Chapter 65: The Colossal Turtle and the Desperate Escape

After hunting about twenty or so Nols, the monster attacks ceased.

It was likely because the monsters, with their keen sense of smell, detected the scent of Nol blood emanating from my body.

With the faint starlight as my guide, I ran through the darkened forest alongside Nightmare.

Nightmare’s tail stretched out long, casting a small shadow over the starlight.

Having eaten the Nol meat, Nightmare was full of energy.

It was strong enough to ram into and push aside even the small trees that stood in its way.

How much time had passed?

The movement of the starlight, which had been guiding us through the darkness, suddenly stopped.

It wasn’t that the magic was dispelled.

It was simply that we had reached our destination, and the role of the guiding star had ended.

I tugged at Nightmare’s reins and came to a halt.

The guiding star sparkled above the sword stuck in the ground.

The handle of the sword, imbued with starlight, gleamed brightly, almost as if it were calling to me.

I dismounted from Nightmare’s back and slowly approached the sword.

How on earth did I end up here?

I reached out and grabbed the sword stuck in the ground with one hand, expecting it to come free easily since it was simply stuck in the dirt.

But…

“Uh…?”

The sword didn’t budge.

It felt as though something beneath the earth was holding onto the sword.

I tried pulling harder with both hands.

Yet, the result was the same.

Despite pulling with all my might, the sword remained firmly planted in the ground.

Furrowing my brows, I began to draw up my mana.

If my own strength wasn’t enough, I would simply fill the gap with the power of mana.

As the Warrior’s Seal activated on the back of my hand, a thin veil of mana began to surround my entire body.

“Ha!”

This time, I would pull it out. I yanked the sword from the ground with all my strength.

Slowly, there was a response.

The sword, deeply embedded in the ground, began to rise up, revealing its blade.

Seeing this, I gathered even more strength.

“Huhh!”

The more I craved power, the brighter the Warrior’s Seal became.

My vision narrowed, and my heart began to pound loudly.

The temperature of the blood flowing through my veins increased, and my muscles bulged with strength.

Thud~!

With a feeling as if something had torn, the sword finally came free.

The gleaming blade revealed seven stars of starlight.

Suddenly, the entire forest began to tremble, and a massive, strange howl echoed through the air.

The deep and resonating sound invoked the image of an unknown entity, one that soon turned into a source of fear.

I aimed the sword I had drawn into the air, staring into the darkness beyond the forest.

The howl was unmistakable, but locating its source was no easy task.

It sounded as though it came from all directions at once.

Nightmare, too, appeared confused, turning its head and panting heavily.

I stood in the silence of the darkness, waiting, but nothing happened.

Just as I was about to lower the sword, a massive earthquake struck.

Goo-goo-goo-!

The ground beneath my feet violently shook, and the entire forest began to move.

Monsters, large and small, reacted to the quake, scrambling in all directions.

From across the dark forest, I heard the cries of countless monsters.

I gripped Nightmare’s reins and turned my back to it.

I didn’t know what kind of monster it was, but judging by the way the entire forest was shaking, it was definitely no ordinary creature.

It must have been larger than an ogre.

Koo-woong! Koo-woong!

As I imagined the unknown creature, I noticed something strange.

Although the forest was trembling from the quake, the movement was peculiar.

From above to below.

Koo-woong!

The shift in gravity felt simple.

For a brief moment, it felt as if gravity had increased, pressing down on me, then, as quickly as it came, it disappeared, and I felt a slight floating sensation.

Right after that—Koo-woong!

This wasn’t an ordinary earthquake. It was as if the entire forest itself was moving… moving?

The moment I realized that the entire forest was shifting, the howl returned once more.

Koo-woong!

With the howl, another massive quake shook the ground.

I bit my lip, mounted Nightmare, and pulled on the reins.

Then, I began to run without thinking.

I had an idea of the monster’s presence somewhere in the forest, but I didn’t stop.

Thud-thud- thud-

We staggered through the deep darkness, heading toward the edge of the forest.

Nightmare, panting heavily, kept running without a break.

I lost all sense of time, so I had no idea how long we had been running.

All I knew was that we couldn’t stop.

The monsters living deeper in the forest seemed to be running in the same direction as Nightmare, trying to escape the quake.

The further we ran, the brighter the surroundings became.

The darkness began to lift, signaling that we were nearing the edge of the forest.

