Academy’s Weapon Replicator

Odyssey (19)

Prondier’s original commission was to investigate the ‘monsters.’

To investigate the sudden anomalies occurring in the monsters.

In other words, why lower-level monsters were eating higher-level monsters, and why monsters that were not originally from the Abyss were growing to Abyss-level.

When Prondier first received this commission, he took it with a relaxed mind.

It wasn’t that he took it lightly. But at the same time, he thought it shouldn’t be rushed.

Now, Prondier could easily handle the Abyss, but when it came to anomalies, one never knew what might happen.

But the situation had changed.

“If it drags on too long, the party will think it’s strange.”

Prondier encountered a soldier and thought of the possibility that Selena’s father had become a monster.

He had to confirm it somehow, and quickly.

To do that, he had to track the soldiers and find the army’s commander, but the harsh environment outside the barrier did not give Prondier any peace.

But that was only from Prondier’s perspective.

Kieeeek!

Krooo!!

Kaaak!

The real peace was broken on the monster’s side.

“Can’t we just go our separate ways?”

Prondier sighed as he looked at the piles of corpses around him.

The monsters’ hatred and hostility towards humans. If it weren’t for humans, monsters would maintain their own ecological balance and food chain, but when they saw humans, they charged without hesitation.

If there were many humans, the monsters, being intelligent, would hide and gather their forces or watch the situation, but seeing only one human, they thought it was right to charge.

“But if I release my aura, even the soldiers who became monsters will run away, so there’s no easy way.”

Prondier quietly looked around at the corpses.

Unlike Aster, Frondier is clumsy at controlling his power, so he is not good at assessing the enemy’s strength, but looking at it this way, there are certainly some strange monsters.

According to the knowledge he knew, these monsters should never be at this level, but they are actually powerful monsters with that much strength.

Lower monsters devouring higher monsters in a rebellion. Some individuals have become unusually strong.

The people of Lireber felt this situation was an anomaly. Even for those who were originally accustomed to life outside, it was the first time. So the sense of incongruity felt in that part is probably the same as Frondier. Moreover, the people in that village have no clue about this situation.

“……If you think about it in terms of timing, did the war have some kind of impact?”

If the people outside don’t know the cause, the cause might be on the empire’s side.

And the most likely cause is the war.

To be more precise, it might be the influence of the fall of the gods.

“Ah.”

Something brushed Frondier’s mind.

“Alright, let’s check it out.”

Frondier looked around. Tracking the army is important, but this test cannot be used on soldiers.

Frondier maximized his intuition and wandered around to find a monster.

“Oh.”

And it wasn’t long before he found one.

“It’s a familiar face I haven’t seen in a while.”

It was a Cyclops.

A monster of the abyss, and a monster that Frondier had fought in the past in Yranhes.

This one-eyed monster just blinked its large eye as Frondier flew in and landed in front of it.

It couldn’t understand what was happening.

Something was approaching it openly, and it was a human.

“Stay still.”

Of course, thanks to that, things became easier for Frondier.

He made a gun shape with his fingers and pointed at the Cyclops.

And then.

“Bang.”

The Cyclops fell.

It never got up again.

“……As expected.”

Frondier nodded as he looked at the Cyclops lying pathetically.

“As expected, the resistance is gone.”

The recent attack confirmed it.

The monsters outside no longer have ‘divine power resistance.’

Divine power is originally something like Ecleksis, so there should have been resistance to Frondier’s Ecleksis. No, there had to be.

However, the abyssal monsters succumbed to Ecleksis too easily.

‘Originally, humans couldn’t defeat the monsters outside not only because the monsters were strong, but also because the powers of the strong, led by the Zodiacs, didn’t work on them. Humans mistakenly believed that the monsters were incomparably strong, but in fact, the monsters had divine power resistance.’

In the absence of Frondier, human strength was almost synonymous with divine power. The stronger the divine power, the stronger the human, and this was almost always true. Except when dealing with the monsters outside.

To humans who didn’t know the truth that the monsters outside had divine power resistance, the monsters outside, and furthermore, the abyssal monsters, were the embodiment of despair. The powers of the Zodiacs didn’t work on them.

However, now that the war is over, the monsters no longer have divine power resistance.

But this was already expected.

There was something more important.

“If my memory is correct, Cyclops was stronger than this.”

Now, Frondier has become so strong that it’s not easy to make an accurate judgment, but Frondier has a clear memory.

The Cyclops that fought hard in Yerranhes was much stronger than this.

Of course, even within the same species, there can be slight differences in strength, but there is a fundamental difference beyond that.

“Yes, thinking about it, it’s only natural. The reason these guys had divine power resistance was because the gods granted it to them.”

In other words, since divine power resistance is an ability granted by the gods, it is already divine power in itself.

The monsters outside are not simply weakened because their ‘resistance’ is gone, but because they have lost ‘divine power.’

“……I roughly understand.”

Frondier nodded.

A lower monster challenging a higher monster.

Once you know the truth, it’s rather simple.

No, it seems obvious.

“It wasn’t a rebellion.”

Monsters have their own combat power aside from divine power.

Until now, the monsters that received strong divine power were strong, but now, only the inherently strong monsters are strong.

So, there are creatures whose positions have been reversed.

The people of Lirber remember the appearance of the monsters with their eyes, so they judged that the lower monsters were devouring the higher monsters, remembering the ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ appearances.

But at that time, the balance of power had already shifted.

“The monsters outside are quite intelligent. Being intelligent means they don’t easily forget past events, whether rationally or emotionally.”

And in that unforgettable memory, there must be a sense of vengeance.

