The Real Monster 9 Pursued By Cruelty V

CHAPTER 2 – PART FIVE

Well now I'm surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and I can't seem to be able to move even with my full strength employed. There's a shining magic circle below me that I reckon is responsible for pinning me down and I can't do something about it while in this state, so hurray for stupid me. I'm not worried that I'd die if I was attacked but I'm worried about what I'll do if they have some magic to make you into a slave. Now, I wonder what they'll do with me. Even though I've been activating Overpower from the start, it seems to not be working at all, what kind of restriction is this?

To understand how this happened, let me tell you…

***

A month has already pa.s.sed since I started to coop myself up in this cave. No one has discovered me ever since and not that they could have with my senses on full alert. By the third day that a lot of people came to the hunting spots, I already knew what they were trying to find and it was me. The adventurers came first and surveyed the surroundings and even kept a look out which made it harder for me to move about. So for the days that that occurred I could only drink water made from basic water magic. However, after half a day of recuperating, my strength already went from Poor to Common and then after that day it became Uncommon. So I could surmise that my body's rate of absorption is very high. Maybe because there is mana contained in the sunlight or whatever but it's just fast.

For the first week that the search for me started, I could only sneak out when it was night to hunt for food. I found little animals like rabbits and wild birds. By this time my strength already far surpa.s.sed Heroic and made it to Legendary, but it stopped there for some reason and even after a month is was nailed to Legendary, but even with that it was more than enough to deal with hunting little animals for food and cooking it with magic to avoid producing smoke and revealing my location stupidly. Even though my stats grew, I still feel that if I were to face that frog again, I'd still be in danger so I can't have my growth get to my head again or else. It should be alright to face a few guys at once but if they were to bring a few hundred and surround me, I wouldn't even think of fighting and just fly away without turning back. Even though it's cowardly I have to preserve my life, I'm not a warrior or anything.

By the third week that the search took place, a large army made its way to the forests and plains and started totally scouring the place. I'm really thankful that I was able to find this cave. It's so well hidden that even if you see its entrance you'd only think that it was a shrub of gra.s.s and move on. Many times that a few people with keen eyes stopped and were suspicious of the entrance but in the end they shrugged and did not try to even check closer. Every time that happened I would breathe out heavily in a sigh and relax my clenched fists, ready to strike swiftly and hide the body inside. I also found out by this time that my strength was in fact rising but with a steadier pace instead, unlike the surge of strength that's hard to control because of it rapidly changing. I want to have a training method that would totally complement my way of living that I want.

So that's how my month went by and by the looks of it, the search is already slowly and steadily dying down. They totally think I escaped to the demon realm. However, I want to go back to the Moonwink Inn and consume the time I paid for there, of course what I really want is good food and a bed, but I can't go back and have those now don't I? So I slowly took a look outside and scanned the place using my x-ray vision and I found no one near the vicinity so I decided to go.

This time, I won't fly since that would make it quite conspicuous, instead I will leisurely stroll this forest into the other realms, preferably the demon realm so that I can hide well. I'll also leisurely live there maybe make a village or something if I can find capable people willing to come under my protection, yeah right, I wish. After a few meters out of the cave I suddenly felt a jolt in my senses which I could not understand and looked left and right but found nothing wrong, so I ignored it and continued on, which was a mistake on my part.

And so here I was telling myself to be very careful and yet I'm in this current situation.

They are using some kind of band made of what seems to be iron and are lined with what I can only identify as rune-looking characters which are shining on and off alternatively. The band is continuously restricting my use of Overpower and even magic so I can only conclude that this band is something to make the bearer be incapable of circulating mana outside of the body. Which means my Overpower skill is something that uses mana. That's good to know, plus, now that I have been restricted, I have the time to actually look at the skill's description properly and it actually said that it can only make someone faint or die by shouting some kind of battle cry and it will automatically activate, which means I don't have to utter 'Overpower' to activate it.

Another effect of the band they put on me is the heavy pressure I constantly feel as if the earth wants to swallow me which can only mean that it generates gravity to restrict my movements. I can only guess that this is something they put on criminals that can use magic and those who they feel can't be restrained conventionally. At first my whole body was buried to the ground the moment it was attached to me, then seeing as I could not move, they adjusted it with some kind of chant that I could not understand which prompted with a nice ring in my head.

*Ping!*

Language Acquisition level up.

Language Acquisition – Master acquired

Olden G.o.ds Language (Ancient Language) – Basic acquired.

Nice. So I tried to have him adjust it some more so he'd chant it and I could listen to what he was saying.

"Hey man, could you adjust it some more? It's too light and if you keep this up, I might just be able to run away you know." It was weak as a persuasion but it actually worked on this guy, maybe he's afraid of me from the rumors?

[Tsk. We can't have that, If you were to escape, we won't have our heads by the end of the day.] So he adjusted it and I listened well,

[Gravity, command thee I do, increase.]

