Chapter 25 Chapter 24

Aaron could not sleep that night, but not because of the pain in his wound—he had spent his life fantasizing about being a hero in a bard's tale, wearing armor and holding a rune weapon, fighting against demons.When he found the spear, he thought that his dream was about to come true, but just as he was facing it, the dream slipped from his fingers, and unexpectedly made him discover another new experience-there is nothing to fight the devil with bare hands , and when the magic burned the opponent's life, the skin felt the tingling energy, even the feeling of invincibility in the great maze couldn't be compared with it.He longed to feel that feeling again, the longing to bring new hope to his old dreams.Reflecting on his visit to Crassia, Aaron realized that he was not as noble as he first thought.He told himself that he would never be content with being a weaponsmith, or being one of many warriors.He wants to pursue glory and fame, he wants to be famous in history, and become the person who leads mankind to fight against demons again, he even wants to be a liberator?

The thought disturbed him.If the redemption of human beings is to be meaningful and sustainable, it needs the cooperation of all human beings, not just the efforts of one person alone. But do humans really want to be redeemed?Do they qualify?Aaron didn't know.Some, like his father, lost the will to fight and just wanted to hide behind the sigil.As for what he saw and heard in Krasia, and compared with his own personal experience, Aaron couldn't help suspecting that the motives of those so-called willing to fight were not so pure. Peaceful coexistence between Aaron and the monsters in the center of the earth is absolutely impossible.Aaron knew in his heart that now that he had a new choice, he could no longer hide behind the magic seal and watch the demons show off their power outside.But who would be willing to stand by his side and fight alongside him?Jeff beats him for the thought, Eliza reprimands him for it, Mary stays away from him for it, and the Crassians even try to get rid of him...

Ever since the night he witnessed Jeff hiding on the safe front porch and watching his wife be brutally murdered by demons, Aaron has discovered that the greatest weapon of the inner earth monster is fear.He didn't understand at the time that fear came in many forms, and that despite all his efforts to prove that he wasn't afraid, he was terribly afraid of being alone.He wanted someone who believed in what he was doing, anyone—someone who could fight by his side, someone who was worth fighting for.But he had never met or found such a person in his life, and now he saw it clearly.If he wants company, he must return to the city and live according to their expectations.If he wanted to fight, he had to do it alone.The sense of strength and excitement that was still driving me so excited that I couldn't close my eyes just now has disappeared.He sat up slowly, hugged his knees, stared at the vast desert, looking for roads that didn't actually exist.

As the sun rose above the horizon, Aaron strolled to the pond to wash his wounds.He had stitched up the wound and applied medicine before going to bed last night, but it is better to be careful when dealing with wounds caused by earth core monsters.While washing his face, he suddenly noticed his tattoo. All couriers had tattoos indicating which city they were from.That was the mark of the distance of their journey.Aaron remembered the day Regan showed him his tattoo, a city in the mountains with Miln's flag flying above it.Aaron wanted to get the same tattoo when he finished his first errand.He went to the tattoo artist, intending to leave the messenger's mark on his body, but he hesitated.Milnburg was his home in many ways, but it wasn't.

The town of Tibbey Creek doesn't have a flag, so Aaron stole the geographical marker of Tibbey Creek for a badge: a river running through fertile fields and flowing into a small lake.The tattoo artist picked up the needle and left the eternal hometown mark on Aaron's shoulder. eternal.The thought lingered in Aaron's mind.He had carefully observed the work of the tattoo artist.The opponent's technique was not much different from that of the Rubik: sketches were drawn with precision, and there was absolutely no room for error.There are needles in Aaron's herb bag and ink in the sigil kit.

Aaron built a small fire and recalled all the details of being in the tattooist's shop.He roasted the needle over the fire and poured some viscous ink into a small bowl.I wrapped a circle of thread around the needle so that I would not pierce too deeply, and then carefully studied the outline of my left palm, noting the changes in the position of all the palm lines when I stretched.When he was ready, he took a needle, dipped it in some ink, and began to prick the needle. This process is very slow.He often had to pause for a moment to dry blood and ink from his hands.Anyway, he had nothing but time, so he stabbed very carefully and with a steady hand.At noon, he admired the sigil of his piercing to his heart's content.He applied the medicine to his palm, carefully bandaged it, and began to replenish the oasis' stock.He spent the rest of the day trying to gather food, and the next day as well, because he knew he had to take as many supplies as he could when he left.

