearby…?"

"Could be." Rys studied the opened cargo.

"Keep your hands off everything for now." Crouching near the wagon, Ivan activated [Architecture of Mana] and watched the wreck light up in layers. He found the ordinary damage first. Nothing interesting. Blunt force had broken the shield charm on the wagon tongue, while the travel ward under the driver's bench had simply drained dry. Ivan knew both kinds of damage, so neither held him for long. After that, he found the mark burned into the side post. A laurel ring around a split thunderbolt.

The burn hadn't come from normal fire. Its edges were too clean, and the mana residue sank into the wood instead of sitting across the surface. Ivan could feel authority in the structure. Authority. That was the only word he had for it. His hand went still beside the mark.

"Is it the Chain?" Ren asked, voice weak. Ivan was scowling at the sight.

"No. This isn't the Chain." Ivan leaned closer without touching the residue.

"The structure is far different from what they work with. I don't know…" Rys came closer, and her face tightened as soon as she saw the mark.

"You know it?" Ivan asked.

"I've seen enough." She touched the edge of the burned symbol without letting her fingers reach the residue.

"It's Keraunos."

"Huh? What's that? Some famous criminal?"

"They're one of Asterion's old families. They came down with the city itself during the Integration, from another world, so their word carries real weight there. They're nobility." Her gaze stayed on the mark.

"That belongs to them." Ivan looked back at the graves. The implications didn't paint them as nice people.

"Would Keraunos really do this so close to Aurora's territory?"

"Not this close to the coast." Rys followed his gaze.

"At least, they shouldn't." Ivan studied the mark again. There were two layers. The laurel on top was a signature, nothing more, just the family's name written in mana. The command underneath was the part that bothered him. It had reached out to every minor enchantment around it, the broken shield charm, the drained travel ward, any cheap recording charm a merchant might carry, and told them all the same thing. This is allowed. Stand down. Log it as lawful.

That was backwards from every illegal array Ivan had ever unpicked. Criminals loved hiding. Their glyphwork was built so wards never noticed a breach in the first place. But this mark hadn't hidden anything. It had signed the attack, then ordered the witnesses to agree it was legal. And the work was far too clean for bandits faking a noble crest. Ivan stood slowly, looking from the burned mark to the graves and then toward the road curving inland to Asterion.

"Someone used Asterion's authority here. Or copied it so well that the road wards accepted the lie." Rys looked toward the hills, her ears angled forward, while Ren tightened his hold on the bow. So much for Asterion being the civilized leg of the trip. Whatever it was, they still had to follow this road all the way to Asterion. Ivan kept [Architecture of Mana] active, no longer willing to trust anything enchanted along this road to tell him the truth.