It was as if I listened to some old Englishman speaking in old English, but the words I heard were some kind of gibberish to me, however, I could feel my body get even heavier and my steps got a bit sluggish. My mind just automatically translated the words to make me understand it. Just like the [Human Language] skill, I could talk and understand it even when I only had basic level on it. Maybe I can adjust the band's restriction if I used it. I can even understand these runes now, amazingly.

"[Gravity, command thee I do, reduce.]" I whispered it very quietly to not alert the mercenary following me and the mage-like mercenary in front of me who adjusted the band earlier. "Tch" Unfortunately, it did not work and could only click my tongue. Well, whatever I could just bide my time until I can move better again, my strength is growing every second that pa.s.s so I don't need to worry about this restriction. The thing to worry about is being unable to defend myself against magic, I really have a trauma against magic now since that frog incident; not by the frog itself it's the magic I'm afraid of. Physical attacks are of no concern to me since I'm pretty much impervious to physical impacts, slashing attacks and even blunt force.

[You know, I was thinking that this hero business was bogus and we were just hunting some adventurer who crossed the royal family but with this guy getting caught and looking really similar to the poster they posted, now I believe it.] The guards behind me started to gossip in low voices to not be heard by the people in front.

[How did you know this guy is the Hero, that's not part of the information that the adventurer's guild spread around isn't it?] The other one asked. This one was wearing a leather armor set without the helmet and the previous one was wearing some scaled animal's hide fashioned to be armor kind of like with how that game from j.a.pan where you hunt monsters and wear them. MonHun, was it called?

[Well, it's not like we don't have our own means to gather information right? A friend of mine from the kingdom of Acadria heard that the ancient ritual for summoning a hero was used in Acadria a few days ago and heard it was successful. And well, if you put Acadria hunting someone down and the story from my friend, of course you'd link the two and end up with what I have guessed, and I bet my guess is right.] The MonHun guy said. I see, so my summoning was not publicly announced and now that I think about it, Giselle never did introduce me as the hero in that one village, so I guess that's the reason for it huh? Was I illegally summoned or something?

[Is that so, but if this guy is the hero, then he should still be as strong as an A rank adventurer or mercenary right, since he just got summoned and all? So why did the royal family have to employ the use of the just to catch him and then using the bands used to contain high-profile criminals or demon captives, isn't that way too overkill? A few rank B's and a hundred rank C's should have been sufficient for a capture right?] The leather-set guy said something that interested me. Should be as strong as an A rank adventurer or mercenary. Meaning my Rare strength wasn't part of Imhoteph's gift, that was actually part of Safir's blessing wasn't it, but the thing is, I don't know why they that I'd be able to get stronger fast but I think that's something I need for my survival. Now I'm regretting why I did not save Giselle. Tch.

[Isn't it said that Heroes get to grow and absorb their target's experience when they're killed? If that's true then think about it, to get this far up north he'd have to cross a whole lot of monster dens and territories right? What if he came here as fast as he could in those few days that we were preparing for this man-hunt and grow a lot stronger as a result of that, that'd be asking for trouble to come under-prepared don't you think so? So I support the royal family using these methods to deal with him. At least this way, Hero or not, he'd be captured for sure without damage to our ranks. We get to get home and we get paid just by escorting them home. Sure, some of us might die while crossing all the way to Acadria fighting off monsters and bandits, but that's better than facing the Hero in his prime and getting annihilated. Think about it.] It sure doesn't look like this MonHun guy is wearing the scaled armor just for show, he seems to be able to use his head and is quite clever. I believe he's strong, stronger than the leather-set guy at least.

[Oh, right! So that's how it is. If that's the case then it really was great thinking from the royal family huh?]

[What do you see the royal family as, same as us common folks who do not have education? Of course they'd be able to use their brains for thinking unlike us. Now let's keep quite lest we get found out and get our portion for tonight's dinner reduced.] I really like it when MonHun guy is the one talking since he makes a lot of sense and I can understand things better because of it. And now I also feel more relaxed because I know that I'll still have lots of opportunity to escape. That MonHun guy, I want him with me, I could use a guy with his knowledge of this world and his specialty. Giselle would have sufficed for knowledge but she was royalty and it would be hard to get along with her with all the strife in politics and all, plus she has this lofty dream of helping the citizens even though she was the seventh princess and the siblings she had, I don't think they would have helped her even if they knew she was how she was.

I could've helped her but I don't feel any kind of motivation to help her even now that she's dead. I really wonder, was I ever this cold when I was on earth? I mean I did not get involved in these kinds of thing there but I don't know if I'd ever be this cold? Well, maybe it's just me being indifferent to strangers and this world. That's got to be it.

Since they stopped talking I could not get any more information out of them. I should probably just quietly walk and keep my ears perked up for when I get to hear some more chatters.