After coming to a consensus on their cooperation, Keith managed to turn off the I.R.C.D without breaking it. He once again began his journey to the Vahar’Gal Mountains. He was not sure if he made the right decision. Being involved with the Four Great Families could be seen as heaven-sent luck or a bane. At least for now, he was needed and would not need to worry about his life for the time-being… hopefully.

“System, how long will it take me to reach the Vahar’Gal Mountains?”

“Replying: At current speed, you will arrive in two months, six days, four hours, 3 minutes, and two seconds.”

“Is that with rest time and all other known variables factored in?”

“Replying: Yes… If you wish to arrive quicker, it is suggested get a mount from the Arlaine Tribe.”

‘The Arlaine Tribe….’ That idea actually wasn’t half-bad.

Keith chuckled suddenly, “Elena, The System is far more useful than you? It even responds to my questions? Why do I need you again?” Keith poked at Elena’s nerves because she had been annoying him purposefully for weeks now. Apparently she was so bored that she had nothing else to do.

“Humph. Unlike that stupid robot, I was a bonafide Divine Ruler who had travelled through countless realms. My experiences are far more valuable to you than some crappy skill… I just need time to remember them… eventually.” Elena said defensively. While she didn’t mind harassing Keith, it didn’t feel so good being on the receiving end.

Elena retreated into the depths of Keith’s soul, closing off their connection. She didn’t want anything to do with Keith. Just wait until she remembered all of her adventures throughout the realms! She would be sure to surprise him with all of her stories and experiences.

On the other hand, Keith contemplated his own thoughts. The words of The System were right. It would take forever to reach the Vahar’Gal Mountains. Maybe it would be a good idea to look for the Arlaine Tribe. The problem is that they were nomadic, and weren’t very friendly.

The Arlaine Tribe was a group of demi-humans. They were a nomadic people who travelled around on beasts they subdued. Although they were incredibly mobile, at the same time they were isolationists. They didn’t like to interact with outsiders. They traded with merchants for anything they needed which couldn’t be made from the beasts they killed. They interacted with others at an absolute minimum, including the merchants.

While it would be a good idea to see if he could obtain one of their mounts, at the same time he didn’t want to end up being attacked. The Arlaine were incredibly skilled in warfare and tactics. If the Kysansha -an originally scholarly race- became violent, then what was the situation with the Arlaine? What about the Vahar’Gal Dwarves?

He didn’t know whether or not the races changed as well when a realm mutated. He had no proof, nor did he think that he would find an answer any time soon. There were too many unanswered questions.

‘Are their humans here?’ On the topic of races of this realm, Keith was curious if there were humans that were indigenous to this realm. When he bought the general information of this realm from the Soul Shop he didn’t come across any indication that there were any humans in this realm.

But they were found in other realms, Earth even enacted trade relationships with them. It was strange; surely he wasn’t the ONLY human in this realm right? If that was the case, he might not garner amicable relationships with the indigenous races. After all, Humans from Earth had been essentially invading this realm and plundering it. It would not be wrong if they were thought of as barbarians.

Just as he was about to ask the System whether or not the Arlaine would attempt to kill him on sight, the ground began to rumble. But this time there was no thunder or a torrential downpour of rain. The sky was clear, and the sun caused the ground to feel like it was molten rock.

If he hadn’t gotten stronger and also got used to it, the temperature would have driven Keith mad. He would have become a dried out husk had he not been competent enough to make sure he travelled at a rate he would find at least one oasis each day.

He knew the Mountains were to the north, the river was east of him. To the south were the remnants of the land where the gateway to Earth used to reside. It was now barren and destroyed due to the gate shifting through time and space to another place in the realm.

As for the west, Keith simply referred to it as a mass grave. Countless skeletal corpses could be found over there. Scavengers made up the life that lived there.

Although he felt rumbling all around him as the earth trembled, it sounded like thunder was coming from the west. But there were no thunderclouds in the sky. It was a clear, sunny, and sweltering day. It was exactly the same as it had been for the past few months.

Turning to the west, a shadow loomed over the horizon. Like a swarm of locusts, the shadow was headed for him. Keith couldn’t see anything except for the dark tide headed towards him.

‘Ah, this is bad.’ Keith had a horrible feeling. He couldn’t see. Or at least he thought he couldn’t.

As Keith turned around to run, suddenly he felt a weird feeling in his eyes. If the rest of his body was burning under the sun, his eyes felt extremely cold as if they were replaced with ice. But this coolness didn’t bother him. Instead it brought clarity of mind.

If he were to see his reflection right now, he would notice that he had a faintly visible sky-blue flame-like aura around his eyes. The contrast of color between this aura and his gray eyes made them the most prominent part of Keith’s body.

Keith didn’t need someone to explain to him that this was his Yin Eyes coming into effect. Turning towards the dark tide, it was as if time slowed down to a near standstill. If he were to look at the ground, he could almost see the individual grains. As for the dark tide... his jaw nearly dropped.

“Elena!”

Keith saw at least a hundred Kysansha, all riding some type of Gorilla-like beasts, which in his mind were probably War Beasts, mounts used for nothing else but killing. They were each over ten feet tall, and they had short sandy-brown fur. On their backs were what almost looked like a kings throne, however, they were made of wood and metals strips.

He could see every minute detail, even with the cooling sensation around his eyes and skull, the overwhelming detail of everything began to give Keith a headache. It was as if he was splitting his consciousness to focus individually on thousands of things at once. It truly was not something anyone could do under normal circumstances. No wonder the Yin Eyes had not activated yet, it put a strain on his body. If this was only the first level of the ability, what would happen if it advanced? What would it be like when infused with the power of Law?

Keith shut his eyes to give himself a moment of reprieve from the growing pain. Now that the Yin Eyes were active, he didn’t know how long it would be active.

He turned away, and bolted. He ran as fast as he could. Elena who was originally resting awoke to Keith’s scream. When she saw the situation through his eyes, she couldn’t help sighing. She wasn’t even surprised. Keith always seemed to cause extremely abnormal events to occur. Without a doubt, he had been tracked, and the Kysansha wanted him dead.

He basically summoned an army to come after him during the short time that she was resting… if that wasn’t abnormal, what was?

“What did you do now?” Elena said exasperatedly. This idiot was going to get the two of them killed.