CHAPTER 37: LANDMARK

Just as he expected, the distortion had always been here before the people settled.

And since this particular spot was safe from Ghosts and provided them easy access to wood, the people stayed here. Most of the people here are probably desperate and don’t have a home, so there’s no reason for them to leave the forest.

As expected, talking with Marsha was revealing.

It was surprising to realize that the system knew so much more about the area than the natives.

Who knows when the space distortion started? It could’ve been decades or even centuries ago.

Deklan nodded.

In that case, the space distortion must be what was keeping the Ghosts away—and that’s also the reason why the hamlet’s connection to the Ten-Flux Endless Forest was severed. Since only this particular area is protected, there should be a barrier that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

Knowing this, Deklan’s first task became clear—he needed to find the source of the distortion.

Find the source, and he’d be able to repair the connection.

"Does the hamlet have something odd, perchance?" Deklan asked. "Something very old, maybe?"

"I don’t know about odd—but there’s one thing that’s said to be old. An obelisk in Granny’s backyard," Marsha answered, still strained from even mentioning Granny Linsa. "A few years back—an Exorcist stumbled here and was attracted to the obelisk. She said that it was very old, but could not quite figure out what it was."

Perfect.

Deklan smiled inwardly as that must be the source that he needed to find.

"Do you want to see it?"

"Later. Let’s absorb some Dusk Fragments and then go there."

"Okie..."

Marsha didn’t know why the sudden interest in that topic, but Deklan must have his reasons.

It’s not like he had bad intentions toward the hamlet.

A few hours later, Marsha and Deklan went to Granny Linsa’s house, which was now empty.

Both of them had already cleaned themselves and changed clothes.

Along the way, Deklan recalled something, "Say, I have a Ghost pet. Is it fine if it roamed around?"

"Ghost pet? Don’t you mean Spirit pet?" Marsha tilted her head in confusion. "Ghosts can’t be pets."

"Ah... Right, I meant that."

"As long as it’s not hostile, I don’t see why the people would have a problem with it. Where is this pet, young master?" Marsha looked around with interest; she wanted to know what kind of Spirit Deklan has as a pet. "I heard Spirit pets are hard to come by..."

"He’s not here right now," Deklan waved his hand. "His name is Pumple."

"Pumple? So cute. Is he also cute?"

"I wouldn’t say that he’s cute, but I bet you’d find him cute. He’s a pumpkin head."

"Young master! You have to introduce him to me!" Marsha clasped her hands together, eyes starry like a kid who had heard that she was going to get ice cream. "I want to see him!"

"What’s got you so excited? It’s only a pumpkin head," Deklan chuckled.

"I like pumpkins. Don’t you like pumpkins?"

"I like your pumpkins."

"My pumpkins?" Marsha pointed at herself, confused. "I don’t have a pumpkin."

"Never mind..."

Soon enough, the two arrived at Granny Linsa’s house and immediately went around to the backyard.

Since it was the house of the ’leader’ of the hamlet, it was quite separated from the others, but could be seen from the square. Deklan turned around the corner and immediately stopped when he was greeted by a tall black obelisk at the center of the backyard.

Roughly, the obelisk should be around 20 feet tall, and as thick as a person.

"That’s it, young master," Marsha commented from behind.

"Hmm... It looked old, alright," Deklan traced his fingers along the obelisk, feeling and inspecting the engravings carved along its body. "It doesn’t emanate mana at all, but these engravings looked like old runes, don’t you think?"

"I don’t know what runes even are, young master..." Marsha smiled acutely.

She has no idea what Deklan was talking about.

But Deklan didn’t mind her, as he also only knew about these things from stories and movies.

Just then, Deklan recoiled when a notification popped out of nowhere.

[Hint for Origin Quest: Space Distortion has been found!]

[Slosa Hamlet’s Landmark has been identified: The Twin Tower of Darnina]

[Twin Tower of Darnina: Both towers can only take effect where the boundary between the intangible and tangible thinned to a whisper. The Blue Tower pulsed with runic sigils that sealed the realm of flesh and stone—no tangible beings could cross its warded threshold. Opposite it, the Red Tower barred the passage of the intangible and phantoms, locking away all that was formless. Activate both, and the ruler will have the full authority of anyone who traverses into his land.]

[Hint acquired: Find the Blue Tower and repair it to activate the twin towers again!]

Deklan read through the findings and now understood what was going on.

From what he could grasp, the Twin Tower of Darnina has the ability to ward off anyone who could enter its effective range. Only the ruler can dictate who can come and go. But right now, one of the towers was compromised—the Blue Tower that guarded the flesh is broken.

Because of that, the Red Tower worked alone, barring Ghosts from entering.

And nobody could control it.

Not unless the Blue Tower was repaired.

