It seemed that luck was on their side, as not one Teranodon appeared as they approached the Sky Altar.

Only monsters that were in the lv 150 range, which could be faced easily by the knights, appeared once in a while.

However, there was a problem even aside from the Teranodon.

An incredible sandstorm blew from all directions, to the point it was impossible to keep their eyes open.

‘They said that it was the place where the wind’s strength was the most powerful…’

Even while grumbling, Ian kept alert in all directions.

Since he couldn’t fixate his eyes on anything properly, there was a high chance that they could be ambushed.

And one mistake would directly lead to the failure of the quest.

Just then, a strange cry was heard ahead.

Kyaaaoooh-!

It was the cry of a different monster that they had never met before.

‘Is it the monster that’s called the Teranodon or whatever?’

And Hellaim’s command was rapidly made.

“Prepare for combat! Carry out matters as carefully as possible so that you do not grab the attention of other opponents in the vicinity!”

Shortly after, the identity of the cry appeared.

It wasn’t the Teranodon.

‘Pachyao?’

The thing that cut through the sandstorm and appeared was a monster that was named ‘Pachyao’.

It was a giant tiger that had a similar look and feeling to Ian’s Familiar Halli, but while Halli was a white tiger, Pachyao was a red tiger with yellow stripes.

On top of that, its level was also 180.

Although it wasn’t a Teranodon, it was an opponent no less powerful than one.

“Pachyaos never roam around alone. There will definitely be over four or five together nearby.”

Hellaim turned his attention towards Ian and continued his words.

“Ian, spare your body as much as you can, while we will kill them one by one as fast as possible.”

Hellaim unsheathed his sword and raised it.

And he directly faced the Pachyao that ran towards him and threw his body at it.

Kuoooh-

As Hellaim ran straight forward, a large vortex began to form around him.

And his sword began to turn into a bright red light.

‘What the hell, he looks super cool.’

For a moment, Ian watched Hellaim absentmindedly to the point that he suddenly forgot that it was such a dangerous situation.

And.

Ba-Ba-Bang-!

Red beams that exploded from his sword in multiple sections slashed through the Pachyao.

Roaar-!

The Pachyao that charged at them was knocked out by that one hit and rolled along the ground.

And it seemed as its Vitality had dropped by half, as its name began to blink.

‘As expected… The true monster is Hellaim…’

Ian shook his head and got into a fighting stance.

Just as Hellaim predicted, several Pachyaos surrounded the party and approached them.

And a free fight begun.

‘Even just by looking at it, you can tell the Pachyao is an Agility-based monster. Its movements will be much faster than me. I must be more careful.’

Ian purposely didn’t use a buff skill.

It would be hard to stay alive if he was targeted from using a skill in an attempt to help them in vain.

Ian focused on defense the most and hid his existence.

Shortly after, Hellaim approached Ian, who was keeping an eye on the battlefield carefully.

It looked as if he had killed the Pachyao he was facing before Ian realized it and returned.

He lifted his sword and pointed towards somewhere.

“Ian, do you see the stairs that go up to the altar over there?”

At Hellaim’s question, Ian turned his head towards the direction that he was referring to.

As he did so, he could see the entrance of the altar that was vaguely visible within the sandstorm.

“Yes, I see it.”

“Once discovered by a Pachyao, we cannot last much longer. The monsters will smell the blood and flock here.”

Ian slightly glanced at the knights that were fighting five Pachyaos as their opponents.

It seemed they were relaxed as of yet, but if the numbers were to increase, the damage would definitely become continuous.

Hellaim’s words continued.

“I will cover you, so go up to the altar as fast as you can. Once you hatch the Griffin, we will leave this place quickly.”

Ian nodded his head.

“Understood.”

“Follow me this way.”

Hellaim, who finished speaking, took the lead and moved, while Ian quickly followed behind.

However, just then, a gigantic roar rang out through the sandstorm.

It was different from the sound of the Pachyao.

Kyaao!

And Hellaim, who heard that noise, raised his sword high.

“All knights over here!”

As expected of knights that were under Hellaim’s immediate control, the expedition’s knights moved at lightning speed.

It looked as if the Pachyaos that they were facing each only had a little bit of Vitality left, but while watching them show no reluctance to give up the battle and move quickly, Ian was astonished.

‘They’re certainly systematic.’

And shortly after, a large shadow pierced through the sandstorm and appeared.

It was a daunting silhouette that reminded Ian of an ancient carnivorous dinosaur.

‘It’s even bigger than Ddukdae.’

It was an image that made him feel as if a dinosaur that he saw from his science books as a child would pop out.

However, there was no time for him to just admire it.

“Ian, you run up!”

“Understood!”

Ian ran for his life before Hellaim’s words even finished.

‘This crazy, that’s the end of a life if that monster’s tail just brushes you!’

The level of the Teranodon that Ian could now see was not 190, but 200.

Ian had gone up 2 levels and had become lv 102 thanks to Hellaim’s bus[1], but compared to the Teranodon that boasted a level twice his, his level could be considered a joke.

Ta-Ta-Tat-

Ian even used the Assimilation skill on Ly and after raising his Agility to the maximum, he ran with all his strength.

Fortunately, the attention of the monsters was all focused on Hellaim, and none of them charged towards Ian.

Behind him, it seemed as it was the height of the battle with the Teranodon, as a roar rang out without rest, but Ian just focused ahead and ran.

Ian, who safely arrived at the entrance of the altar, quickly ran up the stairs.

“Huk… Huk…”

The altar was roughly as tall as the fifth floor of a building.

