By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 9

Chapter 8, Episode 9: A Horde of Unexpected Size

We walked for two more hours, taking on Undead monsters as they crossed our path. Following a trail that almost seemed too rugged to be called one, we made it to the top of a rocky hill. Below us lay countless valleys that had been created by centuries of rain eroding the plateau. It was a grand landscape painted by nature’s powerful brush. It would have looked like a tourist destination on Earth if it weren’t for...

“What a heinous sight,” Sever said.

A sea of Undead monsters filled the valleys, including the route we had planned to take. Not only did they ruin the view, they were an annoying obstacle to our trek. Even my very experienced companions watched the enormous horde with dismay.

“What should we do?” I asked them.

“Looks like they’re all zombies and skeletons, but there are a lot of them. There could be advanced species in there,” Remily said.

“Going around would make things easier for us, but I wouldn’t feel right leaving the area infested like this,” Reinhart said.

“We are some distance away from the main road, but if they made it over there, it could affect international trade. Best to take them out now,” Sever said.

“Our journey has objectives, but no deadline. We can afford a detour,” Sebas pointed out.

In this country, hunting Undead monsters meant more than just removing threats. Because it was believed that the Undead were human corpses, eliminating them meant sending the trapped souls of the dead to the gods. Everyone in our party seemed quite willing to take care of this horde before we resumed our journey.

“I agree,” I said. “But the question is how to deal with that many of them. From what I’ve seen so far, my slimes should be able to handle them... Would it be okay to feed them to my slimes? Would it harm the slimes or infringe on any religious custom?”

“Clergy people or especially devout believers might not be thrilled about it, but that’d be the extent of it,” Remily said. “I doubt many people have fed Undead monsters to slimes before, but as long as we get rid of them, who cares? There’s no sense in us sticking our neck out for tradition either. I’m not bothered by it, at least. I don’t know how it will affect your slimes, though.”

“I agree,” said Sever. “Our top priority is our safety, then the hunt. Our hunting methods matter even less.”

Reinbach and Sebas agreed with this too. As long as they were fine with it, I had no issue asking the slimes to handle this. I’d have to observe and take note of how they interacted with the Undead and any changes they underwent, though...

My main attackers would be scavenger slimes that liked dead flesh, acid slimes that could eat bones, and light slimes that could cast Light magic. Still, the other slimes could help with the hunt too.

“Master Ryoma, before sending out the slimes, why don’t we put a dent in their number ourselves? I do not know what happens to slimes who eat the Undead, but a concentration of Undead can generate cursed energy,” Sebas said.

“Toxic magical energy,” I recalled. “That’s a lot to feed to the slimes, even as an experiment.”

“Let me handle them,” said Reinbach. “I’ve got plenty of magical energy, thanks to you all taking care of them so far. I can burn off a good deal of their numbers with Fire magic.”

Since none of the Undead we could see were the sort that could fly, Reinbach’s idea would keep us from getting surrounded.

“Oh, I have a lot of oil and gunpowder in my Item Box. Would you like me to disperse them first?” I asked.

“If you don’t mind! That will make it easier to burn...” Reinbach trailed off, looking at me with astonishment. “Did you say gunpowder?”

The other three were also giving me a questioning look.

“In the process of researching slimes, I figured out how to create a substance similar to gunpowder. I kept experimenting, and I’ve actually used it in traps against the attackers on Gimul.”

Before I had been attacked by those hitmen, I had anticipated the attack and prepared numerous traps on my grounds. My plan had been to run like a normal kid in the case of an attack, but because I was exhausted and sleep-deprived and on that after-midnight adrenaline rush, I ended up taking on the assailants without activating any of the traps. I’d used oil and gunpowder in the traps I had planted to slow down—or hopefully incapacitate—any attackers while I made a run for it.

“Since I didn’t activate the traps, I had the materials all left over. I brought them with me after I read that fire was useful against the Undead,” I explained.

Reinhart grunted. “Where to start...”

“A normal child doesn’t set gunpowder traps for potential attackers,” Sever said. “I’m impressed you even knew how to create such an inefficient material.”

“My grandmother had a lot of books on various subjects,” I said.

“I see. If you know enough about it to make it from scratch, this may be unnecessary advice, but make sure to handle it with care,” said Sever.