Aaron lived in the oasis for another week, stabbing the magic mark in the morning and collecting food in the afternoon.The tattoo on his palm healed quickly, but Aaron didn't stop there.Thinking that the knuckles would be ripped apart when he punched the sand demon, he stabbed the magic seal on the knuckles of his left knuckles, and after waiting for the scabs on the knuckles of his right knuckles to fall off, he also stabbed another group on them.Since then, no earth core monster can take a punch from him without pain. As he worked, he thought over and over of his battle with the sand demon, its movements, strength, speed, attack methods, and signs before taking action.He thought carefully, studied hard, and thought about how he should adopt a better coping strategy.He will never allow himself to make mistakes again.

The Krasians have transformed the brutal and precise shahrushak melee to the realm of art.He began to use the skills of hand-to-hand combat to match the position of the magic seal in his hand, further enhancing the power of the combination of the two. After Aaron left the Oasis of Dawn, instead of taking the desert avenue, he went directly across the desert to the lost ancient city of Anaksan.He carries dry food as best he can.Anaksan had a well, but no food, and he planned to stay there for a longer period of time.Even when he was leaving, Aaron knew that his drinking water was not enough to last Anakhsan.There are no extra water pockets in the oasis, and the hike could take two weeks to get there, and his water barely lasts a week.

But he didn't look back.I used to have nothing, too, he thought.I can only move forward bravely towards the future. As dusk brought darkness to the desert, Aaron took a deep breath and moved on without even setting up camp.With a clear, cloudless desert night and all the stars clearly visible, maintaining a sense of direction wasn't difficult; in fact, it was easier than during the day. Few geocentric monsters haunt such deep deserts.They are used to gathering where there is prey, and there are not many prey in the barren desert.Aaron walked in the moonlight for several hours before he was followed by a demon.He heard the opponent's roar from a long distance, but he didn't run away, because he knew that the devil had the ability to track him; he didn't try to hide, because he had a lot to go that night.He stood still, waiting for the demon to come across the dunes.

Seeing Aaron's quiet gaze, the geocentric monster hesitated for a moment, dazed and confused.It howled and barked at him, but Aaron just smiled.It barked defiantly, but Aaron didn't respond.He focused on his surroundings—any movement in sight; the slight sound of the wind blowing across the sand; the smell in the cold air. Sand demons are used to hunting in packs.Aaron had never seen a sand demon alone, and he suspected that the demon in front of him was not alone.That's right, just as his attention was attracted by the roaring demon, the other two demons had circled around from the left and right sides respectively, almost invisible in the darkness, as silent as death.Aaron pretended not to notice them, staring at the approaching earth core monster ahead.

