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Chapter 182 - Stepping Out into the World (4)

“Uh, um.”

Ketal’s words left the two unable to respond immediately.

Unconsciously, they stepped back.

Ketal tilted his head at their reaction.

“Why are you doing that?”

Ketal asked in a puzzled tone, his expression as nonchalant as ever.

There was nothing unusual about his demeanor.

It was enough to make them think they were mistaken.

But it wasn’t a mistake.

The image of Ketal brutally killing the monster was vividly imprinted in their minds.

Baker swallowed dryly.

“No, no. It’s okay….”

His voice trembled enough for anyone to notice.

Seeing his reaction, Ketal smiled wryly as if he understood.

“I see why. I apologize. I got a bit carried away by my emotions because it was such an unpleasant sight.”

“Oh, really?”

“I showed you an unsightly side of myself. I’m sorry.”

“No, no. Thank you.”

Baker managed to pull himself together.

After all, Ketal had helped them.

Without him, they would have met their end here.

They should be grateful, not fearful.

Baker quickly calmed his emotions.

Knowing what kind of person Ketal was helped him regain his composure swiftly.

Moreover, his curiosity was too piqued to remain scared.

“You… Are you really the Barbarian of the White Snowfield?”

“Yes.”

Baker held his breath.

Just as he was about to ask an excited question, Aquaz interrupted.

“Wouldn’t it be better to discuss this in detail after we return? The merfolk must be worried about our absence.”

“Oh, right. Let’s head back.”

“Yes. Mr. Baker, thank you for risking your life to protect me.”

“Uh? No, it was the natural thing to do as a party member.”

Baker waved his hand as if it was no big deal.

Aquaz expressed her gratitude repeatedly before finally standing up.

“Then… let’s go back.”

They returned to the merfolk city.

As expected, Kukulitan was anxiously waiting near the Forbidden Land entrance.

He hurried over upon seeing them return.

“Wh-what happened?”

Having approached near the Forbidden Land out of concern, Kukulitan felt it.

The immense disturbance emanating from within the Forbidden Land.

It was like a massive force collision, akin to an underwater volcanic eruption.

Kukulitan was horrified.

Something was happening inside.

However, he lacked the strength to intervene and anxiously waited.

Ketal spoke.

“There was a monster.”

“A m-monster? Were there Forbidden Land monkeys hiding?”

“No. They were all dead. Another monster had taken their place.”

“…What?”

“I’ll explain.”

Aquaz began.

The monkeys outside the Forbidden Land were just a small fraction.

Inside the Forbidden Land, there were about a thousand monkeys.

Kukulitan’s face turned as white as a sheet upon hearing that.

“Ah, I, uh….”

“Don’t worry. They’re all dead.”

“You mean, you defeated them all?”

“No, not us.”

The monkeys had been killed by another monster before they arrived.

The dozens of monkeys that had come outside were survivors barely escaping from the monster.

“It was this thing.”

Ketal showed the corpse of the swaying white creature.

Kukulitan was horrified by its strange appearance.

“No. How did this….”

“Rather than explaining, it’s better to see for yourself. All threats inside have been eliminated.”

The place that was once a Forbidden Land was no more.

The deep-sea realm, where primates had long existed, had vanished.

“See it with your own eyes to understand better. That would be easier.”

Kukulitan nodded with a bewildered expression.

* * *

Kukulitan led the merfolk down to the Forbidden Land.

Soon enough, they must have been horrified at the sight of numerous monkey corpses strewn about.

Ketal’s party didn’t follow.

They needed to rest from the fatigue of battle.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

They were inside one of the relatively intact houses in the merfolk city.

Ketal spoke quietly.

“As I said… I need to explain properly. I come from the place you call the White Snowfield. I spent my entire life there. Outside, people call me the Ashen Barbarian.”

“Huh, really?”

Baker let out a breathy sound.

“Is it true?”

In ancient times.

The emperor who ruled the world.

He gathered all his forces to conquer the White Snowfield.

The forces the emperor assembled were by no means weak.

There were dozens of top-tier superhuman warriors and outstanding believers.

Even heroes were included.

They were equipped with all sorts of artifacts, truly the power of an emperor who ruled the continent.

The emperor confidently marched into the White Snowfield.

And a few years later, the emperor returned, having lost all his forces and reduced to a cripple.

The emperor spoke of countless monsters existing in the White Snowfield, and he mentioned that the most dangerous of them all was the Ashen Barbarian.

Since the emperor\'s legend, many strong individuals and adventurers have challenged the White Snowfield, but most never returned.

Those who did come back brought no significant information.

As a result, people debated whether the barbarian of the White Snowfield truly existed or if it was just the hallucination of the dying emperor.

Now, in front of him, was the barbarian from such a legend.

Baker looked at Ketal with a stunned expression.