"It’s called the Twin Tower of Darnina, an ancient technology from the looks of it," Deklan uttered and looked up at the red gem at the top of the obelisk, dim without any trace of energy. "It’s the reason why Ghosts can step in here."

Hearing this, Marsha was confused as to how he came to know that.

But considering that he was a noble, she didn’t ask that much.

Compared to a lowly peasant like her, who didn’t even have access to education, she was sure Deklan had access to all knowledge in the world. And it’s best for her not to ask too much—lest she gets into big trouble for it.

"Is there another one?" Deklan turned to her.

"No, I don’t think so," Marsha shook her head, but she kept thinking if there was any. "I... I think he knew more about this."

"He? Who’s he?"

"Hendrick."

"Ah... In that case, you go back and prepare for our hunt. I’ll meet you at the entrance."

A few minutes later.

Deklan kicked the door to a house down, flinging it open hard as it slammed against the wall. He didn’t even excuse his entry, and immediately went to the bedroom where a man was lying on the bed, still pretty much in dreamland.

Smirking evilly, Deklan raised the bucket of water and emptied it on the man.

"Phuah!" Hendrick woke up abruptly. "Who the fu—Deklan?!"

"It’s young master Deklan, you bastard," Deklan threw the bucket aside and grabbed Hendrick by his collar, his voice low but seething. "Now talk about the black obelisks. Like the one in Granny Linsa’s backyard—there should be another one just like that."

"What... What damn obelisks? I just woke up," Hendrick wiped his wet face with his hand. "Give me a minute!"

Pah!

A solid slap landed across Hendrick’s face.

"Black obelisks, now!"

"Just wait! I’m thinki—"

Pah!

"I don’t want to hear anything from your mouth other than what I asked! Black obelisks, now!"

"I’m tryi—"

Pah!

Hendrick blinked his eyes rapidly as he thought about the black obelisks lest another hard slap land across his already burning cheek. He contemplated for a moment and panicked when Deklan lifted his hand again.

"Emm... Emm... Oh, it’s stolen!"

"Stolen? Fuck, you mean stolen?"

"A... A few years ago, there was a powerful Ghost that came out of nowhere and took it! None of us knew what the obelisks were, and that obelisk was broken already, so we didn’t do anything and let the Ghost uproot it and take it away."

"How does the Ghost look ?"

"I... I don’t know,"

"You don’t know?"

Deklan raised his hand again, but this time, he imbued mana into it.

If this slap landed on Hendrick’s face, it would certainly flip his head around without a doubt.

"Wait, wait, wait! Erm... Erm... It’s a phantom! I didn’t see it properly, but it’s humanoid!"

"Is that all you know?"

"Yes! Yes! That’s all I know, I swear!"

Deklan studied Hendrick for a long moment, weighing his words, making sure that he was not hiding any information. Once he finally decided Hendrick had said all he knew, he released his grip and fixed his posture, "Then tell me—where’s the second obelisk?"

"It should be at the entrance," Hendrick answered, panting as if he had been running a marathon.

But that was all out of fear for Deklan.

Deklan nodded and exited the house.

He came and went without any care for Hendrick, but then again, there’s no point being nice.

Hendrick might not be the one sacrificing the people, but he knew, and that’s reason enough not to show any kindness towards him. Besides, Deklan was also preparing him to be a puppet leader, so this much roughness is necessary.

At the entrance, Deklan met up with Marsha again with a big smile on his face.

Gone was his stern and menacing face that he wore specifically for Hendrick.

"How did it go, young master?"

"He said the second obelisk was stolen by a Ghost, and we have to get it back."

"But why...? Why do we need to do this?" She asked innocently.

Deklan couldn’t say that it was for the Origin Quest, but he had a good excuse for it, "What else? You love this place, don’t you? Once we retrieved the obelisk and repaired it, nobody would be able to enter the hamlet, Exorcists or Ghosts, without permission."

"I’m doing this for you," He added.

"For... For me?" Marsha blushed hard as she averted her gaze. "Thank you, young master."

Deklan messed up her hair and trotted on ahead.

Seeing this, Marsha quickly followed, jogging with her short legs to keep up with Deklan.

Though I said that, I can tell that this Ghost who stole the obelisk is going to be a hassle to deal with.

Earlier, Deklan had already touched the obelisk, and from the texture of the surface alone, he could tell that it was made with an extremely durable and heavy material. He didn’t know if he could pull the obelisk out, probably not, and this Ghost could do it.

Just from that alone, it was clear that the Ghost who stole it is a very strong one.

Bronze rank, or even silver rank.

Either way, I can already tell where the Ghost came from. Guess it’s time to enter the central area.

Deklan swallowed hard at the thought, but with most of the Ghosts on the outskirts already dealt with, there was no avoiding it any longer.