After a few hours, Rio woke up from his coma; it was already early morning when he woke up. The first thing he noticed upon waking was that Lia was sleeping on the sofa near his bed.
He got up from his bed and covered her with a blanket. Then he walked out of the room. The sky was still dark, and the red sun could be seen rising at the horizon.
As always, the air of this world is extremely pure and clean, bringing a freshness unique to this world. He made himself tea and continued to enjoy this small moment of peace.
'The ship should be returning to the shore soon; it's already time for a new event to take place. I should also get ready.'
'For me to maintain my head-start over Fade, I will need to get more of his chances.'
Thinking this far, Rio figured out that it's been a while, and he should now resume the stealing sessions.
'Well, it will have to wait a bit until I reach the shore again.'
Stormwalker continued to move forward with its usual might, and after a few hours, the shore was already visible to all. The students were thrilled to see the land once more.
They have been on their guard throughout this whole journey in fear of any more attacks, and as a result, all of them were exhausted.
Some of them have already collapsed from releasing all the pent-up stress and relaxing their nerves after seeing the shore.
The ship stopped at the same port, and the students got down from the ship with their luggage, and finally, a relaxed sigh escaped from their mouths.
Rio looked back at the Stormwalker and remembered the long adventure he had been facing on this ship. A complicated feeling rose from his heart.
Had he not acquired true immunity that day, the giant octopus would have already killed him, transforming him into a living corpse devoid of soul or will.
'In the end, I was able to make it back alive.'
The students boarded the bus and rode it back to the academy.
...
In the evening.
Rio was already in front of his dorm room.
Anna has declared that they will be given a holiday for a week and will have to return to their classes at the start of the next week.
Everyone was thrilled with this news; finally, they will be able to relax for a while.
Rio opened the door and walked inside.
After taking a bath, he laid down on his bed and started to sort out all the things that happened during this trip.
'That octopus was an anomaly to all the things I knew about the novel. Or it is possible that it was created because the anomaly is me myself.'
'Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: I should always keep in mind that not every scenario will follow my understanding of the novel, and there may occasionally be some oddities.'
'After all, this is a real world, not a novel where only things happen during a set plot. Here, things can happen without people's knowledge.'
After confirming his thoughts and deciding his next plan of action, Rio fell asleep.
...
In the morning.
Rio did his daily exercise routine and then left the academy by bus. No one said anything to him or asked him why he was leaving, because the students are free to do anything when it's a holiday.
This time, it took him a long time to reach his destination, and by the time he arrived, it was already evening. So, he just booked a room to stay for the night and then slept there.
The next day, he left his room and walked toward the city's most famous lake. The Lake of Sean is the most beautiful and biggest lake in this city.
This lake is a tourist spot for several people, and it is always crowded due to its popularity among the people for fulfilling wishes.
Yeah, it's just a legend, but people believe that if you make a wish while standing in front of this lake, it will come true.
This legend inspires people to come here and try their luck, but this is just a legend.
If it were true, then the protagonist would not need to go through so many life-and-death situations; he would have directly gotten what he wanted just by wishing for it.
Even heaven-defying luck can't fulfill such conditions, not to mention a lake with no concept of luck bound to it. But since people believe it, then no one tries to stop it.
Talking about belief and all, there was a concept of belief in humans too at the start of the time when dungeon gates first appeared in this world.
People claimed to have developed a skill that could gather the power of belief at that time, but they eventually vanished, leaving no concept of belief or divine power in place; only mana rules this world now.
No one knows why that is.
'Let's get to the thing I came here for, now.'
After reaching the lake, Rio crossed the bridge, which is right in the middle of the lake. After crossing the bridge, Rio walked straight into the forest and never looked back.
Rio walked for a few minutes, and he was in front of a clearing in the middle of the forest. It was as if the trees were not growing at this place due to some unknown reason.
Rio walked to the middle of the place and sat down there, completely relaxing his body, as if he did not care about anything in the world.
As if danger meant nothing to him. He pretended that he had relaxed his vigilance completely.
And as he had already expected, after about half an hour, all of his surroundings started to be covered in fog.
The fog continued to increase and finally stopped increasing when his vision was restricted to only 1 m.
