Monarch Chapter 198 (Patreon)

Chapter 198

Ludwig let out a quiet sigh of relief as he watched the Valerian party disappear farther down the ruined street, moving toward the exit that would eventually lead them back to the Valerian city closest to the Godless Ruins.

He had almost been caught.

The thought alone was enough to make him grimace. How could he, the chief scout of the empire, have allowed himself to get that close to an enemy party without realizing that one of them possessed such a strong perception skill?

He had spent years learning how to remain hidden, how to move through dangerous territory without leaving traces, and how to recognize the smallest signs that someone might have detected him.

Yet that ordinary-looking man had nearly exposed him in a single instant.

Ludwig had heard about him, of course.

Two of his men had been sent to observe the Valerian army in the outer city, and both had reported encountering a soldier with some sort of perception skill.

According to them, the man had detected their presence within seconds of entering the range of his ability.

If one of Ludwig's subordinates hadn't possessed a rare teleportation skill that could only be used once a month, neither of them would have managed to escape.

Ludwig had listened to the report, but he hadn't completely believed it.

Perception and intuition skills were rare, certainly, but most of the ones he had encountered weren't particularly impressive.

Their range was usually limited, their detection wasn't precise, or they required some sort of obvious trigger before they could be useful.

He had assumed this soldier was simply another case of his subordinates exaggerating the danger after being discovered.

Now he knew better.

The moment the man's perception had brushed against him, Ludwig had immediately moved away using his movement skill, putting as much distance between them as he could before the skill could detect him again.

Even then, he had felt the man's attention shift toward his position almost instantly. It had been far too close for comfort.

And that was something worth being afraid of.

The skill didn't appear to simply detect hostile intent or nearby movement.

From what Ludwig had experienced, it seemed capable of sensing everything within a certain radius around the soldier.

There were no obvious blind spots, at least none that Ludwig had been able to identify in the short time he had been within its range. If the skill continued to grow with the soldier, its usefulness would only become greater.

For a scout, something like that was almost a dream.

Ludwig couldn't help but feel jealous.

He had spent years developing his own abilities, learning movement techniques and honing his senses, yet there was a soldier on the other side who seemed to have stumbled upon exactly the kind of skill that every scout would want.

If given enough time, that man could become an exceptional scout himself.

Ludwig almost wished he could simply kill him before that happened.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple.

The soldier was a spellsword, and judging by the party he had been traveling with, he wasn't a weak one either.

He had been accompanied by another spellsword and a mage, and all three had moved together with the confidence of people who knew exactly how dangerous they could be.

Ludwig had no interest in engaging such a group without orders, especially when his actual mission had nothing to do with killing them.

His task was reconnaissance. That was all.

He had been sent into the Godless Ruins to observe the movements of the Valerian warband led by some no-name captain and accompanied by the third prince of Valeria.

General Raul wanted definite information about what the Valerians were doing inside the ruins, and Ludwig had volunteered to spend an additional day gathering information.

He had certainly found something interesting. In fact, he had found far more than he had expected.

The Valerians weren't simply wandering through the ruins looking for artifacts.

Ludwig had seen enough of their movements to know that something else was happening, although he still didn't understand the exact objective.

The group he had just followed had disappeared into what was the sewers for a considerable amount of time, and after returning, they had immediately begun moving toward the outer city again.

That alone was suspicious.

Ludwig had no idea what they had discovered down there, but he was certain that General Raul would want to hear about it.

His decision was made. It was time to report.

Ludwig waited a little longer, ensuring that the Valerian party was well away from his position before finally turning around and moving in the opposite direction.

He didn't want to stay in the ruined city any longer than necessary. Especially not the inner city.

The place terrified him.

That was not something he would willingly admit to most people, but there was no shame in acknowledging the danger of the Godless Ruins.

In the short time his group had spent inside, ten people had already died, and none of them had died peacefully.

Every death had been brutal, often occurring so quickly that the others could barely react.