As expected, the attack came not from the demon in front of him, but from the two demons sneaking up from the side.Aaron was amazed at the degree of cunning of the geocentric monsters.Aaron thought to himself, in this endless environment in the desert, where any slight sound can be carried by the wind for miles, if you want to hunt prey, you must develop this kind of deceiving instinct. Although Aaron has not yet become a competent hunter, he is not an easy prey.The two sand demons attacked from both sides, each swung their front paws, and Aaron suddenly rushed forward, facing the demon responsible for deceiving the enemy. The two attacking demons changed directions in time and almost collided into a ball. The demon in front of them backed away in surprise. It moved quickly, but it was not as fast as Aaron's left uppercut.The sigil on his knuckles shone brightly, knocking the demon down with one punch, but Aaron didn't stop there.He aimed his right palm at the face of the monster in the center of the earth, and stuck the magic seal on the demon's eyes.The magic seal was activated and burned, and the demon screamed loudly and waved its claws blindly. Aaron had anticipated the other party's reaction, succeeded in one blow, and retreated immediately.He fell to the ground and turned over, then got up again a few feet away from the blind demon, facing the other two monsters in the center of the earth who rushed towards him.Aaron was impressed again—in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, the two geocentric monsters did not attack at the same time, and the timing of the attacks was staggered to prevent him from playing the trick of colliding again. However, this strategy instead created opportunities for Aaron to break through.When the first demon came, he leaned forward, avoiding its sharp claws, and pressed his palms against its ears.The power of the magic knocked the demon down, twisting and screaming in agony. A second demon followed, and Aaron had no time to dodge or attack.He remembered the last time he faced the demon with a trick, he grabbed the demon's forelimbs, put the demon on his back and lifted the demon to his body, and then kicked out his feet violently.The sharp scales on the sand demon's abdomen pierced the cloth covering his feet and penetrated into the soles of his feet, but Aaron still used its own pounce to kick it far away.The blind sand demon continued to flail its claws, but it was no longer a threat. Before the kicked demon could catch up, Aaron jumped on top of the struggling demon and put his knees on its back, ignoring the pain from the scales.With one hand, he held the opponent's throat tightly, and with the other he pressed hard into the back of the opponent's head.He felt the magic begin to gather, but was forced to let go and roll aside as the kicked-out inner-earth monster struck again. Aaron got up and walked cautiously around the sand demon.The opponent rushed over, Aaron bent his knees slightly, and was about to dodge the devil's claws sideways, but the devil suddenly stopped, and his strong and strong body swung sideways like a whip, and his thick tail hit Aaron's side, knocking him down. He turned over immediately after falling to the ground, and the heavy tail spine of the demon immediately hit the place where his head was just now.He rolled back to his original position, narrowly avoiding the ensuing blow.When the sand demon withdrew its tail and was about to continue attacking, Aaron grabbed it and squeezed it hard. His palm felt tingling from the magic power of the magic seal, and he felt gradually hot when the magic power condensed.The demon struggled and roared, but Aaron moved quickly and grabbed the other hand.He moved quickly, dodging the demon's sharp claws, the magic in his palms became stronger and stronger, and finally burned off the demon's tail, blew off the tail spine at the end, and burst out a pus. Aaron fell back, and the earth core monster was free, and immediately turned to attack.Aaron grabbed the opponent's front melon with his left hand, and thrust his right elbow into the demon's throat, but the elbow without the magic mark could not exert much effect.With a flick of the demon's strong arm, Aaron flew backward.Seeing the demon rushing towards him, Aaron forced out the last bit of strength in his body to confront it head-on, clasped his palms tightly around the opponent's throat, and pushed it away.The goblin's claws tore at his arms, but Aaron's hands were longer than its forelimbs.It can't reach him.They fell heavily, and Aaron raised his knees, pressed against the forelimb joints of the geocentric monster, pressed it to the ground with his body weight, and continued to pinch its throat, feeling that the magic power in his hands grew stronger with time. The geocentric monster struggled desperately, but Aaron squeezed tighter and tighter, burning its scales and touching the weak skin under the scales.After a sound of bone shattering, his palms were completely clasped together. He stood up from the headless demon and turned to the other two demons. The daemon, struck in both ears, crawled limply and fled.The blind demon was nowhere to be found, but Aaron didn't care.He didn't think the crippled demon would end well when it returned to the Inner Earth, and its companions usually tore it to shreds. He dealt with the demon crawling in the desert, bandaged the wound, and after a short rest, he picked up his equipment and continued to run towards Anaksan. Aaron traveled day and night and hid in the sand to sleep at noon.There were only two other nights in the entire journey that had to be fought; one against another group of sand fiends, and one against a wind fiend hunting alone.The rest of the night was busy on the road. Without sun exposure, he walks faster at night than during the day.On the seventh day after