Swordmeister of Rome

"There. I made it into a ring so you can carry it around easily. It will drop you at Einkel when you pour in energy."

Conrad handed over the ring-shaped artifact to Sian. The ring was set with a small red ruby and had countless runes engraved in it. Sian was astonished.

"Wow, it's amazing how you made such a thing so quickly! Can't you just increase the number of Ra-Shar-Roas too?"

Conrad nodded his head.

"Haha, the teleportation magic itself is very advanced, but the magic that allows the absorption of the energy is much more important. The ring is made to teleport only one person, and under the condition that you will pour in the energy required, and that made it easier to create. If we were to make a ring that would work as a personal Ra-Shar-Roa, it will take years. The ring can only be used once, so please use it wisely."

"That will do. Thank you."

It would be great if it could be used multiple times, but it was enough for now. Sian placed the ring on his finger and prepared to leave.

"Are you leaving now?"

Sian nodded.

"There's no need to wait."

If he was powerful enough to handle the situation, it was best to finish it soon. If it wasn't the case, he needed to quickly analyze the enemy and prepare for the next step.

"Right. Good luck,"

Conrad answered as he prepared to leave also. There was a chance that this place would get swept away as Sian had mentioned.

"I can't see through the fog."

Sian commented as he jumped across the sea. The fog was very dense and dulled his senses. It seemed that it would be hard to find the Unkaras. If they hid underground while sending up the smog, it would be difficult to locate them. Sian thought about blowing up the entire place but there was a chance that the Drakuns would come straight for him.

'If they like to hide… it would be great if they are weak.'

That would make things much safer. However, his instincts were still telling him that he should not go further.

'If I only had more time…'

He would become strong enough to fight head-on with the Drakuns or Harijans. But the barrier was weakening, there was no time for him to level.

Sian found the traces of the damage he had wrought in the fight against Lorvall. Thousands of peaks were still puffing out smog.

He noticed then that not all were the same. The ones at the lower peaks of the island were similar to the smog that covered the sea. But the ones in the middle, from the higher peaks, contained some power.

It was a very slight difference.

'That's why I didn't notice.'

The difference was so minute that if he did not know about the Akun-Kal, he would not have noticed the difference. It seemed Aksarai had worked hard on it. Sian then decided to check the higher peaks and jumped up.

Sian had decided on the outer peaks first as it had the highest chance that he would encounter something there. It was not wise to encounter something to fight when he just got here. He then noticed the giants from before, they were now roaming around aimlessly on the island.

'Where are they coming out from?'

Sian avoided them and moved in. As he moved inward, he came to a peak that was puffing out a slightly different smog. The difference was much clearer when he saw it up front. He placed his hand into the smog and was astonished.

'It makes my body heavier and dulls my senses.'

The Lukras had also mentioned that the smog made the Drakun's magic more powerful. There was a hole within a peak that was so deep that Sian could not see the bottom. It was so wide that it could hold a small village.

Sian then jumped down as he could not see what was inside with the smog interfering with his senses.

As he went deeper down, the smog became denser and the temperature rose. It wasn't threatening to Sian, but it was proof that Sian had come to the right place.

'So they do eat the lava…'

There were a lot of holes in the walls that were definitely attempts to dig through. It was probably done by the Unkaras trying to dig in to eat the lava. He was sure that the Unkaras were below.

As he went down, he felt his senses returning to normal. The smog was turning back into ordinary smog.

'What was done to the smog?'

He thought that the power was contained in the smog itself, but Sian couldn't feel it.

Sian felt that he was reaching the bottom, so he slowed down and fastened himself to the wall. He was prepared for any kind of defense mechanisms that the Drakuns might have set in place but nothing happened.

'It's safe for now. I guess no one will dare come this deep down.'

Sian examined an Unkara nearby. It was swimming through the lava that had been dug up from the ground and was swallowing it while releasing thick smoke.

It resembled the larvae of a huge insect, but its skin was covered by a metallic armor with multiple vents that released smoke. It seemed the newly-released smoke was not yet infused with the magic to create the barrier so it had no effect on Sian's senses.

And so Sian became puzzled.

'It's not that strong.'

That didn't mean it was weak. Its armor was very durable and it moved at quite a fast pace. It just wasn't strong enough for Sian to consider it a threat. Sian walked closer to see if it noticed him but it just went on its way to consume lava. It seemed the violent nature only kicked in against one weaker than itself because it ignored Sian as it acknowledged that the stronger being had no intention to attack.

'Hmm…'

Sian could not be sure, so he decided to scout around more. There was a possibility that this Unkara was the weakest here. It was safer to scout around first before killing anything so Sian began to dig through to check on the other Unkaras.

After digging through different holes, Sian came to a conclusion.

'This job will be piece of a cake.'

Sian thanked the gods for such luck to come upon him. These Unkaras were very weak. It would take him a bit more time because of their vast tunnel underground network, but it was not going to be hard.

'I guess I won't need the artifact.'

Sian relaxed and tried to start killing the Unkara in front of him first, but a sudden tremor made him pause. The Unkaras began frantically twisting themselves to run away from something. Sian tried to find out the cause by heightening his senses, but it wasn't needed. The culprit came out by itself.

The ceiling of the lava-filled cavern collapsed and a weird creature dropped on the Unkaras and began devouring them.