Even Aquaz, who was aware, looked at Ketal with renewed surprise.

They were now conversing with a legendary being.

Baker, barely recovering from the shock, stammered.

“So… when did you come out?”

“Not long ago. About a few months ago.”

“That’s around the same time the Forbidden Land entities started emerging.”

“I’m not sure what the connection is, but it seems so.”

“Have you encountered the monsters the emperor spoke of?”

“I encountered them frequently. Sometimes we clashed.”

“I see.”

It was real.

He was truly the legendary barbarian.

While this was astonishing, in a way, it also made sense.

Ketal’s power was extraordinarily unusual.

Without wielding any mystic powers, he had the strength to overwhelm all of them.

It was understandable if he was indeed the legendary barbarian.

Seeing their reactions, Ketal murmured, seemingly surprised.

“You seem alright. I was worried you might attack out of fear.”

“W-well, it’s scary, but….”

“But it’s Ketal. We know what kind of person you are.”

Knowing what kind of person Ketal was, there was no reason to antagonize him just because he was the Ashen Barbarian.

Baker, too, though he found Ketal intimidating, seemed more driven by his curiosity as a magician.

“That’s good.”

Ketal smiled warmly at their attitude.

As the atmosphere calmed down, Baker couldn’t hold back his question any longer.

“The monster we encountered this time. You called it Whitey. How strong is it compared to the monsters in the White Snowfield?”

The monster, with its entirely white body and long claws, was strong.

Even though they weren’t well-prepared, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say it toyed with Aquaz and Baker.

If Ketal hadn’t shown up, they would have been brutally killed on the spot.

Artifacts worth a castle and the strength of a prodigy from the Magic Tower meant nothing.

There was something else that was hard to understand.

‘It didn’t use any mystic powers; it relied purely on physical strength.’

Someone who doesn’t wield mystic powers cannot defeat someone who does.

That was a truth in this world.

Yet both Ketal and the monster they encountered mocked this truth by showing immense power with just their bodies.

Ketal spoke up.

“First of all, what you call mystic powers do not exist in there.”

“Are they all strong purely through physical strength?”

“No. That’s not it.”

There were also monsters that wielded strange powers.

However, those powers were quite different from the mystic powers they spoke of.

“They were more bizarre and twisted. They didn’t feel like powers from this world.”

“Powers not of this world….”

“They were so strange that I can’t give a detailed comparison. Anyway, Whitey isn’t particularly strong within the White Snowfield.”

It wasn’t a weak monster.

It held a high position in the food chain of the deep sea.

But considering the entire White Snowfield, it wasn’t particularly special.

Even excluding the monsters known to the public, there were plenty of creatures stronger than Whitey.

“…You mean that level of strength isn’t special?”

Aquaz groaned.

Whitey was incredibly strong.

It toyed with her and Baker.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it top-tier superhuman.

At that level, it would be one of the strongest on the continent, excluding heroes.

Yet such a monster wasn’t special in the White Snowfield.

“…The legend was true.”

Baker swallowed hard.

Researchers believed the emperor’s defeat in the White Snowfield wasn’t solely because of monsters.

They thought the emperor’s forces were ill-prepared for the extreme cold and lost many troops and supplies due to getting lost.

Given the strength of the forces led by the emperor, it was hard to believe they were annihilated purely by battle, so this was a natural assumption.

But hearing Ketal’s words, it seemed plausible that they were indeed wiped out by monsters. Aquaz cautiously asked.

“Do you think those monsters… could come outside?”

“I used to think it was impossible. But now, I’m not sure.”

Ketal left the White Snowfield after clearing a quest.

Conversely, he thought it was impossible to come out without such a method.

But Whitey had come outside.

Judging by the state of the monkey corpses, it seemed it had been outside for over a month.

It meant it had been out for quite some time.

There was no reason other monsters couldn’t come out as well.

“But… it’s too quiet for that.”

The beings of the snowfield were strong and huge.

If they came outside, there should have been major issues, but the world was eerily quiet.

“There might be other restrictions. I don’t know.”

“I see.”

Aquaz sighed.

It was fortunate they hadn’t shown themselves yet, but it wasn’t safe.

They needed to prepare for the possibility.

“So, do you have any other questions?”

“…Yes.”

Baker swallowed hard.

“You’ve lived in the White Snowfield, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you overwhelmed the monster you called Whitey. You’ve even given it a nickname, implying you’ve hunted it often.”

“I occasionally went down to the deep sea to hunt.”

“…And you’ve encountered the legendary monsters too.”

“There were territorial disputes. We clashed often.”

“…And those monsters were stronger than Whitey, right?”

Ketal nodded as if it were obvious.

Baker swallowed hard again.

With a trembling voice, yet unable to contain his curiosity, he asked.

“Then how strong are you?”