Second World-Novel

They found a seemingly safe place and landed there. Jack used his Camouflage Tent to rest for a few hours. The sky of the underworld remained the same whether day or night, but Jack estimated they had been roaming for a full day.

Before resting, Jack spent one hour practicing mana manipulation. When he was prostrating himself at Darmos' place, he didn't just train mana manipulation. He was also shadow-training in manipulating mana to enhance game skills.

Now that he tested it, he knew he was still far from reaching his grandfather's level, but he started to touch that realm already. At his stage, he found it difficult to adjust mana on different skills. So, he focused on training only one skill, Brave Slash.

Brave Slash was his strongest single-target attack with a short cooldown, which was only three minutes. It was also simple in execution, making it an ideal skill to practice on.

Every three minutes, Jack executed Brave Slash while manipulating the mana to enhance that skill.

Even though he had expected it, it was still harder than he thought. He needed to be fully focused to even have half a chance to successfully enhance the skill. He couldn't use this in real combat unless the enemy just stood there and let him hit it.

In the case where he was successful, the golden light that enveloped his weapon turned denser and longer. Jack could feel the power contained within the slash was stronger than when he executed the skill normally.

It was not perfect yet, but at least he had begun his first step into this realm. Peniel who observed was secretly astonished. It was not that long ago when Jack started learning mana manipulation. The speed he was improving was unheard of. He wondered if was Jack unique in this case or if other talented outworlders also had the same growth rate.

Jack slept inside his tent after the training.

*

After they were rested, they resumed the search. Peniel said that they should have covered almost half of the entire region. By the end of the day, they should be able to find at least one brimstone tree.

"If it does exist," Jack added.

Peniel gave him an irritated glance.

"Oh, shit! Get down! Get down!" Jack suddenly said in a hurry. He had seen a big dark red dot coming their way on his radar. The speed was rather alarming.

Pandora didn't question Jack's instruction. He swooped down and arrived on the ground in a heartbeat. Jack then unsummoned her and hid behind a large rock.

He let his Cloak of Shadow turn him invisible and also used his mana concealment technique.

He didn't know if this big red dot traveled in the air or on land. But judging from its speed, Jack thought it was more likely in the air. Its speed rivaled Pandora, that's why Jack had chosen to hide instead of running away.

He heard the sound of thunderclaps. It was not weird since the sky here had regular thunders and lightning, but the intensity of these thunderclaps was abnormal, even for this place.

He had been looking up since he suspected whatever that was coming would be from the air. Hence, he didn't need to move his head and could stay invisible.

Soon, the biggest bird he ever saw came into view. The bird seemed to be made of pure energy. It was blue and it continuously emitted electricity. Every dark cloud it passed by was charged by its electricity and caused those loud thunderclaps. The clouds then unleashed several chaotic lightning strikes.

The thunderbird passed almost directly above Jack, giving Jack a close enough distance to use his Inspect.

*

Infernal Stormbrid (Mythical monster, Avian), level 80

HP: 2,100,000

*

'Mythical and level 80,' Jack thought.

'Infernal Stormbird has very strong psychic resistance. With that level and grade, it has no problem ignoring Pandora's fear aura,' Peniel informed Jack via their thoughts.

The Infernal Stormbird flew in circles for some time, as if searching for something. Perhaps it sensed Pandora's high-level energy and came to check.

The stormbird couldn't find what it was looking for so it left. When Jack looked in the direction it was flying to, he said, "Are those the yellow fogs you mentioned?"

"What yellow fogs? I don't see anything," Peniel responded.

Jack's dragon eye could see further. He saw a long line of what appeared to be yellow smoke on the horizon. If those fogs were what they were looking for, there would be a whole lot of brimstone trees there.

Jack looked at the stormbird who had turned into a speck. The bird went in that direction as well. It would be too risky to summon Pandora. He decided to go on foot.

He used his radar to avoid the monsters around the field, even the weak ones. He wanted to hurriedly find out if the place he saw had the things they came here for.

When he was close enough, he saw the strangest things. The infernal stormbird from before was battering at empty air. Runic symbols flashed every time the stormbird's claws struck a seemingly invisible wall.

Multiple Lightning strikes were produced from the impacts and the lightning continued jumping in the air as runic symbols flared. From the outlines of these runic symbols, Jack saw the shape of a partial sphere.

"It is a force field," Jack uttered.

And within this seemingly invisible shell, yellow fogs blanketed the ground. They saw the light of blazing flames within this fog and the shadow of a trunk under those flames.

"Those should be the brimstone trees, shouldn't they?" Jack asked Peniel.

"They should be...," Peniel answered but her tone was not convincing.

"Strange," she added. "Brimstone trees usually grow far apart from each other. They don't group up in one place like this."

"My thought is that they do not originally grow in that place. They were moved here," Jack said.

"Why do you say that?" Peniel asked.

"That force field. It is artificial. That's why we didn't find any brimstone trees on our way. They have been collected in one place for easier handling. That place is a plantation."

"If it is so, then we are dealing with the underworld empire. They are the only ones who can pull this off. Are you sure you want to mess with them?"

"I've already pissed off one of the kings of hell, haven't I?" Jack said with a shrug.

"The devil who is in charge in this region is not someone you want to mess with. He is only second to Emperor Lucifer."

"Who is he? Is the city he stays in close by?" Jack asked.

"The city he stays in is far away. I doubt he will bother with this plantation. The brimstone fruits produced by these trees are valuable but not that valuable to take the attention of a king of hell," Peniel answered. "His name is Satan. He is a level 99 Eternal devil."