Demon King Ascension System

234 Venturing Inside(1)

“So do we just walk inside, grab the stone, and walk out?” Blake squinted his eyes as the group stood on the edge of the nether rich zone that all had the color black painted all over the terrains. Be it the rocks, grasses, or even the ground below them, they were all colored black.

“I haven’t done any research into the nether rich zones in this realm, but nether rich realms were usually dangerous zones that ordinary demons avoided. Even the humanoid demons from the second realm seem to have thought the same thing and avoided this place entirely.” Vera said as she began her own observation of the land in front of her that was highly infused with the darkness element.

“What kind of danger this land had? I haven’t sensed anything in particular other than the thick darkness element, which somehow even feels comfortable for me and made me want to live here.” Blake had taken a step forward into the black colored ground, and to say that he really felt at home when his feet made contact with the black ground wasn’t too much of an exaggeration.

The moment his foot touched the black ground, Blake felt a different kind of nether, one that a higher quality from the nether on the outside of the nether rich zone, entered his body.

The nether in his body was already an outlier from the nether from the ordinary nether in the first demon realm as it enabled him to cast a second realm darkness spell, but the nether that he felt entering his body after stepping onto the black ground felt more familiar to his own body as if it what was supposed to supplement his body in the first place, not the inferior quality nether that hung around in the air.

‘It even returned my original nether recovering capabilities back to what it used to be even though the damage to my soul hadn’t been healed yet…’

“The kinds of danger are really different from each nether rich zone,” Vera started her explanation. “One nether rich zone that I knew of had winds that were sharp and powerful enough to even turn cut Robus into tiny pieces continuously blowing inside them, while the other had a temperature so cold that you wouldn’t even be able to step your foot on them unless you had a high water of ice affinity or very high fire affinity to offset the heat.”

“Well, for this one though…” Vera stepped her foot forward, touching the same black ground that Blake was currently stepping on.

“I don’t really know… It even felt like it gave me strength instead of attacking or weakening me…”

.....

Blake was still wary about the nether rich zone in front of him even though he felt comfortable standing on it, even felt empowered. He had made enough mistakes that might cost his life to underestimate the nether rich zone in front of him.

Even though he had never seen other ones besides this one, he trusted Vera’s words enough to make the assumption that all nether rich zone was dangerous.

However, being wary was one thing, and being afraid was another thing. If Blake was too afraid to step his foot onto the unknown land, then he would never be able to finish his evolution quest which means he could not evolve.

If he didn’t evolve and couldn’t go down to the second realm, then his promise of coming back to the human realm within 3 years would only be an empty promise that would not only break Amy’s trust on him, but also his very own being. Knowing that he had broken a promise because of his own inability and lack of effort, Blake would not be able to forgive himself for eternity if he ever did that.

That’s why no matter the danger ahead, the connection that the system had embedded in him told him to go to the nether rich realm to get the item he needed, so he needed to do it. But of course, he didn’t let down his guard at all and instead increased them as he began to think of plans just in case he needed to quickly get away and also check what kind of rune formations he had left in his dimensional pouch.

“Let’s go…” Blake urged the group as they started moving from the border between the green grassy plain to the black barren land in front of him.

With them having to fight, the group had long dismounted themselves for Robus’ back as they went into their fight mode. Vera had already spread her wings, ready to take off if she needed to fly, Robus and Blake activated their dark earth armor, and Cyra turned to her humanoid demon fireball mode.

“Brother, it’s very easy to use my flames here!” Cyra said as she began creating about a dozen fireballs with a casual swing of her hand.

“I didn’t feel tired at all even though I had created many balls using my flames!” Cyra added as she sent her dozen fireballs onto an empty ground some distance away from them.

‘I guess I’m not the only one who had my nether capacity recovering at a faster rate than usual…’

“Yes, Cyra. But just in case, don’t get too excited and throw your fireballs everywhere. You might be caught off guard if your focus is split onto creating those fireballs.”

