Chapter 359: The Crawler

Helag stood outside the city walls, contemplating whether to enter.

The sky was darkening, and night would soon fall.

The city was vast, covering a large area.

Helag followed the wall’s remnants, stretching endlessly.

Seeing the city wasn’t surprising.

The polluted zone had many such cities.

When pollution spread, people left, but cities couldn’t move.

As people evacuated, these cities became desolate ruins.

In the Land of Dawn, legends spoke of these cities.

Some tales described eerie presences, frightening stories.

Others claimed treasures hidden within, left behind in haste.

Some even reported seeing people living in these ruins, descendants from that era.

Many dismissed such claims as illogical.

Years had passed since the pollution began; survival in the zone seemed impossible.

Helag, in his spare time, learned about these stories, gaining knowledge.

Looking at the dilapidated city, Helag decided to spend the night inside.

In the city, he could find shelter, with room to maneuver if needed.

Outside, there was no cover, making him an obvious target.

The polluted zone had no safe areas; inside was as good as anywhere.

Night had fully descended, enveloping the world in darkness.

Helag entered the city, walking along a wide road.

The road was littered with dust, rubble, and odd debris.

There was little vegetation.

Due to the blight, the city wasn’t overgrown.

Elsewhere, abandoned cities would be overrun by nature.

This allowed Helag to discern the city’s original layout and structure.

From the ruins, Helag noted the architectural style differed from the present.

“Must be tens of thousands of years old.”

Helag recalled the era before the blight, known as the Glorious Age.

After the blight, the current era was called the Dawn Age.

The name symbolized hope for the wizard plane’s return to the polluted zone, cleansing it and starting anew.

The exact time since the Glorious Age was unclear, measured in millennia.

Helag felt the histories in the Land of Dawn seemed altered, unclear.

He shook his head, dismissing the thought, as it wasn’t his concern.

Using Deep Blue’s environment detection, Helag surveyed his surroundings, finding few intact buildings.

He walked along the avenue, finding a relatively intact room.

Judging by the ruins, it was once a large estate, though the walls were gone.

The main hall was tall, built from massive stone blocks.

The stone’s type was unknown, but it remained hard over the years.

The hall’s structure relied on the stone’s durability, keeping it intact.

Entering, Helag found a room to spend the night.

The floor was thick with dust, stirring with each step.

With limited options, Helag settled for basic shelter.

The room had wooden chairs, crumbling at a touch.

Helag gathered wind element particles, blowing the dust outside.

Clearing the space, he found a spot to sit.

Once the dust settled, Helag ate and drank, replenishing his strength.

He calmed his mind, meditating to restore mana and adjust his state.

His mind was filled with liquefied mental power, unable to grow further.

To advance, he needed to compress it into a crystal, reaching the crystallized wizard stage.

At that stage, mental power capacity increased significantly.

As crystallized wizards grew, their crystals expanded slightly.

Typically, significant mental power growth was needed for noticeable crystal changes.

Most wizards saw little change until reaching second-level.

Many remained at the crystallized stage for life, their crystals unchanged.

Crystal growth required immense mental power.

Most wizards, even after a lifetime of meditation, saw limited growth.

Helag hadn’t begun compressing mental power, focusing on mana recovery and self-adjustment.

During meditation, he noticed a figure on a street hundreds of meters away.

The figure was humanoid, entirely black.

Recognizing it, Helag recalled descriptions from the diary he’d found.

It was a common polluted zone creature, known as a Crawler.

Crawlers were often former inhabitants who died in the zone, once wizard apprentices or knights.

They had some strength, but not much.

Crawler strength varied, typically around third-class apprentice or knight level.

Crawlers were said to be immortal, lacking vital points.

Even decapitated, they moved freely, unaffected.

Wizards dealt with Crawlers using fire spells, burning them completely.

Merely cutting them apart left the pieces moving independently, eerily.