Night Ranger
chapter-59

Chapter 59: Despair Hills

The son of a northern city lord, Toshiroya, apparently had something secret planned for White River Valley.

The only good news was that he had temporarily put his plan on hold.

This was the information Amber heard, but combined with Marvin memories, it was enough to make an accurate guess.

As an ex-legend Marvin was familiar with the game’s history, whether it was official announcements of various events, or players’ clues from various missions. Everything was recorded in his mind.

In “Feinan Continent,” players who joined the world as the “golden generation” arrived half a year after the Great Calamity.

But there were still six month until the Calamity. If it was anyone else, they might have felt familiar yet unfamiliar with this world.

But they weren’t like Marvin who just remembered everything regardless of its importance.

‘If I’m not wrong, the River Shore City Lord is a 3rd rank wizard. She had been studying magic for a long time, so a proxy was put in place.’

‘As a result, River Shore City’s officials are extremely corrupt. They lack someone supervising and managing them.’

‘But in a short time, just a bit after the dark poison outbreak, the River Shore City Lord would come out and settle the plague god followers and purge the city hall.”

Marvin recalled those details.

If he wasn’t wrong, it was highly probable that Toshiroya’s issue was this.

He was good friends with the city hall officials thanks to his relationship with the city lord’s proxy. But what about it?

In the end, River Shore City was not his territory!

The true City Lord had probably come out, so no wonder he had such a headache.

On the other hand, Marvin was relieved.

At the very least, in the short term, White River Valley shouldn’t have much trouble.

This was the critical summer sowing time. This year’s harvest was very important. White River Valley had just experienced a gnoll invasion, so it wouldn’t be able to withstand another crisis.

“Keep watching. If you find anything harmful to White River Valley, report to Anna straight away!” Marvin ordered.

“Understood, Lord.”

After acknowledging that she’d heard, Amber disappeared into the shadows.

And Marvin wouldn’t stay idle either. He left River Shore City very late in the night.

Following his planned itinerary under the moonlight, Marvin didn’t use the main road, going through small paths instead.

He would lose too much time if he went there normally. Marvin took a crisis-filled shortcut!

Of course, after this crisis, he would likely come out with considerable gains.

…

There were two mountainous areas north of River Shore City.

In the northwest were the criminal-filled Deathly Silent Hills. Marvin previously went to the abandoned altar in the deathly silent hills to sacrifice the lich’s finger. He had gotten a +1 dexterity blessing along with two elven subordinates.

In the northeast was the Necromancer territory, the Despair Hills.

The true main road fortunately went between the two hills. It curved toward the northwest and then after passing through [Crow’s Claws], it would curve once again northeast.

It was more or less a Z-shaped path.

The main reason was because of the strength of necromancers.

There was a Death Monarch many years ago who had turned this place into a paradise for the dead. Even River Shore City’s Lord wouldn’t rashly step into this area.

A legend monarch was sleeping there, and there were also three 3rd rank Great Soul Wizards watching the place. There were also mentions of liches, bone devils and so on.

Ordinary people wouldn’t dare enter the Despair Hills. In fact, they couldn’t enter even if they wanted to.

The necromancers viewed the Despair Hills as their domain, and as such, they put barriers in the north and the south so that non-necromancers would find entering very hard.

The Ghost Valley was at the southern barrier.

After following the path for a long time, Marvin arrived at the Ghost Valley!

…

[You found the Ghost Valley – Knowledge +1]

[Knowledge – Geography (Ghost Valley)]: The Necromancers’ southern barrier. The living are not allowed inside!

At dawn, Marvin was standing in front of the Ghost Valley. A cold wind was blowing, making him with his 9 constitution clearly uncomfortable.

But he still walked in without any hesitation!

After ten steps, a stele with scarlet words appeared in front of Marvin.

[The living are not allowed inside!]

This is the land of the dead!

Non-necromancer living beings were not welcome.

Marvin was a ranger. He couldn’t enter the Ghost Valley under normal circumstances. If he tried to force his way in, the guards wouldn’t hesitate to tear him into pieces!