After I’d discovered how to make my own gunpowder, I’d found out through research that the substance isn’t widely used in this world, simply because magic and magic-crystal-powered items exist. Comparing magic crystals to explosives made from equivalent amounts of gunpowder, magic crystals were safer, cheaper, easier to manufacture and store, and more effective. Furthermore, magic crystals had a wider variety of uses, like cooking and heating. Gunpowder was a strict downgrade from magic crystals. Not many people even knew gunpowder existed, and those who did know considered it useless. For the same reason, there were hardly any laws regulating gunpowder, allowing anyone to legally manufacture and experiment with it as long as it didn’t harm anyone.

I had almost expected Sever, someone who must have been involved with enforcing laws around dangerous substances, to discourage me from using it—his reaction was much tamer than I’d thought. The way I saw it, this showed how undervalued gunpowder was in this world. When only a small portion of the population knew of it to begin with and an even smaller population could manufacture it, I supposed it was only natural. Of course, I didn’t have the slightest intention of spreading the good word of gunpowder in this world or anything. Rather, I was itching to get rid of my stockpile so as to not accidentally make gunpowder more common.

“Then, let’s see... I’ll cast my spell from over there.” Reinbach pointed to an isolated cliff above the valleys of Undead. From the cliff hung what had once been a rope bridge, which must have fallen long ago. None of us objected.

En route to the cliff, I had asked about the bridge and was told that it was called the Bridge of Hope.

“Criminals assigned to the prison ahead were all serving life sentences or scheduled for execution. At the time, the prison was rife with abuse and torture conducted at the whims of the wardens—they often took out their frustration on the inmates, or they just got a sort of twisted pleasure from violence. There were even rumors that illegal experiments were being conducted on the inmates...” Reinhart said.

“Long story short, the bridge was a popular spot for suicides. And for soldiers to push off some of the inmates they were transferring for sport. The Undead are created in and are drawn to places like that,” Remily added.

“So the ‘hope’ part is ironic...” I said.

“Sadly, humans have always had a dark side,” said Sebas.

“Let us liberate the souls of at least any Undead we come across.”

I agreed with Sever and noticed that we were nearly at the destroyed bridge. Since the once-maintained path up to the bridge was clear, we set our packs down a fair distance from the bridge and put our plan into action.

We first made sure the overlook was secure, then used Earth magic, rope, and wire slimes to set up lifelines. While I couldn’t tell the exact height of the cliff we were standing on, I estimated about five stories, which warranted safety measures in my opinion.

Once we were tethered, I began taking out one barrel of oil after another from my Item Box and set them on the edge of the cliff. Then the adults began chucking them below. It surprised me a little that each of them were picking up and throwing the barrels over, rather than just pushing them down. Those wine barrels that I had reused were sizable and filled with oil, making them rather heavy. Watching the adults—really, more like two elderly men and a younger-looking woman—lift them with ease, it seemed a little out of place, even though they were surely bolstering their strength with physical or magical energy.

Remily chuckled. “I never fight in close quarters if I can help it, but I can handle this much. Every spellcaster needs to prepare for some kind of close quarters fight, or they won’t last long in the field.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” I said.

Still, her lifting the barrel with one—toned, granted, but slender—arm and even going so far as to strike a pose... It almost looked like it had been photoshopped. In some ways, my mind was still on Earth.

“Master Ryoma, a royal sorcerer can focus on many projects, ranging from research to training other sorcerers. Miss Remily mainly researched magic designed to hunt monsters and bandits, which could be applied to combat in general. She was one of the most powerful royal sorcerers in history,” said Sebas.

“So not all royal sorcerers can do what she does,” I said.

“Precisely,” he answered.

Enhancement magic, like physical energy, became more efficient and effective with practice. Accordingly, she could also expend additional magical energy to gain better results.

We kept working as we discussed these things, the sound of crashing barrels and Undead screams echoing through the valleys. The Undead were packed tight in the valleys, perhaps to avoid as much sunlight as possible, so each barrel was taking out at least two or three of them.

“That will do, Ryoma,” Reinhart said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “That’s only half of my oil supply, not to mention the gunpowder.”

