Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 33

Chapter 03: The Fragment of the anomaly

Even while being downhearted, we took a bath and refreshed our bodies, and talked about what happened earlier.
Oh well, I’m glad I made a bath~… This is exactly what a life laundry mean~

“I wonder if those large numbers of silent killers are the anomaly that The God of Creation was talking about?”

“As expected, at just that level is a probably different thing. Although it may have been affected by the anomaly.”

Hmmm… Affected by it…

“…In the first place, silent killers stab even monsters to death and perish with them, so the number shouldn’t increase to that much.”

A Silent Killer would attack any creatures larger than a certain size indiscriminately. Whether it’s a player an animal or a monster.
By the way, putting aside the that it wouldn’t be strange to non-monster living beings be hostile to monsters, even monsters sometimes kill each other. In that case, the monster will “gain experience points” and become stronger than usual, so they have to be dealt with caution.

“No, wait a second…?”

If their number is increasing instead decreasing… is it because ‘there is no one to stab’…?
in other words…

Even if the time of the God of Destruction(night) comes, there are no monsters spawning in that area…?

No, no, it shouldn’t be possible. Supposed to be.
Even if it’s a relatively peaceful area, monsters always appear at night. I know it from my literally painful experiences in my first day here.
If it’s like my base where holy water is constantly sprinkled at night there is no chance to monsters spawning, but if it’s a place where there is someone to sprinkle holy water, it’s hard to imagine a silent killer’s nest being left unattended.
Then, what other reasons…?

“… Could it be…”

…… The resources that should be used in spawning monsters are being taken by others???

It’s a just a story from the game, but except under certain conditions, monsters have a “spawn limit”. That means that within a determined range, monsters could only spawn until a certain number.
In fact, I often left monsters spawn overnight for magic stones, but the number of monsters never exceeded the spawn limit.
If they spawned without a limit, the pc processor wouldn’t bear the number of entities and the player wouldn’t could move due lag and it would end dying, It was a situation that could happened….

Then what about in Asteria(this world)?
I believe there is an upper limit. Although I think that it is not a constant number and it may increase or decrease depending on the situation.
Just as I need materials for creation(making), “monster creation” should also need some kind of material or energy to work.
this hypothesis also connect to the story about the dungeon core ‘sucks up the blessings of the land’.*¹
In other words, without the blessings of the land, monsters will not spawn and that’s the upper limit… well, that’s all just my speculations.

If the upper limit is zero or a number close to that, the monsters won’t spawn and the silent killers won’t sting them and die and that will cause them to increase their number steadily. That what might be happening here.
If I spend a night in that place without holy water, I might know… but I don’t want to do such dangerous thing in an unfamiliar forest.

“Fumu? Then, do you have any idea what is stealing these ‘resouse’*² things?”

“The highest probability is a dungeon core.”

Perhaps without noticing it we had already stepped into a dungeon territory.
If you entered it, how could you have not noticed it with your ability as miko? That a good point, but if the core is too far and the territory too wide it could have thinned its presence to a point that I didn’t notice it or perhaps…….
The core can hide its presence, or something like that.

By the way, in the cases where I didn’t encounter any monsters at all during my game times, with the exception of cases where they were gathered around the dungeon core or in a space below ground where I couldn’t see them, there are three cases that I can immediately recall.
The first one, is when the boss monsters in that area ate other monsters??and used them as experience points to super-strengthen himself.
The second one, like the first one involves a boss monster, and is when that boss monster led the monsters in the surrounding area and attacked a fortress built by the residents.
The third one, was in a field called the Field of Death, a place where there was no sign of life at all. It was so thorough in that concept that not only animals and plants but also monsters would not spawn there.
For now, assuming there is no chance of the third case, both the first and the second are scary ones. Of course, this time could be for a completely different reason.

“At the moment, there is too little information that there is nothing we can do about it. Let’s take a break for today and proceed cautiously again tomorrow.”

“Umu…”

Well, for the time being, I’ll start with replenishing items. I still have a large amount of water in stock, but if I’m not prepared I can’t calm down…

The next day, I used the return stone to return to the forest while being overly cautious, but fortunately there were no Silent Killers around.
Even though it’s pathetic, I ask Uru to walk a little ahead of me, and proceed while keeping my guard up. …… My visibility is bad in the forest, my concentration is being slowly shaved.

“Why is the Silent Killer not treated as a monster?”

“Hmm……”

Monsters are all hostile beings, but Its not like all hostile beings are monsters.
There are other creatures(active mobs) that attack even though they are not monsters. Well, to them be as aggressive as a Silent Killer is a rarity.
Then, what was used to judge whether it was a monster or not, if it is about the game’s criteria , it would be whether to drop magic stones or not.
Well then, if you ask me why monsters have magic stones inside them… It’s because it work like a “heart” to monsters.
Monsters cannot maintain their bodies without a magic stone. Accidentally stabbing a magic stone that is somewhere in their body (there is not a specific location) will be treated as a critical hit and result in the monster’s instant death.

“The difference is if they are ‘being made’ with a magic stone as core or not, maybe…?”

“Fumu?”

Monsters sometimes leave materials outside of magic stones, but basically no bodies will remain. They will aways disappear in the morning light. That’s a sight that cannot be seen in a “normal” life form.
It’s as if the resources stolen by the monsters are returning to the earth. In that sense, it may be one more reason that monsters should not be left unchecked.
By the way, from Silent Killer a needle can be taken as a materials. ……I wonder if I can get honey if I get their nest. Well, i will don’t do it because It sound scary.

“If they are not monsters they are not affected by holy water, so it will be troublesome to deal with them.”

“That’s right…”

As expected, They are not strong enough to open a hole in the tent, and in the first place, we won’t be attacked unless we enter their line of sight… but we have to be careful not to leave any gaps in the tent when going to sleep.

While chatting, we walk in the east-northeast direction. And although we saw large silent killer’s nests several times, we were able to avoid being chased by a large swarm by Uru’s early detection.
Little by little, the forest grew deeper and darker, and it wouldn’t be strange for monsters to appear even during the day… but we never saw them. Is this a coincidence or…

After eating lunch, I took out my compass to checked the direction.
…… Oh?
Feeling a sense of incongruity, I climbed up to the top of the tree by piling up blocks, I checked the sun position and looked to the north??It was like I expected.

“The direction of the compass has changed.”

“Mu, so that means…”

“Yeah. Beyond this needle… There’s a statue of the creator god.”

And in that place will be residents living there.

We nodded and resumed walking in the direction the needle pointed.
Four days of walking while making few return to the base between.

In the destination that we arrived … an elf was there.

*¹Translator note: see side chapter 2.

*²Translator note: Not a typo, Uru just butchered the pronunciation of resource, an english word.