The Nebula's Civilization

Chapter 157: A Roll to Remain in History

The white spider, Hillove, was able to overwhelm the Rakshasas just by walking.

No matter how skilled the Rakshasa warriors were, whenever they approached Hillove, it would raise one of its eight legs higher than their heads and easily avoid their attacks. When the warriors charged at Hillove with their swords, aiming for Hillove’s legs, Hillove’s legs pierced their heads in an instant as soon as they looked up.

Of course, the Rakshasas knew they couldn’t deal with Hillove at melee range. They were capable of deadly ranged attacks, such as throwing rocks or using slings, using their superior physical abilities compared to other Sapiens. However, that wasn’t very useful, either. Hillove’s exoskeleton was much thicker than the scales of an average Pangolin, so it was difficult for ranged attacks to cause it damage.

Hillove disliked the fact that it was being attacked by mortals who were also unbelievers. It thus avoided their attacks by easily bending or stretching its legs as if it was dancing. And it would also silently hide in buildings, then suddenly appear from behind the enemies like a ghost and strike them.

Gordius, on the other hand, spread death like a plague. It hit, stomped on, or kicked with its back feet the Rakshasas hiding in wait to attack Vasen and the Pangolins. Caught off guard, the Rakshasas—who had believed Koprik was their guardian until now—got struck by Koprik and flew tens of meters out the temple before getting crushed or torn apart by Koprik’s claws.

However, Gordius became cautious when Akulda regained senses and belatedly issued proper commands.

"Koprik has gone mad! I don’t know why, but this is all a part of the scheme of those Pangolins and foreigners! Half of you warriors stall for time while the other half goes down to the temple and kills them!"

But, as Gordius had experienced in the mock battle, no Rakshasas made it past the pyramid-like temple made of stacked stones

When it first took over Koprik’s body, Gordius had to put in effort to get used to the body. Originally, it had a body similar to that of a worm, so it was difficult to control a body that had eyes, a jaw, four legs, and a tail all connected to it. But now, Gordius controlled Koprik’s body as well as Koprik, if not better than Koprik had in the past. It effortlessly leaped around the high steps of the temple, devouring the Rakshasas.

Seeing the Rakshasas getting thrown out of the temple and Gordius slowly approaching, Akulda got scared and began to retreat.

‘At this rate, no number of warriors will be able to stop Koprik. I must escape!’

Unfortunately, Akulda was mistaken about one thing. He didn’t know that Koprik’s body had been taken over by Gordius long ago, and that all this was merely a part of a preplanned scenario. Akulda’s retreat was no exception.

Vasen Lak Orazen, Margo, and the Pangolins cut down the Rakshasas charging at them on the platform with their swords. Though there was a difference in size, the Rakshasas were only armed with simple clubs, while Vasen and the Pangolins were armed with small but sharp daggers and sickles. And that wasn’t all.

Taking advantage of the weakened defense of the Rakshasa warriors, the Pangolins continued their attacks against the city.

Bang! Bang! Bang!?

The quick staccato of guns being fired all at once was now a nightmare for the Rakshasas.

The elite troops led by Theone Itimo made it past the main gates of the city of Siol and handed weapons to Vasen and the Pangolins, who had been holding their ground until now.

"Thanks, Captain."

"Don’t mention it.”

"It seems like the temple is on high ground, which is advantageous for our defense."

Theone glanced back.

"Well, it looks like the Pangolins will take over the city soon... Let's make sure to keep that in mind, Team Leader.”

Vasen saw 3000 armed Pangolin soldiers pouring into the city. Although only a portion of them were armed with fire matchlocks, the few Rakshasa defenders left were already in a state of panic. Vasen then smirked and led Margo and the Pangolin elites to the top of the temple.

Vasen's target was governor Akulda. More specifically, he aimed to help the Pangolins in capturing Akulda themselves. If the Pangolins could do that, it would be a symbolic event that would make sure that the Rakshasas would never look down on the Pangolins again.

‘But...this Rakshasa named Akulda seems to be even more of a scaredy cat than I thought.’

As Vasen and the Pangolins ran to the opposite side of the temple, they saw that Akulda had already rushed down from the temple. To Vasen, it seemed difficult for the short-legged Pangolins to catch up to Akulda. Luckily, Hillove and Gordius were fighting the best they could, so there were no Rakshasa warriors blocking the way between the Pangolins and Akulda. However, if Akulda managed to get on a rhinoceros, which the Rakshasas used as a method of transportation, they could lose Akulda.

‘That would be the worst situation. Even I wouldn’t be able to catch up to Akulda from this distance if I were to run right now. If the Pangolins can't capture Akulda, it might be better to ask Hillove for help…’

As soon as Vasen thought this, Margo belatedly spotted and pointed at Akulda.

“Oh, there’s Akulda!” Margo shouted.

“Roll!”

Vasen witnessed an extraordinary sight. The Pangolins ran toward the stairs as if they had no time to waste and curled into balls. Then, they used their matchlocks as axles and rolled down the stairs.

"...What?"

