Chapter 78: Chapter 77: The Former Glory of the Northern Barbarians

Sam led everyone to a wooden hut he’d had specially built.

The hut wasn’t very large inside. Various items were strewn about in disarray. A goat’s head and an assortment of teeth from unknown beasts hung on the walls as decoration.

Dyes made from ground stone powder, feathers of every color, and an array of strange things in jars and vials were placed on the simple, layered wallboards.

The place was filled with an air of mystery.

The wooden hut perfectly matched Levi’s preconceived notions of a Shaman. ’Only a Shaman of the Wilderness would decorate their home this way.’ He couldn’t tell if it was to cultivate an air of mystery and inspire awe, or for some other reason.

After he twisted the head of an unidentifiable beast—which had looked just like a decoration—a CLANK CLANK sound echoed through the room. The animal-skin-covered floor parted, revealing an ancient underground passage.

The dark passage, wide enough for a grown man, descended into blackness like the gaping maw of the Abyss, ready to swallow any life that entered.

Everyone was rather surprised. A single glance told them the passage was at least several hundred years old. It was one thing for the mechanism to still work, but to find such a thing in a barbarian tribe was completely unexpected.

"After you, my Lord," Sam said with a fawning smile, stepping aside.

Levi simply watched him with a faint smile, not moving an inch.

Sam’s expression stiffened. As an old sly fox, he knew exactly what that meant. He chortled awkwardly, lit a torch, and led the way into the passage.

Levi nodded in satisfaction.

’A gentleman doesn’t stand beneath a collapsing wall.’ If the old bastard had just joined his ’system team’, Levi wouldn’t have minded displaying the magnanimous style of a Monarch: "Don’t employ those you suspect, and don’t suspect those you employ."

’But the old fox kept flip-flopping, so Levi had to be cautious.’

Just as he prepared to follow, Zat stopped him.

"Boss, I’ll take point!"

Zat took off his outlandish Horned Helmet. Holding a torch in one hand and his Fine Steel Double-Bladed War Axe in the other, he faced the relatively narrow passage. With his tall and burly frame, he had to hunch over and force his way inside.

Levi thought for a moment and understood. He didn’t stop him.

’That’s right,’ he thought. ’I’m not on my own anymore. I have a whole family of people who depend on me to eat.’

’These people probably value my life more than I do myself.’

’If the weather turned cold, they’d probably be the ones to put an extra coat on me.’

After leaving five Barbarians to guard the entrance, Levi walked in, flanked by Zat and Muto.

’In a place this narrow, if we were to encounter a threat that even I couldn’t handle, it wouldn’t matter how many of these Beastmen were with me. Having fewer people would actually make it easier for me to maneuver.’

The descending passage was only about two blades high and a blade and a half wide. It was a perfect fit for a human, but Zat and Muto had to stay hunched over the entire time.

Being underground, the sealed stone walls on all sides blocked out all light, save for what came from the entrance.

Even illuminated by the torches, visibility in the pitch-black passage was still no more than a Tri-Blade.

"It’s so dark in here." The Lord’s voice echoed through the passage, sounding hollow and distant.

"So dark..."

"Dark..."

"Ah..."

"My Lord, there’s an echo in here. We must be quiet." Sam suddenly appeared around a corner, holding his torch. The firelight illuminated his wrinkled face, twisted into a strange, eerie smile.

"Damn it, trying to scare me, are you?" Levi cursed, slapping him on the back of the neck. "Get a move on and lead the way."

Sam looked aggrieved. He moved the torch away from his face and rubbed his stinging neck before continuing to lead the way.

"The air in here is quite fresh. You can clearly feel a faint breeze blowing from the cracks in the stones."

"There must be ventilation shafts leading outside."

After walking for what felt like an eternity, Sam suddenly stopped. He began using his torch to light piles of firewood that came into view.

The dried pitch pine was full of resin, making it more flammable than strong spirits. It seemed Sam had prepared it in advance.

As the bonfires roared to life, the dark space gradually became as bright as day.

Unlike the narrow passage from before, this was a large, underground stone chamber. It was impossible to tell how long the dark stone walls had stood there.

The stone chamber was sparse, with only a stone pedestal at its center. On the pedestal rested a palm-sized egg. However, the egg appeared to be carved from stone, its surface covered in exquisite patterns resembling clouds and trees.

"My Lord, this is where I hid the Magic Scroll. In fact, it’s also where I first found it."

Sam walked to the pedestal and bowed piously, as if the Stone Egg before him were not an object, but the very god he worshipped.

"Is this a Dragon Egg?"

The question came from the Lord, a country bumpkin who clearly hadn’t seen much of the world.

"Dragon Egg?" Sam scoffed, his face full of disdain. He then placed a hand on his chest and bowed slightly to Levi. "My Lord, please allow me to build the suspense."

In that moment, the Shaman’s entire demeanor changed. He seemed like one of the erudite old scholars from the Royal Court University.

"The Evil Fang Tribe may just be an ordinary tribe in the Kas Mountain Range, but our history is long and profound. Even without written records or books, our true origins have been preserved through the oral traditions passed down by our ancestors."

"In the past, the Kas Mountain Range was not scattered with countless tribes of all sizes as it is today. There was once a nation here—the Mountain Kingdom. That was its name."

"And you are the descendants of the Mountain Kingdom?" Levi chimed in at the perfect moment.

"Correct. All the tribes in the Kas Mountain Range, large and small, were once the people of the Mountain Kingdom."

"The Mountain Kingdom worshipped the Natural Goddess. They were her people. However, after the fall of the Mountain Kingdom, the Natural Goddess also vanished without a trace."

"Shit! Don’t tell me this egg is the Natural Goddess herself."

Levi’s heart began to pound. He felt a suffocating pressure wash over him.

’One thing was certain: during the Magic Era on the Middle Ages Continent a thousand years ago, beings like gods truly existed. Compared to them, even powerful Giant Dragons and other Magical Creatures were nothing.’

’No wonder Sam had scoffed at the idea of a Dragon Egg.’

Levi never imagined these Northern Barbarians had such a history. The revelation, combined with his current circumstances, was staggering.

Even Zat, the big lug, had an unconscious look of awe on his face.

Beastmen also worshipped the Beastman God. Although the Natural Goddess wasn’t the one he worshipped, she was a god just like the Beastman God, and thus naturally deserved respect.

"That’s not quite it," Sam explained. "This egg merely bears the exclusive mark of the Natural Goddess. It is clearly related to her, though."

Levi’s expression didn’t change, but he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

’In this world, anything connected to the gods warranted extreme caution.’