The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1190: Source Of Suppression

Cara stretched out on the Greater Golem’s back as the summoned Cerro pack scoured the area for more threats.

Once they were sure that there was nothing else nearby that might be a threat to them, the Cerro relaxed and stood around in a circle, waiting for Karl to give instructions.

Karl wasn’t sure what to do with them. It was getting more and more difficult to use magic as he got closer to the source of the anomaly, but travelling on foot across a continent was simply not an option when they had limited time.

The next best option would be to move them to the Tiny World so that they didn’t have to be dismissed.

Then, they could be brought out as needed, and the only risk factor was that someone might notice the entrance and try to force their way into the Tiny World.

Karl didn’t know how likely that was, as he hadn’t met anyone else with a similar skill that was active.

So, without any evidence that it wasn’t relatively safe, that was what Karl went with.

He just had to remind the Epic Guard to warn the others that there were golems coming to visit.

[I am going to fly closer to the source of the suppression, and try to find it.

Something that the Giants said bothers me, though.

They wished me good luck, and offered to pay well if I did find the source of the suppression. It might not be in this world anymore, simply linked to it to keep the effect active.] Karl informed Dana, who was still occupied entertaining Button, and unaware of what was going on outside.

[Giants? I hope you’re not out there causing trouble already? I’m not even done napping on the beach yet.]

Karl laughed at her annoyed response.

[No, just a small group that came when I cast a spell. Don’t worry too much about it. I will come to you tonight if there isn’t a good spot for us both to sleep out here.]

Karl began following the path of destruction to the east, the most direct route to the strongest point in the suppression.

From his vantage point, it looked like the suppression was still coming from the territories of the Giant Clans, but if the one he had just fought was to be believed, they had lost whatever had caused the effect.

How they had managed that was a mystery. But with the decline in power between system resurgences, when the mana was deeper within the planet, they might have thought that it had done its work, and placed it somewhere for safekeeping.

Then, generations passed and they forgot what it was for.

That was usually how lost artifact stories went.

[You know, this is the same path that we followed to find Cara.] Hawk noted.

Cara looked around. [I remember it looking better than this. I wonder if the Orcs are still here? The local tribes were so annoying, always trying to poke me with sticks.

They didn’t even bring food.

This place sucked.]

The further that Karl flew, the fewer signs of life he found.

Not just the sentient species. The ground was dry and barren, and what used to be the grasslands of the Miviascan Empire were turning into cracked earth flats.

But Karl saw rain clouds on the horizon, and there were muddy ponds all over the hillsides. So, the problem wasn’t the rain. Something else was suppressing growth here.

At first, it didn’t make sense to Karl. But then he began to understand.

It wasn’t that there was a second negative influence here. It was that the first one was too strong.

Whatever was making it difficult to use magic or access the System had suppressed the mana to such an extreme extent that even the plant life, which normally only needed a bit of vital energy, had begun to die. However, if that were the case, then the lands of the Giants, still far to the east, should be completely uninhabitable.

Not even animals would survive if the plant life were gone and the suppression effect got any stronger.

It didn’t seem like the sort of effect that the Giants would have wanted for their empire, assuming that they were going to try to take over the continent and suppress the other races.

It did them no good if they couldn’t thrive themselves.

Karl kept flying east, until suddenly, he felt the imbalance shift. It was now south of him and beginning to subtly fade as he flew away.

The centre of the effect was not at Sallo Lake, where the Giants had made their Capital. Instead, it was somewhere in the dead wilderness of what had once been the Miviascan Empire.

Soaring on the up drafts caused by hot sun on baked earth, Karl searched for the source of the anomaly.

There, far beneath him.

There were kilometres of bleached white bones scattered across bare stone.

And right in the middle was a portal.

No, a Dungeon Entrance.

Immediately, Karl understood what had happened, and why nobody had ever found the source of the suppression effect.

Someone had taken it into a dungeon.

And then died inside.

But the effect was too strong, it didn’t remain within the dungeon, it leaked out. And with nobody to control it, the effect was running at full output, unrestrained and without any of the usual guidelines that would be used.

Like not suppressing mana so much that it killed the plant life.

The question was how Karl was going to deal with it.

If he just flew down there without a plan, he would surely become part of the bone pile around the Dungeon. He was five thousand metres in the air, and he could feel the effect trying to leech the mana from his body.

If he was under two thousand metres, he may not be able to resist, as the others had failed to.

The bones didn’t lie.

But even if he could overcome the effect, it was most likely inside the Dungeon, and Karl had never heard of anyone entering someone else’s Dungeon Instance.

Every group that entered was separated.