Ellis and the group were taken to the Majin base camp situated by the river.

It was a pretty far-spanning, yet dingy place. Upon closer inspection, Ellis noticed just how badly maintained all the tents were. Giant holes covered the surface, while tufts of fur littered the ground. A perpetual smell of rot wafted through the air. It was clear that whatever hide they were using for the tents had not been properly treated.

Looking around, he took note of the Majins. They really were just blue-skinned Oni. There was an even mixture of men to women, but the women were not graceful beauties. Instead, they were more like men with breasts attached to their chests. Crude and broad-shouldered. Their faces might have been even uglier than the guys.

Still, Ellis couldn’t help but look. For all their faults, their chests certainly weren’t one of them.

As his eyes continually wandered, he felt a sharp pain on his lower back. He slightly turned his head, only to see a rather scary glare on Grisella’s face.

He slightly lowered his head and continued walking.

Guided by nearly a dozen blue-skinned warriors, the trio eventually arrived at a man-made dirt mound. It was the same mound that he had seen before. Now that he was actually here, he confirmed his original theory; it really was a prison.

“Get in.” He heard a gruff voice coming from somewhere behind him. Ellis walked into the cavern with the same sort of casualness as a housewife walking into a grocery store.

He turned back, only to notice that most of the warriors from earlier were already gone. Only two remained. They stood right outside the cave entrance, their backs straight and with spears held tightly in their hands.

He shifted his gaze away and quietly observed his new surroundings. It was dark and dreary. The ceiling was low and the walls were narrow. Staring out into the darkness, the cavern seemed to go on forever. Unfortunately, he did not have a torch, so he couldn’t quite properly grasp just how deep the hole really was.

Touching the walls, he was slightly amazed to discover that they were not made out of packed dirt or stacked rocks. Instead, the walls, the ceiling, even the floor itself, all of it was crafted out of a substance resembling bed stone.

“Magic.” Grisella suddenly stated. She ran a finger along the surface of the wall. “I can sense faint traces of mana in these walls. This prison was probably created using magic.”

“Magic? A magician then?” Ellis furrowed his brows in doubt. Recalling back to the campsite, he found it hard to believe that a magician would willingly live under such conditions.

“Yes, it was definitely a magician.” Grisella nodded. “From what I can tell, the caster did not use a particular spell or rune. Instead, they brute forced their way through the creation process. It’s certainly crude, but it shows that the caster has a sizable mana reserve.” She paused for a moment. “Of course, they are nothing compared to me.”

“Magic, huh…” he stared up at the craggy ceiling above him. “It certainly is an incredible feat, especially for one person to pull off all by himself.”

Ellis couldn’t help but feel envious. All he had to his name was this ridiculously sturdy body of his. If he wanted to create something like a cave, then he would need to squat down and build it himself. Magic really was an envious ability.

An imperceptible sigh leaked out from his throat.

His eyes wandered. Aside from Grisella, who was currently sitting slumped up against the wall with her knees pressed against her chest, Ellis was surprised to see a certain furry-eared little boy.

Hal-Wrynn was inside the cave. Like them, he too had been locked up in here. They treated him no different from an ordinary prisoner.

Ellis furrowed his brow. He couldn’t quite believe it. Why was he here? He had been certain that both parties were in cahoots with one another. Was that really not the case?

He wanted to say something to the gloomy-eyed boy, but he ultimately held his tongue. Hal-Wrynn did not look to be in any condition to speak.

After a brief bought of hesitation, he sat down besides Grisella. He leaned over towards her and quietly whispered, “To be honest, I think your plan is wasted on these guys. The Majins don’t really seem all that strong.”

That was the general conclusion that Ellis had come to after he passed through their campsite.

“You only think that because you’re you. They are plenty strong.” She responded.

He could only shake his head. “In the first place, we don’t even need a plan.”

After all, I’m here.

Grisella let out an exasperated sigh. Even though she had already explained it before, he was still very reticent to her plan. By this point, his attitude was kind of starting to piss her off.

“We are taking advantage of a golden opportunity.” She explained succinctly. “The circumstances have aligned. It would be a waste not to make use of it.”

