"Where is the Temple of the Dreadnought located?" Asked Elune with a frown on her face.
It had been almost six months since she asked where they were heading and Rahz didn't show any indication that he was confident to get them there.
"It is in the land of the Demons, The God of War said that Chaos Energy was native to that region and that if I wanted to advance past my second evolution I need it to head there".
"You mean the Abyss!!!"
"Is that where they live?"
"Wait... You don't even know where the Abyss is and yet you want to go there" Elune place her hand on her forehead as she felt a headache coming.
"Well I never left the village before so I don't know the specifics but I think that Lord Fadall left directions ingrain in my head because everytime I think about going to the temple I can feel something calling me from a general direction. Besides, we can think of this as an adventure to get stronger so that we can avenge your family"
Hearing Rahz talk about avenging her family remind it Elune what her goal was and made it so she didn't fuzz about the fact they were basically lost. The Witch Doctor sighed at how easy Rahz was able to control the situation and knew he needed to step in.
It was true that this journey was going to help them become stronger but it had been 5000 Years since The Shattering and the Realm of Elysian was filled with dangerous ruins and High Level zones inhabited by powerful monsters. If they end up in one of those areas there was no telling what could happen. If they were lucky, they would die a painless death but in the worst case scenario their souls could be torture for all eternity.
The Witch Doctor shivered while thinking about what could happened so he decided to step in and make a suggestion. "Elune tell the kid that the most important thing is to get a map of the land and for that you need to head to a town or a city".
Elune's eyes lit up and relayed her plan to her traveling companions and got a positive response.
Rahz heard the suggestion and thought it was an awesome idea, the problem was that it was too late to head to Willowdale now and they were in the middle of some planes with no road in sight.
The creatures in the area had change as well and the Levels were increasing as the days passed by. So Far the fauna of the region was filled with beast in between 11-15 and for Rahz, Riddick and Midori it was heaven. There was new meat to taste every day and their levels were increasing little by little. Riddick and Midori now couldn't live without Rahz's BBQ, it had been elevated into an Art form and they realized that eating the meat fresh off the pit was a lot more enjoyable that just melting it with chaos fire or extreme poison and absorbing it through their bodies. The satisfaction of eating meat was so enjoyable that they always remembered to save a few creatures for their dinner every day.
After six months, the levels of Rahz and the others had not changed much. Rahz was still Level 14 while Elune was ever so close to becoming Level 13. The highest level of the group was definitely Riddick who was born a level 16 and then followed by Midori that despite being a lot bigger than when she was born, still remained at 15.
The team's routine was very simple, they woke up around daybreak and travel towards the Temple of the Dreadnought while killing anything that attack them before cooking it for lunch. After they ate their fill, everyone rested and then move as a group in search for a good spot to camp for the night before looking for hordes of animals to kill.
Rahz finished his conversation with Elune about the things they needed to do to make it to their destination and got ready for the grinding section of the afternoon. This time the search was going to be a little more intensive as they need it to check for a nice source of water that could replenished their diminishing supply.
The team fanned out as they moved forward and proceeded to look for a water supply as well as a place with a decent amount of creatures to continue the everlasting climb towards the apex of strength.
At this point in their journey, anyone of them could clear 50 miles in about an hour and in case somebody was successful in finding one of the two things they were looking for( water or a horde of monsters), they would use a compound created by Elune that would shoot a signal into the sky. All that the compound required was a little bit of Runic power to activate it.
Two hours passed after Rahz and the others went their different ways when a green flare shot up into the air. Midori activated her signal to call the others over and was really excited to show them the magnificent lake that she was staring at.
The lake was the perfect spot to build their camp for the night and restock on water to continue their journey through the zone.
The last one to arrived to the lake was Rahz and once he got there he found the other people already swimming and having a good time. Without further ado he jumped in as well and started to look for some aquatic fare to have for dinner but to his surprise there was not a single fish to be found. Rahz thought it was a shame not being able to find something for dinner but he quickly put it out of his mind.
It wasn't until it was starting to get dark when the team decided to get out of the lake but when they were looking for a few animals to have for dinner they discovered that there was none to be found. They were plenty during the day but they had all disappeared without a trace.
Rahz started up a fire to dry his clothes and decided to do maintenance on his 2h Axe. In the passed couple of months they had been a couple of nights in which they had not been able to get anything for dinner but since they always had a sumptuous lunch, it was not too bad.
As the day became night, a very thick fog started to spread on the surface of the lake sending cold winds that caused the temperature to drop all around a 30 miles radius. The fog very quickly covered the camp where the team was resting and Rahz and the others started to shivered as the campfire started to flicker before going out in one fell swoop.
When the flame went out, all the team members jumped from their seats in fright but them laughed out loud because they could still see each other thanks to Riddicks flame crown that lit up the space.
"Good job buddy" said Rahz while letting out a sigh of relief but the spookiness did not stop there.
Out of nowhere, a shadow appeared running towards the team screaming at the top of its lungs, " HELP ME!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!"
Rahz looked in the direction of the shadow and without think about it said " DON'T WORRY FRIEND!! YOU ARE SAFE NOW!! WE WILL HELP YOU"
The moment Rahz spoke, the Witch Doctor's face paled and said, " Oh shit, You fucked up now BOY!!, and worst of all you dragged us with you!!"
4 sinister clouds filled with dark smoke came spiraling down directly into their foreheads and disappeared leaving behind a cursed mark. At the same time the shadow got closer and closer to them while everyone got closer and closer together.
They all looked at what was in front of them but they didn't know what to call it. The base was definitely a decaying corpse but it still maintained the armor he wore when he was still alive and it looked to be good quality stuff made out of iron and some of it glowed like it was all enchanted. The most bizarre phenomena that happened was that every few seconds the team could see the transparent face and body of when the person was still alive before it change back again into a corpse. He was a specter.
"Thank you young man, I have been waiting more than 5000 years for somebody to help me but everyone seems to run at the very sight of me… I wonder why that is… but anyways, now that you are here and made a bow, if you want to continue being "the Living" you must complete the task and help us move on".