LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 6 - Leviathan Island
In his dream, Kiera was lying in a sickbed.
Maru was taking care of her by her side, her complexion very poor.
Maru’s face, smiling kindly, looked younger than now.
“Kiera. You won’t be sick anymore. And you’ll continue to not be sick from now on. Just trust me.”
“That’s a lie. I’m going to die soon. I know it…”
“It’s not a lie. You’ll become healthier than me. I promise.”
“Really…?”
“Yes, really. Will you close your eyes for a moment?”
“My eyes? Alright…”
“Give me your hand too.”
“Okay…”
As she closed her eyes, Lucy’s voice was heard.
“Please open your eyes! Kiera!”
Kiera slowly opened her eyes.
Sunlight was shining into the room.
Lucy was looking down at her from the head of the bed.
“Oh, she’s awake! Kiera’s come to her senses!”
“I… was lying down?”
“Yes! You took a solid hit from the monster and lost consciousness. Remember?”
As she listened to Lucy’s words, memories of participating in Duke Toledo’s monster capture operation flashed through Kiera’s mind.
“You were lying down for a full 4 days.”
Yoris was standing at the foot of the bed.
He was holding a book in his hand, perhaps having been reading until just now.
“I was out for 4 whole days? That’s impossible…”
“We can’t believe it either. It’s a great shock that the mighty hero would fall.”
“Give me some water.”
“Thirsty?”
Lucy poured water from a kettle into a cup then used magic to make it cool.
Kiera took the cup and gulped it down immediately.
The water was cool.
But it was too cool.
After finishing, she shivered.
“I’m cold.”
When Kiera hugged herself, Lucy and Yoris looked at each other with surprised eyes.
“A hero feeling cold…?”
“Good heavens. Something must be wrong indeed.”
An island rising from the middle of the sea came into view.
“Here’s the third payment. Now just one final payment left. I’ll give that when we return.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
The tattooed young man showed the money to his companions and put it in his pouch.
While tying the money pouch with string, he looked at Maru.
“Think you can come back alive? That place is extremely dangerous.”
“I have to come back alive to pay the remaining balance.”
The tattooed young man grinned at Maru’s words.
“I’ll come at sunset. If you’re not there, I’m just leaving.”
He gestured to his companions, and the young men all got up together to lift an overturned rowboat on the deck and throw it forcefully into the sea.
Since it was dangerous to take their ship to the shore, Maru had to go the remaining distance alone.
“Know how to row?”
“It’s my first time but I’ll figure it out.”
Maru hopped over to the rowboat.
The tattooed young man threw the oar and Maru caught it in mid-air.
“You’re not going to skip the island and follow us?”
“I might actually do that.”
Maru and the young men burst into bright laughter.
Afterward, the young men quickly disappeared, afraid of encountering monsters, while Maru slowly approached the island while rowing.
“I’ve finally arrived, Lord Belkran.”
As he gradually entered the shore, memories of meeting the god came to mind.
-Leviathan Island will be home to all sorts of hideous monsters. It will be a very challenging adventure for you who lost your power through foolish actions.
“What if I die?”
The giant face statue’s mouth opened wide.
-Remove your clothes and come inside here.
“In-inside your mouth?”
-Hurry.
Maru quickly stripped and crawled naked into the god’s mouth.
Soon the mouth closed, and after about 5 minutes, it opened again.
Maru came out with a deeply furrowed brow.
Though there was no smell, his whole body was sticky with transparent liquid.
-Spread it thoroughly all over your body
“What is this?”
-My saliva.
“Ugh.”
-As long as you don’t wash it off, no one but humans will be able to see you.
Finally reaching the shore, Maru dragged the rowboat and moved it to land.
Then he took out the mirror of truth from his back pocket.
Having lost his backpack to Carlisle’s group, all he had now was the mirror and his wallet.
“It’s like a jungle…”
The island was densely covered in vegetation.
He wondered if there would be a path, but fortunately there were trails made by monsters.
He headed into the forest while examining various places with the mirror.
On the way, he encountered a four-legged monster, but it seemed not to notice Maru and just ambled along its way.
Maru let out a sigh of relief and continued walking.
The forest was rough so he always had to watch his step.
If he stepped on small monsters with sharp spines on their backs, there was concern his identity would be revealed due to bleeding.
Anyway, whether luck had come his way or not, he was able to easily find Leviathan’s essence.
When he shone the mirror of truth on a rock in front of a cool waterfall, a yellow sphere was floating.
Maru carefully stepped on nearby rocks to move closer and grabbed the sphere with his hand.
At that moment he felt an intense power seeping into his body.
“Urgh!”
At the same time, his heart started pounding and he felt pain in his chest.
“Wh-what’s happening. Why does it hurt!”
To make matters worse, suddenly a big earthquake started.
As the ground shook, he even felt that tingling sensation in his bottom like when an elevator descends rapidly.