While running desperately, the narrow path through the dark forest began to vanish, and suddenly, the view opened up.

Breathing heavily, I pulled the reins urgently.

The sudden drop in speed caused my upper body to lean forward, but I didn’t have much trouble taking in the scene before me.

The dark sky, void of both the moon and stars, remained unchanged, but the scenery around me was shaking.

No, in this case, it would be more accurate to say it was my perspective that was moving.

Koo-woong!

With a heavy thud, the entire forest trembled.

I swallowed dryly and looked down.

The protruding tree roots and the dirt clumps stuck to them came into view.

However, as I shifted my gaze lower, an even more shocking scene unfolded.

Boom!

A massive leg was crushing the platinum-colored desert as it moved forward.

At first glance, it seemed as though the leg had grown from beneath the forest, but upon closer inspection, it became clear that the entire forest was being carried by something huge.

In other words, the forest I had been desperately racing through with Nightmare was on the back of a colossal monster.

Boom!

Until now, I had encountered only two giant monsters.

A whale-like creature that swam through the sand and a massive giant called an ogre.

But even the combined size of those two monsters couldn’t compare to the enormous leg I was seeing.

Fortunately, the massive creature seemed uninterested in the monsters that jumped off its back.

Of course, there was the issue that very few monsters survived jumping from such a great height.

Whoosh—

Nightmare’s hooves shook me from my deep thoughts.

“Hah…”

Even now, the giant monster was moving relentlessly, carrying Nightmare and me somewhere unknown.

I snapped my fingers and conjured the guiding star once again.

The small starlight imbued with my wish spun around me, then pointed toward the opposite direction of the colossal monster’s path.

The path was decided.

As I looked down, I used the remaining mana to summon the wind.

Siiia—

The faint breeze gradually grew stronger as it wrapped around the surrounding air.

My hair whipped fiercely in the growing wind, and I brushed it back to clear my vision while pulling on Nightmare’s reins.

Despite my command to jump into empty air, Nightmare seemed confused at first.

But soon, it let out a heavy breath and leaped into the air.

The wind spirit, which had been hovering protectively around me, seemed to move hastily, but its weak strength couldn’t bear the combined weight of Nightmare and me.

So, I intended to fill that gap with magic-wrought wind.

Whooosh!

Not natural wind, but the artificial wind created by magic formed a rough platform.

Nightmare tried to land on the platform, but as soon as its feet touched it, the wind platform shattered instantly.

Boom!

The fall slowed, but the platform failed to fulfill its purpose.

I frowned and summoned three more wind platforms beneath the floundering Nightmare.

Boom! Whoosh!

The platforms I had prepared all shattered, and the violent wind surged around us.

The fall was sufficiently slowed, but the turbulence made our posture a mess, and we crashed to the ground.

Boom!

Nightmare and I tumbled onto the platinum sand.

“Pfft… Ugh…”

I quickly stood up, spitting out sand that had gotten into my mouth.

Nightmare, who had rolled beside me, was also coughing up sand.

Boom!

At that moment, I caught sight of the giant monster carrying the forest in my gaze.

“A turtle…?”

I muttered softly as I looked at the massive creature.

The monster carrying the forest resembled a giant turtle.

It crawled on four legs, and I could see its enormous shell resting on its back.

What I had thought was the forest was merely a part of its shell.

The overall size of the creature was far greater than I had imagined.

Boom!

With a massive ground-shaking thud, the turtle-like monster carrying the forest moved farther away.

I watched its retreating figure in silence before shaking my head and getting up.

There was no time to waste. I had to get out of this unknown place as soon as possible.

I mounted Nightmare once more and began galloping again.

Following the tiny starlight, I crossed the desert, passed through a swamp, and waded across a bubbling river of red water.

Finally, I arrived at a snow-covered mountain.

[Groooaaaar—!]

Beyond the thick snowstorm, a massive shadow emerged.

As the shadow’s hand reached toward the towering mountain range and shattered the snow-covered peaks, I didn’t hesitate to charge into the storm.

In the white-dyed world, the only guide was the small starlight.

For a while, I followed the star through the blinding snowstorm.

Then, suddenly, I realized that the fierce snowstorm had stopped.

Shaking the snow off my head, I looked up.

The pitch-black sky devoid of stars and the moon had turned blue, and the brilliant sun welcomed me.

I had finally returned. From the storm of mana.

I tugged at Nightmare’s reins and raced toward the place the star was guiding me.