Rio then got up and walked in the direction where the sun was before the fog thickened. After walking for about 2 hours nonstop, he found that he was still standing in the same spot.
'So, this is the endless path of perseverance! Interesting...'
In the novel, Fade comes to the Lake of Sean with Kira on a date. They wanted a quiet place to spend time for a while since it was crowded around the lake. So, they looked around for a place in the forest.
At that time, they found this place by luck. I mean, they found this place with the help of the heavenly luck. They set up camp here, and as they prepared to depart, they discovered a dense fog engulfing the entire area.
As the fog was still increasing, they tried to walk in the direction of the way from where they came, but every time both of them found themselves standing at the same stop after a few minutes of walking.
Then Kira proposed walking in the sun's direction because she knew that there was an office of her father's guild in that direction, so she noticed it at that time.
And by sheer luck, they got the treasure walking in that direction continuously.
...
Rio also did the same; he continued to walk in that direction, and even though he found himself standing in the same spot every time, he still walked because he knew this was just a test to get that treasure.
'Hesitation is death; keep walking, Rio...'
After who knows how long, he finally noticed some difference in the area around him. He immediately fastened his pace and continued to walk forward with all his might.
*WHO ARE YOU HUMAN? YOU HAVE SOME GREAT PERSEVERANCE. I AM IMPRESSED BY YOUR BOLDNESS!*
A giant snake appeared in Rio's vision, and all the fog around him faded away as if it did not exist in the first place. Seeing that gigantic monstrosity, Rio was shocked to the core.
Although he knew that there would be such a scene from the description of the novel, he was still extremely shocked.
The size of this snake was so huge that Rio couldn't even see the end of the snake's tail with his eyes. The snake's eyes were already twice as big as Rio's body.
This allows you to imagine the sheer might of this giant snake. Even the octopus from before would look like a small baby in front of this snake.
The snake's scales were pitch black in color, and its pupils were red like a raging fire.
Unconsciously, Rio sensed an unfathomable deep pressure release from this snake's body just by its mere presence.
'So, this is how powerful the presence of a SS rank monster looks like. Wonderful'
"My name is Rio Flash, a humble swordsman..."
*WHY HAS YOU COME HERE TO DISTURB ME?*
"I lost my way and was searching for a way out of the fog, unaware that your Excellency was resting here; please forgive me."
*HMM, YOU HAVE A GREAT CONFIDENCE TO STILL BE TALKING SO CALMLY WITH ME; YOU ARE A STRANGE KID.*
"I am just telling the truth, Your Excellency. I will be grateful if you can tell me the right way, Your Excellency 'Marik', the great illusionary holy beast."
*OH! I AM SURPRISED THAT YOU KNOW ME! I WILL TELL YOU THE RIGHT WAY IF YOU ANSWER HOW YOU KNOW ABOUT ME?*
"Of course, how can I not know about the legend of you trapping the army of the fourth demon general with your illusionary magic in an infinite time illusion?"
"It is all written in the history books of the human empire. I just appreciate reading history books, so I know of it."
*YEAH! COME TO THINK OF IT, YOU HUMANS DO RECORD THESE THINGS IN YOUR TEXTS.*
*HMM, YOU HAVE IMPRESSED ME, AS PROMISED LET ME SHOW YOU THE WAY TOWARDS YOUR DESTINATION.*
Marik opened a portal out of thin air and signaled Rio to enter it. Rio entered the portal without hesitation.
Opening portals at will and teleporting people easily is an inherent skill of SS-rankers; Rio knew about it from the start, so he wasn't much surprised and didn't hesitate much.
...
After Rio walked out of the portal at the other end, he waited for it to close.
When the portal closed, he immediately heaved a sigh of relief. Looking at himself, he found that he was already covered in sweat; it was taxing to stand in front of that monster for so long.
Although it only has been a few minutes, those few minutes were like an eternity when standing in the presence of that snake.
One wrong word, and Rio's life would have been ended by that snake in a matter of mere seconds. But in the end, he survived that ordeal and successfully reached the place he wanted to.
Right in front of him was an old-looking tomb. When he saw this place, a smile appeared on his face, and he began to walk inside the tomb.
'The journey is now only half complete.'