Chapter 25: Tongue Of The Gods
Amelia? Her faction was allied with Rafael’s. Her group primarily monopolized the river. Looking at them, they didn’t seem sick to me, but it was only a matter of time.
"We... we can’t just let you take what is rightfully ours."
"We had a deal," Luna spoke up, maybe fearing I would do something to them. "If Amelia were here, she would never allow you to steal from us."
Hmm? How does Luna know so much about Amelia?
The boys silenced and hung their heads in shame.
"I know, but... she’s trying so hard! Some of our people are starting to get sick. We promised her that we would find supplies. How can we go back empty handed?"
So they are getting sick.
At his words and gloomy expression, Luna looked back at me with a pleading look on her face; I already knew what she wanted to ask.
They were in a tough situation and this might be an opportunity.
I took off my mask so they could see my face, then walked over to the boy who looked like he was about to have a mental breakdown and handed him the bag of supplies.
"Since your group is more in need of it than we are, you can take it," I said.
"Are you sure?" He looked up at me with a confused expression.
"Amelia’s faction was kind to us and allowed us to use the water from the river even though we weren’t part of their group. It’s the least we can do."
A bright smile lit up his face as he took the supply bag from me.
"Thanks, man! This means so much!" Before I knew it, he was clinging to me.
With no idea on how to react, I just stood there awkwardly until I finally decided to introduce myself.
"My name is Liam, by the way. The girl over there is Luna."
"Oh, I’m Max. The others are Theo, Ethan, and Tyler," he said, directing me to the other boys.
"Thanks, man. This means a lot," the one named Theo said.
"Yeah, we’ve been having it hard ever since the conflict broke out," the boy named Tyler followed up.
The other boy, Ethan, was lying on the ground in exhaustion from his fight with Luna.
Happy that they managed to get the supplies—or perhaps scared that I might take it back—they quickly left.
"Thank you," this time the gratitude came from Luna. She seemed overjoyed by what I had done—a slight blush on her face.
This was officially my first interaction with any of the faction leaders—an act of kindness. For this, I had to make sure they knew my name and face.
I reckoned that all the supplies had already been taken, so the best thing to do was go on the hunt for monsters. Though it was more difficult than I thought. Many of the creatures had already been killed off by the other applicants.
It stood to reason that if we wanted to find more creatures to fight, we had to go to a more deserted area of the island. The question was, where?
A vast majority of the applicants had settled in one area of the island. The best way to find beasts was to venture outside of where the applicants had gathered.
Towards the east of the island, there was a mountain. I hadn’t heard mention of any group being there. If I was going to stand a chance against the powerhouses at this school, I needed to acquire more skill points and improve my weapons. Plus, with the rest of the factions fighting against each other, the best option would be to get out of the way.
With that idea in mind, I suggested to Luna that we head towards the mountain, and she replied with a slight nod.
As we traveled, we tried our best to steer clear of the other applicants. I’d rather not be dragged into that mess just yet. By nightfall, we were at the foot of the mountain. We had only encountered a handful of beasts throughout the day.
I couldn’t sense it before, but now that I was this close, I realized that the majority of the mana on this island was coming from this single mountain. The feeling was so unsettling that I could barely sleep.
By morning, I was still exhausted, and looking at Luna I could tell that she was tired too. With no supplies and nothing to eat, we had no choice but to continue on our journey. Today marked our fifth day on the island, meaning tomorrow would be the last. I was guessing the final supply drop would be tomorrow as well.
My vitals were dropping fast since I had been injured in that confrontation with Cassian, plus I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in more than a day. If things continued like this, I would be eliminated.
Unfortunately, my enhancement skill didn’t allow me to increase my health... but now that I thought about it, there might be another stat that could help.
[OPENING WEAPON’S STATS]
WEAPON NAME: Liam Morningstar
WEAPON TYPE: HUMAN
LEVEL: BASIC GRADE
STRENGHT: 10
SPEED: 13
AGILITY: 6
ENDURANCE: 14
INTELLIGENCE: 12
+ATTRIBUTE
—NONE
SKILL POINTS: 15
Just as I thought, I wasn’t able to increase my health, but my endurance determined the rate at which my health dropped. If I increased that, I might be able to hold on a little longer.
[ENHANCEMENT]
+-----+
Endurance 14->29
+-----+
After that, Luna and I continued our way up the mountain. Not even halfway up, we came across something that was never meant to be here—ruins. The remnants of what looked like an old civilization.
Whatever structure remained was crumbling and overtaken by plants. Our curiosity got the better of us, and we decided to take a look around. Inside the ruins, the only thing that seemed untouched by time were murals depicting what looked like a story on a golden stone.
The drawings showed people bowing to a snake sitting on a throne, wearing a crown. It was strange, to say the least. Praying to a snake? How odd. Above the drawings, there were also strange writings that I couldn’t decipher.
"What is that?" I couldn’t help but wonder.
"Umm... it says ’Little King.’"
Those surprising words came from Luna. Does she somehow understand this stuff?
"Do you understand what this is saying? How?" I asked.
She hesitated a little before answering; even then, I could tell she didn’t want to respond.
"It was taught to me. It was the first language I learned. My family calls it Ling-dei, which is short for Lingua Die, meaning ’Tongue of the Gods.’"
"Why would your family teach you such a strange language?"
"I don’t know, but umm... I think all the other heroes teach their heirs this language too. My family said it was passed down, and that I must pass it down to my children someday."
Why would the heroes place such importance on this language? What she said didn’t make any sense.
"Anyway, do you have any idea who this ’Little King’ is?"
She shook her head.
"I don’t know, but the rest of the text says we must say his name to enter."
Enter? Enter where? The situation seemed to get stranger and stranger by the second. I couldn’t make sense of it. The best thing to do was to leave it alone. We came here to slay beasts, not to get caught up in whatever mess this was.
"Maybe the Little King is the snake," Luna suddenly said.
A snake? Now that I think about it, there was one snake-like creature in the encyclopedia stated to be on the island. In fact, out of all the creatures on the island, it was the only D-rank. What was it called again...
"A Basilisk?"
FWOOOM!