The black sun hangs high

Chapter 435 "Hometown"

This strange, fluid-like or electric-light-like eerie green light and shadow, which Hugh had seen many times on the once-running rat and in the underground of Ernst Manor.

A similar magical glow appeared on Kzlov of the Black Sun Society.

This color is strange and abnormal. The gloomy and dark green always makes people think of poison and corrosion. However, behind this appearance, there is another special power. It is a kind of life force that has been mutated and amplified and has become unusually vigorous under some kind of blessing.

Those are the traces of Mother Earth.

The chaotic messages entered Hugh's mind through the magical link. The moment he saw these powers, a massive amount of thoughts and ideas exploded in the limited head of the running rat. He was now panicked and confused, with a sense of déjà vu, like a traitor suddenly encountering a former comrade.

Fortunately, absolute loyalty to Hugh was ingrained in the deepest part of Sniggy's consciousness. It was the foundation of its survival and power, and it could never be violated. Therefore, even at this moment, its first thought was to proactively report to its master and ask for his opinion.

However, Hughes is currently unable to give it a definite answer.

He calmly reassured the other party, then focused all his attention on the suddenly appearing hunchbacked figures.

These ambushers are no ordinary creatures. Clearly, they have been hiding in this place for quite some time. If Hugh hadn't used magic to detect traces, they probably would have continued to lie low.

Once they appeared, they immediately revealed their purpose for lying in wait.

That is hunting.

The hunt targets these weak, dark abyss creatures that attempt to scavenge the remnants of souls and wills.

Hughes saw figures constantly leaping out from unexpected places all around him. They were dressed in crude cloaks and capes of unknown material, and their weapons were also bizarre, some were crude clubs, and others were spears and blades made of bone or similar materials.

The moment the ambushers revealed themselves, they launched an orderly attack on their targets. In the ensuing chaos, many of the already timid Dark Abyss Scavengers were pierced through the bodies by the weapons that shimmered with an eerie green light. Then, the magical light that had entered their bodies spread and expanded rapidly like the roots of a plant. Within seconds, these Dark Abyss creations exploded into clouds of mist.

Immediately afterwards, some hunchbacked figures holding bone staffs stepped forward. They seemed to be spellcasters or priests among these ambushers. With deep chanting and the slow shaking of their bone staffs, the dissipating dark abyss mist re-condensed and, under the envelopment and compression of the dark green light, transformed into one crystal-like sphere after another.

The hunters near these spheres immediately took out their containers—which looked like bottles made of some kind of crystal—and carefully collected the spheres inside before quickly retreating.

After completing their initial hunt, a significant number of the "hunters" gathered around the priests, gripping their weapons, and began to slowly approach Hughes, forming an encirclement.

Surrounded by these unidentified ambushers, Hughes remained calm, his mind filled only with curiosity and doubt.

There was even a hint of excitement.

Based on their figures and footprints, as well as the magic they displayed, Hugh had roughly guessed the identities of these ambushers. Moreover, Hugh did not sense any obvious hostility from their "encirclement" actions.

Hughes didn't assume any fighting stance; he simply raised his hand, gently placed it on the back of the running rat, and soothed it with his magic.

Seemingly sensing the goodwill shown by Hugh, the ambushers did not further tighten their encirclement. After a brief pause, a hunched priest stepped forward.

Its attire was noticeably different from that of the other priests.

On its head is a crown made of polished and pieced-together bones, which looks like two asymmetrical horns. The top of the bone staff it holds has a similar horn structure.

The priest stopped just a few steps from Hugh, lifted its cloak, and revealed its face to Hugh—the head of a rodent with distinctive features.

Eyes that gleamed with green light, grayish-white fur, and huge exposed incisors.

Hughes's conjecture was perfectly validated at this moment.

These are ratmen, and they appear to be loyal followers of the Earth Mother.

The aged priest glanced at the scurrying rat lying beside Hugh, then focused his gaze on Hugh's face. After a brief scrutiny, he opened his mouth and spoke in his deep, hoarse voice with a strange and obscure tone.

Hughes couldn't help but frown.

The language the other party used seemed to be a common language, but its accent and grammar were quite strange. Even though Hugh had a lot of miscellaneous knowledge about languages ​​and dialects from various places in his mind, he was unable to understand what the other party meant immediately.

The old priest repeated the sentence twice, and seeing that Hugh kept shaking his head, he scratched his head helplessly.

After a brief moment of thought, the ratman priest raised his bone staff, and a ghostly green magical light began to flicker. Soon, a small, dark green orb of light emerged from the horn at the top of the staff, and it slowly floated to Hugh's side and hovered there.

Hugh carefully released his magic and touched the ball of light in front of him.

The next instant, a clear message entered Hugh's mind through the vibration of magic.

"Who...who are you? Where do you come from? What brings you here?"

Hugh immediately responded in the same way: "A wanderer, from Vaan, has strayed into this place and is searching for the right way home and out." Upon hearing this, the old priest's rat-like face clearly showed surprise. It hurriedly opened its mouth and uttered two questions, but then it realized what it meant and quickly created a new ball of light and handed it to Hugh.

"Yes, yes! You come from the land favored by the gods, and are accompanied by the retinue of the Mother Goddess... but why is there no grace from the Mother Goddess upon it?"

