The Nebula's Civilization

Chapter 9: Over that Hill

The Lizardmen marched across the wilderness while eating maggots. After ten days, a lake that had a rotten smell to it appeared just as the star catcher had said. It was a wasteland, and they couldn’t drink from the lake, but luckily, they still had water left in the jar that Lakrak had filled and put on Manun’s back.

***

After another 15 days of journey, a steep mountain path appeared. Low shrubs could be seen, and some food was spotted, but it was still desolate. Fortunately enough, there was a spring to drink from, and because they had run out of drinking water, Lakrak gave out orders to fill the jar with the water from the spring, and the remaining Lizardmen ran around busily to fill their stomachs with food. There were root plants and small, thin animals. The water buffaloes, who had now adapted to following the clan somewhat, began to eat dried plants.

Lakrak called the star catcher over and asked, “Do we just have to keep going for three more days now?”

“Likely.”

“You’ve lost your confidence.”

“The position of stars does not change, but land does.”

Lakrak nodded to show that he agreed. If it was a year of drought, vegetation wouldn’t prosper, and they would have to go further into the mountain path, while they would see grass sooner if it was the opposite.

However, Lakrak was worried about the buffalo herd. The warriors who were dragging them forward and the buffaloes who were being dragged along were both getting tired, and though the buffaloes were now following the clan well, it also meant they were becoming exhausted.

‘Hopefully they can be fully fed soon.’

For the month the Lizardmen were crossing the wilderness, God did not abandon them. There were a few minor Miracles that saved them from danger, but God couldn’t feed the buffaloes until they were full. Lakrak judged that God ‘did not’ do such rather than ‘couldn’t.’

‘We need to take care of the buffaloes just as God takes care of us.’

Lakrak had no choice but to continue walking along the path they were on till now, but he made the judgment that things would become difficult if there were any other delays.

Lakrak supervised the drake, Manun, until the water was brought back. Manun was hungry, so he went after the other Lizardmen if there were no warriors around. He was calm when Lakrak was around, though. The one hard flip he got from Lakrak left quite an impression in his mind.

Zaol brought a plump root plant for Lakrak, who was starving.

Lakrak shook his head and said, “Do you want a chief who can’t even fill his own stomach?”

Zaol tapped her tail on the ground twice as a gesture of discontent.

“There is no clan that lets their chief starve.”

“How can the chief only fill his stomach when the whole clan is hungry?”

“All right then. Let us share.”

Zaol divided the thick root plant and gave half of it to Lakrak. Leaning against Manun, Lakrak accepted his share and bit off half of it before offering the rest to Manun’s snout. Manun, who was dozing off, drooled as something came into his mouth and swallowed it in a hurry.

Zaol hit the floor with her tail again, and Lakrak said as an excuse, “Doesn’t he also need the strength to carry the water jar?”

“That is true, but…”

As Zaol trailed off, Lakrak blinked.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Yes.”

“Speak comfortably.”

“Lakrak.”

“What is it?”

“You should start looking for a companion.”

The root plant Lakrak was eating got stuck in his throat, but he was able to swallow it due to the uniquely wide throats Lizardmen were born with. He coughed awkwardly. He was thrown off by Zaol’s words as he had never cared much about finding a companion for the past few years; he was preoccupied with his concerns about God, the tribe, and surviving in general.

“...Oh, companion?”

“If you’ve never really thought about it, how about me?”

Lakrak was male, and Zaol was female. He knew finding a companion was important, so he tried not to answer insincerely or indifferently. Looking into his heart, however, he realized he wasn’t sure how he should reply. Fortunately enough, something else happened that he needed to attend to. The clan members murmured at the entrance of the hillside, and a warrior came running to Lakrak.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s the Minnows.”

“How many? What color are they?”

“There are about 20 of them, and they’re green. They’re big.”

Minnow was a name that the Lizardmen used to refer to species that had smooth skin. The species included were humans, elves, orcs, and goblins.

“It’s the Orcs. Were they armed?” asked Zaol.

“No, they are not. They are exhausted. There are only 3 to 4 warriors, and our warriors are besieging them. They are waiting for you, chief.”

Once Lakrak heard what was going on, it wasn’t that urgent of a matter, but he followed the warrior to the Orcs anyways. Once he got there, he saw that the group was small and weak.

Lakrak came forward and asked, “Which one of you is the leader?”

“It is me. I would like you to let us go.”

“If you wanted to go quietly, you shouldn’t have come to us. Why are you making such a fuss? Were you not after our food?”

The Orc leader had a puzzled expression. Lakrak thought his assumption was right. He assumed the Orcs believed that it would be possible to steal their food and run away by blending in with the many Lizardmen. Surprisingly, however, the Orc leader lowered his weapon and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry. We did not mean to make such a big fuss. We were in a hurry as we wanted to get out of there.”

“Why is that?”

