Chapter 394

Seven(?) Greedy Ones Ascend (V)

Anth, Emma, Senna, Daniel, and Jamal departed under the cover of the night, heading back through the Forest of the Thousand Deaths. In the meantime, Cain took Ethan and left toward the opposite direction--a massive mountain standing at the back of the canyon. It was at the very least ten thousand feet tall, likely even larger, and appeared to have almost no ‘paths’ up its steep side.

It didn’t matter, however, as both Ethan and Cain could just slide up the side regardless of the steepness. They had come to this world three months ago to date, leaving Earth behind if not permanently, at least for a very, very, very long time.

The reason they never left until very recently was due to the adjustments they had to make--Mana here, after all, was at least a hundred thousand times denser in quantity and half that in quality than even in the Towers, let alone on Earth. Everyone except Cain, Quinn, Harmony, and Nature fell ill for at least a month, and even Cain experienced migraines for the first time since he’d become a Mage.

On best days, they managed to do some building and eventually managed to complete the complex, though it remained quite hollow still from within. Emma was the first to adjust, followed by Senna, then Jamal. Daniel and Ethan adjusted around the same time, and others have gotten much better as well, but not quite to their peak state.

As such, Cain delayed any exploration, and would have done so for a couple more months had Daniel not brought Anth back. It was the sort of opportunity that was difficult to simply ignore, so he accelerated the plans a bit. He always intended to create two groups, one led by Emma and one led by him. The former would try and integrate into the world directly, using their given identities, and try to find the foothold for the future while learning how the world works on the surface.

Cain, on the other hand, planned on existing on the fringes for a while, exploring alternate avenues of strength and seeing whether there was a hidden underbelly in the world that he could exploit.

The two men traveled mostly in silence through the night, climbing the tall mountain with ease. It ended up being nearly fifteen thousand feet tall, though they didn’t climb its peak, rounding it when a passage opened at around eight thousand feet of height. Behind it was another set of mountains, though they were quite few ways shorter.

Here and there they spotted strange beasts, but thanks to Taima’s items, they remained perfectly stealthed and invisible even to the beasts’ keen senses. Some six days of fairly leisurely travel later, they emerged on the ‘other side’, well beyond the ring of mountains, and landed on an uneven, sandy beach. What was eerie and macabre, however, was the color of the sand--it was neither brown nor yellow nor a mix of the two, but purely jet-black.

Even with the overcast sun in the middle of the day, it felt as though the two were standing in the middle of a black hole ready to suck them in. Additionally, the beach was quite long and wide, a world unto its own, even.

“You don’t think we’ll get some disease ‘cause we stayed here?” Ethan asked as the two elected to camp halfway up the mountain, just to be safe, while observing the incredible sight below.

“Who knows?” Cain shrugged. Just then, as the scent of fried meat began to disperse, two shadows emerged on his shoulders as Te’gha and Domin appeared. The two spent most of the days slumbering in the inventory as even they had to undergo a period of adjustment. They were mostly fine by now, though quick to tire if they spent more than a few hours outside of the inventory’s ‘safe space’.

“Ugh, stupid human, where did you take us now?!” Te’gha complained immediately. Strangely, despite the passage of many, many years, the little tiger hadn’t grown even an inch. The only change was that its fur became softer and shaded in a darker hue.

“To beach,” Cain replied. “Be happy. When I was a kid, all I ever wanted was to go to the beach during summer. But noooo. I hadn’t swam in the sea till I was a grown man, you know?!”

“Bah, stupid human! This is hell, not beach! It stinks! Stinks bad!”

“It does stink! Stink bad!” Domin joined in. “The stinkiest stink I ever smelled! Why did you bring us here, Master? Do we not stink enough for you?!”

“... how have you not strangled them yet?” Ethan asked.

“’cause they’re kids,” Cain shrugged. “Do you strangle a kid just ‘cause it peed its bed? Nah. You take the belt out and beat the pee out of them!”

“...”

“Oi, it’s a joke!” noticing Ethan’s strange look, Cain quickly said. “I’d first set my cock on fire and clap while it burned before even spanking Lana!”

“Suuure... anyway, there’s nothing here, it doesn’t seem. We should gather some sand and bring it back for research, but that’s about it.”

“Hmm,” Cain stroked his beard for a moment, thinking. “It’s pretty hazy west of here. We’ll stick close to the mountain range and move westward in a curve. We need to map out the surrounding area anyway, so let’s see if it’s possible to round the entire way out and wind up at the canyon’s front.”

“Want me to send some Shadows ahead?” Ethan asked. “Mana’s thickness still seems to be clogging detection.”

“Good idea,” Cain nodded. Even he could barely scout a couple of miles ahead, and even then it wasn’t in true detail. “Better safe than sorry, still.”

At the same time, on the complete opposite end of things, Emma and the group were at the last stretch of the forest when they came across a temporary camp. Anth shook as he took a few steps back, realizing it was Ion and his group. They likely set up a camp as a safety in case he tried to run out. Luckily, Ion seemed to be absent; it’s been a while, after all, and they likely concluded he was dead. This was mostly left behind as the last precaution.

“There’s six people,” Daniel suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Most around Level 140. The strongest is around Level 170, tank.”

“Should we just kill them?” Jamal asked. “It’d be bad if the rumors spread we came from the forest.”

“K-kill them? No! Don’t!” Anth quickly interrupted. “Everyone carries a Soulbound Talisman which records the last moments of one’s life! These moments can then be viewed in the Clan’s headquarters or even at the Academy! If they found out who killed them...”

“We can just kill them from stealth, no?” Daniel asked. “Or is it that the talismans are recording the entire surroundings?”

“It’s a Spirit recording,” Anth replied. “So even if we hide our faces, our unique Mana signature would still be apparent.”

“Haah, what a pain in the ass,” Senna groaned. “So, what’s the best course of action? Go around them? Just beat them black and blue?”

“G-going around them,” Anth said.

“... let’s go around, then,” Emma nodded as they moved eastward in a wide circle. “When we get a chance, we need to get our hands on one of those Talismans so that Taima can craft some countermeasures. Being unable to kill will make our lives pretty much impossible here.”

“...” Anth remained silent. While death did happen here and there, it was extremely rare across the board. That was the reason why the enslavement pacts existed--everyone would rather spend a few thousand years as a slave than be forever dead. He himself had never killed anyone, and the last account of actual murder happened some eighty years ago from what he heard. At least that was the case with the budding Conquerors. Wars still occurred and the experienced ones still died, though even that wasn’t a constant occurrence.

“How many days’ journey till our destination?” Emma interrupted Anth’s thoughts.

“A week, at most,” Anth replied. “If we speed up a bit, it should be a few days.”

“There’s no need for speed. We’ll move slowly.”

“Oh. A-alright.” though Anth didn’t know why, he didn’t probe further. These people... were strange. Stranger than yesterday, every new day. They spoke casually about murdering someone, they were far, far, far stronger than their Levels indicated, they all seemed to possess no Mana signature on the surface of things, and one of their seemingly youngest and weakest members easily defeated Anth in a few moves.

Though they didn’t seem like bad people, they seemed almost incompatible with this world--the world in which everyone proudly displayed their levels, their achievements, their everything, really, if it could garner them status and wealth.