Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Translator: Yonnee

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“Bwahahaha, unlucky wench! You’re monster food now!”

But Luke freaked out and shouted back.

“G-Goruz…! Eben still, she’s a giwl…!”

“Do you think I care?! The door can only be opened from this side. Kehehehe!”

Radis reached out quickly, but the stone door was already closed shut.

“Ha…?”

Feeling a tingling sensation at the back of her head, she stepped back and looked up at the tightly closed door.

The closed stone door looked like a huge wall.

There were some sticky, poisonous moss that looked to be grayish-brown all over the stone door, and there were vines hanging throughout as well.

To anyone who didn’t know that there was a door right here, it looked like it was only a stone wall.

“Those pricks, really?”

Grinding her teeth, Radis pulled the rusty sword from her waist and held it tight.

She tried to push the tip of the sword through the cracks in the stone door, but it was impossible.

The stone door was solidly closed, and the gap was closed like it was a shell.

On the other hand, her iron sword was also covered in a thick layer of black rust.

She tried a couple more times, but Radis eventually gave up on opening the door.

She pounded the stone wall with her sword.

But it really wouldn’t budge.

“Ha!”

Radis touched the spot where the moss was scraped off from being beaten by the iron sword.

She tried pushing the stone door with mana covering her fingertips, but it still wouldn’t move as she wanted.

It felt like she was pushing against the ground.

“This isn’t any regular stone, is it?”

Though she didn’t know its exact identity, the stone door was also a relic of the ancient magical ruins here.

Maybe that’s why she couldn’t break it like she could with regular stones.

Looking at the wall with a conflicted expression, Radis suddenly found something.

“What’s this?”

She could see a thick groove where the moss had been scraped off.

Looking at it with a grimace, Radis tried to examine it, but she was startled by a distant roar.

“Ah, seriously.”

She tore off a piece of her shirt and covered her nose and mouth with it.

After that, she held the rusty sword firmly so that she’d be able to face off against whatever it was that could appear suddenly.

‘What a terrible place.’

Radis sighed inwardly.

Most parts of Monsterwood were terrible places, but since the monsters were basically still living beings, the forest was still a habitable place.

However, that didn’t include the forbidden region.

As she walked through the fog, Radis’ eyes continuously scanned her surroundings, and through the white haze, she found a silhouette.

Radis stopped to look at it.

‘The Tree of Tartarus!’

It was the tree at the center of all monsters and the root of all their origins.

The tree, which was as white as a sheet, looked so unnatural that it would catch the eye of anyone who’d see it.

Its huge trunk was something that not even ten adults would be able to wrap their arms around, even when their arms stretched to the fullest.

However, if one would look closely, numerous thin roots extended from under the trunk and floated in the air to support it.

It was a characteristic trait of the Tree of Tartarus that its roots were floating in the air like how mangroves grow in the mud.

‘Haa, it’s strong.’

Her eyes were burning from the intense miasma that was emanating from the tree.

Radis frowned and placed the chest on the floor.

Monsters usually laid their eggs near the roots of the Tree of Tartarus.

It might seem like the act of abandoning their eggs, but instead of gaining warmth from their mother’s bosoms, monster eggs grew even more powerful if they could absorb energy from the roots of the tree.

It wasn’t a nasty characteristic.

“Ha…”

Beneath the cloth that was covering her lips, Radis let out a sigh.

She didn’t come here to return the eggs because she had some good faith towards the monsters.

Just as she said, she came here to make sure that Gorz would set his wayward actions straight.

But far from reflecting on his actions, Gorz really went ahead and did the exact opposite.

‘Terrible bastard.’

The back of her head was still stinging.

But the strange thing was that, rather than being angry at Gorz, she felt pathetic because she didn’t foresee this.

‘I’m still tied to the past.’

The realization was like a splash of cold water.

“This is a sign that I should stop thinking about the past. Let’s just say that I’ve been stabbed in the back…”

Radis urged herself.

She decided to roughly leave behind the eggs near the Tree of Tartarus and go back to the stone door to find a way to open it.

‘But what if the door never opens?’

It might open if she was really determined to break it, but if the door breaks, then the monsters might be able to go out through the passageway.

‘Then… I’ll just find my way out of this place. How many days will it take though?’

Radis sighed deeply, rolling out the fist-sized monster eggs roughly towards the roots of the tree.

And, just as she was about to pick up the shiny egg,

“……!”

Radis quickly reached over to the back of her head.