August 15, 1797.
Jin's group stood in the middle of the Black Sea, staring at the map.
It had been ten days since they arrived. Over three hundred monsters had been killed, and they were now running low on food.
Unfortunately, there wasn't anything to eat in the Black Sea.
Jin wouldn't have a problem eating the monsters—due to his inherent resistance—and Murakan and Quikantel could probably ingest the weak ones. However, no one would even dare to attempt it.
"Shit. Navigating with a map is still challenging. Why don't we see the stone pillars that are marked right there? It feels like we're in the area. Are you sure this map is accurate?"
"It's been fine so far, so it's probably right. Father and the previous Dark Knights would've never made a faulty map."
"Can't even fly to check. Damn it."
Flying had never been an option. The black clouds would corrode the dragons' scales instantly. Furthermore, if dragons could fly over the land, the Dark Knights would've never suffered so much just to make a map.
"I think those are the stone pillars on the map. Well, contrary to the map, there's a big circle over there."
Jin pointed at the large hole in the ground.
It looked as if the moon left a crater. It was at least a hundred meters deep, and a stone pillar could be found in the middle.
Vanessa's map was an early version. Many obscure landworks prevented the average traveler from fully decoding it.
"Hm, looks right."
"Man, we have to go down there? I don't really want to…"
"Don't worry, Jet. Descending is easy."
The poisonous clouds were only in the sky. Murakan transformed, and the rest of the group boarded him to get to the bottom.
The stone pillar looked much bigger up front, and it became evident that it wasn't just any ordinary pillar.
It was a nest. Flying monsters in the Black Sea known as 'Colgia' rested upon the pillar.
Kyaaaaaaak!
"Ahh!"
An ear-splitting screech came from the pillar, and the sky instantly turned pitch-black. Hundreds of colgias flew off the nest and circled above them.
Jin and Kashimir drew their weapons, but Quikantel waved them off.
"Stay put. Murakan's got this."
[How dare you…]
With glowing eyes, Murakan gathered his shadow energy in his mouth.
Thanks to Jin's strengthened spiritual energy, Murakan got unbelievably stronger than before.
Kiiiiiiiiiiing!
Pure darkness engulfed the entirety of the sky for a split second, and then, the colgias were gone. Jin blankly stared at Murakan.
Yet their surroundings were pitch-black.
Not in any metaphorical sense. Jin realized that he couldn't see anything.
The entire crater had been filled with spiritual energy.
The darkness ripped apart the colgias bodies bit by bit. Without a single bit of flesh touching the ground, the pieces disappeared into thin air.
"He wasn't the strongest in the past for nothing."
The spiritual energy dissipated, and Quikantel clapped. Kashimir and Jet clapped as well.
"Hmph, that's still nothing."
"Th-That… That's nothing? I couldn't believe my own two eyes. I couldn't tell if you were the same Murakan who joked around with us. Sir Kashimir, don't you agree?"
"O-Oh… Yeah. No, but Sir Murakan, if you've always had this kind of power, why did Miss Quikantel and I kill the monsters?"
"Are you unsatisfied with my performance?"
"Not at all. I just found it a little… Never mind."
"It's weird, though. After the kid got super strong, I didn't get proportionally stronger."
Kashimir and Jet's astonishment meant nothing. Murakan didn't feel like he performed at his best.
"Isn't that enough compared to last time?"
"Your spiritual energy is almost 6-star, so sixty percent of my power should be back."
"You're asking too much. I think you should be happy that you're still alive and powerful."
"We should look into it. My recovery is a little slower than I thought."
"Why don't you ask your sister?"
"Hah, I don't wanna do that."
"So what do you want me to do?"
Murakan and Quikantel went back and forth, while Jin examined the map.
"Based on the map, we should pass a mountain range, then a lake called Molrose. After that, we'll arrive at our destination. I think we'll get there by tonight if we depart now. That's only possible if the monsters we encounter are similar to the ones now."
"Let's aim for tonight, and let Jin sleep. We don't know what Helluram has prepared for us, so we need to match it with our full ability. We gotta take it down, right?"
Thankfully, they didn't run into anything for the rest of the journey. The monsters nearby Molrose lake knew they'd die if they encroached upon the territory.
Cyron and the previous Dark Knights probably killed off everything nearby in order to keep Helluram's monster isolated.
Without noticing, they marched forward and arrived by evening.
Soon, they ran into a forest.
"A forest?"
To their knowledge, the Black Sea had no trees; only rocks, volcanoes, poisonous swamps, and lakes.
However, those rumors were wrong.
The Black Sea had many forests. The one in their way was only one of many. On the map alone, there were over ten forests.
Of course, unlike a normal forest, these forests had thorny trees that had venomous spines, and they contained some plants with "jaws".
These trees stretched over acres and had gaps wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
If a finger just grazed those trees… The mere thought caused goosebumps.
"Wh-What kind of forest is this? Will you be going in alone?"
"Move".
Quikantel pushed Jet aside and walked into the forest. She broke every branch in her way and burned the leaves to a crisp.
Not so long after, she came back out with a frown.
"It's riddled with poisonous gas inside. Only those with resistance can enter, just as she said. This is a little troubling. What kind of monster lives there?"
The crew couldn't even imagine the monster residing within. Helluram didn't keep just one or two even after most of them died to warriors or dragons.
"Whatever it is, Vanessa probably gave the map because she thinks the kid can beat it, but I don't know what he'll get out of beating that thing. The genitals? I don't think a human would have much use for that, though."
A monster's genitals were used as pain relievers for dragons, but it had no effect on humans.
"You said that Jin would easily beat this thing, and now you're talking about that? How can Jin catch one by himself?"
Monsters were often caught for their body parts. These monsters learned how to efficiently evade and hide from the common eye.
"Well, that makes sense. Anyway, Jet! Set up camp and prepare for dinner. We must feed the kid well for tomorrow, even if we have to eat less. Do you understand?!"
"I will use a lot of protein and meat powder."
"We're running out anyway, so there's no need."
"We can eat some monsters anyways, so it's alright."
The following morning, the group decided to wait for Jin at the entrance to the forest. Jin prepared some spells in case of an ambush.
He walked into the forest. Cutting through the branches and vines and burning through leaves weren't so bad.
'And the gas starts here.'
There was less vegetation as the gas began. Instead, his breath became a little shorter. Without the Thousand-Poison Antidote, he wouldn't have even lasted a minute.
After walking a while, he watched the structure of the forest change. A vast plain appeared. It had completely round and artificially carved rocks. On the other side, the thorny forest continued, and there was another plain.
This pattern repeated many times.
As he walked across the grass, he considered how such a place came to be.
'How is it even like this? And these rocks… Why are they carved? Did a Dark Knight do this?'
The trees could fit the image of the Black Sea, but not the perfectly round rocks.
What could they be used for?
Jin continued to walk. It had been three hours since he'd begun exploring, and all he saw were round rocks and thorny trees.
Then, suddenly, something caught his eye.
'This is…'
Fur.
A complete contrast to the thick, dark, gaseous forest.
Jin followed the path of soft fur. After encountering plains for the fifteenth time. He found what had been creating the round rocks and knew what they were used for.
Meow?
A cat lay in the middle of the grass, playing with the rocks. However, the cat had the size of a transformed Murakan—his dragon form.
It was Helluram's cat.