Even worse, Ludwig couldn't remain in the inner city without constantly drinking potions to deal with the strange pressure that permeated the area.

The pressure itself was enough to make movement exhausting, and the monsters only made matters worse.

But it couldn't be helped.

What they were doing here was bigger than their individual lives.

At least, Ludwig believed that.

With that thought in mind, Ludwig pushed himself forward.

His movement skill activated, and compressed pockets of air formed beneath his feet.

He leapt from the ground and landed on the edge of a ruined building before immediately jumping again.

Another pocket of compressed air appeared beneath his foot, giving him another burst of momentum and allowing him to cross the gap between two buildings almost as though he were flying.

It was the fastest way he knew to move through the ruins.

It was also one of the safest.

The monsters roaming the streets could be terrifying, but most of them were far less likely to reach someone who stayed above the ground and kept moving.

Of course, the technique consumed considerably more mana than Ludwig would have liked, but he would rather spend mana than become another corpse in the ruins.

He continued like that, leaping between the ruined buildings with practiced movements.

A burst of compressed air appeared beneath his foot—He pushed off, another formed, he landed.

Like that, he didn't slow down.

Eventually, the familiar outline of the inner wall appeared ahead of him.

Ludwig adjusted his trajectory and made his way toward the section they had previously damaged.

A large hole had been created there, providing them with a crude passage between the inner and outer cities.

It wasn't comfortable. It wasn't particularly safe.

But it was considerably better than trying to cross the wall any other way.

Ludwig landed near the opening and immediately dropped down, crawling through the narrow passage without wasting any time.

He expected to encounter something. But fortunately, the area around the tunnel remained empty.

Ludwig continued crawling until the darkness around him gradually gave way to the familiar streets of the inner city.

Only then did he finally stop.

At once, the familiar crushing pressure returned.

The moment Ludwig stepped fully into the inner city, it felt as though an invisible weight had been placed over his entire body.

His shoulders became heavy, his breathing slightly more difficult, and even standing still seemed to require more effort than it should have.

He immediately pushed mana into the ring on his finger.

The artifact responded almost instantly, and a faint barrier surrounded his body. The oppressive sensation lessened considerably, allowing Ludwig to breathe normally again.

He let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Even so, he didn't allow himself to relax completely. The ring wasn't particularly durable.

Ludwig had seen what happened when monsters struck these barriers too many times. There had been soldiers who had been protected by the artifact one moment and then left completely exposed the next.

Once the barrier disappeared, the mana pressure itself was enough to kill them.

They hadn't been attacked. They hadn't been poisoned. They hadn't even been wounded.

They had simply been crushed by the pressure in the air.

Because of that, Ludwig moved carefully even after activating the barrier. Every step was deliberate, and he remained alert to everything around him.

The inner city itself was unlike anything he had seen in the outer sections of the ruins.

It was older, much older.

Even the buildings that had collapsed centuries ago seemed to carry an architectural style that was almost extinct anywhere in the world.

The structures were large and imposing, with thick stone walls and tall entrances that suggested they had once belonged to people of considerable importance.

Red was everywhere.

Red stone had been used throughout many of the larger buildings, while faded red paint still clung to walls that had somehow survived the passage of time.

In some places, entire sections of the buildings had been decorated with patterns that Ludwig couldn't recognize, the designs worn away enough that only fragments remained.

Torn banners hung from several structures, swaying weakly whenever the wind passed through the streets.

Some had once been magnificent. Now they were little more than pieces of faded cloth.

The streets themselves were wider than those of the outer city, with enormous buildings standing on either side.

Between them were narrower alleys, many of which led toward smaller structures hidden behind the larger ones. Ludwig suspected that most of those had once been servant quarters.

It made sense.

The larger buildings were clearly residences, halls, or administrative structures, while the smaller ones had been placed out of sight, tucked into corners where servants could live without disturbing their masters.

Even after all these years, the arrangement remained visible.

The people were gone. The city was dead. But the way it had once functioned could still be seen in its ruins.

