Chapter: 177
So, Maybelle and I teleported down to the village underground.
It seems like the people above in Armen didn’t even notice this village’s existence. How on earth did they manage to create a village like this while avoiding their gaze?
It must have taken considerable cost and effort…
“So, where should we start looking?”
“Hmm… let’s see.”
There were quite a few folks wandering around, but… hmm…
Alright.
“Let’s give this a try.”
I conjured up two L-shaped metal rods and cast a simple spell on them.
Holding these rods in both hands and focusing my mind, this nifty little tool called dowsing would help me find the location of what I had in mind.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a little something I made by casting a simple spell. If you hold these rods and concentrate hard on something, the ends will point towards what you’re thinking.”
“Huh? It’s a magical tool for finding what you’re looking for? And you whipped this up in an instant?”
“Yep. It’s not that complicated of a spell.”
Maybelle looked somewhat dumbfounded.
“If you can make something like this, why didn’t you make it sooner? Wouldn’t it have made things easier?”
I kept to myself the thought that if I just snapped my fingers to solve everything… it’d be a little boring.
“It can only point in the direction of whatever you’re looking for, not tell you where it is exactly. If it’s not in this village… it’ll just indicate a direction.”
“But…”
“Even then, it can only point horizontally. If we’re searching for your mother in Armen above, it would only indicate directly above us.”
So basically, I can find the X and Y coordinates, but not the Z axis.
This dowsing method can’t track things in three dimensions.
“I see.”
Well, that was just an excuse to hide the fact that I wanted to enjoy the process of searching!
“Here, give it a shot.”
Maybelle took the dowsing rods I handed her.
“Like this?”
“Hold it a bit lower. If you grip it too high, it’ll get stuck in your hands and won’t turn properly.”
“Oh, got it.”
Even if it does turn, if it gets snagged they won’t point the right way.
With that, Maybelle closed her eyes while holding onto the dowsing rods.
A little time passed…
“Kkeuhh…”
The rods in Maybelle’s hands slowly began to move.
“Phew… this isn’t easy.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Imagining Mom clearly isn’t simple, and having to keep my focus is tough too.”
Hmm… Is it really that tricky? It wasn’t meant to be overly complicated.
Is the mental effort needed different for everyone? Or is it that Maybelle struggles a bit with focusing?
Well, it doesn’t really matter.
“For now, it looks like it’s pointing in the right direction. When I move, it stays fixed in one direction, so that’s a relief.”
Maybelle moved around a bit, but the dowsing rods continued to point in the same direction.
“Alright, let’s get moving then.”
“Sure!”
Cloaked in magic, we set off.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Hmm… this place feels oddly familiar, like it’s mimicking a dwarven village.”
“Huh?”
Maybelle tilted her head, intrigued by my muttering.
“This village… it feels a lot like the dwarven villages I’ve seen.”
Back when I snuck off from Sagarmatha, I would go explore dwarven villages.
The layout here is strikingly similar to those I visited back then.
And look at all these mushrooms and moss—all too familiar, almost like the ones I gifted to the dwarves.
“A dwarven village!”
“They used to carve out villages deep in the mountains, in large caverns. Well, I guess it was more than just a village.”
Dwarves, being tough and strong, were experts at digging deep into the earth to find precious metals.
They dug into caves searching for ores, then utilized the spaces they made to create living quarters inside, repeatedly digging deeper and expanding those quarters. In the end, they ended up creating a complex dwarven village that was just like an ant nest.
In that way, this village… full of rat-people can be seen as a lesser version of a dwarven village.
“A dwarven village, huh… I wanna visit it someday.”
“It can feel a bit confining, but it was a neat place.”
“If I meet Mom… I’d love to travel with her.”
“Right. For now, finding your mom is our priority.”
We carried on, cloaked in magic, moving in the direction indicated by the dowsing rods.
“It looks like it’s pointing to that building.”
We arrived at a building guarded by armed guards.
“Hmm… let’s take a look…”
Inside, there appear to be about five rat-people. Not a huge number.
But the heavy guard presence makes it feel suspicious.
“What should we do?”
“First, let’s peek into the guard’s mind.”
“His mind?”
I nodded slightly.
“If we can figure out why your mother is locked up here and why you ended up in that rural village, it might help us solve the problem.”
“But wouldn’t that just be better to ask Mom directly?”
At Maybelle’s suggestion, I paused briefly.
“It seems for now we can’t talk to her directly.”
“Huh?”
I glanced toward one of the rat-people inside the building.
That rat-person’s life force was dangerously low, almost like Maybelle’s.
“Your mother is inside this building, but she seems too weak to speak right now.”
“Then we need to hurry and rescue her!”
“I said ‘right now,’ didn’t I? Her life isn’t in danger; as long as she’s still hanging on, I can revive her even if she’s dead for a short time.”
Maybelle finally recognized who I was.
“The Dragon Priestess who can bring the dead back to life…”
“Exactly. As long as your mother’s life is intact, I can handle it. So let’s focus on gathering information for the time being.”
“Okay.”
We cautiously made our way closer to the guard.
“But how are you going to take him down? Should I smash him with a hammer?”
“If you hit him with a hammer, he’ll end up brain-splatters, so definitely don’t do that.”
“Uh-huh…”
During our journey here, I’d already seen how effective my smashing was on monsters’ heads, so I knew the potential.
And I really didn’t want this kid to commit murder.
So…
“Yip!”
A small pulse of magic flowed from my fingertips and touched the guard.
It was a technique to temporarily put someone into a hypnotic state. Is this even magic? It’s more like a clumsy technique to exert mental control… but since it involves magical power, let’s go ahead and call it magic.
“Guard’s down.”
“Already?”
“I don’t want to fiddle with petty things like this for long.”
Seriously, it’s enough to give a little flick like I’m some green dinosaur. Whatever.
“Alright, then come this way.”
At my words, the guard approached us with a dazed expression.
Great, he’s deeply hypnotized. Honestly, who could resist my mental control unless they’re some god-level being?
“Now, let’s see what the rat-people are up to.”
I began to probe into the guard’s mind.
“The name of this village is Rat Hole Village… quite fitting, isn’t it?”
“Rat Hole? Yeah, it definitely seems like a place where rats could live without issues.”
“Hidden away from prying eyes, it’s actually quite a good spot for rat-people to plot something.”
At my comment, Maybelle looked at me with concern.
“Plot something?”
“I’ll take a deeper look and tell you.”
And so, I began diving into the guard’s mind completely.
“Huh… what do we have here?”
I couldn’t help but click my tongue at what these beastmen were planning.
“Why do you look surprised?”
“Oh, just didn’t think they’d actually try to pull something like this, so it caught me off guard.”
“What kind of thing were they planning?”
I looked over at Maybelle and murmured.
“These rat-beastmen… it seems they were thinking of creating a new god.”
“Huh? A god?”
“Yep. A new god. Specifically for the rat-beastmen.”
I never thought the beastmen would try to use the method I had once employed. What a surprise!
“Can a god really be artificially created?”
“It’s not easy, but it’s possible.”
Through manipulation of public sentiment and incitement, they can gather people’s beliefs into one, which is how a god is formed.
The means used to create and transform gods—my own methodology.
Somehow, the rat-people had caught on to this and were attempting to pull it off for themselves.
And it was supposed to be a god for the rat-people, their very own god.
After Sirius, who was once the original beast, transformed into godhood, these folks were trying to fill that vacant role.
“But that’s just…”
“First, we need to rescue your mother, and then I’ll explain it all to you.”
At my words, Maybelle nodded.
What’s important right now isn’t some rat-god nonsense, but rescuing Maybelle’s mom.
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