The black sun hangs high

Chapter 112 The Rat's Dream

The waves surged, blurring the line between the tides and the land.

What sweeps across the sky is not just the seawater, but also the enormous shadows mixed in with the tide. They are like huge, sharp carving knives, or like wooden spoons used by children to dig out food. With each wave, shocking marks are left on the cliffs and coastlines.

A massive black celestial body hung in the sky, resembling the eyeball of some enormous creature—cold, deep, yet devoid of any emotion.

The struggle between the giant waves and the earth has been going on for an unknown period of time.

Sometimes, the cold seawater can easily crush mountains, and sometimes, new land can rise rapidly from the depths of the ocean. The gods who dwell in the boundless waters roar terrifyingly every moment, while the will of the earth remains steadfast and silent.

This is a war that seems to have no end.

The collapse of a mountain, a ground tremor, or the receding of a tide can all mean the complete disappearance of a race or even a civilization. They have no way to leave any trace in this world because the material that supports these traces is often completely destroyed in an instant.

Architecture, language, writing, and the people who created them cannot exist here for long.

In this era, remaining neutral is the most foolish choice.

Because that would mean that the tribe would never be protected by a god, nor would it be able to thrive in a relatively safe place.

Once again, a terrifying giant wave crashed against a seaside cliff. This time, the shadows hidden in the seawater did not recede with the tide but remained on the land. These robust sea creatures, covered in hard scales and writhing black tentacles, began to search forward along the land. Their speed was slow, but their advance was incredibly determined. The writhing black tentacles constantly slashed across the ground, breaking through the soil softened by the waves, overturning huge and solid rocks, and relentlessly hunting down the land creatures hiding in the caves.

"boom!"

As if to cheer on their soldiers, towering waves crashed in again, and the ferocious-looking sea creatures threw their newly hunted spoils into the water, letting them be carried away by the surging tide. These were sacrifices, nourishment to please the gods and make them stronger.

"From the first budding life underwater, to..."

The chaotic and disordered thoughts quietly receded amidst the roar of the waves, and Hugh's consciousness awoke in a certain body. He shook his head vigorously, trying to shake off the influence of this bizarre and enormous dream, but this simple action caused his head to hit the cave wall.

There was no light in the cave, but everything there was crystal clear in his eyes.

The body he controlled was incredibly strange, so he couldn't help but look down at his torso and then at his limbs.

Its gray-black fur was covered in mud, its body was hunched, and its slender limbs were covered with sharp claws... It wore a hard armor woven from some kind of special wood and vines, and a faint phosphorescence shimmered in the gaps.

Within the sharp claws of this body lies a dark green plant root, covered with intricate patterns, within which abundant vitality and power pulsate and flow.

Hugh looked around in surprise and found that the hall was filled with figures that resembled him.

Countless rats roamed the hall.

They are their families, their soldiers, and also ordinary creatures of the earth.

The sound of giant waves crashing against the cliff came again. After that violent tremor, a hunched figure dressed as a priest came to the high platform of the cave hall. It raised its claws and let out a series of sharp cries. When these sounds entered Hugh's ears, he naturally understood their meaning.

"Praise the mother! Praise the mother!"

The priest kept shouting, and under the gaze of countless green eyes, the old figure suddenly pulled out a dagger made of some kind of black stone, and then screamed as it slashed its own throat.

Blood flowed out, staining the rats' fur and soaking through the rough priest's robe.

As the blood gushed forth, a bright light gradually emerged from the ancient patterns painted on the walls of the enormous cave. The rodents immediately let out excited and joyful screams, an emotion that seemed to be etched into their very being. Under the influence of this impulse, Hugh couldn't help but shout along with his "kin."

He saw a dim yellow light spreading from the wall behind the platform toward both sides of the cave, illuminating the ancient murals and patterns, and revealing an enormous image in the cave.

"Mother! Praise be to Mother Earth!"

The rodents cheered, their fur hardening and their claws sharpening under the influence of their excitement. Each soldier seemed to have gained boundless power, becoming even more robust and strong.

So Hughes looked up, panting.

He saw a huge four-legged figure, like a lizard or a giant rat, but vaguely, he seemed to glimpse the curled horns on the top of this behemoth's head. With his current thinking ability, he could not determine what it was, but a voice kept repeating and shouting in his heart, reminding him that this was the god he believed in, this was the will of the land creatures.

The leaders' shouts echoed through the hall, and the soldiers began to march in an orderly fashion along the passageway toward the outside world.

Seawater had already flowed into the cave, and with each step he took, Hugh felt the terrifying malice lurking in the damp cold.

However, under the blessing of Mother Earth, every soldier here appeared incredibly brave and determined. They tore their skin open with their claws, letting the taste of blood dilute the coldness of the seawater, and their green eyes gradually turned scarlet.

Finally, Hugh emerged from the dark cave with his "comrades" and stood beneath the sky on the cliff.

Ahead lay an endless, surging ocean, while overhead hung the dark sun.

"..."

The magnificent spectacle before him brought a moment of clarity to Hugh's mind. In that instant, he finally realized the true nature of this peculiar dream—it was a real scene from that lost era, where black celestial bodies hung eternally high in the sky, the retinues of the gods fought each other, and he was now "playing" the role of an ordinary, unremarkable soldier under the will of the "Earth Mother Goddess." A rat that couldn't be more ordinary.