“A golden opportunity…” He mulled over her words. Ellis did not really see things like that. To him, this was all just a way to kill time.

Grisella narrowed her eyes. She could practically feel Ellis’s disdain. He discreetly glanced over. For a moment, the two met eyes.

He chuckled weakly. Ellis sat up straight and cleared his throat. “Run it by me again.” His voice filled the ensuing silence.

With no other choice, Grisella shook her head and once again explained her plan.

“First of all, our current situation puts us at odds with two distinct enemy forces. The first force would be the Majin base camp. Although you might not put them in your eyes, to most of the world, they are indeed fairly strong. An average Majin warrior has about the same strength as an Elite Knight from a mid-sized kingdom. Judging by the size of the campground, this campsite has around three thousand or so warriors, give or take.

“A troop of 3000 warriors is a powerful force in any part of the world. There aren’t that many individuals who can stand up against such an army alone.” She paused, “of course, there are always exceptions to everything.”

Ellis nodded. He was certainly one such exception.

“The second force consists of the monsters within this forest.” She took a deep breath before she solemnly continued, “The journey will get progressively harder the further up we travel along the river. It’s so uniform to the point where it feels almost like a game.”

Ellis once again nodded his head. Grisella had briefly explained this concept to him before.

Ilpin forest could be roughly divided into two sections: the outside layer and the inside layer. The point of separation between these two areas was the mist border. Within the outside layer, the strong monsters had a tendency to divvy up the land whichever way they pleased.

The end result of such careless distribution was a mess of different territories ruled over by an even messier collection of overlords.

“It’s an environment that breeds chaos and bloodshed. In comparison, the inner layer is a lot more ordered.” She neatly summarized. “The monsters in the inner area do not live wherever they please. No, instead, most of them congregate along the river.”

“…”

Ellis silently raised his brow. In the past, a large number of creatures took the river and its shorelines as home, but he knew that was only a small percentage of the population. In fact, most monsters lived relatively far away from the river, with some not even knowing about it at all.

The monsters within the inner layer moved and existed outside the confines of normal ecology.

It was weird, it was illogical, but without a doubt, it was the truth.

“They build their nests and set up their camps along this tiny stretch of land. It’s almost as if… as if they are intently protecting something.” For the first time, Grisella’s eyes glimmered with unknown light.

Protecting something… is it the world tree? Or maybe the entrance to God’s lost holy ground?

Ellis had his own theories regarding this matter.

“The monsters within the inner layer are strong, stronger than even the overlords of the outer layer. You must prepare yourself, Ellis.”

In response, Ellis looked up. Her solemn eyes conveyed far more information than any words ever could. “… a Calamity class monster, was it?”

After a moment’s pause, Grisella slowly nodded her head. A faint smile floated to her lips. “It looks like you have been paying attention.”

He could only shrug his shoulders. “You made such a big deal about it. I had no choice but to listen.” Despite his words, he couldn’t help but ask, “But are Calamity-Class monsters really so special? From my point of view, aren’t they just slightly stronger monsters?”

She shook her head. “Fighting against a Calamity-Class will not be easy, no matter how strong of a warrior you may be.”

“…”

Ellis sank into a brief silence.

He recalled back to the Hydra that he had previously encountered. That thing was quite strong. Although he wantonly played around with it, a part of him was always cautious. This was especially the case when it had reached its final multi-headed form heads. The pressure that it had exuded was very similar to the sickly aura of death.

I wonder… at my current level, would I be able to win against that thing?

No matter how long he thought about it, he could not come to a satisfactory answer.

Eventually, he turned back over to Grisella and suddenly asked, “So, you’re using these guys as bait? Is that it? You want to lure the calamity-class out to a place where we have the advantage? That sort of thing?”

“You misunderstand. They’re not the bait, but rather… you are.” She jabbed a finger into his chest. Ellis looked up. The two of them locked eyes. “Calamity class monsters won’t move for just anything. They certainly won’t do so for an unorganized group of Majins. I know this might contradict with what I said earlier, but even if most people consider them strong, to the truly strong, they are as inconsequential as the grains of sand within an endless desert.”

“…”

Again, Ellis did not respond. He suspected it before, but in this world, strength was everything. The weak, those without strength, they were treated as less than dirt. Ellis was just privileged enough to be born as part of the strong.

