Second World

"Oh? Now you speak?" Darmos said with an irritated glance.

Jack grinned. "Hehe. Since you give me a request, that means there is a way."

"Did you forget the part where I said it is impossible? I'm just giving you this request so you give up on trying to persuade me."

"I refuse to believe in the word impossible!" Jack declared and asked, "What is this request?"

"Hehe, fetch me a thing. But you can spend your entire life searching for it, and you won't find it," Darmos gave them a sly smile.

"Damn it, old dude. Are you asking me to fetch something that doesn't exist?"

"No, it does exist. But scour the entire world, and you still won't find it."

"For f*ck's sake. Isn't that the definition of not existing?" Jack said with annoyance.

"I can assure you that it does exist," Darmos replied.

"What the hell is this thing you want me to fetch?"

"Brimstone fruit," Darmos answered. He still wore that sly smile on his face.

'What's a brimstone fruit?' Jack asked Peniel in his mind.

'Brimstone fruit is a rare ingredient for alchemy and cooking. He is right, you won't find it anywhere in this world, because that fruit only existed in the underworld.'

'Underworld? Is this fruit hard to find?' Jack asked.

'The trees were pretty common in one particular region of the underworld. Strong monsters roamed the area but if we only take one fruit, it shouldn't be a problem.'

Jack said to Darmos, "So if we bring you this brimstone fruit, you will agree to become my country guardian?"

"Hehe, you won't find the fruits," Darmos chuckled.

"Cut the crap. Are you going to honor your promise or not if I bring you your fruit?"

"Yes, yes. Goddamnit! I will be your blasted country guardian if you bring me a bloody brimstone fruit. But you won't! Because you won't find it anywhere. And if you can't find it, you have to stop pestering me about all this guardian shit!"

"It's a deal then. I will get that fruit and you will honor your promise!"

"Hahaha! I would like to see how you do that. Let me tell you something. You won't find the fruit because it only exists in the under–What the f*ckkk…!!"

At that time, Pandora materialized with a burst of hellfire.

"That's… That's…," Darmos was out of words.

"Hehe, that's my steed, Pandora," Jack said with a wide grin.

Darmos was looking back and forth between Jack and Pandora. Jack never used his steed on his previous visit, so Darmos was not aware of the nightmare.

"This… You… This is cheating…!!" Darmos exclaimed.

"Hehe, you are not allowed to go back on your words," Jack said.

"Hmph!" Darmos sat back on his chair and put on a grumpy face.

"Hey, come on. Don't be like that. I promise you are going to have a good time after becoming Themisphere's country guardian."

"Don't be cocky, kid. I still haven't seen the brimstone fruit yet," Darmos said.

"You might as well have, old man. You might as well have," Jack climbed up to Pandora. "Be back in no time."

"Hey, kid!" Darmos called.

Jack was giving Pandora instructions. He stopped after hearing Darmos' call. "Yeah?"

"The trees that bore the brimstone fruits usually attracted strong monsters. You best be careful," Darmos said.

Jack grinned upon hearing it. The mighty dragon did care after all. Jack winked at him before giving Pandora the signal. She opened the portal and they disappeared into a fiery well.

"The hell was that supposed to mean?" Darmos muttered.

*

Pandora, Jack, and Peniel appeared back into the familiar landscape of black and red.

Jack looked around. He could swear that everywhere in the underworld looked the same. He opened his map. It was completely greyed out except for the spot that he was on. This was a place he had never traveled past before.

"This is the region where brimstone trees are growing," Peniel said. She had informed Pandora of the region where they wanted to go to. "Unfortunately, we don't end up right at the place that has the trees. I don't have details of where the trees are, but I know they should exist within this region."

"Then we will just move around this place until we find one," Jack said. They had four days left. If the trees were not secluded, it should be more than enough time to scour one region with Pandora's speed.

"You can recognize the trees from afar, right?" Jack asked Peniel.

"The tree had whitish-yellow skin and its fire burned in a wide round shape," Peniel informed. "But its most distinguished feature was that it occasionally released yellow fumes that stayed for a long time. So, normally the tree was always surrounded by yellow fog."

"Burning tree with yellow fog. Shouldn't be hard to see," Jack said. "Okay, ma'am. We will rely on you. Let's take to the sky. We should be able to see more things from above."

Pandora flapped her fiery wings and they rose above. She didn't fly too high so Jack and Peniel could still easily see the things on the ground. She also didn't fly at high speed. It would be difficult to see anything if she did that.

They flew for some time. Flying monsters roamed the sky but mostly ran away due to Pandora's aura. Even level 80 monsters flee from her now. Peniel said even for a rare elite, only level 90 monsters were likely to be immune to Pandora's aura now that she upgraded to legendary. Even monsters resistant to psychic attack would now find it hard to resist her aura. So, they mostly fly in peace.

Since they were not rushing to one place, Jack took the time to kill new monsters if it was level 70 or below. This was because the new monsters he killed in the underworld were also recorded inside his monster books.

They wandered about for an entire day, but they didn't see any tree that fit Peniel's description.

"Hey, Peniel. Are you sure we are in the correct region?" Jack asked.

"I am! The brimstone trees grow in the Ashfall region. Unless Pandora brought us to the wrong region, the trees should be here."

Pandora neighed unpleasantly hearing that.

"She said she didn't bring us to the wrong region," Peniel translated.

"She didn't." Jack was opening his map. Now that a few areas had been cleared up, he could see the name of the region on his map. It was indeed the Ashfall region.

'Well, if we are not in the wrong region, then why haven't we stumbled upon even one tree?' He wondered.