Show Me Your Stats!

Chapter 32

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     Ayra shook his head and crawled out of the igloo; he thought the Labyrinth way of life would suit Janus.
The sight that awaited Ayra as he thoughtlessly walked out was the edge of a steep cliff and not a snowy plain.
If not for Janus’s arm around his waist, Ayra would’ve fallen off.
He staggered in surprise.

     “Be careful,” the mercenary mumbled.

      The young lord was thankful for the catch, but the heaviness of the mercenary’s voice felt burdensome.
How was he still so excited? Ayra’s face paled–was the man still exhilarated at the idea of him cutting into his belly? Not only was he a psychopath, but was he a psychopath with psychosexual masochistic tendencies…?

     Ayra sat down, careful to avoid Janus’s scary *weapon*, and carefully peered over the edge of the cliff.
He finally realized where they were; they were at the end of one of the two cliffs that formed the Dallum Gorge.
They were high up enough that they wouldn’t be swept away even if another landslide occurred.

     ‘…Disregarding how I got up here, how were the horses carried this far up?’

    While the young lord was immersed in his thoughts, Janus stood at the edge of the cliff fearlessly and bent down to appreciate the scenery below.
Then, without warning, he kicked at a stone, sending it tumbling down the cliff together with a clump of snow.
Ayra could only sigh at the sight of snow and piles of stones blocking the road.
The silver lining, though, was that a second avalanche was unlikely to occur judging from the considerable amount of accumulated snow and boulders.

     “What should we do? We’ll have to clear the way enough for a carriage to pass through.” Ayra wracked his brain for a way to solve the problem using magic.
Half a day’s rest would be enough to restore his mana completely.
However, even with fully recovered mana, he had no way to deal with an avalanche–that was beyond his control.
Rather, it would be easier to pick up the merchant and physically move him elsewhere.

     Ayra had the urge to cross the Dallum Gorge and observe the origin of the landslide.
He stood up and brushed off his clothes.
As he did so, Janus casually said, “Should I clear the road for you?”

“…You’ll clear the road? How?”

     It would take a long time to clear the mountainous amount of snow and stone no matter how strong Janus was.

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     Janus pretended to be lost in contemplation and tapped his chin; his red eyes sparkled.
His voice sounded disturbingly amused, “I’ll first need some fire.”

     “You’re not thinking of melting all that snow with fire, are you?” That would be difficult even with Ayra’s talent.
Besides,  the melted snow would only result in an icy road.  Janus did not deign to explain further and simply nodded, urging the young lord to follow him.
Despite his doubts, Ayra complied.

     On the way, Ayra requested that they stop by the supposed origin point of the landslide.
Upon closer examination, the young lord found traces of foul behavior–evidence that the landslide had not occurred naturally.
‘…Someone used magic here.’

     Traces of mana would always remain where magic was cast.
Was the person sent by Sobleche or Bolney? Ayra could not determine whether their opponent was a mage or just someone with a magic tool.
He observed further, but it was futile.
Wary, Ayra followed behind Janus once again.

     Steps sinking deeply into the snow, the young lord followed Janus for about 20 minutes; afterwards, the mercenary suddenly stopped.
A steep slope of pristine, undisturbed snow stood before them.

     “That’s a relief.
I thought we’d have to wander for another hour to find it–this is relatively fast,” Janus said.

“What? What is this place?”

     “Mmmm… It’s better I show it to you.
Here, this way.”

     Though Ayra was suspicious, he followed Janus’s instructions.
He stood where the mercenary pointed and looked around, but all he could see were huge boulders, piled snow, and a dense thicket of trees.

    “Now, make a large fire here,” Janus ordered.

     “You want me to light a fire? Here? If I kindle a fire here, what will you do?”

     “Don’t you want to clear that blocked road? If not, then fine.”

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      Honestly, the young lord didn’t really want to! He didn’t want to do anything!

However, Ayra couldn’t think of any other ways to skirt past this situation, and the promise of a cleared road was so seductive.
After a brief hesitation, he started a fire where Janus pointed.

     The fire, conjured through his magic, breathed into life with just a little bit of mana.
After 5 minutes passed, the snow melted a little and began to form a small pool of water.
Nothing beyond that had changed, though.
“How large do you want it?”

      “Mm, this isn’t enough probably? I think you should light everything from this point here to that point there ablaze..”

     What.
What’s the point of melting frozen ground with fire when it’s going to freeze again? Ayra felt an uncomfortable ominous feeling.
However, on the other hand, he was curious to see what would happen after lighting the fire, so he had no choice but to follow Janus’s instructions.
Mages were beings that would strive to satisfy their curiosity even when they were embroiled in a deadly situation…

     For a while, the young lord absentmindedly looked at his man-made fires.

     He was about to ask how long the boredom of watching the fire crackle would continue when, suddenly, the ground shook violently.
He rushed to his feet, worried that another earthquake had occurred, but the ground below his feet suddenly swelled, knocking the young lord off his feet.
The mercenary must have anticipated the young lord’s tumble and was well-prepared to catch Ayra.

