Swordsman's Regression: Reawakened as a Necromancer-Chapter 71: Next Encounter Zone

He snapped his gaze left and right, searching the Zone for any pulsing odd object that could be taken for a Beast Source.

SCREEEEEeee!

Four more Sand Lizards jumped out of the earth, racing towards him with mindless hunger.

Percival’s search turned frantic. But just as he was about to abandon the search and focus on the approaching threat, his eyes caught the largest dune in the center of the depression.

The sand there was rippling, like a certain energy was sending out vibrations.

"The Beast Source," he identified.

Percival narrowed his eyes, angling his sword as he sprinted to the beasts that were sprinting to him.

The first lunged straight to his swinging blade which cut through it mid-air. Percival vaulted off the ground, stabbing into the neck of the second.

Sensing it was dead, he flung the corpse toward the remaining pair.

"⸢Corpse Explosion⸥"

The dead lizard detonated in a blast of necrotic energy, vaporizing the other two.

⸢Sand Lizards killed(x4)⸥

⸢+300 EXP⸥

Percival slid through the sand and out of the explosion.

Using ⸢Corpse Explosion⸥ meant spending more mana, but time was the more expensive currency at the moment.

He finally arrived on the dune and discovered that the Beast Source was a Sand Hive: a subterranean spawn point.

An Encounter Zone having its own Beast Source was something to only expect in A-Ranked and S-Ranked Gate Worlds.

Destroying them early was a profoundly important thing. Parties that focused only on killing the monsters would eventually be whittled down by attrition.

With a glare of intent, Percival used ⸢Bladewave⸥ + ⸢Soulfire⸥, dragging his sword in a horizontal arc.

The wave of condensed mana, wreathed in blue necromantic fire, crashed into the hive.

It exploded outward, letting out a choked hiss rose from the pit, and then... silence.

SCREEEE— euggghh!

Percival plunged his blade behind him, impaling the final Lizard that had attempted a backstab.

The steel punched through its neck and out its skull.

It collapsed.

⸢Beast Source destroyed⸥

⸢+400 EXP⸥

⸢Sand Lizard killed⸥

⸢+75 EXP⸥

He turned to survey the battlefield. There were over twenty corpses of the Sand Lizards sprawled all over.

Killing them in melee combat rather than relying on his Skeleton Soldiers gave him a slightly nostalgic feeling.

He had become fairly used to fighting with his loyal bone-men.

But even Skeleton Soldiers drained mana to sustain. Percival intended to leave them in their Summon Spaces until absolutely necessary.

He checked his mana to see how his economizing was going.

⸢Mana: 710/1300⸥

He tightened his lips. ’Not too bad.’

Approaching the corpses, he interacted with them and claimed his loot.

⸢Sand Lizard Scale (×21)⸥

⸢Sand Sacs (×21)⸥

⸢Beast Cores (×21)⸥

⸢Claws (×50)⸥

⸢1200 Mana Coins⸥

⸢6 Health Potions⸥

⸢3 Elixirs⸥

The next notification appeared, confirming that this Encounter Zone had been cleared.

⸢Unwelcoming Hills have been cleared successfully⸥

⸢Proceed to the next Encounter Zone⸥

Consulting the Gate World map, Percival continued ahead.

For a moment, he wondered about the transit time. It had been two minutes of walking and he still was in the Unwelcoming Hills.

A-Ranked Gate Worlds were that vast.

However, in a moment beyond his awareness, Percival found himself somewhere else entirely.

He looked down at his boots.

Just a second ago, they were crunching against dry, sun-baked rock; but now, they sank an inch into thick, yielding sludge.

The dry, oven-like heat of the Unwelcoming Hills was gone. This place was more humid.

Percival felt a suffocating blanket of moisture wrap itself around him.

A sickly green mist hung low over the ground, clinging to the twisted roots of mangrove-like trees that clawed their way out of black, stagnant pools.

⸢Second Encounter Zone: Rot-Water Expanse⸥

’Disgusting,’ Percival thought, pulling his boot free with a wet sucking sound.

The smell here was atrocious. Truly.

One with a weaker Constitution would have run away vomiting.

Sulfur, rotting vegetation, dung and old blood.

Everything unpleasant had combined to create the wonderful fragrance of disgust in this wretched place.

The silence was heavier too, broken only by the occasional bloop of a gas bubble bursting on the surface of the oil-slicked water.

Percival tightened his grip on Lightpiercer.

This terrain was a nightmare for a Swordsman. The mud compromised his footing, negating the speed advantage he usually relied on.

He had to be lighter, more deliberate.