It is clear what the lower monsters, who once struggled against the higher monsters, will do now that the balance of power has shifted.

Beyond just a matter of the food chain, excessive slaughter must be occurring throughout the monster territory.

“When the food chain is reversed, the ecosystem reacts excessively sensitively. In the midst of that, mutations occur among the monsters, resulting in unusually powerful entities emerging, and that is what I saw… No, I can’t be sure yet. The monster of the abyss might have another reason.”

But the possibility is high.

Prondier nodded after making this judgment.

It seems that the request for the monster investigation can be concluded to some extent.

“…Well then.”

And he sighed.

“Shall we start doing the thing I hate the most?”

Prondier has one bad habit.

Everyone pointed it out, and he himself acknowledged it.

In the worst situations, he dives in alone.

“I’m sorry.”

Prondier apologized to Selena, who was not here.

But after saying it, the apology somehow felt like it was directed at everyone.

“But this time, it’s really the last.”

With that, Prondier spread his wings and crossed the vast land outside the barrier.

‘If the monster that both Aster and I witnessed is really a soldier belonging to an ‘army,’ there’s one problem. They are too scattered.’

Prondier and Aster start from completely opposite directions.

Aster starts from the barrier, and Prondier starts from Mangot. Although they got closer while clearing out monsters to some extent, they are not at a distance to encounter a single soldier each.

This means that the cohesion of the army has weakened.

‘These are people from before the barrier was built. Too much time has passed, and since they became monsters, it would be difficult to organize as an army.’

If they were once an army before becoming monsters, and after becoming monsters, they gradually scattered.

It means that monsters at the level of the soldier Prondier saw are now roaming outside the barrier.

‘Dangerous.’

Prondier just fought with a soldier.

He was sure that if it were him in his first year, he would have lost. Without basic skills, he couldn’t match with swordsmanship, and without understanding words, psychological warfare and bluffing wouldn’t work.

In other words, anyone less skilled than Prondier at that time would not be able to defeat that one soldier.

It was not a commander or a deputy commander of the army, just an ordinary soldier. It might be strong due to rigorous training, but it must have become even stronger after becoming a monster.

If the empire truly wants to expand its territory, this army must be annihilated first.

That’s why Frondier is moving alone now.

Because he has to kill all of them, who were once human, even if they are now monsters.

If he was only worried about Selena, he would have called others. There are many strong people around Frondier. It would have been much easier to solve the problem that way, and he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone dying.

But in the end, Frondier didn’t inform anyone of the situation.

Crunch!

And another one.

Frondier made a hole in the back of a soldier who hadn’t discovered him yet and watched the soldier fall.

“I must really be out of my mind.”

Frondier muttered to himself as he continued forward.

He needs to find the commander, the leader of this army.

Frondier’s tracking skills aren’t that great, but he has learned a bit from solving missions and dungeons in Constell.

He is clumsy at finding and deducing evidence from his surroundings, but his intuition compensates for that.

“…This is scarier than I thought.”

After killing a few more soldiers, he realized something.

Their cohesion hasn’t completely dissolved.

The most obvious evidence is that the frequency of encountering soldiers increased as he tracked them.

In other words, the soldiers closer to the ‘center’ of the army still maintain their cohesion. The further away they are, the weaker their organization becomes, and they start wandering alone.

‘Then the soldier Aster and I met must have been a scout or a reconnaissance soldier.’

Frondier bit his lower lip.

In other words, the soldiers of the main force might be even stronger than the ones he has encountered. The thought sends chills down his spine.

Screeeech─!

A scream echoed from afar.

Whatever it is, it’s the cry of a monster. Frondier climbed to a higher place to secure his view.

Soon, he focused his sight on the source of the scream and saw a monster struggling on the ground.

“…An ogre?”

A huge figure that is easily recognizable even here. A dangerous monster that makes not only ordinary citizens but also most knights tense up was lying on the ground.

And there was a soldier standing on top of it.

Thud! Thud!

Without a moment’s hesitation, the soldier stabbed the ogre with his sword. Right above the collarbone, the sharply honed blade pierced the tough skin.

At first, a shallow stab, then the soldier presses his whole body down, driving the handle into the ground. The blade, which had entered shallowly while rotating, sank deeply and then came out again.

In the process, the ogre’s artery was severed, and the soldier retreated from the struggling ogre, holding up his shield.

He checked if the ogre could get up again, watched when the pouring blood would stop, and observed the body slacken and the eyes dim.

“No, this is really scary.”

Is that really an ordinary soldier? Is there an army where a human who kills an ogre alone is just one of the soldiers?

‘Besides, that soldier is a monster now.’

The scene Frondier saw was not a fight between a human and a monster, but a fight between monsters.

A monster in the form of a soldier who was once human. Although rare, there are certainly more common cases, such as skeletons or wraiths, monsters that were once human. However, unlike humans, they are not the target of monsters’ hatred.

Of course, it’s not that monsters don’t fight each other. After all, monsters are also part of the food chain like animals, and they can fight during power struggles. The biggest difference between monsters and animals is their endless hatred towards humans, but aside from that, monsters are just another element of this ecosystem.

‘But it doesn’t seem like that soldier is trying to eat the ogre. Why did he kill the ogre?’

Frondier observed the soldier a little more.

The soldier remained still for about a minute even after the ogre stopped moving.

Then he adjusted his weapon and turned his head to walk away again.

“Hmm.”

The soldiers had always stood still in that place, but this time it was different.

Such orderly steps. It seemed like he had a clear destination.

“Should I follow him?”