This sensation...
Adam's gaze hardened as he stared into the valley. The curse energy within him stirred, restless and agitated.
"We're finally here! Finally here!"
Dorgan stood at the cliff's edge, clutching a branch from an overhanging tree. It peered into the fathomless valley below, its eyes brimming with a mix of complex emotions and fervent excitement.
"Your first time here?" Adam asked, surprised by Dorgan's words.
Dorgan shook its head, its voice trembling with fear. "I can't get close to this place. Whenever I try, the curse energy inside me spirals out of control, and I lose my mind."
"Each time I come to, I'm back at the forest's outskirts."
It turned to Adam, its voice thick with awe. "Great warrior, staying near you suppresses the curse's influence."
"I didn't know I had that ability." Adam admitted, genuinely taken aback.
"Great warrior, please ride on my back." Dorgan urged, stepping back, its impatience palpable.
"ARRHHHH!"
A low growl rumbled from Dorgan's throat.
Its petite frame swelled rapidly, transforming in a blink into a massive Petrified Lizard.
"Hiss!"
The Petrified Lizard shook its head, nodding toward Adam to climb aboard.
Smaller than before?
Adam noted that Dorgan's Petrified Lizard form, once nearly ten meters long, had shrunk noticeably. Including its tail, it now measured about eight meters.
The tail, roughly half the body's length, made the change striking.
The reduction was likely due to Adam's earlier attack, which had disrupted Dorgan's transformation.
"No need."
Adam crushed a scroll in his hand.
Flash!
A burst of white light summoned an Archangel Flame. Adam leapt effortlessly onto its back.
"ARRHHHH!"
The Petrified Lizard let out a low growl, its eight legs moving in unison as it crawled out of the forest to the cliff's edge. Without hesitation, it began descending.
The rough valley walls were perfect for the Petrified Lizard, which clung like a gecko, scrambling downward with ease.
Adam followed closely, the Archangel Flame carrying him through the air as they descended.
In the depths of the valley, the only sound was the shrill whistle of wind against the rock walls. No cries of beasts or monsters broke the eerie silence.
Their descent quickened, the valley's light growing dimmer, a faint white haze beginning to obscure their view.
Adam guided the Archangel Flame closer to Dorgan's Petrified Lizard form, wary of losing sight in the thickening mist.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
They plunged downward at a relentless pace.
After roughly half an hour,
"ARRHHHH!"
The Petrified Lizard roared, leaping from the wall to the valley floor with a heavy thud.
They had reached the bottom!
Adam's expression grew serious. The Archangel Flame slowed, gently lowering him to the ground.
At the valley's deepest point, sunlight could no longer penetrate. Darkness enveloped them, broken only by the faint glow of the Archangel Flame, barely illuminating their surroundings.
Crack!
A soft snap echoed as Adam's foot crushed a slender bone, likely from some beast.
He raised his sleeve, retrieving a monocle purchased in E-Rantel from his item box and placing it over his left eye.
The dark vista sharpened instantly!
A narrow, shadowy passage stretched before him, littered with scattered bones of various creatures.
Dorgan's Petrified Lizard form lumbered to Adam's side, then shrank rapidly, reverting to its Forest Gnome appearance.
"Great warrior, the source is here." Dorgan said, a pained groan escaping its lips, though its voice trembled with excitement.
The thumb-sized black corrosion marks on Dorgan's bark-like skin were visibly spreading.
No words were needed.
Adam felt it too, the curse energy within him surged, growing more active.
"This is getting interesting." Adam murmured, his eyes glinting.
What had begun as a casual hunch had led to this hidden secret. The world still held many mysteries.
Danger?
He doubted any powerful creature lurked here. If one did, the Forest Gnome tribe would have known.
Moreover, it seemed the tribe's downfall had come from within.
Adam and Dorgan pressed deeper into the valley along the narrow path, their footsteps and the crunch of bones underfoot echoing in the unnaturally quiet space.
Too quiet?
Adam's brow furrowed. The valley depths felt devoid of life, yet the sheer number of bones suggested otherwise.
A massive black shadow lunged from behind the left wall, a rancid stench of decay flooding the air.
Boom!
The glowing Archangel Flame, a beacon in the dark, took the brunt of the attack. The impact clashed with the angel's flaming sword.
"Hiss!"
A's deafening roar reverberated through the valley.
The flaming sword sliced into the creature's skin, sizzling like roasting meat, but the beast's massive bulk pinned the angel to the ground.
Flash!
Another burst of light flared.
A second Archangel Flame lunged, knocking the creature off its companion.
The beast tumbled across the ground, its form revealed under the twin glow of the Archangel Flames.
Its skin was a rotting mess, unrecognizable, oozing foul pus that dripped onto the floor.
"Is that... a Petrified Lizard?"
Adam noted the creature's elongated tail and eight legs, hallmarks of a Petrified Lizard.
But its current state was grotesque, a monster consumed by decay!
"Hiss!"
"Hiss!"
"Hiss!"
More roars echoed densely through the valley.
A dozen more Petrified Lizards, their bodies similarly rotted and varying in size, scrambled from the walls, converging on Adam and Dorgan.
"They're still alive!"
"This is a Petrified Lizard nest!"
"Kill them!"
"The curse, it's all your fault! All your fault!"
"The heart..."
"The ritual, I shouldn't have eaten the heart. I shouldn't have performed the ritual. Everyone... ah!!"
Dorgan's skin began rotting rapidly, its mind unraveling once more, descending into madness.
Thud!
Adam appeared behind Dorgan, his face impassive, and delivered a heavy chop to its neck.
Dorgan's eyes rolled back, its frenzied cries ceasing as it collapsed.
"Completely corroded by the curse?"
"They're repulsive, but their aura isn't strong."
Adam scanned the horde of rotting Petrified Lizards glaring at him. Raising an arm, he summoned an iron sword.
"Might as well slaughter them all."
"Dark Wave!"
A dense, shadowy energy erupted from Adam, spreading outward. Amplified by the valley's environment, it surged across dozens of meters.
The Petrified Lizards, already afflicted by the curse, froze in place, their bodies rigid.
***
Every 5 reviews and 200 power stones, a bonus chapter will be dropped.
(5,10,15, 200, 400, 600, and so on then two bonus chapters will be dropped, 1 for 5 reviews and 1 for 200 power stones, so that's 2 bonus chapters!)
And if you want to read more than 50 chapters early, feel free to visit pat re on. com / Xelenea (remove space).