“Thirty barrels is plenty,” he reassured me.

“That’s only half of it?” Sever muttered.

“I can make plenty of vegetable oil with my slimes and magic,” I explained.

Now that we had enough oil spilled, I called out the slimes from the Dimension Home. I felt like one each of an emperor scavenger slime, a big acid slime, and a light slime—as well as fifty each of metal, iron, spider, and sticky slimes for support—would do the trick.

“Your slimes are ready, it seems. Let us begin,” said Reinbach as he rapidly cast a series of Fire Balls at the pieces of barrels on the ground. Uninterrupted, the balls of flame landed on their targets, erupting and forming a wall of fire through the valley that engulfed the sea of Undead. The monsters showed signs of trying to flee the flames, but the fire spread too fast for their already slow movements, which were made even more cumbersome by the congestion of the horde. Valley winds only stoked the flames higher. Black smoke rose and shielded our vision, only to be blown clear by the wind. Whenever the valleys were finally visible, I saw countless bodies writhing in the inferno.

“Those were just Fire Balls, weren’t they, Reinbach?” Remily asked. “Why is it spreading so fast?”

“Hm... I’d expected corpses containing fluids to take a while longer to burn, even with the oil,” Reinbach said.

“Since I was planning to use that oil in my traps, I added some sticky slime adhesive solution to it, making it easier to adhere to and harder to remove from clothing and skin,” I offered. That one extra step was the reason I hadn’t been able to put the oil to good use until today, since it made it unusable to cook with or fuel anything. No chance I could put that on store shelves either.

“Quite the ingenuity,” Sebas said.

“What you’ve made could be a weapon of war. Eliminating the Undead should be easier than expected now,” said Sever.

“I’m glad I could help,” I said. Watching the disaster below, it almost seemed like the fire alone would wipe out the entire horde, so I mentioned it to the group.

“Not likely. The Undead are irritatingly resilient,” Sever said.

“Even with your enhanced oil, my guess is it will only burn three-quarters of them,” Remily said.

“Even half of that endless horde would be a big step in the right direction,” said Reinbach. “The remaining Undead should be weakened from being forced to regenerate so much in a short amount of time.”

I was ready to take their word for it, but it looked like it would take some time for the raging fire to subside. Not that I was complaining. This was far more safe and efficient than having to take on that horde head-on.

“I’ve been thinking, this place does have a great view,” I said.

“I saw you were taken in by it. Is this your first time seeing something like this?” Remily asked.

“Mountains and forests I’m used to, but nothing like these expansive valleys. I can’t imagine how much time had to pass to form these,” I said.

“About fifteen hundred years, I think,” she said. “The child of the gods who’s said to have existed at the time changed the landscape while practicing magic.”

“Huh... The one from the fairy tale.” A “child of the gods” was another term for someone reincarnated into this world like me. Some of them have been remembered in history to some degree, according to a book the gods had given me when I first arrived in this world.

“There are plenty of exaggerations and details twisted by time, I’m sure, but it’s no fairy tale,” Reinhart countered. “The one who shaped these valleys from practicing magic was the king of our nation at the time. His name and accomplishments are recorded in historical documents. Masaharu, a child of the gods and king at the time, was born with enormous magical energy and could already cast powerful spells from childhood. Magic generated from his training is said to have created mountains, tore them down, and washed them away with rain and flood. The result was these valleys. It is also told that our nation was at war while King Masaharu was young, and that he turned the tides of the war with his abilities.”

“I hadn’t heard that story,” I said. It was hard to believe that even a reincarnated person made these valleys with magic. I just couldn’t imagine what kind of magic he used. The landscape before us was so vast that I could not have replicated a fraction of it, even with slime magic. Maybe by casting the spells over and over again, I would get close. But it would still take a long, long time... So he became the king. Which means... “Um, that means King Masaharu is Elia’s ancestor, right?”

“That is correct,” Sebas answered my question.

I knew it! He’s the super sorcerer the gods told me about! They hadn’t given me too many details except that he focused all of his gifts into magic. That could explain how his spells grew powerful enough to change the landscape.

I pondered the newfound potential of magic and that fellow traveler who had come before me. Eventually, the fire subsided, which was our cue to move on to the next step of our impromptu hunt.