Maru realized at that moment that the island was sinking.
“Ah God! You didn’t tell me the island would collapse!”
He clutched his aching chest and quickly ran toward the shore.
‘Shit gotta hurry before I’m fucked!’
He was truly desperate.
He ran like an arrow while breaking or tearing through everything, path or not.
He was in such a state that he even kicked away monsters that got in his way while sprinting.
When he finally reached the shore, the beach was already completely submerged in seawater.
Thankfully by luck, he could see the rowboat precariously placed on the ground.
Maru quickly ran and threw himself toward it.
At the same time, a wave crashed over and the rowboat drifted away.
Maru plunged into the sea.
Blub blub.
“Uurgh!”
The island was gradually disappearing into the sea.
Maru tried to resist to float up but quickly lost strength.
And his chest started hurting like crazy.
He sank helplessly into the water as his consciousness grew hazy.
‘Am I dying like this…’
The surface seen from underwater was beautiful with rippling light.
The course of his life so far flashed by like a kaleidoscope.
The last thing he felt was being firmly embraced by two hands with decadent-looking manicured nails that seemed familiar.
Luciella broke through the water at full speed and shot up above the surface.
While holding Maru’s waist, she spun round and round in the air to shake off the water.
“Really such a child-like person. Can’t take my eyes off for a moment. Why did you come here anyway.”
She smiled and flew straight toward land.
She playfully imagined perhaps taking him to her lair while he was unconscious.
It seemed fun to strip him naked and put a leash on him too.
“He’ll surely be angry.”
Giggles escaped.
Suddenly she felt intense heat from behind.
At that instant, a flame breath attack engulfed her.
She stopped flapping her wings and dropped down to barely avoid it.
Rising again and looking back, she saw a wyvern pursuing.
Its body was quite large.
At that size, it must be at least 100 years old.
Luciella bared her fangs and barked fiercely.
“Grrrr kyaang! Grrrr…!(Get lost you trash!)”
But seemingly not much of a threat to the wyvern, it continued pursuing while shooting flame breath attacks.
As time passed, the distance gradually shortened and Luciella felt strained.
From the start, it was too much for a succubus to shake off a monster while carrying an adult man.
Moreover, being closer to the sun in the sky, the magic protecting her body from sunlight was gradually losing function.
Smoke slowly rose from her arms and legs.
‘This won’t do.’
Flying above the forest, Luciella quickly looked around.
Luckily, she spotted a group of humans riding horses and carriages below.
She swiftly descended.
In the cargo space of the moving carriage sat a handsome blonde man in noble clothes looking gloomy.
The man’s arms were tied behind him and his face was bruised in several places.
The bandits sitting in the driver’s seat snickered.
“Today is really a huge jackpot.”
“Yeah. Who would’ve thought a prince would walk right into our hands.”
“If an idiot like that can be a prince, why can’t I be one?”
“You fool, you need to be born with the bloodline first, how can you say that?”
“What’s wrong with my family’s bloodline you bastard.”
“You idiot, you think prince’s bloodline just falls from the sky? Huh?”
That’s when it happened.
A succubus with purple hair quickly flew over, placed an unconscious man in the carriage’s cargo space, and immediately flew away.
The blonde man tied up in the cargo space was terrified.
“Gasp! A-a demon! A demon came by!”
“Demon?”
“What nonsense?”
The bandits in the driver’s seat turned around.
They discovered Maru lying in the cargo space and tilted their heads.
“What’s this?”
“Who’s that?”
When they happened to look up at the sky, they saw the succubus flying ahead with a huge wyvern pursuing behind her.
“Wow shit what is that……”
“Oh… quite a sight.”
After hearing the whole story from the tied-up blonde man, the bandits were delighted.
“Wow~ That was a nice succubus.”
“Never seen anything like this in my life. Did she fall for us?”
“Anyway this is great, more free money. Good to have more to sell at the slave market tomorrow. Hahaha.”
One bandit climbed over to the cargo space and slapped Maru’s cheeks repeatedly.
“Hey are you alive? Hey? Hey? Hey?”
“Is he dead?”
“No, he’s breathing.”
“Right. Check if the succubus drained his energy. If he’s too braindead to function as a person, we’ll dump him.”
“How do you check?”
“From what I know, guys who get their yang energy completely drained by succubi have their two balls shrink smaller than beans.”
“Really? Let me see…”
The bandit groped Maru’s center through his pants.
“Oh my, they’re plump. No need to worry. Both balls are fine. Hehehe.”
The bandits’ carriage arrived at their mountain hideout not long after.
The unconscious Maru was locked in a cave prison together with the blonde man.
By then, Maru’s heart, which had been beating rapidly all day, had finally stabilized and maintained calm.
Moreover, his neck and waist that had been bent from years of being a porter straightened out, muscles developed throughout his body, and his physique had become more beautiful than before.