Apollo's Chronicle by Seraph Wedd (book club reads TXT) 📖

didn’t vanish though.

The horn, around a meter in length if straightened, can be smelted into black iron.

The legs’ fur, from over a meter long leg, can be used as materials for armor. The hide of the bull-like monster was supposed to be as hard as steel, but as light as normal leather.

Moments later, some soldiers and carpenters came running towards the wall.

The sound of the wall breaking was apparently heard up to the village.

Seeing the remains of the monster, the soldiers thanked the boy for a job well done.

After leaving the collection of war spoils to one of the soldiers, he continued patrolling the borders.

He walked in a clockwise fashion starting from the ruptured portion of the wall near the eastern gate.

While patrolling, he was also checking the state of the monsters outside the walls.

However, today, the monsters were very scarce. The only monster seen was the earlier bull-like monster.

He was already on the opposite side, the western gate, however there is still no sighting of any sort of monsters.

The hunters that came out earlier went back through the west gate with only a few pieces of game meat.

It is weird to say but the scarcity of monsters was slightly unnatural.

It is now noon and it is time for him to head back home for lunch.

After speaking with the hunters for a while, he went home.

Passing through the town, scenes similar to this morning was seen. However, more number of items were being forced on him to carry.

Some are food items, some are clothes and accessories like belts and sheath, and a fine looking bow and a quiver of silver arrows.

He was quite puzzled by the behavior of the people in town.

It is already a norm for him to receive food items but it is the first time that he received this much miscellaneous items.

Reaching his house, he opened the door using his free hand.

As soon as he opened the door, a loud voice was heard from inside.

“““Happy Birthday!!!”””

There, many people were standing along the pathway.

At the forefront are his mother and father. Behind them is his mother’s apprentice and his father’s confidant. Behind them were neighbors with quite a good relationship with him and his family.

All of them have a smile on their faces as they greeted him.

“… Ooooh. So it was my birthday today…”

He said absentmindedly. In all actuality, he really forgot about it due to the stress he is currently bearing.

“Thank you papa, mama, everyone…”

As he said his thanks, he was led towards the dining table.

The room was covered sparsely, conveying the shortness of the time for preparation.

However, as if to compensate for the shortcoming on decorations, the food above the table was so extravagant that his stomach started growling out of hunger.

All his favorite food was prepared, with large quantities.

Other foods like salad, seafood paella, and meat stew which is rarely served is currently set atop the large table.

The quantity of food was enough to feed dozens of hungry stomachs.

At the center of the table, a simple white cake was prepared. A candle was lit above the cake.

A phrase saying “Happy Birthday!” was doodled atop the cake using a red colored icing.

After seeing this, the surrounding gallery started singing.

He couldn’t help but feel happy from the depth of his heart.

After the song ended, he slowly blew the candle out. And then, the celebration started.

Eating happily while chatting with everyone, his stress was slowly reduced.

Laughing out loud at jokes let him recover from his fatigue.

And lastly, receiving congratulations from everyone individually caused his heart to overflow with joy.

After eating, the surrounding started taking out their gifts and giving it personally to the boy.

Some gave common items such as books, mugs, toys, clothes and shoes.

After everyone gave their gifts, his mother gave her gift to him.

It was a breastplate armor created with a type of lightweight iron. Its appearance was of a silvery white.

His father gave him a black sword. He said that it was made from smelted black iron and it is reinforced using a «Manadite» ore as the core.

It was a type of metal that becomes harder and sharper when infused with mana. His old sword uses the same concept but is instead forged with common rough iron.

The boy cried tears of joy as he received his gift from his parents.

He quickly tried fitting the armor but quickly realized that it is too large for him to use.

Despite its flashy appearance and the cool looking emblem at the right side of the armor. It is the type that only protects the front side. Often paired with a chainmail or a leather armor.

His mother said that she wished for him to wear it at the time he reached 15.

He tried asking why she gave an armor only to be used far into the future, however he received no proper response.

‘Just promise me.’

Her mother just said that line as if to divert the topic.

On the other hand, the sword his father gave was quite easy to wield and fits his preferences really well.

Infusing it with mana causes it to glow slightly with a blue color.

His father said that when he tried to infuse too much mana to it, it became heavy and unwieldy so he said to do so in moderation.

Few hours passed while celebrating and it is almost time for nightshift to start.

As if on cue, the visitors came out one after another.

His father told him to stay at home for the rest of the day before going out for patrol.

His mother started washing the dishes.

Having nothing else to do, he arranged all his received gifts inside his room.

Above his bed, one more gift was lying in wait.

Opening it, he saw a slightly oversized leather armor and lower garment set together with a small letter.

“Use this together with your new breastplate.”

That short sentence was all that is written on the card. The sender’s name wasn’t included.