      “What is this…” Ayra mumbled.

     “Ah, it’s finally awake.”

     Startled, Ayra tightly clung to Janus’s neck.
Particles of dirt and snow fluttered into the air as the beings previously buried underground took rough breaths.
Ayra immediately recognized what these ginormous creatures were.
It was a herd of Occampania, demonic beasts, that were hibernating before being woken up due to Ayra’s fire.

     “No way.
No way… Are those really Occampanias?” Ayra’s voice trembled.
How the hell did the mercenary find these guys?

     Perhaps they were irritated by Ayra’s fire, or perhaps they had been expecting spring because of the heightened temperature.
The Occampania herd didn’t look very happy.
Ayra quickly extinguished the fire, but it was already too late.
Dozens of Occampanias dug out of the ground, popping up one after another like gigantic hedgehogs with brown dirt caked into their jagged furs.

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     The largest was the size of an elephant;even the smallest was as big as a wild boar.
Large, bloodshot eyes bulged from either side of their heads.
They looked incredibly infuriated.

“I didn’t think there’d be so many.” Janus whistled, as if he was watching some great spectacle.

      The young lord’s face paled.
Only then did he realize that Janus intended to sweep away the landslide remains using the angry mob of Occampanias.
“Are you crazy? What if another landslide occurs!?”

     “Well, there’s already been one; there’s no reason for another to occur and tumble down the slopes.” His answer was incredibly thoughtless and insincere.
Before Ayra could say anything more, Janus supported the young lord’s butt with one arm and placed him on the mercenary’s shoulder.
He patted Ayra’s butt which had gone rigid with anxiety a few times and started running quickly.

     Immediately, the angry group of demonic beasts began running after them.

     Afraid that he’d be dropped, Ayra hung onto Janus’s neck for dear life while watching this living nightmare with eyes wide open.
Every time an Occampania passed by, boulders rolled down, trees fell, and snowflakes rose like dust, creating a white fog.

While Ayra’s expression got paler and paler, the madman continued to chatter away, “You like demonic beasts, right? Observe all you’d like.”

     Ayra screamed.
No matter! How much! He may! Like demonic beasts! He doesn’t want to risk his life to observe them!

However, the young lord was worried that he’d bite his tongue while being shaken about and suppressed his shouts and swears to keep his mouth closed.
And yet, even in this situation, he lamented that he couldn’t pay close attention to the Occampani’s well-developed tusks.

     Janus lightly sprung up the mountain.
Not once did he slip or misstep; the incredible speed was exactly like a roller coaster.
The young lord felt his heart lurch into his throat, a giddy feeling unique to freefalls.
Suffering from motion sickness, Ayra opened his eyes wide as he covered his mouth.
After all, just like the mercenary said, the opportunity to observe a living Occampania beast did not come often; it would be a waste to lose this chance.

‘Do these beasts make a habit of closing one eye when they run?’

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     As Ayra was focused on gathering unknown information, Janus leaped high into the air.
Turning around, the young lord realized they had arrived back at the blocked road.
As Janus climbed atop the icy mass of snow and boulders, the Occampanias plowed into the blockage.

     A tremendous roar echoed around through the gorge.
Though the young lord could not even see an inch in front of him due to the dust and snowy fog, Janus still leaped somewhere with purpose.
After a running start, he held the young lord in his embrace, jumped up, and clung to a handhold on the cliff.

     “Haah…”

     An admiring noise tumbled out of Ayra’s lips.
It was such a spectacular sight to see the Occampania powerfully pushing past the snowy piles from a high vantage point.

     After finally returning to his senses, Ayra’s face paled, “No! That way’s the village!”

      Janus, who enjoyed the sight of a huge swarm of demonic beasts pummeling its way through the gorge, pretended not to hear him.
Desperate, Ayra struggled and unknowingly pulled at Janus’s hair.
Though the strands were soft, they were surprisingly strong; the young lord failed to pull any strands out.

     “Go down, quickly!” Ayra shouted.

     “Mmm…”

The young lord’s heart immediately chilled at that apathetic attitude.
If he’d truly spent 10 years here, Janus couldn’t be unaware that there was a village beyond this gorge.
Ayra had no choice but to assume that the mercenary deliberately woke up the Occampania even though the mercenary knew the consequences of his actions.

      Ayra struggled to try and quickly escape the mercenary’s grasp, but Janus chicly fell to the base of the cliff.
Even while shielding and embracing the young lord, Janus easily landed safely on his feet; he placed his hands to his mouth like a funnel and shouted in a loud voice, “You Idiotic~ Pig Bastards~! This way~!”

      Ayra almost couldn’t believe that voice could come from a human body; he covered his ears, worried that his eardrums would burst.
The rampaging, earth shaking Occampania swarm stopped and stood back on their legs.
Then, they slowly turned around and rolled their bloodshot eyes.
Pebble, hidden somewhere on Ayra’ body, manifested a system window with a ringing noise.