Chapter 135: Perseus (27)
Screeeeech.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
This island was called the Garden of the Gorgons.
The deeper they sailed up the river toward the center, the more bizarre creatures and plants emitting strange sounds appeared everywhere.
Dogs hiding underground with only their faces exposed, weasels with sharp blades on their hands and feet staring at their stomachs, tigers with nine heads and centipede bodies constantly transforming into animal shapes like dogs and pigs.
All of them were grotesque and horrifying.
Urp.
Sailors began vomiting one by one, unable to endure the sight of monsters unseen on land and the smell of jungle-like vegetation.
Fortunately, the captain—who actually ran the ship—and the navigator were still fine.
Ugh!!!
But soon even the two of them struggled to operate the ship alone.
“Sorry, but this seems to be our limit. If we go any further, my crew might all die.”
Perseus nodded at the captain’s words.
Even he could see the crew was nearing their breaking point.
Above all, some sailors were repeatedly falling into hallucinations just from encountering the monsters here.
Further normal navigation was impossible.
“Yes. Even just staying still, illusion magic is seeping into our minds. For ordinary people, it’s best to leave this place immediately.”
The crew—following the half-merfolk captain—had sailed many dangerous regions, but the Garden of the Gorgons rivaled the worst of them.
“Hmm. I’m sorry. I thought the ones with some magic in their bodies would be fine. Looks like we can only go this far.”
“Yes. Thank you for your hard work.”
Perseus and the captain shook hands, agreeing that the guide’s role ended here.
Clank.
The anchor dropped, and preparations to disembark were completed in moments.
— You lot! Move faster!! What kind of disgrace is this in front of the guests!!!
Perhaps ashamed of breaking his promise to take them to the island’s center, the captain hurriedly finished preparations.
Thus, Njord and Perseus disembarked at a point whose exact location was unknown.
“I’m really sorry once again. We can stay anchored a little off the island for about seven days. Make sure to return within that time.”
“Yes. Thank you for your generosity, Captain. I’ll definitely signal within that time.”
Feeling sorry that he—a half-merfolk—couldn’t help Poseidon’s priest more, the captain made a generous decision.
Originally, Perseus hadn’t had enough funds for a round trip, but the captain agreed to wait seven days.
— Alright! Set sail again!!
***
With the captain and crew gone, the jungle was filled only with the sounds of insects and the eerie noises of strange flora and fauna.
The traces of humans that had been here moments ago were quickly overtaken by sound and peculiar energy.
“Hmm… Somehow it feels even worse than last time I came.”
At Njord’s words, Perseus—who had been looking at an old map bought in Casablanca—lifted his head.
“Huh? You’ve been here before?”
“Hmm, yes I have. Mages like me tend to be overflowing with curiosity. Especially this Garden of the Gorgons—there are many plants and creatures here that make excellent magical reagents.”
“Then why…?”
“Why didn’t I tell you before?”
Perseus nodded at Njord’s question.
If Njord had already known the place, it would have saved the time spent finding the Graeae sisters and securing a ship.
“I didn’t know back then where the Gorgon sisters were, and anyway, my purpose then and yours now are different. Above all, when entering the land of the gods, you must never speak of it to anyone.”
Perseus understood Njord’s explanation.
Indeed, whether alone or in a group, no human who invaded the gods’ domain and boasted about it had survived.
But…
‘Come to think of it… if you gather everything Njord has said so far, shouldn’t he already be dead?’
Still, Perseus simply nodded and said nothing.
What good would saying it do now? He had already given up trying to judge Njord by normal standards.
***
Perseus and Njord proceeded forward, guided by the compass.
The old map Perseus had obtained in Casablanca was completely useless on this island.
Originally, according to the map, it should have been a massive baumkuchen or doughnut-shaped garden, but now it was a constantly shifting labyrinth.
Fortunately, the compass—infused with the combined power of Goddess Athena and the Graeae sisters—still showed the optimal path even in this maze-like garden.
“Phew… I’m realizing this again, but what kind of mindset must humans have had to come all the way to an island like this?”
Perseus sighed as he froze a creeping plant vine that had lunged toward him.
He could feel the gazes fixed on them now carrying blatant hostility.
He alone had already been attacked more than ten times…
To Perseus, those who came here just to sever the Gorgons’ heads and spread their name across the world seemed like lunatics.
Njord agreed with Perseus’s opinion.
“People who study magic might just become idiots in the brain. It could be because their lifespans are longer than normal too.”
The world was full of barbaric fools.
Perseus—the still-immature boy—didn’t seem to have noticed, but scattered along the path were petrified statues and human bone fragments that looked as though the flesh had been completely stripped away.
Perhaps far more people had come here than expected.
Normally, they should have come by the proper method like Perseus…
‘But who knows. There might be another way. Or perhaps… another problem has arisen.’
***
After walking for a long while, fending off attacks from flora and fauna,
Kiiiiiiii…
A pitiful cry echoed from somewhere.
As they cautiously approached the source,
They saw a cockatrice—a creature with a chicken’s head and a serpent’s tail.
The cockatrice had its leg caught in a steel-jaw trap (a type that bites the leg when stepped on), wrapped in lizard hide.
Kiiiiik…
“Gasp! Isn’t that a cockatrice?”
“Yes. A cockatrice. And it looks like a sub-adult.”
Perseus couldn’t hide his astonishment.
It wasn’t surprising that cockatrices lived in the Garden of the Gorgons.
After all, cockatrices were omnivores with no natural predators.
