Strongest Dimensional Necromancer-Chapter 42: Silent Village

"Riven!"

He blinked as he was snapped out of his thoughts. "What?" He focused his attention on Kivara. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She glared. "If this was back at the sect and I was an instructor, I would have bashed your head in. I’m asking you how much you know about monsters."

Riven shook his head. All he knew about monsters was that they were more intelligent than animals and had ways to cultivate on their own. "Nothing much."

Kivara snorted and shook her head coldly. "Honestly, why does your village exist here? Why do they exist at the edge of the Shadowwood?"

Riven blinked. "At the edge? We are deep inside the Shadowwood. That’s why we don’t interact with strangers often."

Kivara snorted and shook her head. She stood up and began to clear their presence from the place while she talked. "Deep? Ah! There’s no way you could survive deep inside the Shadowwood.

"Even I, at this rank, can’t survive it. You might not know this, but this place, for thousands of miles and miles, is still known as the edge of the Shadowwood Forest. If you put the scope of the whole forest into perspective, then it’s a wilderness that stretches as far as the eye can see.

"This is the western continent, and the Shadowwood takes up about seventy percent of it. In fact, this was due to the Necromancer King pushing back against it. The western continent was known as an untamed wilderness before he made his kingdom here."

’.....There’s something like that....’ Riven’s eyes widened as he glanced at the trees around him. "So we have been at the edge all this time."

"And it’s impressive, really. But you dare not live deeper in. And this is because of the monsters. Yes, I was about to explain the monsters to you. ’Monster’ is just a general name that we call them, but there are ranks.

"In fact, think of it like species. Monsters are the common ones we see, and they have ranks just like the ones we practitioners use, but it only ends at Auracrest.

"Above that, we have the Shades. You should run if you ever meet one at our rank. They are as intelligent as us and are able to use techniques and practice their inherent Path. Yes, some of the Paths that some practitioners use were formed this way. Above them are the Fiends. I don’t know much about them."

Riven swallowed. He didn’t know he had been living in such a dangerous place all his life. He knew it was dangerous but never to that extent!

"But this is also what makes the West popular and rich. The Shadowwood provides massive amounts of resources, and at one point in time, Wandering Death completely sat on this mountain of resources as the King of the West!"

"He was that impressive?" Riven asked.

"Yes. He united a lot of big and great ancient sects under him to rule here. He could be said to be the pioneer of the West." Kivara frowned and glanced at the sky. "Anyway, we should stop for the night. It’s getting dark."

Riven nodded, but they didn’t stop because they were looking for the perfect tree to use. So far, they hadn’t seen any necromancers, but that didn’t mean they were going to let their guards down. Instead, they increased their vigilance.

Then suddenly, like stars hidden behind clouds, Riven saw light—yellow light scattered between the trees ahead. "What’s that?"

Kivara had also spotted it, and her eyes glinted. "A village?"

Riven scratched his head. "I didn’t know there were any villages here, but then again, there must be more villages in the Shadowwood than I know of."

Kivara increased the amount of void aura surrounding the two of them, and they crept to the edge of the trees to look at the village.

Naturally, a village would still be noisy by this time, even with night upon them. And there should be strong, thick fences to fend off animals and monsters, but the village in front of them seemed to have grown directly from the clearing.

"What type of village is this?" Riven asked. The only thing they could see was the lantern light hanging on the doors outside, but even with the light, darkness seemed to shroud everything in the small village.

Kivara hesitated but then swept her perception forward. The feeling of emptiness spread over her. She frowned. "I can feel the villagers inside their houses. From the look of it, they are ordinary people."

"Should we go in?" Riven asked. He was suddenly burning with curiosity as he watched the village. Why was it there and so silent? He felt something strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Kivara frowned. "It should be alright. I can’t see any traces of necromancers, and while the village is strange, it seems harmless. We can just check it out."

They began to move toward the village. Actually, there wasn’t much movement because the village seemed to begin right where the clearing stopped.

But the moment they stepped foot into the village, it was as if they had crossed an unseen mark and entered a territory. Riven tensed, his body reacting to something his eyes and senses couldn’t see.

Kivara glanced back. "I don’t like this place. It’s like there’s something extremely dangerous here, but at the same time, it isn’t there!"

Riven nodded. She was describing exactly what he felt as well.

They began to explore. The houses were made of mud, and the roofs were constructed from tightly bound leaves. But they were all neatly arranged in rows.

Just as Kivara had said, Riven could feel the presence of living humans behind the houses, and through the closed windows, he saw shadows.

But no one was outside, and surprisingly, they didn’t hear a single sound from those behind the doors.

Just how was that possible? Riven and Kivara shared a look. Even though they were both aura practitioners with power that far surpassed any normal human, like the sun compared to the ground, they both felt a chill run down their spines.

"Just what is this village?" Riven said.