NOVEL NEXT Chapter 64: Sure Of It
"It has to be here!"
Zach stabbed his finger at the map hanging on the wall, narrowly avoiding all the strings going from one point to another on the map. He grabbed a pen and drew a circle and an 'X.'
Dukiel sighed and grabbed the pen from Zach to stop him from doodling more than necessary on the map.
"You've said that like four times already."
"Well, this time, I'm sure."
"You've said that three times."
"Bullshit. I've never been this sure before. This is where we will find traces of the Underworld, if not an entire Locale."
Julius put a hand on Dukiel's shoulder and stopped him from objecting again.
"Let's hear him out," whispered Julius to Dukiel before turning to Zach.
"It's just a swamp. What makes you so sure?"
"Glad you asked!" Zach happily grabbed another pen and drew a larger circle by connecting the dots of several pins they had put up.
"This area is where the assassins have come and gone from. Since five years back, this area has seen a gradual decrease in the quality of the wildlife and plants. The number of birds, insects, and flowers in bloom during summer has lowered year by year. It indicates a lack of nutrients."
Zach pointed at the places around the swamp.
"However, the neighboring areas are not showing any such signs. They are as healthy as ever. Why?
"I'll tell you why! Someone's draining or using the swamp's nutrients for something else! Who would be capable of doing something like that? The Underworld, of course!"
Dukiel and Julius glanced at each other. Zach had been working hard ever since the field trip. His vigor wasn't anything new. But he might have been cooped up inside his room a little too long this time.
It wasn't strange since the assassins constantly roving about in the forest made it impossible for Zach to take a walk without suffering an ambush. The worst part was that the assassins never got caught.
They stopped him from hunting monsters. They tried to kill him. They refused to get caught.
It had been especially bad lately.
Anerias had reached level five just a few days ago. Violina did it several weeks ago. A couple of other students, including Dukiel and Julius, had also hit level four some time ago.
While Zach couldn't hunt, Dukiel and Julius could. So, they made full use of the information they could get thanks to Zach's special access to the library. Since they only did so well due to Zach, they shared the profits, results, and scores with him.
But Zach didn't get any of the levels they got from hunting monsters.
Zach could only start hunting and surpass his peers once the assassins got the fuck out of his face. But it wasn't that easy hunting assassins.
His best bet would be to find and destroy their base of operations. He would have to be prepared to fight an army once he found it. But an army wouldn't run away. Even if it did, it couldn't hide like the assassins.
Zach had worked himself like a farm animal to look for clues and piece together information about the possible coordinates of the Locale the assassins were working from. He had found several locations already by looking at the history of the terrain and the behavior of the monsters found in those areas.
He had also asked Dukiel and Zach to look for inconsistencies between the terrain and the map. Maybe they could find another hidden mountain. If they did, they would have also found the next Locale.
"Couldn't something else be the source of the swamp's poor health?" Julius asked, careful not to trigger Zach.
"Like what?"
"Maybe someone's dumping waste? Or a monster of some kind is monopolizing the place."
"Someone dumping waste? In the middle of the Academy's forest? Highly unlikely. And I've cross-referenced the books. Any monster capable of leaving traces like this would make a dozen other marks on the land as well."
"And it's not just something as simple as the natural cycle of nature? It flourishes for a period before entering a period of rest. Or something." Dukiel hoped Zach had simply not thought of everything and would accept one of their ideas as a possibility. Otherwise, he would make them go and investigate.
Alas, much to Dukiel's disappointment, Zach shook his head.
"Nope. It's like I said before. Something like that wouldn't be limited to just the swamp. If anything, the swamp would be fine even if the surroundings started dying out. It's a resilient place, packed with natural nourishment and fertilizer from dead plants and animals getting stuck and broken down to become part of the swamp."
Dukiel sighed and glanced at Julius. He gave up.
Julius was quiet for a moment.
"...What about the assassins we tracked down to places outside the swamp?"
"Intentional misleads to make it harder to find where they are working from. Or entrances further away. Or I'm wrong."
"So—"
"But I don't think I am." Zach looked at Dukiel and Julius, his eyes clear and his will firm. He didn't just think he was right. He knew it in his heart.
There was something about the swamp calling out to him.
"Don't worry, though. I'm not making you guys go alone this time."
"You don't mean…?"
Zach nodded with a smile at Julius' half-finished question.
"I'm coming with you this time!"
Zach and Dukiel exchanged looks of trepidation and worry.
The kind of treatment Zach got as soon as he stepped into the forest wasn't sustainable. No one else suffered from it unless they worked with Zach. How did they know?
Dukiel and Julius had tried to accompany Zach into the forest and help him fight off the assassins so that they could hunt monsters or look for traces of the Underworld.
They never got more than a dozen steps into the forest before retreating.
The onslaught of flying daggers, sneak attacks, traps, arrows, and all kinds of hidden weapons, poisonous or not, was just too much.
Dukiel and Julius had even been forced to drag Zach out of the forest after his golden barrier broke twice in a row.
Zach noticed his two friends' worry and smiled as he comforted them.
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find it this time." He completely missed what they were worried about, though.