Their infamous petrifying gaze was powerful enough to overcome even stronger creatures.
Yet… for such a cockatrice to be caught in a mere trap. If anyone else heard this, they’d probably accuse him of lying.
“Well, that’s true to some extent. There are species immune to a cockatrice’s petrification. Dragonkin types, for example.”
This was information known among slightly older mages, knights, or mercenaries.
Dragons—or what humans commonly thought of as giant lizards—were immune to a cockatrice’s gaze.
But thinking about it, what kind of terrifying creature would it take to be immune to that gaze?
Moreover, a cockatrice’s weapons weren’t limited to its gaze. It had claws and a beak that could tear steel, and feathers so dense that swords and spears couldn’t penetrate them.
It wasn’t called a creature without natural enemies for nothing.
“Huh? Then why is this sub-adult caught?”
“Look closely. See what kind of trap this is. There might even be humans who come and go here like it’s their home.”
“Huh? What do you—”
Perseus didn’t immediately understand Njord’s words, but he followed the instruction and focused magical energy into his eyes, slowly scanning the trap.
Then, his keen senses thoroughly analyzed it.
‘Hmm… That lizard hide is from an Askálabos? Using such rare hide just for a trap… Huh? There’s a small amount of adamant mixed in. Who made this? And the structure is similar to Artemis’s snare artifact. This… has to be at least polis-level magic.’
From Perseus’s senses, the trap required absurd effort and cost.
It wouldn’t even break even just to capture one cockatrice.
Just look at the Askálabos hide—it came from a dragonkin that once fought Demeter for a territory. After three days and nights of battle, the defeated dragonkin’s corpse was transformed by Goddess Demeter and reborn as Askálabos.
Such hides were so rare that ordinary humans would be devoured before even catching a glimpse.
And the adamant forming the trap’s frame was an imitation of the adamas personally created by Goddess Gaia.
After long research and experimentation, the smith gods had finally produced something similar—this metal was practically the ars magna (great art) of alchemy.
In short, even a tiny amount of this material completely changed the quality of anything it was used in.
The only minor problem with such a perfect substance was that crafting it required 100 times its weight in gold and the entire magical power of a kome-level mage.
Moreover, what tied everything together—the [Snare of Artemis]—was special.
This was a magical implementation of the hunting goddess Artemis’s authority, allowing any tool to function as a hunter’s trap.
Literally, it was magic that overcame time, place, material—everything.
To use even one [Snare of Artemis], one had to understand and harmonize its underlying principles: [Artemis’s Grant], [Artemis’s Bait], [Artemis’s Enhancement], [Artemis’s Vision], [Artemis’s Accuracy], and so on.
“Yes, in short, it means at least polis-level (city-state level) mage. To handle it completely freely, probably ethnos-level (confederation/alliance level)?”
Perseus swallowed hard at Njord’s additional comment.
In the modern era, after agreement among mages and various races, the magic system was divided into five stages:
Oxo → Kome → Polis → Ethnos → Hella.
Each corresponding to house, village, city-state, confederation, civilization—the range a mage’s power could influence.
A polis-level mage had power reaching at least one city; advancing further meant influence over an entire confederation of city-states.
And those humans commonly called great mages usually started from ethnos-level.
“So… whoever installed or created this trap has vast wealth, equipment, and magical skill on par with you, Njord.”
As Perseus spoke, his face darkened.
The possibility of an unknown wealthy, capable individual or group being here in the Garden of the Gorgons—and potentially being his competitor or enemy…
Njord couldn’t immediately respond to Perseus’s gloomy voice.
‘Hmm… Did someone around my level make this?’
He didn’t even know where he himself stood in the hierarchy.
‘Katrin didn’t tell me that much…’
***
The one who had enabled Poseidon to masquerade as a mage was Hecate.
Poseidon, originally unfamiliar with magic, simply mimicked it with his divine authority.
Naturally, such a bizarre imitation was something the goddess of magic and one of the primordial beings—Hecate—couldn’t overlook.
Thus began Hecate’s crash course.
Because of this, Poseidon’s knowledge had certain biases.
Just like now, when he was contacting Hecate to ask.
—So you’re contacting me because I didn’t teach you the mage system?
“Yes. I’ve picked up bits and pieces of the human-made system while active, but I don’t know exactly what level it corresponds to. I can’t exactly not answer when Perseus asks.”
—Sigh…
Hecate, interrupted mid-research, let out a sigh.
To disturb her research just to babysit one brat…
She wanted to curse him through the connection right then, but she couldn’t.
She owed Poseidon many favors and had worked with him extensively.
—Yes. From the situation, it’s ethnos-level—in other words, great mage.
“Really?”
—Yes. And if we classify you strictly as a mage, you’d be hella-level. If we include that body of yours, it’s unmeasurable.
“Good, good. Then just tell Perseus that.”
Poseidon thought Hecate was indeed the right one for magic questions.
She was practically an all-purpose answer box.
If Hecate knew his inner thoughts, she really would have cursed him—but unfortunately, she lacked the ability to read Poseidon’s mind.
—…More importantly, is it okay?
“Hm? What?”
—The Gorgon sisters. You said their condition isn’t good…
“Ah, well, worrying about them shedding even is a bit overprotective. Of course, I’m not their parent.”
—What?!
—!!!???
At Poseidon’s nonchalant remark, Hecate—who had been silent—let out an involuntary scream of shock.
And the same went for another presence that had been quiet until now.
—!@@#!@$@!$@#%$
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