He scanned the murky water. His Perception tingled.

He knew that the threat was present and maybe even close. From the subtle reverberations in the wet earth, he knew it was submerged.

Percival moved his eyes carefully, pupils scanning every corner.

Silence. More... silence.

Then, he picked up the first ripple.

It appeared in a large pool to his right. Then to his left.

Three logs floating in the scum-covered water suddenly stopped drifting with the current.

Percival’s eyes narrowed. He waited.

Snap!

The silence shattered.

The "logs" exploded from the water with terrifying speed. Massive, armored bodies breached the surface, propelled by muscular tails.

They were crocodilian in shape, but twisted by the mana of the Alpha Gate.

Their hides weren’t just skin; they were plated with natural metallic armor that gleamed dull grey in the dim light.

Their eyes were milky white, blind but sensing heat, and their jaws were filled with rusted hungry teeth—though sharp enough to tear through their chosen prey:

Percival.

—---—

The colors of gold, silver and brown filled up the expanse of the Unwelcoming Hills in groups of three.

The Guild Squads had arrived, weapons drawn and shields raised.

As seasoned professionals, they knew the protocol for an Alpha Gate: establish a perimeter, identify the threat, and grind forward.

"Shields up!" roared the Captain of the Iron Guard. "Healers, stay in the center! Mages, scan for movement! We expect high-level ambush predators in this terrain!"

"Spread out, but keep line of sight!" the Heaven’s Blade Captain ordered her team. "Don’t let the heat dull your senses. Check the dunes!"

"Golden Spire, with me!" the Golden Spire Captain shouted. "Form the phalanx! We take the lead!"

The three squads braced themselves, waiting for the inevitable shriek of monsters. They expected a wave of teeth and claws.

Instead, they got silence.

The wind whistled mournfully over the dunes.

There were no roars. No tremors in the ground.

"Hold..." the Iron Guard Captain muttered, lowering his axe slightly. "Where are they?"

A scout from the Heaven’s Blade squad ran up a nearby dune and froze. "Captain! Look!"

The leaders pushed forward, cresting the hill. The sight that greeted them stopped them cold.

The valley below was a graveyard.

Dozens of massive Sand Lizard carcasses littered the sand. Some were bisected cleanly in half. Others... decapitated.

A few looked... burned? But not by natural fire. The scorch marks were cold, leaving behind a bluish residue.

And in the center of the valley, the massive dune that should have housed the Beast Source was gone.

"By the Gods..." the Golden Spire Captain whispered. "It’s a massacre."

"Who did this?" the Heaven’s Blade Captain asked, her voice sharp. "Did the Gatewatch screw us up? Did another Guild get in before us?"

"Impossible," the Iron Guard Captain grunted, kicking a severed lizard head. "The barrier was sealed. The Official swore on his life."

"He said one person entered," the Golden Spire Captain argued, gesturing at the devastation. "Look at this! The sheer volume of kills... the destruction of the Hive... this is the work of a full squad! A highly coordinated one!"

He walked over to a corpse that had been sliced perfectly down the middle. "Look at this cut. Clean. Efficient. And the burn marks. See, mhm... whoever did this had multiple damage types. It couldn’t be one man."

"Unless..." the Heaven’s Blade Captain narrowed her eyes, "...it was the Hero’s doing. He’s the only one reported to enter this Gate World."

The Iron Guard Captain scoffed, a harsh, barking sound. "Don’t be stupid. The official scanned him. He’s a Level 28. These lizards are Level 35 minimum. A Level 28 soloing a mob almost twice his level? It’s mathematically impossible. He’d run out of mana in two minutes."

"Then explain this!" she pointed at a lizard that had been stabbed in its eye.

"Maybe the Gate glitched," the Iron Guard Captain shrugged. "Maybe the beasts turned on each other. It happens in unstable Alphas."

"There’s no loot you thick-headed fool! Clearly someone killed them!"

"It doesn’t matter!" The Golden Spire Captain interrupted, though his eyes were still scanning the wreckage warily. "Dead monsters mean zero resistance. The road is clear!"

He turned to his squad, a greedy grin spreading behind his visor. "Do you hear that, men? someone else did the dirty work! Let us keep marching forward to the dungeon boss!"

"Not if we get there first!" the Heaven’s Blade Captain shouted. "Move out! Double time! Move, fighters!"

"Over my dead body!" the Iron Guard Captain roared. "Iron Guard! Charge! Trample them if you have to!"

Together, they matched down the Unwelcoming Hills towards the Rot-Water Expanse where Percival was locked in a battle with crocodiles.