As Ian ran up the long staircase that wrapped around the altar at full speed, he felt it becoming harder to breathe.

‘Hoo, just a little more…!’

And thanks to running as fast as he could, Ian was able to stand at the top of the altar shortly after.

“Finally, I’m here!”

The most surprising thing was that as he arrived at the top of the altar, the sandstorm that blew so violently didn’t blow up on the top at all.

Completely tranquil, the Sky Altar had a similar feeling to the eye of a storm.

And after catching his breath for a moment, a system message rang close to Ian’s ear.

• You are the first discoverer of the Source of Wind, the ‘Sky Altar’.

• Your Affinity with wind-type will increase by 5%.

• Your resistance to wind-type will increase by +10.

• From now on, your Affinity with wind-type monsters will not drop below 30.

• Your Fame has increased by 15,000.

They were a type of system messages that he had heard somewhere before.

Rather than the Fame he obtained, the other system messages caught Ian’s eye first.

‘This, these system messages are similar to the ones that appeared when I discovered the Blazing Explosion or the Source of Lava.’

They weren’t just similar, but truthfully, they were almost the same.

The only thing that was different was the type that was involved.

‘If that’s the case, then I may need to go to the Scorching Land when I’m hatching a fire-type Legendary-rank egg later.’

It was an unexpected gain.

Since there was no information that was as precious as a clue like this.

However, above all else, it was important to quickly hatch the Griffin’s egg.

If he moved slowly and the damage towards the knights became bigger, he may gain the king’s anger even if he succeeded the quest.

If that happened, it would become incredibly difficult.

“Is that it?”

Ian’s attention turned to the platform in the middle of the altar that came up to about his waist.

And he moved towards it.

‘Let’s try putting the Griffin’s Egg on top of there.’

Ian, who quickly ran to the platform, pulled out the Griffin’s Egg with nimble fingers.

And he placed it on top of the platform carefully.

‘Alright, now hatch!’

Could you say that someone had heard Ian’s desperate wish?

Surrounding the platform, rays of yellow light began to get sucked in like a tornado.

“It worked, it’s working!”

Ian, who was staring at the Griffin’s Egg with a nervous expression, let out a shout before he realized.

And he checked the information of the Griffin’s Egg.

• Hatching… 11%

The hatching percentage that was stuck at 0% was slowly going up.

Hopefully, the Griffin would hatch without mistake once the hatching percentage reached 100%.

And once the Griffin’s Egg hatched, he just needed to escape this altar quickly.

Finally, it seemed as if he could see the end of this Empire Quest in front of his eyes.

‘Hurry… Hurry…!’

Ian’s gaze was completely fixed on the hatching percentage of the egg, which went up little by little.

However, just then, something began to wriggle within Ian’s chest.

As soon as Ian felt it, he turned his head and looked down.

“What’s this?”

A fist-sized object that wriggled little by little and shone a yellow light was within his chest.

Ian pulled that out.

‘What the hell? I had something like this?’

Ian carefully went through his memory.

And shortly after, he was able to remember the identity of the rock-like item.

‘This, this is the hot pack that the Chief Priest PK bums dropped!’

As it always gave off a warm energy, it was an item that Ian kept within his chest whenever he hunted in the northern continent.

It was an item with an identity he had absolutely no idea of, but because of that, he was unable to throw it out and had just kept it.

“But why is this right now…?”

With a puzzled expression, Ian blankly stared at the stone.

However, at that moment, the stone that was held in Ian’s hand floated in the air.

“Huh, Uh?”

And before Ian could use his hands, rays of white light wrapped around the stone, and just like that, it was sucked into the Griffin’s Egg.

An unexpected system message also popped up.

• You have used the ‘Essence of Wind’ item.

“Exactly what kind of situation is this?”

Ian approached the Griffin’s Egg with widened eyes.

‘I never said that I’d use it!’

And the moment he opened the information window to check the hatching percentage of the Egg, along with the sound of a cracking noise, a yellow light exploded out in all directions.

And along with that, a powerful energy spread out in every direction, and it was so powerful to the point that Ian was pushed back and thrown onto the ground.

From the centre of the altar, that unknown energy continued to gush out, and Ian grasped onto a groove on the end of the altar and barely supported his body.

‘Hoo… That was a close one.’

If he was pushed back even a little further, he would have almost fallen off the altar.

‘If that happened, I would have become the Teranodon’s food.’

And shortly after.

While Ian was calming his surprised heart, the system message that he looked most forward to finally popped up.

• You have hatched the mystical ‘Griffin’.

• You have hatched a Legendary-rank Familiar for the first time.

• Your ‘Leadership’ stat has increased by 100.

• Your ‘Affinity’ stat has increased by 50.

Ian, who checked the system message, felt as if all his sufferings disappeared in that moment.

‘For my Leadership to go up by 100!’

The Leadership stat was the hardest stat amongst Ian’s class stats to raise, but once he saw that it had gone up by 100 at once, his happiness was immeasurable.

However, more than the happiness from the stat increase, the safety of the Griffin that just hatched was more important.

As the rays of white light died down and the force that pushed Ian back disappeared, he hurriedly ran to the centre of the altar.

And the form of the Griffin, which was born after breaking through its egg, leaving pieces of the shell here and there, caught Ian’s eyes.

“It’s a success!”

However, at that moment, Ian’s expression became confused.

‘Huh, what the hell? It’s twins?’

In front of Ian, two Griffins sat with their heads drooped, their eyes not yet open.