Chapter 127: A Village Of Corrupted Humans

Adrian stepped over the corpse of the nearest wolf, his shoes making no sound.

Marion didn’t wait for him.

The moment Adrian gave his answer, he had already started walking with both his hands tucked behind his back

He was completely relaxed, as if they hadn’t just cleared out a pack of corrupted beasts.

"Try to keep up," Marion said lightly, though he didn’t bother looking back.

Adrian followed without a word with Noctis also silently appearing on his head and looking at Marion’s retreating.

The ruins stretched out endlessly ahead of them, but they continued walking forward for a while.

"You’re not part of the military are you?" Marion asked after they walked for a while.

"No," Adrian answered, "we’re second years from the Imperial Spirit Academy sent to the military for a training exercise."

"I see," Marion nodded in understanding before he paused and asked again, "Isn’t the second year too early? I could’ve sworn that you only do this exercise in your final year."

"But then again, a lot can change in five years," he muttered without waiting for an answer from Adrian.

They continued walking through the ruins until they came upon a hill, one with quite a steep slope and with no way around.

The incline was steep, the ground was uneven, and buried within were what seemed like bones of both beasts and humans alike.

Still, neither of them slowed down. Marion walked as if he had memorized every inch of the terrain, weaving through cracks and loose debris without even looking.

A sign that he had been here one too many times.

They silently continued upwards and soon enough, they reached the flat surface.

"That will not be annoying," Marion commented as he turned back, towards the ruins below.

Though he said that, neither of the two looked the least bit exhausted, so he turned back and continued forward.

Though Adrian stood at the edge for quite a while as he looked back, he could see not only the ruins, but also the forest and the black sea.

Again, he got the nagging feeling that it was drawing closer.

"You’re trailing," Marion’s voice suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts and he turned around to see that the man was a distance ahead, waiting for him to catch up.

Adrian then continued walking forward, quickly catching up to him.

***

It took a while, but Adrian finally spotted something in the distance that was similar to a house.

At first, it was only one, but the closer they got to it, the more houses appeared until they were enough to form a small village.

He also noticed something else, the moment they got close enough.

The place was unusually quiet, even for a dungeon such as this. Especially given that this looked like an intact human settlement.

"Stay alert," Marion suddenly said, "the last time I came here, they weren’t looking too good."

"They?" Adrian asked with a frown.

"Hmm," he nodded in response, "the people kicked out of the city because they were quickly getting taken over by the corruption."

"This village is the ’safe haven ’ they established," Marion continued, "though, even they knew that it was far from safe, after all, sooner or later, they’d mutate into corrupted monsters."

"..." Adrian silently listened to his words as he looked towards the approaching village before suddenly saying, "and I’m guessing he’s not waiting to give us a warm welcome?"

Just ahead, close to the entrance of the village, stood what seemed to be a humanoid figure.

Even from quite a distance away, Adrian could notice that the person’s skin was completely dark, with glowing red cracks on it.

A corrupted human.

Marion let out a sigh as the being came into view before he muttered, "let’s try not to destroy the houses, they’re still quite useful."

A moment after his words, the corrupted human suddenly started running towards them, akin to a zombie.

The moment it was close enough to the two, it lunged, aiming for Adrian, but just before it reached him,

Marion finger twitched quite a bit and the corrupted human suddenly froze mid air, before it was yanked to the side, by a sudden force.

"You good?" Marion asked as he looked back at Adrian, "your clones didn’t seem to come out this time."

"It takes quite a bit to summon them," Adrian lied through his teeth as two clones rose by his side.

He still didn’t quite trust Marion, after all, there was this nagging feeling that something was wrong with the man.

So he wouldn’t reveal all his cards to him just yet.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when a couple more corrupted humans started appearing, they ranged from adults to even kids barely older than four.

And if the prince or Saintess were here, they’d try to save them, maybe they could given that the prince’s element was light, a direct counter against this corruption.

But Adrian had no way of saving them, and he wouldn’t go out of his way to try to either.

All he knew was that they were an obstacle between him and his lady, one he’d have to deal with.

But before his clones could attack, something strange happened,

"....Leave.... please."

One of the corrupted humans, struggled, but it managed to let out a couple of words.

"Can’t....hold...for long," it spoke again, and while it did, none of the Corrupted humans tried attacking.

He was very clearly still fighting the corruption, as the black veins suddenly spread to his pupils, turning them black.

But before the corruption could fully take over, he added, "king.....mon—"

His words were cut of suddenly and his head seemed to fall forward and he stood unmoving for a while.

When he lifted his head next, Adrian could clearly see that he was completely gone and the corruption had fully taken over.

The corrupted human suddenly rushed towards them, followed by all the others gathered behind it.

"He was able to hold out this long," Marion muttered as he looked at the approaching corrupted human, "that’s pretty impressive."

Adrian said nothing, but he silently agreed, but if the corrupted human’s words meant what he thought they meant, then there was even more reason to reach the kingdom...or rather, city or rather, kingdom faster.

That meant he needed to clear these obstacles faster and return to his lady’s side.

The moment the corrupted human was close enough, one of the clones used [shadow swap] and reappeared behind them.

The moment it did, a dagger appeared in its hand which it quickly stabbed through the corrupted humans head, causing it to go completely still and fall over.

It and the other clone only had one goal in mind,

Deal with this as fast as they could.