In the depths of the forest surrounding Dunul, there was a large cave whose entrance had collapsed, completely sealing it off.
In the sky, the sun shone brightly, signaling the end of the morning and the beginning of the continent's scorching afternoons, the birds were still singing, and the forest was still buzzing with magical vibrancy.
In this atmosphere, the air distorted slightly as the mana trembled and space-time itself seemed to be ripped into a portal of golden light, revealing the figure of a man.
"Hm... a truly miserable little place." Merinor gritted his teeth as he sensed the extremely low mana concentrations in this environment, which were even capable of making him uncomfortable.
As someone whose power was at the apex of this world, Merinor not only had the ability to sense and control large amounts of mana with extreme ease, but was also fully capable of passively absorbing it and treating it without any effort, as if it were a part of his own body and mind.
"Ah... I guess I've gotten a little soft about these things..." Merinor sighed, in recent years he had always been in areas with a high concentration of mana and where his body could make the most of its fighting abilities. Being back in a place with such a low magical concentration was really annoying to him.
His vision then swept over the forest around him before stopping at the collapsed entrance to the cave.
Merinor walked slowly into the cave and placed both hands on the stones that sealed it. 10 thin strands of golden mana left his fingers and pierced the stones, traveling hundreds of meters until Merinor could feel the end of the collapsed area.
He extended his magic as far as he could, but soon the low concentration of mana and the energy of chaos that permeated the walls of the dungeon caused the strands of mana to lose more and more power until he could go no further.
Removing his hands from the wall, Merinor stepped away. He could break through the collapsed area with brute force, but he decided against it. First, he would see if Arthur was nearby, and if not, he would move on.
Sending a fraction of his mana to his feet, Merinor flew through the air to a height where he could see everything for miles around. Including the village of Dunul.
Closing his eyes, he spread his mana senses, which could easily cover hundreds of kilometers, and analyzed the appearance of every life form, searching for a young man with the same characteristics Safira had described.
Not only was his ability to analyze, but also to hide his own fluctuations so high that not even the Lord of Noster, a powerful fourth-stage warrior, could feel Merinor's mana studying his every move.
"I found you!" Merinor exclaimed, gazing at the majestic mountains rising on the horizon.
With a smile, his body vanished into thin air, shattering into thousands of golden particles.
***
From the moment they left the edge of the forest, all Arthur and his party saw were more and more reddish and yellowish rocks, a few streams, and animal life and vegetation that could basically be defined as cactuses, dry shrubs, birds, and small, tough-looking insects.
"Don't be fooled by the emptiness of this place, boy, everything here can kill you cruelly." Lugh said, noticing the disinterest in Arthur's eyes as he surveyed the dry, lifeless landscape.
"And where is it different?" Arthur turned his eyes to Lugh and smiled.
"Perhaps under the skirts of a Noster prostitute, I guess..." Conri broke into the two men's conversation and smiled as his mind seemed to flow with things that weren't quite right.
"Actually, no... I've seen too many men die in those brothels." Conri continued after a moment of thought.
"How long has it been since you touched a woman, boy? I can take you to Noster and introduce you to the most beautiful prostitutes in town!" Conri smiled at Arthur, who just shook his head.
He'd already heard Hel's voice and felt the touch of Safira's lips, and though he was not a virgin and those weren't his first contacts with the opposite sex, they were certainly the most intense.
Intense enough to make any woman who can't compare to them completely lose her charm. And even though he wasn't in an official relationship with Safira, the mere thought of sleeping with another woman made his heart flutter with discomfort.
"It's tempting, but I have to say no. I have a woman waiting for me in Albrid," Arthur said, not even glancing in the direction of the man, who backed away with a dejected look on his face, but his interest returned the next second. "A girl? Why don't you tell us more about that?" He smiled, but all he got in return was an awkward nod from Arthur.
In his heart, Arthur regretted saying that last sentence.
After this brief conversation, they continued their journey in silence for a few more minutes.
"It will be dark in a few hours, we need to find shelter before the beasts start to prowl this area." One of the hunters spoke while looking at the sky.
"There's a place I used to camp a few kilometers in that direction, we can get there in time if we hurry." Conri pointed to the horizon with a smile on his face.
With no better alternative, they all agreed to Conri's suggestion and he took the lead of the group.
Without them noticing, the space a few hundred meters away from them distorted and a golden figure appeared, its gaze sweeping over the barren terrain until it stopped at Arthur's back.
Merinor didn't do anything immediately, preferring to watch Arthur from a distance, extending his mana senses to find out exactly what the boy's abilities were.
"Strong and talented for his age... but nothing..." Merinor choked on his words, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets as he felt a faint power emanating from Arthur. It was brief, weak, and almost imperceptible to any other warrior of his level.
But Merinor was no ordinary warrior; his perception and sacred magic were exceptional even among his peers. A single fraction of this energy was enough for him to define exactly what it was.
Gritting his teeth, Merinor gave up on questioning Arthur and extended his right hand, surrounding it with golden magic.
At that moment, all he wanted to do was wipe the boy from the face of the earth once and for all.
But just as he prepared to attack, he felt a powerful hand touch his shoulder and the space around him distort.
"Who???" Merinor turned quickly and impulsively threw all the magical power stored in his hands into a powerful attack.
A thunderous boom ripped through the air and all the mana in a radius of several kilometers was incinerated, burning the atmosphere in front of Merinor while everything in a radius of tens of kilometers was swept away by a gigantic pressure.
As smoke rose from the explosion and Merinor smiled with the certainty that whoever had attacked him was already dead, he observed the area around him.
He was floating in the sky and as far as the eye could see there was nothing but an almost infinite amount of water and just below him was a single desolate and desert island a few hundred kilometers long.
"Hahaha," a smile came to Merinor's ears, and the man's heart pounded as he turned to the place where the explosion had occurred.
There he saw a tall man whose entire body had been completely carbonized, with only a floral mask remaining completely intact despite the power of that mighty attack.
The masked man's body was rapidly being regenerated, his skin, organs, and flesh being rebuilt as Merinor watched with horror in his eyes. "A Hemomancer? No... not just a Hemomancer... What exactly are you?"