[Status: Dormant — Awakening 2%]
The red panel remained before Lian’s view for a few seconds. In the distance, the sitting giant was still motionless.
A massive skeleton that even in a sitting position cast a shadow like a broken white mountain over the entire Giants’ Graveyard.
Its shattered crown remained on its skull, and the sword that had passed through its chest looked more like a black tower than a weapon from this distance.
Massive chains were wrapped around its neck, shoulders, arms, and legs. Some links were intact, some were broken, and their remaining ends disappeared among the valley’s bones.
But the giant itself did not move again. Only that one finger had shifted slightly a few moments ago.
Or perhaps something inside it had moved.
Seris stood next to Lian, her black eyes not leaving the massive skeleton.
Unlike One, which had been anxious from the moment they approached the valley, there was no fear or hesitation in Seris’s gaze. A spark of interest and calm excitement had formed in her eyes.
"Finally, we found something interesting."
"No. We found something we shouldn’t get close to right now." Lian answered without taking his eyes off the giant.
"Are you scared?"
Lian gave a brief look at her this time.
"No." Then he stared at the giant again.
"I know the difference between courage and stupidity." He was sure this thing was an Unholy, and although he would also like to face and fight such a monster, he knew now was not the time.
First, the chance of their death was certain, and second, his main goal right now was reaching his first evolution, which he was not far from.
Maybe after his first evolution, he could face an Unholy.
Seris said nothing because she also knew this was true. Facing such a monster would be suicide.
Lian checked the panel again.
[Status: Dormant — Awakening 2%]
The percentage had not changed.
A few minutes passed. The gray mist moved over the valley’s bones, and white dust fell from some of the massive ribs.
The distant sound of something rubbing in the valley’s depth was heard, but the percentage still remained at two, and this point was important for Lian.
If the creature was truly awakening, there should be a clear process.
One percent.
Two percent.
Three percent.
But since the panel was first seen, no other change had occurred. The first possibility was that their entry had only caused a brief reaction.
The second possibility was the destruction of the Grave Mimics. Perhaps the death of those creatures had stimulated part of the graveyard’s network, and the system had recorded that reaction as Awakening.
The third possibility was more unpleasant. The panel might not show the giant’s own status at all.
Perhaps something was sleeping inside its bones, a sealed creature or a remnant of a power that had been buried with this giant thousands of years ago.
The last possibility was that the giant was completely dead, and the system had simply mistaken the activation of residual energy in its corpse for awakening.
But each of the possibilities had their own flaws and illogicalities. He himself was somewhat sure that killing those monsters had stimulated this giant’s awakening.
And this meant that killing monsters might affect this monster’s awakening, a point he had to keep in mind.
"It’s remained on two percent." Lian said under his breath.
"So?" Seris asked.
"So as long as it doesn’t go higher, we ignore it."
The silver-haired girl looked at the giant again.
"If it goes higher?"
"Then we decide again." Lian’s answer was simple, but it was the right decision.
They had not come to the Giants’ Graveyard to fight a creature whose Level could not even be detected by the system.
Their goal was to cross the valley and reach Glassthorn Forest.
Anything else was only worth it if the risk was manageable.
Lian took out the complete map from his storage space and spread it on a relatively flat rock. The strands inside the map lit up upon contact with the air.
The valley was not just one large depression. It had several layers, high paths on ribs and spinal columns, deep gaps between skeletons, tunnels passing through skulls and hollow bones.
And areas marked with red and black signs.
The main path to Glassthorn Forest consisted of three parts.
First, the Rib Passage, a path between the ribs of a dead giant that led from the northern edge of the graveyard to the lower level of the valley.
After that, the Hollow Spine, a path passing through the hollow spinal column of a massive creature and bypassing the central part of the graveyard.
And finally, the Crystal Wound, a crack in the valley’s eastern wall where the crystalline mist and cold of Glassthorn entered the graveyard.
There was also a direct path, a shorter line that passed almost through the valley’s center, but that direct path passed under the sitting giant’s skeleton.
Lian followed the path with his finger.
"The direct path passes under it."
"It’s shorter." Seris gave a brief look at the map.
Lian pointed at the chains around the giant.
"And whatever is chained up like that probably has a good reason, and we’re not going to find out by trying."
He chose the longer path.
The Rib Passage.
Moving from the north of the valley, bypassing the sitting giant’s skeleton, entering the Hollow Spine, and then moving toward the Crystal Wound.