Lakrak looked over the hillside. It was desolate, but there didn’t seem to be a problem. According to the star catcher, the canyon they were in now would take 3 days for them to traverse, but as they had endured everything until now, they would surely be able to endure another 3 days. In addition, as the environment changed, edible things began to appear here and there.

“There’s a monster over that hill,” said the Orc leader.

***

If the group of Orcs were guilty of something, they would have to make up for it, but Lakrak thought that was unnecessary. Following the rules of the wilderness, Zaol recommended taking away what the Orcs had, but Lakrak didn’t do so. Instead, just as Zaol gave Lakrak food, and Lakrak gave Manun food, he gave some food to the Orcs. The Orc leader hadn’t expected to be welcomed, and he bowed down so far that his head touched the ground. Lakrak left the Orc to do as he pleased.

“It wasn’t given for nothing. Tell me more about the monster.”

“Of course, I’ll tell you in exact details.”

The group of Orcs had lived close by. They weren’t able to go deeper into the mountains as there were stronger species and especially carnivores there. However, compared to the wilderness, it was easy to find food in this area, so it wasn’t much of a problem for a group of 30 Orcs.

“But one day, the monster appeared.”

The monster apparently had a hard upper body and seemed to crawl on the ground like an insect with many legs, and it was over 20 meters long according to the Orcs.

Sung-Woon recognized exactly what it was once he heard the description.

‘It’s an Abomination.’

The plot of the game, The Lost World, was that ‘old gods’ had left the planet. However, the gods were the only ones who had disappeared, and the numerous species and creatures that served the gods remained. Among them was the Abomination. Simply put, it was like a giant boss monster that appeared on the field, and whoever took the risk and hunted it would get a corresponding award.

‘...The problem is that it’s tricky to deal with for a low level civilization.’

The reason was simple. The Abomination was a creation of the gods. Therefore, Divinity modifiers existed for its skills.

‘Its skills are going to be incredible. It won’t be that high because it’s out in the field as opposed to inside a dungeon, but considering its basic skills and special abilities, it will be stronger than Lakrak with +D3.’

If they had an equal fight, Lakrak would likely be injured, and even if he didn’t, the rest of the warriors would suffer injuries.

‘Should I give them a hint to take a detour?’

But it wasn’t quite a good idea to do that either. Lakrak’s Clan and the herd of buffaloes were all losing energy. As if he had a similar thought to Sung-Woon, Lakrak called the star catcher.

“Is there a way we can go around?”

“There is another path.”

“How long would it take?”

“We would have to go back to the wilderness and walk around the mountain for eight days.”

Lakrak shook his head as if he didn’t like what he heard.

“We can’t run away without even seeing what our opponent is like.”

“That is true,” Zaol said from beside Lakrak. “But it would be wiser to turn back if you think fighting it is impossible.”

Lakrak nodded. There was no need for everyone to go. He had a small group of warriors guard the rest of the clan and told them to get enough rest. Then he went on his way with Zaol, Yur, 10 other warriors, and an Orc to find the monster.

Sung-Woon identified the location of the monster through the swarm of insects that he released before Lakrak arrived. Once he saw it, he also found out the name of the monster.

‘I had wondered what they were describing. Turns out it’s an Ancient Coleoptera.’

It was called a Beetle, but it looked more like a centipede. It was about 15 meters long, which was smaller than what the Orc had described, but it was in no way small. The body was elongated and covered by a hard outer shell. It even had a pair of venomous fangs. Hanging from the top of the outer skin was a half-destroyed stone structure which signified that the ancient people had served this creature. The moss that covered the structure gave away how old the creature was.

[Ancient Coleoptera (Abomination Lv.9)

Strength 120 (+D3)

Intelligence 12 (+D3)

Sociability 4 (+D3)

Beetles Poisonous Tooth

Blessing of the Forgotten God (Unknown)]

‘It’s strong.’

As expected, its Divinity level was at 3. Since its basic Strength was 120, it would still be stronger than Lakrak even if Divine Control was used. Although the Beetle couldn't be compared to a dragon in the first place, it was still a monster so strong that only a drake or a giant mutated animal as ancient as the Beetle could deal with it.

‘I would rather it have a lot of special abilities but a weak body…’

Even though they couldn’t see the creature’s stats, Lakrak and his warriors seemed intimidated by the Ancient Coleoptera as it twisted its body under the valley.

Yur murmured, “Its mere movements shake the ground. Shouldn’t we run away?”

“It’s sleeping right now. That’s just it moving in its sleep,” said the Orc leader.

Sung-Woon thought it was rather a good thing that the Lizardmen were scared. If they had to suffer damage, it would be better to suffer less. Going back was an option. Not getting the reward was unfortunate, but there was no other way.

‘If only I could control everything, but I can’t push Lakrak to the challenge when he’s in a frightened state.’

Then Zaol said, “We have the advantage, chief.”