“Alright, brother.” Cyra nodded before she stopped waving her hands. But still, Blake could see she played around a little with the flame that covered her body as he noticed the dark flames turned sharp and elongated at certain parts before turning back to their original size.

Knowing that’s just the natural free-spirited nature of his variant sister, Blake didn’t say anything else and instead kept his eyes on the never ending black scenery in front of him.

The connection that he felt in his heart told him that he was getting closer and closer to his unknown target, but it also told him that it was still quite a distance away before they finally reached it.

“There are still no signs of danger so far… This is weird,” Vera thought out loud as she kept her eyes darting left and right, even to her back every couple of seconds.

“Maybe this is not an ordinary nether rich zone?” Blake muttered as he also noticed the lack of anything standing in their way.

With his eyes still looking forward, Blake continued speaking. “I guess it’s too barren for anything to live her-”

Blake cut his own words off as he noticed that he spoke too soon.

After passing through an elevated mound of black earth, Blake’s eyes landed on something standing in the distance. It was not easy to see it since its whole body was colored black, the same as the ground that it stood on, but the lighter shade of black that the thing had made it significantly visible to Blake’s eyes.

Starting from its height that was about half as tall as Robus, its main body that was big enough for Blake to hug it and not have his hands meet with each other, its black colored branches that went thinner the more it grew away from the main body, and lastly, the black leaves and fruits hanging on those branches, Blake could see a modest-sized tree standing all alone in the middle of the barren land.

“Vera, is that really a tree? A black tree that even had black trunks, branches, leaves, and even a black fruit? Have you seen that before?”

“Yes, that is indeed a black-colored tree that didn’t have any other color than light black and black. black. And no, I haven’t seen that particular tree before.”

The light black that Vera meant was the color of the trunk and the branches of the tree. They were indeed in a lighter shade of black compared to the ground beneath them. And the black, black part of the tree, the part that was as dark as the ground itself was the fruits that were hanging on the branches of the tree.

“However…” Vera continued speaking, “I think I recognize that fruit…”

The fruit was as dark as the abyss, not a single color was present on it other than the color black. And the very dense nether that the fruit emitted that could be felt even by Robus, who wasn’t as sensitive towards nether as the other people in the group, Vera recognized that kind of fruit. At least something that was very familiar to it.

Vera might have never seen that particular fruit before in the first demon realm. But in the other realms, especially in the second and the third realm, a fruit that had the same characteristics as the fruit that grew on the branch of the tree was a rare commodity that could even be used as a currency for the demons to trade with each other.

“I don’t know if it was the same fruit, but if there was really a tree that could grow that fruit, then we should bring it back with us at all costs.”

The black fruit that Vera knew did not grow on trees. Instead, they were found on a single plant, one that looked like a Rafflesia plant that grew on Blake’s world, and instead of releasing an unpleasant smell, one would know the plant was present because of the unimaginably thick and dense nether that it released after the fruit right in the middle of its body bloomed.

And if they somehow had a tree that could produce multiple fruits at the same time, then it could be said that Blake’s life in the second nether realm where the demons had started trading stuff with each other was secured with such an asset in hand.

“Alright then, let’s grab the tree first, I would do some tests later to find out whether it was the same fruit that I know of,” Vera said as she began walking beside Blake instead of behind him.

The two of them continued walking onto the empty ground as they finally neared the tree, only standing about ten meters away from it. And there was still nothing around them besides themselves and the ‘definitely not inconspicuous’ tree.

‘Isn’t a tree standing all alone with a very valuable fruit that any demon would find very valuable was a very suspicious scenario that I found in the stories I read back then…?’ Blake began thinking to himself as they could easily walk near the vicinity of the tree without having to deal with anything other than carrying their own weight.

“Wait Vera, I think we should be caref-” Before Blake could even finish his sentence, the ground beneath them started to tremble before they felt the ground that they were standing on was suddenly lifted upward.