The Hero Turned Into A Potato And The World Fell To Ruin

Chapter 24: We Aren't Alone In The Path Of Illiteracy

Dark wings cut through the sky, and with a terrifying surge, a skeletal dragon swooped down, its claws striking the ground and splitting it apart.

Skeletal giants silently roared to the heavens, their heavy fists pounding down and sending waves of sand hundreds of meters across.

Deformed bone beasts continuously surged from beneath the earth, swarming and endless.

Under this blood moon frenzy, the dozens of cloaked figures appeared as fragile as leaves in a storm, utterly powerless. They managed to hold on for only a few minutes before completely engulfed by the wave of skeletal creatures.

Myza, arms crossed, leaned against the city wall, observing Calidora and Girunini's reactions. In their eyes, he saw fear and panic.

This wasn't surprising; in fact, many of Myza's previous friends had also had the chance to witness blood moons of this magnitude, and their expressions were largely similar to those of the two ladies.

After the last cloaked figure was utterly torn apart, Myza walked up behind the two.

"I won't stop you from leaving, but…" Myza posed his question, "After seeing such a scene, is your decision still the same as before?"

He had asked this same question to a few friends of his that had wanted to leave in the past. Afterward, he almost always received the same answer.

He even thought that perhaps later, he could send a few golems out to help them find their companions and bring them here.

He didn't mind having more people; more people meant more liveliness. As for whether their companions would want to stay here…

Having been driven to enter this desert against their will, they surely had no reason to complain about the environment here.

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However, Calidora's first words after turning around were, "Mr. Myza, I'm afraid we need to leave now, as soon as possible, and you must come with us!"

This utterly unexpected statement left Myza choking on his prepared words, and he was stunned for a long moment, only to finally utter a confused "huh?"

Seeing Myza's baffled expression, Calidora quickly explained, "You've been in the desert for too long, Mr. Myza. Perhaps you're unaware of what those cloaked figures represent…"

"You mean those not-quite-human things?" Myza frowned slightly. "Do you know their origin?"

"Yes. They are the very reason we want to flee to the other side of the desert." Calidora nodded. "They are the minions of a tyrant, an army from another world…"

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"I never imagined that we would actually see two blood moon nights in a row," muttered Osar while eating some grilled bear meat. "We paid those earth dwellers a lot, and they didn't even warn us about this."

"Maybe they forgot, or maybe they didn't know either," Mervant, leaning against the earth wall and caressing his disc, replied. "After all, even Yaine hadn't heard of such a thing."

"Mm, thankfully, we have this guy," Osar said, patting Liu Ji on the back with a grin. "Otherwise, we would've been in real bad shape after these two nights."

Liu Ji didn't understand what Osar was saying and glanced at the latter in puzzlement. The smiling Osar just gave him a big thumbs-up.

Liu Ji, still confused, didn't know how to react but eventually returned the gesture along with a smile. Under the light of the Daylight spell, his smile seemed especially brilliant.

Then, he turned back to Yaine and continued gesturing. Liu Ji still hadn't given up on his idea of trying some "water elemental sashimi"—although it was a complex concept to convey through gestures alone, and Yaine hadn't quite grasped what he was trying to say.

"But, speaking of which," Osar turned back to Mervant, "we have a means to sleep through these two days, but Cali and the others… I'm a bit worried."

"Yeah. If Shelo or Anwarda were there, it might still be alright, but…" Mervant sighed deeply. "Before we were swept away by the current, I vaguely saw that only Girunini was with Cali."

"If it's just the two of them… no, they're both very capable; they must be fine," Osar said, forcing a smile and gently punching Mervant's shoulder. "Calidora is one of the best holy dragonmages, and Girunini, don't be fooled by her size, she can be way stronger than me when she gets serious."

"Haa, I know that." Mervant leaned back against the wall. "You're just trying to comfort me while you're worried yourself."

"Ah, is it that obvious?" Osar rubbed his nose sheepishly.

"It doesn't matter what you show. I know how you are as a person." Mervant shrugged.

"Maybe." Osar bit into the bear meat. "I just want us all to get together again, like before, to eat and drink together. Oh, and we should include our new friend, too. Even though we don't speak the same language, I think the others will like him."

"Heh, if he learns incantation, the only ones left who don't understand might just be the two of us." Mervant grimaced. "If I recall correctly, even Girunini knows some simple incantation."

"No, at least Guoguo doesn't either. Believe me, we aren't alone in the path of illiteracy," said Osar.

"Ah? She doesn't?" Mervant was astonished. "Then, how does she enchant her arrows?"

"By rigorous memorization." Osar shrugged. "Her talent for magic is really poor, and she can't grasp the meanings of the spells no matter how much she tries. Normally, a person would understand the basic meaning after repeating a spell a few dozen times, but she can't get it even after hundreds of repetitions. Even if you tell her the meaning directly, she still gets confused.

"Eventually, her teacher gave up and had her memorize all the enchantment spells for her arrows, telling her to just recite them from muscle memory."

"I see, I guess that's why she gets those spells mixed up sometimes, huh?" Mervant massaged his temples. "That explains the time she tried to cast a flaming shield but ended up firing a barrage of oil arrows instead, causing the shield to explode. I was nearly blown up then."

"Ah, so that's why she avoided you for a period; it was because she blasted your face full of soot, huh?" Osar guffawed. "I remember she wouldn't talk to you at all during that time and only just nodded or shook her head."

"Heh, as if she speaks much usually." Mervant waved dismissively. "She just nods or shakes her head when she meets strangers anyway."

"Haha, that's true…"