“You are different.” Grisella’s words echoed through his ears. “You, your very presence exudes out strength. Most people can’t feel it, but that’s only natural. A fish in the ocean will never realize just how vast the sky is. It will certainly react to you. The people here are merely… back-up.”

She paused for a moment. Her gaze drifted towards the cave entrance. She stared blankly at the outside world. “In the past, I was able to get through this part of the river purely because the monster that guards this place ignored me. In its eyes, I was not strong enough, and I was grateful for that. I traveled up the river while trying my hardest to avoid all the dangers. I got pretty far, but eventually…” She shook her head. “Truth be told, I haven’t actually seen them.”

“The calamity class monsters?”

She bobbed her head forward. “In the past, I avoided all of them, but… they’re here. I felt them. The dreadful pressure that weighs down on your shoulders like a brick mountain, the creeping sensation of death… I felt it.” Grisella breathed out a shaky sigh. “It’s one of the benefits to being a witch. Heightened perception, I mean. Even if I can’t fly, I can still appreciate the vastness of the sky above me.”

“…”

After a short pause, Ellis suddenly broke off into a fit of laughter. “Despite saying all that, you still brought us here.” He looked over at her. “You brought us right into the heart of its territory.”

Grisella did not respond to his words. Instead, she solemnly stated, “So far I’ve identified two calamity-class monsters within the Inner Layer. One lives a few hundred miles upstream, while the other guards the river’s opening.”

The river’s opening. In other words, the place where the river resurfaces.

Out of everything that Grisella’s plan had to offer, this was probably the one part that piqued his interest.

She smiled at him. “Are you getting scared now?”

Ellis returned her smile with one of his own. “Why would I be?”

Grisella nodded her head. She had known Ellis for a few months now. Such a reaction was completely in line with his troublesome personality. “Well, luckily for you, the calamity class is an aquatic creature, so it’ll take some time for it to react to you.”

“…”

Ellis’s shoulders tensed. For a moment, his beating heart intensified. It was not fear, but rather preparation. A new monster, a new battle. A calamity-class monster… was it? How strong can it really be?

He subconsciously licked his lips in anticipation.

Grisella quietly watched him. After a while, she spoke up. “I know you have confidence in yourself, but… if the monster is truly strong to the point where you are unable to defeat it, then the people here will act as your shield. Use the ensuing chaos to escape. It won’t improve your chances by a whole lot, but in the face of possible death, any help is better than no help.”

Ellis nodded his head. He thought for a moment. “They’re not bait, but rather human meat shields… I didn’t know you had such a side to you, Miss Lorelei.”

She stared up at him. “Does it bother you?”

“…” After a few seconds of silence, he responded, “no, not really.”

“Good,” she nodded, “Ellis, I’ll only say this once. Please, just stick to the plan. It’s fine if you get thrashed around and stuff, but… I don’t want you to die. If things really go bad, don’t hesitate to run. You, without you, I’ll have no hope of ever reaching the world tree.”

Ellis lightly laughed to himself. “I think that’s probably the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

A slight blush crept up to her cheeks. “What, what sort of idiot thing are you saying now?”

Her response only elicited another chuckle from him.

Just as he was about to reply, he suddenly heard a faint shuffling coming from further down the cavern. The duo turned around, only to see a skinny woman shambling towards them.

Ellis narrowed his eyes. Stepping out of the darkness, he quickly noticed that the newcomer was not actually a woman, but rather, a young girl. Although she looked a little disheveled, with mud and dirt caked all over her face and body, he could still tell that she was probably no more than fourteen or fifteen-years-old.

What’s more, she was not the only one. From the depths of the tunnel, even more people poured out. A mix of women and children. All of them sported the same fur-covered ears on their heads.

Members of the squirrel tribe?

Ellis felt intrigued by the sudden development. Just as he was about to get up and greet his fellow cell-mates, the little backstabber suddenly reacted.

Hal-Wrynn, who had remained silent all this time, abruptly broke off into a sprint. He ran directly towards the girl and hugged her.

To this, Ellis instinctively raised his brow in surprise. Things were finally starting to get interesting.