—

‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’

‘Play! Fun! Chase!’

One voice was plainly murderous while the other was grimly playful; both sounded like hundreds of voices speaking the same thing at the same time.

Cedric was surprised and horrified. How can he not be? He didn’t go out here expecting that he would understand what these creatures were saying!

The puppets ducked and weaved while the two gigantic monstrosities chased after them. The one controlling the puppets was fully focused on his task because he knew just how important this was. It was to the point where others were carrying him with them as they approached the gathering point so that the puppeteer could concentrate on his task instead of multi-tasking.

Cedric mechanically followed them, still midly terrified and still hearing and understanding the words of the void creatures that’s running after the puppets.

‘Chase! Kill! Slay!’

‘Chase! Fun! Run!’

Cedric feels a headache. He knew that this was caused by the unexpected reveal of this skill of his. It seems that understanding the language of the void creatures has a side effect on his psyche.

This concept wasn’t really foreign to the alliance. Language often holds unexpected power, and every power has its burden.

Take the common language used by the Wise Dragon Clan, for example. If you’re not someone from ‘The Six’, using that language can be exhausting. There had been stories of people dying because of reckless use of the language. However, the language of the dragons was indeed powerful. Every word they utter could possibly induce some form of manifestation in reality.

Runes and inscriptions are another example. In fact, the Concept Laws themselves are interpretations of the language of the Primordial Chaos, and it is widely known that laws aren’t just difficult to comprehend; reckless use of them could also spell doom to their users.

Therefore, it wasn’t all surprising to Cedric that he could feel the side effect of just comprehending the language of the void. What he didn’t expect is that he could actually understand it.

‘Should I write this down?’ He thought to himself.

Cedric now felt torn. On one hand, he didn’t feel that this was wise. He could think about a hundred ways this could go wrong for him. Yet on the other hand, he was compelled by his duties as a Border Patrol Guardian to do so. Because while this could go wrong for him, he could also think of several benefits this could have if it was studied carefully.

“Alright, team! We have to move fast. But you have to remember to conserve your energies. We can’t recover here through normal means; this is the void, and this place is inherently dangerous to us. Gather as many resources as you can within 20 minutes. After that, we leave this place. Not a single second of delay is permitted. Understand!?”

The team leader’s screechy voice abruptly shook Cedric out of his reverie. He along with his fellow groupmates responded affirmatively to his orders, and they began collecting resources.

Well, there’s an exception to that, and it’s the puppeteer. He’s still luring the monsters away and had to focus on the task, so he remained seated in his position to concentrate.

The matter of Cedric’s discovery momentarily took the backseat. His focus was now on the ores they needed to collect as soon as possible.

These ores are called Void Ores. They contain minerals that are necessary for creating Void Slaying Weapons, ones that are much like Cedric’s new sword case.

Only materials collected from the void could work against the void creatures. This discovery was made ages ago, and since then, Border Patrol Guardians have been assigned to monitor strategic resourced points within the void and collect materials whenever they could.

Void ores differ in mineral density. Of course, the higher it is, the better since the rest just turns into dust after the mineral extraction anyway. In fact, the useless dust actually turns into a pollutive substance; that’s why forging rooms had a filtering array to prevent void infection.

Cedric would’ve been more than happy to inspect the void ores one by one and pick the best ones. However, he doesn’t have that much time. The puppeteer had limited energy, and the farther he lured the monsters away, the greater his expenditure was. Allowing them 20 minutes to gather as many materials as they could was already stretching him thin.

That’s why Cedric just collected as many resources as he could right now. Still, he did his best to only fetch the ones that he thinks have the highest density of minerals within them. His skills and knowledge as a forging master gave him hints on what to look at.

Cedric summoned swords from the sword case to somehow accelerate this process. He used each sword like shovels to pry out the ores and put them on the storage bag of the team leader.

None of the members had a storage bag that has a wide space within. First of all, it’s because this equipment was exclusive for team leaders like him. Another reason was because within the realm, the existence of the inventory makes the storage bag’s existence completely redundant. What made it special was the fact that it works in the void, and that’s it. That’s why ordinary team members aren’t too pressed about not having a storage bag like this one.

Woosh!!

It’s as if somebody blew a cold wind on his nape, causing Cedric to shiver from head to toe. He even made a surprised yelp, which also startled his fellow void walkers.

Cedric’s eyes flashed as he began surveying their surroundings warily. Although that felt like an innocuous breeze of wind, Cedric didn’t dare to dismiss it because something like a ‘breeze of wind’ doesn’t just happen in the void.

His strange behavior caught the attention of the group. So, the team leader asked:

“Dawnbringer, what is it?”

“It’s like somebody blew a cold wind on my nape just now,” Cedric responded, still eyeing the surroundings warily.

Hearing this, the team leader’s expression sank. He hurriedly took something out of his knapsack.

The item looks like a tiny lantern. He slapped it angrily, and the tiny thing lit up, diffusing a comforting yellow light that covered a 10-meter distance. The yellow light stuck out like a sore thumb in this colorless world.

Yet neither Cedric’s nor the team leader’s attention was at it. Instead, they began looking around warily.

“There!” Cedric’s eyes sharpened; one of his swords was already flying even before his voice reached the others.

Ting!

The sound of metals clashing echoed for the briefest of moments before dissipating, yet that’s already enough to get everybody’s attention.

They saw a void creature defending itself from Cedric’s sword. However, they only saw its appearance very briefly because as soon as it was hit by the sword and defended itself, it jumped out of the yellow light and blended with the void.

“Damn! It’s a Void Stalker!” The team leader screeched angrily, cursing their bad luck.

Void Stalkers. They’re one of the most dangerous creatures lurking within the outskirts of the wall. These things are adept at assassination; one could even say that they’re born for it. They could seamlessly meld into the void, completely erasing their presence. They could kill anybody without being seen and still remain invisible after doing it.

The only ones that could sense their presence were cosmic-level experts. It could also be done with the revealing light of the lantern used by the team leader just now; however, this method was weaker.

Hearing that there’s a Void Stalker nearby caused everyone’s heart to sink, and they already started lamenting their fate, thinking that they’re all going to die here.

They couldn’t be blamed for this. Void Stalkers are rarely seen because of their innate skills, and only a few lived to tell the tale.

Just as they were cursing their bad luck and preparing for their deaths, the radiance in Cedric’s eyes became stronger.

‘No information overload, still. That’s great.’ Cedric thought to himself as he gradually expanded his sensory field.

Sure, there had been some strange feedback, but nothing that his mind, with many thought compartments, couldn’t handle.

As his sensory field expanded to a hundred meters, the veiled figure of the stalker became crystal clear to him. A cold sneer appeared on his face. He clenched his hand and slapped one of his summoned swords, leaving a tracing rune on its surface before sending it flying towards the Void Stalker.

The attack made earlier was just a probe; this one was serious. The sword flew like a streak of light, embedding itself on the still-invisible body of the Void Stalker, who wasn’t able to defend against it.

While this attack wasn’t nearly enough to kill it, that wasn’t really its purpose.

The tracing rune that Cedric slapped onto the sword glowed with light and exploded upon the clueless void creature.

This commotion didn’t escape the attention of the group, obviously. And seeing as the previously invisible figure of the Void Stalker became visible to them. Their eyes lit up.

The team leader was even more ecstatic.

“Fantastic work, Dawnbringer. Team! Kill that son of a bitch!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep