CHAPTER 516: EXPEDITION TO THE LAND OF THE DEAD [III]

Getting to rest was actually something the male pixie was hoping for after he was trapped for a long time in that collapsed house. Despite his wounds still being in the healing phase, he is happy that he actually survived that predicament.

"Let me ask you something...uh...what is your name again?" Elaina glances at the male pixie who is currently lying down after eating his fill of food.

"Raguna. Call me Raguna."

"Okay, Raguna. But how did you even get yourself stuck on that beam of the house and get yourself trapped in the process?"

"Oh, I was currently finding a place to rest and recuperate my tired body. I don’t trust the open space since even if it is desolate, there must be something that might attack me while I am resting, so I decided to rest in a place where I can hide and have an easier time letting my guard down. That’s when I lucked out on that little, dilapidated shack that was left to rot, but just as I thought it would be a safe place, the roof shook for a bit before it collapsed just as I was about to rest. I spent a long time there, and I don’t know how long I was there until you came to rescue me."

"I see. So you just got unlucky in the process and almost died for it."

"Not my fault that the place was so rickety and unstable! You know how small I am. I don’t even think I am big enough to cause a collapse. I didn’t even touch anything there for it to collapse, nor even I open the door. I used a hole in the wall to squeeze through inside."

"Alright, I was just checking as I wanted to also know how long you have been stuck there and check when you last left the place. I hope we are not yet too late."

"Although I am currently in a weakened state, I can still feel the World Tree. We can still make it."

"I see. Then, we should go and you lead the way. I will carry you for now so that you can continue to recuperate instead of tiring yourself out," Elaina said as she started to tidy up the items she used while resting.

"Are you sure I won’t be a burden?"

"I don’t think so. If you don’t want me to carry you, you can even ride my shoulder, though you have to hold on tight or you will fall," Elaina suggested.

"I will choose the latter. Being carried somehow felt like I was going to burden you, especially once we reach the vicinity of the World Tree."

"Is there something in the vicinity of the World Tree?"

"Yes. Monsters that contribute to the rot of the World Tree. They are quite hostile to all living beings and only stay near the World Tree to continuously eat the World Tree’s rotting roots. It was like they were the maggots of the World Tree due to their worm-like appearance."

Elaina nodded. "Good to know. I won’t be surprised later if those monsters suddenly pop up all of a sudden."

"Be careful. They are quite big, and humans might be a little bit too small for their size."

"That’s okay, I have handled bigger prey back then. Not my first rodeo dealing with gigantic monsters."

With everything tidied up, Elaina places Raguna on her shoulder.

"Hey, what’s your name, though? I already told you my name, but you haven’t told me yours."

"Ah, right. You can call me Elaina, but if you think that was too much to be calling my name immediately, you can call me Farmer, though, since I am a farmer."

"A farmer? I thought you were an adventurer. No farmer would explore this place so far, considering this place can’t even grow a single plant, no matter what kind, due to the influence of the rot."

"That is why I am currently exploring the place, to find a way to check where the cause of this uninhabitable land came from. I may just be a regular farmer, but I can hold my weight when fighting. Don’t underestimate me."

Ragunna is not convinced, but he didn’t voice it out and just let Elaina continue to trek the expanse of endless dead soil.

As Elaina continued to walk, Elaina remembered one vital information she had gained from the Grand Sage and decided to ask Raguna to confirm it.

"Considering that you came from the rotting world tree, do you happen to know if there is a dead dragon present in the area?"

"A dragon? Now that you mention it, there is someone there. He isn’t dead, though. He is very much alive. However, we pixies are afraid to approach him as there is something dangerous flowing out of him. We felt like getting ill just by getting close to him. He kept screaming and cursing while he was there. I don’t know if he was a dragon, though, but since he looked like a human but had a tail like a lizard and wings on his back, perhaps that was what you were trying to look for?" Raguna answered and looked at Elaina with a puzzled expression.

Dragons are indeed capable of transforming into a human, especially if they are strong and capable of shapeshifting. So Elaina wasn’t expecting that the dragon was still alive. Mysterious, yet she still has no idea whether that person is indeed a dragon or not. As for this mysterious feeling that the Pixies feel when they come close to the person, which means there is indeed something else that is happening aside from the rot of the world tree. Perhaps that person is indeed a dragon, but considering he is still not dead, there is also a possibility he wasn’t one in the first place."

Elaina continues to walk through the whole expanse, still seeing nothing interesting and having some minor talks with Raguna from time to time to get rid of the boredom and to also know a little bit of information on the current situation and what he currently knows.

She has been walking for hours already, and just as when Elaina is about to have a rest, Raguna perked up and frowned.

"Activity ahead. I can tell this presence is similar to the pestilence of worms doing harm to the World Tree! Be careful, they come in packs!"

Elaina’s tiredness seems to have vanished, and Elaina became alert to her surroundings.

"Can you tell me how many of them are nearby?" Elaina asked, wanting to make sure she could deal with them in certain numbers.

"I can count seven presences wandering not too far from us. They seemed to be scattered so it will be hard to get past one without us being seen.

"Far from one another? Good to know. Can you pinpoint their actual locations for me?" Elaina readies her sword.

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Raguna frowned.

"Leaving no witnesses. A good way to get rid of some random obstacle in our way."

Raguna suddenly felt scared when he saw Elaina grin like a maniac as she looked at the surroundings. But because of this fear, he was afraid that Elaina would be angry at him if he didn’t tell her, so he quickly relayed the information.

"In the west, not too far from our location!"

"Hold tight, Raguna. You might suddenly fall."

Without hesitation, Raguna grabs the shirt of Elaina as tightly as he can. He didn’t want to suffer more damage in the process and die before he can even complete his objective of saving the World Tree.

Elaina started running to the direction Raguna specified. She was so quick that Elaina crossed quite a distance and arrived very fast at where the monster was currently spotted last.

Just like what Raguna predicted, the monster is there, currently wandering around and seems to be searching around for something. After seeing it in person, now Elaina can understand why Raguna calls it a worm.

It does look like one. The only grotesque thing about this is that instead of being a worm like earthworms, where they don’t have any limbs and only use their slender bodies to move, these worms do have limbs, and they are like hands that allow them to walk around like they were crawling. It also doesn’t help that they are green, making them look like oversized caterpillars with hands as their feet to walk around.

"Disgusting. Got to get rid of it as soon as possible!"

Elaina moved fast, and as soon as she got a little too close to the worm, the worm opened its mouth, revealing thousands of sharp teeth that seemed to be used to chew the World Tree.

Despite the disgusting display, Elaina didn’t flinch and quickly used the chance to have her sword slice through the worm by letting it slice through the mouth of the monster and dragging its blade all over its body.

"Now I see why it was a feared monster, they looked too grotesque for a monster. They should be killed before they can cause trouble indeed."