However, right now, he is on the front lines.

It is the front line where the land and the sea clash.

On the other side of the mountain, the heavy stone gate slowly opened, and the beast tamers, holding vine whips and wearing pale bone helmets, let out ear-piercing howls. The huge bodies hidden in the animal pen rushed out of the mountain. Under the command of the beast tamers, these huge war beasts with three thick tails and covered with tough fur, which were originally the soldiers' "close relatives", rushed over and finally stopped beside the rodent soldiers.

At that moment, Hugh chose to follow the instincts of this body, and like his other companions, he came to the side of the three-tailed giant rat that was closest to him.

The giant rat turned its head slightly, sniffed the scent of the soldier beside it, and then slowly lowered its body.

So Hugh grabbed the rough reins and climbed up.

Now he knows exactly what kind of soldier he is in this war.

Perhaps because he knew he was in a dream, or perhaps because he came from a distant time and space, the "blessing" of the Earth Mother Goddess gave him boundless courage. Hugh did not feel the slightest fear of the war that was about to begin. He simply held the reins quietly, riding on the body of the three-tailed giant rat, and cast his gaze toward the horizon.

There, a massive "mountain range" is slowly taking shape.

It was getting closer and closer... and it looked only slightly lower than the mountains where the soldiers were.

Hughes saw that on the slope below the mountain, many rats were still fighting against the sea monsters with black tentacles. However, in the next moment, a mountain-sized wave crashed down, and with a deafening roar, the gentle slope below the mountain was instantly swallowed by the sea.

Hughes gazed silently at everything before him, feeling an unprecedented shock. Yet, the body in which his consciousness resided seemed utterly devoid of fear. He watched quietly as the world below was submerged by the sea, until some figures slowly emerged from it.

The scaly sea monsters are still alive, while the rodents that were just fighting them have long since vanished.

A sharp cry rang out among the mountains, the cry of the race that depended on the Earth Mother Goddess. The procession that had been standing still on the mountain peak began to move slowly forward. Hugh's body swayed back and forth as the three-tailed giant rat moved slowly forward. However, after only a few breaths, as the giant rats in front began to accelerate, the ferocious war beast he was riding also began to run.

"The madly running rat is the chariot of Mother Earth..."

At that moment, Hugh finally understood the meaning of those words.

The three-tailed giant rats charged at full speed like boulders rolling down the mountainside. An invisible force spread throughout the entire mountain range with their movement, and countless tiny shadows emerged from all parts of the mountain—grass, rocks, crevices… Countless ordinary and extraordinary rats, along with the roars of the Earth Mother Goddess's retinue, converged into a boundless, deep wave. Fear occupied the minds of these creatures, yet their bodies were dominated by both fear and reverence for the deity…

Under the gaze of the black celestial body.

The creatures of the ocean and the earth collided once again.

……

A crisp sound echoed continuously in the dark corridor.

That was the sound of magic book pages being torn off, folded, and secured.

If Hugh were to come out into the corridor now, he would surely find that his newly acquired spellbook was already half-used. Of course, Verin's own spellbook was being used up even more.

Within the Legal Committee, spellcasters at the valley and lake levels are considered equivalent in terms of rating, yet there are significant differences between the two.

In Vaan, spellcasters view magic as flowing water; the valleys emphasize flow and erosion, while the lakes focus more on accumulation and sedimentation.

When rating mages, spellcasters who emphasize practicality, usefulness, and have a wealth of experience in magical manipulation are more likely to obtain a Valley rating. Such spellcasters are highly sought after in the military and noble circles. The mage Klaus of the Fifth Jaeger Regiment is a typical example. A Valley-level mage who is active on the battlefield and can cooperate closely with soldiers brings extremely amazing benefits.

Lake-level spellcasters, on the other hand, tend to focus more on academic and magical research.

These spellcasters tend not to devote much energy to the research of lethal magic; the spells they inscribe tend to emphasize technique and functionality.

Within the military system, lake-level spellcasters often take on tasks such as setting up protective rituals, formulating tactics, and providing strategic command, and occasionally they also provide some magical calibration support for crystal cannon positions.

Some lake-level scholars who specialize in alchemy, magical item research, and magical equipment development will even dedicate all their precious magical inscription space to auxiliary spells that can provide inspiration, ideas, and accelerate calculations and thinking.

While Verine wasn't quite that extreme, she did exhibit a similar bias in terms of magical inscription.

She favored magic that was skillful and could provide convenience in emergency situations; the "Frosty Pool," which she created herself and which was approved by the Law Council, was a prime example.

However, when dealing with battles and potential threats, Lake-level mages often use special methods that are difficult for Valley-level spellcasters to master.

For example, right now, four mage hands are floating around Vilin at the same time. They are very nimbly tearing off the pages of books that are engraved with specific magic according to Vilin's will and arranging them on the walls of the corridor in a special order.

With one hand holding the spellbook and the other tightly gripping a high-quality crystal, her magic, as she thought, continuously drew out thin, icy-blue magical threads in the air. These threads floated slowly in the air and quickly disappeared into the walls of the corridor, connecting some of the pages together.

Through her meticulous calculations, these pre-arranged magical pages would transform the five-story underground corridor into a solid and unique magical barrier during the upcoming impact, serving as a shield against all subsequent attacks...

(End of this chapter)