When Vasen first met the Pangolins, he had thought that their ability to curl up like that could only be used for escape. It turned out that there was a different use to it. Margo was the first to reach the bottom of the hill, but rather than stopping, Margo kept rolling. The momentum gained from the slope allowed the Pangolin to outpace any other species’ running speed.

“Akulda! The Pangolins’ enemy!”

Margo unwrapped and immediately got into a shooting position. Due to the remarkable evolution of their semicircular-shaped organs for rolling their bodies, Margo's gun remained perfectly steady.

Hearing their name called out from behind, Akulda turned around in surprise.

"This is Katuru's revenge!"

Margo's gun fired.

***

The battle was won.

The Pangolins had taken over a city of the Rakshasas, which was multiple times bigger than their own. And Vasen told the Pangolins to drive out the civilians and capture the warriors as prisoners.

When some Pangolins protested that it was cruel to leave the Rakshasas with nothing and insisted on sharing food and water with them, and that holding the Rakshasa warriors as prisoners was useless, Vasen sighed. It was a relief that he was in command.

Vasen explained that there were plenty of things to eat in the jungle, and that the nearest Rakshasas' village was only a two-day journey away, thus posing a problem. He also explained that the Rakshasa warriors they took as captives could later be traded for Pangolins captured in other regions.

Margo had already become a hero among the Pangolins. Until now, the Pangolins had been a tribal society, but now they were thinking of establishing a kingdom like the Rakshasas. In that case, Margo had a higher chance of becoming king due to that amazing roll that would go down in history.

Vasen was the second most likely candidate to become king, followed by Hwae-Sa because the Pangolins liked how big and strong Hwae-Sa was. Vasen, of course, declined, but Theone had to give quite a lengthy explanation to Hwae-Sa about why it wasn’t right for an Ogre to become the king of the Pangolins.

After the city was somewhat restored, and several festival-like nights had passed, Vasen and Margo were putting together the information obtained through interrogating the Rakshasa prisoners.

"Margo, did you know about it?" Vasen Lak Orazen asked.

Margo replied, “Oh, I had heard something like that, but I never thought it would actually be true."

Vasen briefly furrowed his eyebrows and then agreed.

"Yeah, even if it were me, if someone told me, 'The castle walks,' I'd probably also think it was just a metaphor rather than taking it literally."

By 'castle’, Vasen was referring to the Moving Castle of Ashurada, the ruler of the Rakshasas, who was also known as Great Ashurada.

The information they acquired was simultaneously shared with the players.

***

Lunda clapped and said, "Wow, the Moving Castle! Then do we have two of the ten ancient ruins?"

Crampus replied, “No, it’s not ours yet.”

Sung-Woon thought about the ten ancient ruins.

In the Lost World, there were numerous ancient ruins, and they did not belong to fixed geographical features such as continents, mountain ranges, or rivers. The locations of the ancient ruins constantly changed, so it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where the ancient ruins would be this time. Moreover, there was a high chance that these ancient ruins contained various valuable goods, items, or skills that could help the players. And among them were ten ancient ruins that were well-known among the players.

‘Four Towers, three Castles, two Walls, and one Path.’

In Sung-Woon’s opinion, these ten ancient ruins were not all useful, and there were other ruins that were valuable. However, the ten ruins were well-known for a reason. Among them, one of the three castles, Automation, had already been discovered on the third continent.

‘Even though it’s been only somewhat useful until now, the value of Automation will naturally increase as technology and magic levels improve. So it's a decent ancient ruin.’

Other ancient ruins were likely to exist around Automation. Normally, the third continent had the highest chance of spawning ancient ruins, so it was likely that the Swallowed Tower or the Last Journey could be found in the unexplored regions of the continent, such as the area above the peninsula, the eastern mountain ranges, or the various rough terrains across the continent. Although the locations were random, there were certain attributes specific to each ancient ruin that made it possible to make an educated guess.

‘And there’s also the massive wall that always appears on the second continent.’

Among these ten ancient ruins, finding the Moving Castle before the other players was a matter of luck. Unlike some ancient ruins that were bound to be challenging to use even if found, the Moving Castle was immediately useful upon discovery.

‘Because the Moving Castle…walks.’

It was in quite the literal sense. The Moving Castle had large walls, and inside those walls was a large garden and a crumbling castle. Additionally, there were several massive metal bridges that extended from it. The castle had a control room and it could move in any direction its controller desired.

‘It can be used for large-scale troop deployment, as a temporary capital, and even as a war weapon if needed.’

It wasn’t considered the best ancient ruin, since it had its limitations when it came to moving, and it could be destroyed by creature creations. Nevertheless, it could provide an advantage in various situations.

Then, Jang-Wan walked into the first conference room.

"I don't know if this is good or bad news."

“What is it?”

“I used my creature creation and figured out what the ‘Great Ashurada’ is.”

Sung-Woon asked, “How can a piece of news be both good and bad? Tell me. What is it?”

Jang-Wan replied, “The Great Ashurada is a Dragon.”

Indeed—Sung-Woon realized—this was both good and bad news at the same time.