Behind the stele was an endless thick fog. If one recklessly charged in, he would end up eaten by the monsters in the fog.

Marvin stopped in front of the stele and lightly knocked on the scarlet words.

His knocking followed a certain rhythm. Three light knocks, one heavy knock.

He repeated this three times, when suddenly, a mournful shriek echoed beside his ears!

“Damnit! Another fear check!”

Marvin covered his ears and couldn’t help but mumble something.

With his platycodon flower badge, he would naturally not be afraid of a minor ghost’s fear skill.

[Fear check success! Fear ineffective!]

This event reflected the importance of the headless girl’s gift. Without the platycodon flower badge, Marvin might have hesitated to cross the Despair Hills.

But with this effective item, he was confident enough.

…

But even though the fear skill was ineffective, that ghost voice was still quite sharp, making Marvin quite uncomfortable.

This was a female ghost, whose appearance was actually quite pretty. But it seemed her brain was a bit lacking.

Because she had been continuously shrieking ever since she appeared. If there were any animals in the surrounding 5 kilometers, they were definitely woken up.

“Shut up!” Marvin angrily roared.

“Quickly open the door!”

The woman ghost suddenly threw herself at Marvin, shrieking, “The living are not allowed inside! The living are not allowed inside!”

“I am not a normal living being!” Marvin said unperturbed.

He took out Heiss’ spell book from his void conch!

This was a necromancy spell book given as a result of a transaction between the grave robber and a low level necromancer!

On the book was a identity imprint. It could let Marvin smoothly enter Despair Hills!

“It turns out to be the Filthy Grave Robber!”

The ghost intelligence was very low, but she unexpectedly recognized this imprint. This scared Marvin witless.

The next instant, she pulled on the stele and the entrance opened.

“Why did you change your look? You must have used a weird technique to make yourself more handsome!”

“Get in quickly, Filthy Grave Robber!”

Marvin was stunned for a breath. That low level ghost was really tricked. He then silently entered.

…

Cold wind.

Dark sky, dark land, bones everywhere, wails everywhere.

‘Are people really living in this place?’

As Marvin walked quickly on the Despair Hills, he couldn’t help but ridicule those people inside.

From time to time, ghostly wails could be heard. It made one feel numb. ‘Is anyone able to sleep in this place?’

Those necromancers must have quite the nerves…

A flock of bats flew in the sky. They flew around Marvin for a moment, not doing anything.

Most spirits would have their intelligence corroded from the negative energy, making them easier to trick.

But necromancers were different. These guys were too crafty.

Marvin definitely didn’t want to meet a necromancer.

Especially a high rank necromancer, as Marvin wouldn’t be his match.

But fortunately, this territory was wide enough. Necromancers were basically nerds. They would enter a coffin, or research in a cemetery for ten days to half a month and rarely come out.

So Marvin was still relatively safe.

‘From the Ghost Valley to the north’s Skull Valley would take at most 10 hours.’

‘Crossing the Despair Hills, that guy’s territory, then the moonlight forest in the north, and finally riding a hot air balloon for the three ring towers.’

‘As long as there is no problem on this part of the road, the rest would be smooth!’

Marvin was thinking while maintaining an uniform pace.

This kind of pace was the most stamina efficient. Marvin’s constitution was average, resulting in mediocre stamina. He had to save what he could.

He followed the route he remembered for about six hours, not meeting any dangers so far.

Until he arrived under a large locust tree.

There clearly was a problem at this locust tree.

Marvin stopped.

At that time, someone jumped out of the locust tree!

It was a pale youth. He said to Marvin, “A disaster is imminent! Flee! Flee!”

Before Marvin could react, a loud rumbling noise echoed behind him!

Marvin’s face changed. He couldn’t help but curse in a rough voice, “Damn it!”

“Is it a ghost uprising?”

That youth nodded. “Yes, I accidentaly…”

“Run!” Marvin didn’t bother talking further and broke into a run!