Small villain's Viewpoint

Chapter 20

Silica

"Everyone, get ready, the tower is about to open!!!"

The knights and raiders steeled their hearts. The moment they enter the tower, no one might come out alive. Julian calm his self, as the head and leader of this operation, he initiated the raid. A strange light flashes, engulfing all the people within 2 kilometers.

True to its horrendous fame, the party found themselves in a mushroom forest. Large canopy of purple and colorful looking mushroom packed in a huge clump, it was a disgusting sight. Surprisingly, despite being deemed as a monster paradise, no monster was sighted in the forest.

"Death cups, a whole forest of it"

The raiders murmured in wonder, both surprised and scared. A single death cup is enough to kill a horse and paralyze an adult human; these cluster of vivid death cups are probably more poisonous than a normal death cup.

"Don't touch anything"

Julian reprimanded his team, especially to his friend Ruiz, who was about to pluck a yellowish mushroom from a cluster. "What? I needed a sample",Ruiz answered, before putting a death cup inside his bag. "You-"

"Your brother is doing the same", before pointing to the elder Achinuss, who was cutting all the yellow death cups within his reach. Julius quirk his brows, looking at Ruiz. Damn man, don't drag me in your fight. Unlike Ruiz, Julius wasn't getting samples, rather, he was collecting valuable anti dotes.

Of course, the other raiders did not know it, so most of them gave him a strange look; why is this man collecting so much poison inside his bag? What is he even going to do with it? "Um.... do you only need the yellow ones?",behind him was a scrawny young man, holding a scissor.

"Yes. Please pick the bright ones", Julius agreed, still busy collecting the mushrooms. The young man timidly collected the vivid ones, following the cleric's way of neatly cutting each stems. "Here", the porter handed him his loot, covering his face.

"Good job", Julius praised, before taking all the loot inside his bag. "You seemed to be used to this", he asked, eyeing the porter. The man cautiously hide his face, shying away from the priest. " My village used to collect death cups as well......it is a good anti dote for poison, especially the magical beast", the porter murmured, his voice becoming more inaudible. He seemed to be quite intimidated by Julius, no, but by the whole party themselves.

A village. Julius wondered which one was it. The book did mention quite a lot of villages after all, from elven villages to the secret gnome's village. So far, the fantasy creatures were the only thing that Julius like from that novel, the story about those villages were not bad. Now excluding the fact that most of them got trashed by the protagonist's party due to their idiotic decisions, it really made Julius mad just by remembering it. Why did that prick had to drag those innocent creatures in his fight? He really wanted to have a face to face talk with the author; just what is morality? Them not being humans does not mean it is ok to destroy their home!

"Sir, we found an entrance!!"

Julian's men were faster than the raiders. It looks like they found the entrance to the upper floors. "Brother",Julian look at him, as if asking for an opinion. "That entrance, which is it? If it had a growing night shade in it, then it is the right entrance. This place should have at least five entrances on it, each leading to different floors"

Ah....The men did not know how to respond. They did not check what kind of plant is growing from it. "It was the right entrance, it had a growing night shade in it", Ruiz answered, coming out from the west side. Seems that he did follow Julian's men. "Gather your men. We will proceed with the raid"

Julian lead his men. "So, how do we fit? Ruiz chuckled, staring at the small hole. It was only large enough for a small child to squeeze into. "Knife", Julius ignored him, before taking the porter's knife. "Hand", the priest look at Ruiz, his eyes especially cold.

"Wait....why-", before he could finish, Julius abruptly slash his palm, squeezing it so that the blood will pour out properly. It was a harsh treatment, but Ruiz was more shocked that pained, so the cleric only healed his palm and did not apologize, it was very Julius-like.

The fresh blood dyed the night shade, making it more vivid than usual. As the blood reaches the roots, the land shook, the hole was expanding. Julius immediately leap towards his party, ignoring Ruiz who has fallen and was clinging to the night shade. After a while, a stone door greeted them.

[Welcome to an eternal slumber]

The words imprinted on it made him shudder. What a very morbid way of greeting. "What are those runes, can anyone translate it?", Julian frowns, those signs might be a hint. Most towers had those signs, but it was written in a strange language that people could not comprehend.

"It's not really our specialty"

"We should have brought a scholar"

The raiders whispered. Their leader, Hurial, shrugged his shoulder. Even though they spent their lives raiding towers, however, most of their time were spent killing monsters and escaping traps; it was a life and death situation most of the time, so how could they have the leisure to study the tower's language?

"Kid, are you alright?",the priest asked, the porter was strangely silent, his face has turned pale. "Sir, are we really going inside?".

"Yes", seeing Julius's nonchalant face, the porter could only bit down on his complaint. "You seemed to know about this place"

"Not.......really"

"Your name"

".......Si....Siam"

"Siam, are you an elf?"

_____________________________________

Thanks for reading!!!
^∆^