Chương 82: Mount Helion

Mount Helion stood near Feykon Town. It was the mountain forest where Princess Anna's tomb had appeared. Aren had originally planned to find the apprentice apothecary and ask for more details about the tomb. Unfortunately, the man had already vanished from town. That was understandable. If the apprentice had stayed in Feykon, the scavengers who came chasing fortune would have torn him apart long ago. Some people said he sold the crown and moved to a large city to live as a rich man.

Others said Princess Anna's ghost had devoured him. Either way, no one had seen him, dead or alive. They did not even know exactly when he disappeared. Mount Helion had once been an ordinary mountain range. After Anna's tomb emerged, however, a mysterious white fog wrapped around it. At the foot of the mountain, crowds had already gathered. Aren used Gyo and looked over the crowd. It was a chaotic mix of ordinary people and dangerous experts. Nen users and ordinary people were standing side by side.

"Wow, Master. There are so many people here." Neon wore a small explorer outfit Aren had created for her. She stared at the crowded mountain entrance with obvious excitement.

"Move! Move aside!" A commotion suddenly broke out. Several men in camouflage uniforms rushed out of the forest carrying a corpse between them.

"Medd! Hold on! The doctors are right there!" One of the men shouted with tears in his eyes as they carried the dried corpse to a makeshift medical station. The station had been set up by several unlicensed doctors with sharp business instincts. They knew a crowd of desperate treasure hunters meant injuries. And injuries meant business.

"Doctor! Doctor! Someone come here!" A man in a white coat hurried out of the station. He glanced at the corpse once, then shook his head.

"Take him away. He's gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" Before the doctor could answer, a young man dressed as if he were here for sightseeing gave a quiet laugh and knocked the camouflaged man's hand aside.

"You people know nothing, yet you still dare come here. You were lucky to bring even a corpse back." The camouflaged man was about to snap back, but one of his teammates stopped him. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The young man looked frivolous, but his whole body carried a dangerous pressure. He was clearly not someone they could afford to provoke.

"This is the twenty-sixth case in two days," the young man said.

"Every one of them was drained dry by something. He died long before you reached the foot of the mountain."

"How could..." The camouflaged man sank to his knees, hollow-eyed.

"Medd..."

"That's why I said you know nothing," the young man said with another mocking laugh.

"You have courage. I'll give you that." He raised a finger wrapped in aura.

"Can you see this?" The camouflaged men stared blankly at his hand, completely lost.

"You can't, can you? Then go home. This is not a place you should be." With that, the young man started walking toward Mount Helion.

"Master, what was that man talking about?" Neon asked. Aren placed a hand on her head.

"Nothing important. After training, you'll be able to see things like that too."

"Oh..." Neon nodded as if she understood, though she clearly did not. When Aren saw the dried corpse, he roughly understood the situation. Princess Anna's Resentment had probably awakened. Or perhaps the seal had broken or failed. Either way, these people had been deliberately lured here. Judging from the state of the corpse, all of its vitality had been sucked dry. It seemed Princess Anna was still recovering. But Anna herself was not the key.

The key was that there must be someone from the future Aren remembered somewhere inside Mount Helion. And there was a strong chance that person could help him now. Otherwise, among so many possible people, Neon's fortune had no reason to point him here. What troubled Aren was Neon. The question was whether he should really bring her inside. From the look of the corpse, it might be dangerous. As if sensing his hesitation, Neon raised her head and looked at him pitifully.

"Master, you're not going to leave Neon behind, are you?" Aren crouched down in front of her.

"Neon, aren't you scared? That dried corpse was real. It will be dangerous inside." Neon puffed out her chest confidently.

"Neon isn't scared. Master is here, so Neon will definitely be fine." Looking at the absolute trust in her eyes, Aren mocked himself inwardly.

'What is this? Did Silva scare the confidence out of me with one lesson?' At worst, he would keep Limitless Technique active the entire time. He refused to believe that mere Resentment could break through it. Aren picked Neon up in his arms.

"Fine. Then Master will bring you. But you stay in my arms the whole time. You cannot get down to the ground. Understand?" Neon nodded quickly and waved her little hand toward the mountain.

"Okay! Then let's go!" Her cheerful shout drew a wave of strange looks. Some were angry. Some were mocking. Some were surprised. No one said anything. People who came here to chase treasure were not saints who meddled in strangers' business. If a man wanted to bring a child in to die, no one would stop him. In a hidden corner of the crowd, a small figure looked at Aren and frowned. Aren noticed the gazes around him and roughly understood what they meant.

'Ignorant amateurs.' Holding Neon, he vanished from where he stood. The people watching him widened their eyes at the same time.

'An expert.' The hidden figure's expression softened slightly, though the frown did not disappear. After pulling up a hood, the figure silently followed. It was not out of some saintly impulse. If Aren had entered alone, the figure would not have cared even if he died inside. But bringing a four-year-old girl with him was different. She could not ignore a child being taken into danger. As the small figure moved, a strand of blond hair slipped out from beneath the hood.

The moment Aren stepped into Mount Helion, he sensed something wrong. Since entering, the plants around him had become strangely active. There was no wind at all, yet the leaves kept rustling. Aren had already opened Gyo, but he could not see anything obviously abnormal. That eerie sense of wrongness only grew stronger as he moved deeper. Still, he was not especially worried. He trusted Limitless Technique. Whoosh. A black shadow suddenly burst out of the ground and stabbed straight toward his head. Hum.

"A root?" Aren frowned at the black root frozen a few centimeters in front of him. It was still twisting, hissing like a snake. This was probably the thing draining people dry. The image was oddly familiar. It made Aren think of a tree demon stealing human vitality.

"Careful!" A crisp female voice rang out behind him. The next instant, dozens of black shadows exactly like the first erupted around Aren, surrounding him from every direction. Each root hissed greedily, as if Aren were the finest feast in the world. Spatial ripples spread around Aren's body. Every black root was stopped three or four centimeters away by that invisible barrier. The owner of the warning voice reached him with several quick jumps.

She lifted her hood, revealing bright blond hair, and studied Aren with surprise.

"Not bad. You're young, but your ability is strong." Looking at the small figure before him, Aren understood.

'So the person in the fortune was you.' The fake little blond girl.