Chương 78: Ruined Settlement (1)

Rowan let out a sigh of relief as he looked into the distance. It had taken him much longer than he would've liked, but now he could see the remnants of the settlement in the distance. It was already sunset, the sky painting a beautiful orange as the many moons rose in the distance. He didn't know what he'd been expecting when he'd heard Eren and Henry refer to it as a 'town,' but what he saw far exceeded those expectations.

He couldn't actually see inside the settlement yet, though; there was a wall surrounding it. It was a dozen feet tall, made from logs and rough wooden planks. It was truly impressive to have been built in barely more than a month. And, all the way from where he was standing, Rowan could see a gaping hole in the defensive structure. The wood was torn and splintered as if something had run through it. And it probably had been run through.

Henry had said that a level 17 boar had attacked and destroyed the settlement, and the only way for the creature to get into it would be through the wall. Seeing the devastation left by the boar's attack sent Rowan's mind back to where he'd fought the jaguar. Lying beside it had been the corpse of a massive boar. Had it been the same one as the beast that'd destroyed the town?

He'd entertained the thought for a brief moment before his fight with the thunderous jaguar, but had ended up pushing it out of his mind to focus on the battle. In the end, Rowan just shrugged; he couldn't know for certain until he asked the party. It was just another reason to get to the town faster.

But he was moving anything but quickly; while wrapping his body with chains to support his movement would be plausible on its own, when he factored in the chains used to carry the boxes on his back, along with the hook to carry the boar meat, no matter how minuscule the mana cost from the small construct might've been, his mana regeneration just couldn't keep up.

For most of the journey, it'd been fine, but his reserves had been slowly dwindling down to the point that he wasn't comfortable with expending any more mana. Then, he'd retracted his chains, letting his body move on its own. And, for that reason, the final stretch was going to take a lot longer than it should've. Rowan was sure that he could force his body to go faster, but he really didn't have any need to do so. It would just cause him unnecessary pain.

As he shambled forward, Rowan's thoughts moved on to the other ideas he'd gotten on his journey. In the end, he'd decided not to loot any of the larger weapons from the bandits, since they would weigh him down and he could just recreate them with his mana anyway. But could he? All of Rowan's mana constructs thus far had been blades of some sort. His projectiles were a bit different, with some of them being needles, but they were mostly the same.

Even the 'lance' he'd used to kill the Broodmother hadn't been much more than an overly long sword. Back in the caves, he'd thought about making different weapons, like axes or blunt ones, but had never ended up doing so. Now that he wasn't trapped underground and forced to constantly fight bloodspawn, though, the variety in his mana usage was growing more quickly than it had before. He'd already made shields and such, so he saw no reason why he couldn't make a sledgehammer or any kind of weapon, really.

Usually, when he fought, he instinctively used what he already knew worked—which were swords and daggers. Even when he practiced, he tended to focus more on the control aspect, like when he used to practice with moving two separate mana constructs. Now, though, Rowan intended to change that. He was going to practice making new weapons and try to expand his arsenal as much as possible. Even if he didn't end up using them often, it would still be good to have them, just in case.

Of course, though, he was going to do all this later; his mind and mana stores were both too exhausted for it. And, also, he'd reached the wall of the settlement. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Rowan blinked in surprise as he looked up at the log barrier before him. He'd been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed how close he'd gotten.

With a shrug, he turned and walked along the wall until he reached the nearest entrance—the gaping hole that the boar had created. Then, he peeked in and looked around. The lighting wasn't the best, since the sun was setting, but his enhanced vision more than made up for it. And as he looked around, he realized that 'ruined' truly was the perfect way to describe the town. The settlement seemed to have been mostly made up of one- to two-story tall wood homes.

There were dozens of them, perhaps over a hundred, within the walls, all jammed together. But a good 70% of them were destroyed, reduced to nothing more than a few sticks on the floor. Speaking of the floor, the dirt ground of the settlement was gouged by thick hoof marks, each of them more than a foot across. As Rowan's eyes followed the boar's trail through the houses, he saw splatters of blood here and there, but no bodies.

Either nobody had died, which he highly doubted, or the bodies had already been looted and buried. And then, on the opposite side of the town, was yet another hole punched through the wall, this one seemingly where a gate had once been. And, as he observed the trail of destruction, Rowan couldn't help but frown; had the people of the settlement even put up a fight? Had they tried to fend off the boar? It looked like the beast had just barged in, destroyed half the town, and then left without facing much resistance.

He couldn't be certain, but thinking back, Rowan couldn't remember many, if any, injuries on the boar's body that hadn't been from the bloodspawn that had killed it. Everything he was thinking was based on the theory that the creature had been the same one that had ransacked the town, but he was pretty confident in it. With a sigh, he took in the rest of the town. There were still quite a few buildings left standing, and around several of them flickered the light of campfires.

It seemed like there were three separate groups camping out in the town, so Rowan just had to find which one had Cynthia and the rest of the party. Assuming they'd gotten to the settlement, of course. He shook his head. He didn't want to be so pessimistic. Plus, the odds that they'd run into something dangerous were slim. They were—allegedly—in a safe zone, and with Rowan encountering two high-level beasts and a party of bandits, he thought he'd practically gotten all of the area's dangers already.

He didn't want to be noticed by the other parties, either, though. After his last interaction with other people, he wanted to play it safe. And the constant glow from his chains wasn't helping. They weren't too bright, but they were more than enough to stand out in the darkness. So, using what little mana he'd regenerated since he'd stopped using his chains to help himself walk, Rowan solidified them and shrank them down as much as he could, all the way until they were less than a foot long.

Not delaying any longer, he stepped through the wall and into the town. While the wooden barrier was tall, it was only about a foot thick. It did have places for defenders to stand upon it, though, so it still seemed like it would do a good job holding off most attackers, just not massive beasts. Rowan limped through the ruins as he headed toward the nearest campfire. As he grew near, he stopped and strained his eyes, looking closer at the figures standing around it.

There were three of them, with a few more sleeping on the ground. Not recognizing any of them, he turned and kept going, heading for the next campfire. The moment he could make out the figures around it, he knew that they weren't who he was looking for; there were too many of them. Still, he looked closer, getting an idea of who else would be camping out in the town. There were ten of them, significantly more than the last group.

And they were more vigilant, too, with two people on lookout and none of them sleeping. Instinctively, Rowan began to move more cautiously, since he didn't know whether or not the people would be hostile. He wasn't too worried, though; since they were standing around a campfire, their eyes had adjusted to the light from it, making it harder for them to see into the darkness.

After watching them for a few more moments, he moved on, going toward the final and furthest campfire, nestled all the way up against the walls. The town wasn't too large, though, so it only took him a minute to reach it. Immediately, Rowan recognized the figures sitting around the fire, and as he moved closer, he began to hear their conversation.

"... do you think he's alright? He should've gotten here already." Henry's voice carried through the night.

"I don't know, but he's strong, you know that. Maybe he got injured fighting the jaguar. Or maybe he just got sidetracked with something. We'll be here for a day or so, anyway. We can wait." Eren responded. At that moment, a small figure scurried out of one of the shadows and plopped down next to the campfire. And immediately, Cynthia began whining.

"Where's Uncle Rowan?" Rowan smiled as he stepped into the area lit by the campfire.

"I'm right here."