The path was longer, but it kept more distance from the main threat.
Lian did not close the map. Before entering, he decided not to trust only the drawn lines.
He checked the bottom from the cliff’s edge. At first glance, the valley was nothing but a sea of bones, mist, and giant ruins.
But when he looked without moving for a few minutes, the patterns became clear. The black spots they had seen from a distance the day before were still moving on some bones.
They looked like insects, but their dimensions were much larger than what they had seemed at first glance.
The strange thing was that none of them approached a few specific skeletons. On the western rib, the black spots moved forward to an invisible border and then changed their path.
The same behavior was seen around a horned skull.
Lian concluded that those empty areas were not necessarily safe. They might be heavily contaminated or the territory of a stronger creature.
In some parts of the valley floor, crushed bones and small carcasses were scattered everywhere.
But a few long and narrow paths looked completely clean, with no bone pieces or monster remains on them.
At first glance, they seemed the best way to move, but he looked more carefully. The edges of the paths were not smooth. The crushed bones had been pushed to the sides.
As if something massive regularly passed through there and pushed aside any obstacle.
Lian marked those paths in his mind as danger lines. The gray mist also did not behave naturally.
The wind blew from north to south, but the mist moved against the wind in some places. It gathered around a few skulls, entered through the eye sockets, and came out through the jaw or neck cracks.
In one section, the mist flowed like a narrow river on the ground and avoided contact with the black chains.
This behavior could be reacting to mana, living creatures, or an unknown force.
The black chains were also different. Some still looked completely intact.
Their links remained on the bones without rust or cracks, but in places where the chains were broken, extensive destruction was seen.
Ribs were crushed in the middle, the ground was split, and bone fragments were thrown hundreds of meters away.
Lian drew a simple conclusion from this sign. Whatever had once been chained by these chains had not necessarily remained dead.
"I would like to know what happened here. It looks like it was a very big battle." He then whispered quietly.
Even imagining what had caused the formation of the Giants’ Graveyard was not easy, but he was sure it had been a battle, a very big battle.
"So this place was formed because of a battle? But a battle between who? Giants and giants?" Seris also looked at the graveyard.
"I doubt it. From the patterns, it seems the conflict was between giants and one person." Even he himself could barely accept the words he had just spoken.
"You mean one person alone created such a graveyard of such powerful giants? How powerful must they have been?" The silver-haired girl also seemed amazed.
"Whoever it was, they had at least the power of awakened ones who have passed four evolutions." Lian was also not sure.
Was it the work of one of this world’s natives? Or someone belonging to the Ruined Realm? There was no information to reason with.
But he was sure it was the work of one person, and it was clear whoever it was had a great hatred for giants to have done such a thing to them.
Seris stood silently beside him. Her thoughts were not discernible, but from her eyes, it was clear she was also amazed.
"Hmm?" Both stood still for a few moments, and then a sound was heard from beneath the valley.
Very weak, not regular, but repeating.
Not like a heartbeat, more like a massive mass being dragged under the soil and bones.
"Did you hear that?"
Lian nodded.
"Yeah." He kept his gaze on the valley floor.
"Something is moving under the bones."
One was restless behind them. Its antennae kept trembling, and its jaws were clicking together with a quiet sound.
Lian placed his hand on the armored plate beside its head and checked its condition through Hive Link.
One’s fear did not come from a specific point, not the sitting giant, not the mist, not one of the skeletons, but as if the entire valley felt wrong to it.
As if the entire Giants’ Graveyard had a smell that made living creatures’ instincts force them to flee.
Lian initially thought of leaving One at the edge of the valley, but this decision was not practical. Grave Mimics could infiltrate its body.
Leaving it alone in an environment where the paths changed was more dangerous than bringing it along.
He checked the Rib Passage path again on the map. The width of most of its sections was enough for One’s body.
Only a few narrow gaps existed that could be bypassed through side paths.
He kept his hand on the ant’s armor and sent a clear command through Hive Link.
"Don’t eat any corpses."
One opened its jaws slightly. A brief confusion passed through the link. For a creature like it, enemies’ corpses were a source of food and growth.
But Lian sent the command more firmly. No corpses, no bones, and no creature from inside the graveyard should be eaten!
The reason was clear. The corpses might be infected by parasitic monsters or something similar, and eating them could cause that thing to spread to One as well.
He closed the map.
"Before entering, you both need to follow a few rules..." He looked at the girl and the ant and said seriously.