The latter part of the question was directed at the Running Rat. Clearly, the ratman priest could recognize Sniggy's identity, but after the previous modifications, there was no longer any trace of the Earth Mother Goddess's power on Sniggy.

So Hugh replied half-jokingly, "It remains loyal to the Mother Goddess and obeys my commands... The favor is too great, attracting threats and making it inconvenient to travel here."

Upon hearing this, the old priest slowly nodded, and the scurrying rat lying beside Hugh immediately cooperated with him.

Suddenly, a deep, eerie green light emerged from the enormous, pointed horn on its head. Judging from its color, this light was much purer and more concentrated than the magic used by the rat-man priests before them.

Upon witnessing this scene, the surrounding rats immediately exclaimed in amazement. Some of the more devout ones even knelt down on the spot, adopting a posture of praying to the gods.

The old priest also became somewhat agitated. He lowered his head, showing the utmost respect to Hugh, and then presented another ball of light to Hugh: "Yes, prophecy! The prophet's prophecy has been faithfully fulfilled! Messenger of the great Eternal Mother Goddess, come with me, come with me!"

Hugh nodded in agreement, then flipped over and climbed onto the back of the running rat.

The old priest was overjoyed to receive a clear response from Hugh. He opened his mouth and issued a series of commands to all the ratman hunters around him. The ratmen immediately sprang into action, quickly clearing the entire battlefield, collecting all the spoils, and then gathering around the other ratman priests.

The latter immediately began casting a spell, and a ghostly green light emanated from their bone staffs, quickly coalescing into a single mass.

A magical shield large enough to cover the entire team was thus formed.

The deep light and shadow of the magical vision flashed in Hugh's eyes. He discovered that the model of the magic used by these rat-man priests was basically consistent with the set of Vaan magic theories he was familiar with. Although it looked a little rough and simple, it was able to maintain stable operation under the joint maintenance of multiple spellcasters.

This further fueled Hugh's curiosity about the so-called rat-man tribe.

After the magical light and shadow enveloped Hugh as well, the group began to move forward. To Hugh's surprise, the ratmen were heading in the same direction as his original destination. It seemed that the distant mountain range was their target.

As Hugh knew, the ratmen always displayed astonishing efficiency when they entered a state of collective action. Even the seemingly weak and old priests were able to keep up with the pace of the robust ratmen. What surprised Hugh even more was that the magical barriers cast by these ratman priests were able to isolate the turbulent currents in the Dark Abyss Wasteland to a certain extent.

This allowed the disorder in time and space to be controlled to a certain extent, and the originally almost endless journey became clearly visible.

The old priest walked beside Hugh the whole time. It was clear that it really wanted to say a few more words to Hugh, the "holy messenger." However, the journey itself was too much of a burden for it, so it simply couldn't find the time to communicate with Hugh through magic.

Unbeknownst to the old priest, at that very moment, Hugh was busy conversing with Theseus.

"Why didn't you tell me before that there were ratman tribes active in the Dark Abyss Wasteland?"

"I really don't know about this."

Faced with Hugh's questioning, Theseus quickly responded. However, as he spoke, Hugh also heard a classic sound effect from a fighting game. This guy had been busy accompanying his "teacher" to experience life lately, and it was obvious that he was enjoying it.

"Although I am familiar with the Dark Abyss, it is impossible for me to know exactly what is happening in every corner of the wasteland... However, it is indeed worth investigating that a group of rats have managed to make their home here."

“That’s exactly what I was going to ask. How did a group of rat-men who worship the Earth Mother Goddess get here, and how did they manage to survive in a place like this? I remember you said that all living beings that step into the Abyss will eventually become food for the Abyss itself.”

"Exceptions will always occur as long as the sample size is large enough."

Theseus replied, “For example, Aziv, who wrote the ‘Poem of the Night,’ and you and I are exceptions… As for these ratmen, I suspect they came here in a much earlier time, and perhaps they were the target of a great hunt. You should find out for yourself how they are.”

As they were talking, the ratman hunting party suddenly stopped. Hugh looked up and saw strange magical vibrations coming from an area directly in front of him. The huge disc in Hugh's mental world began to accelerate slightly, and the court hound that had been resting inside the disc also ended its rest. It stood up and gave a low growl as a warning.

The old rat-man priest beside him uttered a word from an old common language in a hoarse voice.

The word was simple and straightforward, so even without magical communication, Hugh could roughly guess its meaning from the tone of his voice.

The rat-man priests were calling for "wolves."

Yes, not far ahead of the group, among a pile of rubble, cracks were being created out of thin air, and then, a large number of slender figures with scarlet eyes were rapidly emerging from these cracks.

The "wolf pack" mentioned by the rat-man priest refers to the hounds from the Dark Abyss Palace that have come here. As soon as these ferocious and eerie hunters appeared, they immediately began searching for their target. As they moved, chaotic and dangerous magical fluctuations spread, quickly covering the surrounding area.

“Be careful, this doesn’t look like a regular foraging or hunting... These stupid dogs are probably here on a mission.”

Theseus gave a timely warning, and at the same time, several powerful streams of dark abyssal magic quickly surged into the metal disc.

Under the influence of this powerful magic, the power transmitted from the disc to Hugh became exceptionally vivid and strong, and the Mirror Messenger and the Palace Hounds inside the disc also entered a state of high alert.

(End of this chapter)