Ludwig had spent enough time in the inner city to become somewhat familiar with its streets. They still hadn't found the Lost Sanctum, despite searching through more than a few of the old streets.

Every building could potentially contain something important, and yet most of what they found was useless.

They had managed to recover a few artifacts from the ruins, but none of them were in a usable condition.

Time had been enough to destroy even the best craftsmanship. Metal had corroded, magical structures had collapsed, and objects that might once have been worth fortunes had become little more than broken pieces of history.

It was frustrating.

They weren't the first people to search these ruins, either. Whatever treasures had survived the original destruction had likely been taken long ago, while everything else had spent centuries slowly deteriorating.

Still, they had no choice but to continue searching.

At least Ludwig didn't have to deal with the few monsters wandering through the area.

His [Air Step] allowed him to move between the buildings without touching the ground for very long, and most of the creatures he spotted below never even noticed him.

A burst of compressed air beneath his foot sent him forward, and another carried him across the gap to the next building.

After moving for some time, the temporary camp finally came into view.

Ludwig felt another wave of relief. The sight of the camp meant he could finally lower his guard.

He approached from above before dropping toward the ground, landing at the edge of the camp with a light thud. The area around them had clearly been the site of a battle when he was gone.

The ground was blackened, and several nearby structures had been scorched badly enough that their walls had partially collapsed.

Ludwig looked toward the camp. He needed to report what he had found, and after that he desperately needed rest.

Before he could take another step, however, General Raul noticed him and moved toward him.

The general didn't say anything at first. Instead, he pointed toward one of the buildings in the distance.

The structure had suffered considerable damage, with most of its glass windows broken and several sections of its outer wall cracked.

Yet there were still places inside where someone could sit without worrying about the building collapsing on top of them.

Ludwig followed.

The two of them entered the ruined building and moved toward one of the surviving sections. General Raul sat down first and pulled out his pipe.

He lit it.

Ludwig immediately noticed the gesture. The general only smoked when he was frustrated, but he knew better than to point it out.

Doing so would only earn him the general's ire, and there was no reason to make the conversation more difficult than it already was.

He also knew the reason for the frustration. They still hadn't found the Lost Sanctum.

They had spent days searching the inner city, risking their lives against monsters and the strange pressure that filled the air, yet the sanctum remained hidden.

Ludwig remained standing before the general and bowed his head.

"I have done what was asked of me, General."

Raul took another drag from his pipe. "So what did you find?"

Ludwig straightened.

He began with his tailing of the Valerian warband, explaining how he had followed them through the ruined streets and watched their movements from a distance, then he spoke on the smaller party.

"There was another small group from the Valerian army moving through an area where there should be sewers," Ludwig said. "I couldn't determine what they were doing inside. They stayed down there for the whole day before eventually returning. I wanted to get closer but there was a soldier with a high grade perception skill among them."

Raul remained silent. Smoke slowly drifted from the pipe between his fingers.

"You think there might be treasures buried underground?"

Ludwig considered the question.

"It can be. Underground laboratories were a thing in the city, if I'm remembering correctly. But there's no information saying they were connected to the sewers. In the first place, most of the entrances to the underground structures have been lost. I don't know how Valeria knew about one of them even though we didn't."

Raul nodded slowly. His eyes lowered as he thought about the information.

Ludwig had initially considered the possibility that the Valerians were simply looking for treasures beneath the city. There were certainly enough ruins beneath the streets to make such a theory plausible.

Yet now that he had reported everything, the idea didn't sit quite right with him.

Something was missing.

General Raul seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He took another slow drag from his pipe, then exhaled.

The smoke drifted upward through the broken roof. Neither of them spoke for several seconds.

Then Raul's expression suddenly changed.

Something seemed to flash through his eyes, as though he had suddenly connected two pieces of information that had been sitting separately in his mind.

He slowly lowered the pipe. "What if..."

Ludwig looked at him. Raul stared toward the broken window, his expression becoming increasingly serious.

"What if there's an entrance to the inner city through the sewers?”