Checking it, it was just like the breastplate. It was created with excellent skills. Its design is not too plain and not too shabby.

The size, color and design was really a match to the breastplate.

He then set the armor, which couldn’t be used in the near future inside his drawer.

He wore some leather armor that he received from one of the villagers.

He switched his black sword for his old iron sword.

He equipped the bow and arrow too, though his marksmanship isn’t yet good enough.

Appreciating his new look, he smiled satisfied.

Right after, he set his weapons beside his bed and changed to his sleeping attire.

He lay down in bed and prepared to take a short nap.

And then, the tragedy occurred.

Chapter 1 Part 5

Few hours after he started sleeping, on the eastern border where the damaged wall was, the carpenters were all working hard to fill the hole in the wall.

Around their perimeter, many soldiers stand watch.

Torches were lit by soldiers. Some were placed near the construction area.

The boy’s father passed by about thirty minutes ago and gave order to the construction team.

After he left, reinforcements came to increase the number of guards.

At night, the activities of monsters start to escalate.

Normally, in just a span of an hour, dozens of monsters will come to attack.

However, not a single monster could be heard or seen nearby.

It has been like this for about three days and three nights straight.

Due to this, the guards around the village started to feel doubt. Tension started building, especially at night.

“… Did you hear that?”

One of the guards outside the wall suddenly spoke.

“Nope. It’s been eerily quiet since morning. You must be hearing things.”

“No, I’m sure of what I heard…”

The guard spoke as he walked towards one of the bushes nearby.

“Whatever you heard, be careful.”

“I’m not dumb enough to let my guard down.”

He walked straight towards the bush.

Suddenly, something behind the bushes moved.

“!!! Who’s there?!”

As he shouted, he quickly drew his sword and applied mana to his eyes.

There are no anomaly in the surrounding mana. And there are no traces of any living thing in the surrounding.

The guard slowly approached the bush.

And then––

“Uwaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

Someone shouted from behind him.

When he turned around, all he saw was the body of his partner.

Rather, what used to be of his partner.

He was slashed in half from his waist. His body was separated by a few meters.

Near the head of his former partner, a silhouette could be seen.

It is about 2 meters tall. With long arms dripping with blood and thick, long legs.

It was covered in fur all over its body.

The guard was stunned for a moment. And that moment is what led to his death.

In an instant, the monster vanished. The guard felt a strong impact around his waist.

The moment he felt the pain, he was already dead.

Then, moments later, the massacre started.

 

The boy woke up in the middle of the night.

Weird sounds can be heard outside their house.

Unintelligible shouts resounded almost everywhere.

The mana in the air is tainted with something foreign.

Noticing this anomaly, he quickly equipped his leather armor and picked up his sword and bow.

Instead of going through the front door, he jumped out of the window of his room.

The scene in front of his eyes was quite a disaster.

Houses were in ruins. Some were burning. Blood stained almost every corner of the road.

Pieces of monster’s remains are littered here and there.

Not only that, but corpses of soldiers are scattered everywhere.

Traces of the brutal clash could be seen.

Around the corner of their house, a soldier whose legs were amputated from his knees down was clinging desperately to his slowly fading life.

The boy quickly ran towards the soldier.

“What happened?!”

Hearing his anxious shout, the soldier, lying face down on the ground, tried to move his head to see the source of voice.

“M-Monsters… Invasion… Flee……”

“What do you mean?! Where are the other soldiers?!”

“Around the east…… holding down………… waves….”

The soldier’s voice was slowly losing its energy. His last words were basically a whisper.

The boy applied basic first aid to stop the bleeding and applied mana to close the wound. He then laid the soldier down on the side of their house.

After confirming that there is no life signs anywhere inside and outside the house, he ran towards the pharmacy.

On the way there, he encountered several monsters.

Most of them are small fry that didn’t even last a second. Some were strong enough to retaliate.

However, in front of the pharmacy, a large number of strong types were gathered.

“Kuh!!”

He quickly applied mana to all the muscles in his body and wielded his black sword.

Each swing, a monster will be sliced in half or quartered.

Since he was outnumbered greatly, he was easily surrounded by the enemies.

Attacks came from all directions.

The more enemies attacked, the less counterattack he could release.

Only a little more and he will be stuck in a game of attrition where all he could do was evade.

Just then, he heard a battle cry nearby.

“Teryaaaa!!!”

Emerging from the entrance of the shop, his mother wielding a long halberd, driving monsters out.

Each of her lightning quick swing sends dozens of monsters flying.

She got a clear 3 meter radius where no monster could come close.

The monsters surrounding the boy flinched for just an instant. The boy didn’t let go of the chance and swung his sword with full force.

He severed all of those surrounding him in one swing.

Having gained enough running space once again, the onslaught began.

Her mother focused