leaving the oasis, I drank every drop of water and was exhausted, but when Anaksan came into view, he was immediately full of vitality. Aaron refilled his waterskin from the few working wells, took a swig of water, and began drawing sigils around the perimeter of the building leading to the catacombs. The collapsed ruins nearby have many exposed wooden piles that have not decayed due to the dryness of the desert.Aaron removed the logs and added some scattered sawdust for firewood.The three torches brought from the oasis and the few candles in the sigil tool won't last long, and there isn't any natural light in the tomb.He carefully distributes what food is left.From the edge of the desert and the nearest place where food can be replenished, it takes at least five days of walking from Annaksan, and it takes three days to reach it even if it is driven day and night. He doesn't have much time, and there's a lot to do here.In the next week, Aaron will explore the catacombs and record all the new magic seals he finds.He finds more sarcophagi, but none of the weapons contained in the first sarcophagus.Nevertheless, there are plenty of sigils engraved on the sarcophagi and pillars, as well as in the frescoes.Aaron couldn't read the hieroglyphs in the murals, but he could read the body language and expressions of the characters in the paintings.The pattern is so detailed that the magic seal on the warrior's weapon is clearly visible. There are also varieties of earth core monsters that have never been seen in these murals. There are a series of images that depict humans being slaughtered by demons that are almost the same as humans except for sharp claws and fangs. One of the paintings has slender limbs, a scrawny chest, A monster with a disproportionately large head, standing in front of a whole group of demons.The earth core monster stood opposite to the human wearing a robe, and behind the man was followed by a group of human warriors whose number was comparable to that of demons.Both the devil and the man's facial features are distorted, as if fighting each other with willpower, but they are far apart.There was a halo of light around them, and the troops on both sides were calmly preparing for the fierce battle that was about to break out. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this mural is the absence of weapons in the hands of the men.The light around him seemed to come from the magic seal on his forehead—a tattoo?Aaron turned to the next mural, and saw the demons and their men fleeing, while the humans raised their spears triumphantly. Aaron carefully copied the magic seal on the man's forehead into a notebook. Day by day passed, and food decreased day by day.Stay in Anakhsan, and he may starve for a while before replenishing his food.He resolved to make his way to Luxembourg at dawn.Once in the city, he could redeem a ticket, buy horses and supplies, and return. But he really didn't want to rush away at the most critical moment when he had just explored Anaksan.Many passages have collapsed, and it will take time to dig through them, and there are a number of buildings that may contain entrances to the catacombs.This ruin was the key to destroying the demon clan, and this was the second time he had to leave this place due to hunger. The geocentric monsters appeared when he was meditating, and they appeared in Anakhsan in droves.Perhaps they thought these structures would one day attract humans, or perhaps they enjoyed occupying cities that had tried to rebel against them. Aaron got up and walked to the edge of the magic circle, watching the monster dancing in the moonlight.His stomach made a hungry sound, and he couldn't help wondering—what are these demons' bodies made of?This isn't the first time he's been curious about it.They are magical creatures, not people, and cannot die.They destroy everything but create nothing.Even their carcasses will be reduced to ashes, not left to moisten the soil.But he's seen them eat, he's seen them shit and piss.Are their existence completely outside the laws of nature? A sand demon bared its teeth and claws at him. "What are you?" Aaron asked.The demon just attacked the magic seal, let out a low growl in frustration, and slowly backed away in the light of the magic seal. Aaron looked at it, and an obvious thought flashed through him. "Whatever it is." He murmured, jumping out of the magic seal circle, the earth core monster turned its head immediately, and Aaron just happened to punch it down.The sigil on the knuckles struck the unsuspecting demon like lightning, and the demon died before he knew what had hit him. Other earth core monsters heard the sound, but they were very cautious, allowing Aaron time to jump back to the building guarded by the magic seal, and temporarily withdraw from the magic seal, dragging the demon's body into it. "Let's see if you can make a contribution to the natural world." Aaron said, cutting the sand demon's armor with the obsidian painted with the magic mark of cutting, and was surprised to find that its skin was as soft as his own.Its muscles are very thick, no different from ordinary wild animals. But there was a strong stench emanating from the demon.Aaron choked on the stench of black pus, the blood of demons, and burst into tears.Holding his breath, he cut a piece of flesh from the demon's body, shook off the pus on it, and put it on the fire to roast.The pus turned into white smoke, and after drying, the smell of meat was no longer so unpleasant.Holding the black devil meat, Aaron suddenly remembered a passage that Colleen Trigg told him many years ago - "Don't eat anything that looks disgusting, what you eat will become a part of your body .” Will this piece of meat become part of my body?he thought.He stared at the devil meat, and the intense hunger made him brave enough to stuff it into his mouth.