Chapter 114 The Journey To The Center Begins



The sun arose on the 22nd day of the entrance exams to Anaviotis. Throughout the night, Lyrian was awoken two entire times by the excruciating pain of the Molten Essence trying to take over his body.

As they packed up their stuff to leave, both Alten and Leon could notice how drowsy Lyrain still was, and how sluggishly he moved compared to normal. His expression was also more dull.

Alten asked the reason behind this. Lyrian replied truthfully, "It's the golden slime or whatever I ate from the Earth Guardian. It's trying to take over my body..." He paused, looking to the side in confusion as both Alten and Leon were shocked at the sudden words Lyrain just spoke.

To Lyrian, this was common information, but of course, for the other two, they had no idea what he was talking about all of a sudden.

Lyrian quickly noticed this and turned back to look at him, slightly chuckling, he said, "Oh, don't worry about it. I've been dealing with it since I first ate it, although it has been getting worse..." He paused again, giving Alten and Leon, even more, to worry about, "But it's fine, I will deal with it."

With this, the three finally packed up with what they needed to pack up and went on their way. What way was that? Well... that was still to be decided.

Leon spoke up, "So, what's the next destination." He asked, mostly targeting Alten as he usually had the answers.

Alten paused, confusedly scratching his head as he walked for a few seconds, "Well, I don't really know."

Lyrian interjected after he finished his sentence, "We need to find Yang. That was the creature of darkness, Yin. But Yang is still out there. A creature that I assume will be of light."

Alten remembered what Lyrian was talking about the day before, "That's right... but how are we gonna find it? I mean... it's not like there are other extremely popular and difficult areas within the Tasnan Wilderlands, let alone in the forbidden area." He questioned.

"Hmm... that's the problem." Leon retorted.

As they all continued to think, Alten came up with an idea, "I say we head to the center. With the cores we've obtained, almost all three of us can pass. That's not considering the golden core, of course. Or I guess I should call it the dark core. But still, we will get enough cores by the time we make it there. It will take us about four days to journey there."

Lyrian thought this to be a good idea. Now that area that needed to be explored was explored, the best chance they had at encountering this Yang creature... was by simply stumbling into it.

Lyrian also thought of another possibility, "I mean, many had information on this Yin creature. But it seemed no one had a clue about the Yang creature. Maybe it's not meant to be found..." He theorized.

In the meantime, they had arrived exactly where they first entered the Flatstone Mountains. To their surprise, their ostriches were still waiting for them.

One was desperately running around, seemingly trying to escape, while the other two chased after him, making sure he didn't get too far away. They were running in circles.

As the ostrich that was trying to escape caught a glimpse of Lyrian's face, it immediately stopped running... and fell onto its face, completely unconscious.

Seeing this, Leon burst out into a laugh, "Look! You made it faint! Hahaha!" He laughed, pointing at the fallen ostrich.

After a few seconds, it arose, before almost fainting once again. However, a quick show of the blade by Lyrian made it erect its posture immediately. Tears coming out of its eyes...

Lyrian quickly rode it without any time waste. Alten made sure to put his before getting on, as it seemingly appreciated the cuddles and smiled in response while closing its eyes. Leon didn't do any other shenanigan and rode atop his as well.

With a determined expression, Lyrian spoke, "With these ostriches, our travel time should be cut in half. We will get there in two days, and by then, we will also get all the cores necessary to pass! Let's go!" He said as the others cheered in agreement before the three set off down the edge of the mountain.

They arrived at the bottom quicker than the time it took them to get up, the difference in gravity most likely helping them. After getting down, the three began quickly making their way out of the forbidden lands and toward the center of the Tasnan Wilderlands.

Thankfully, Alten already had access to the direction. As they traveled, several hours quickly passed as fast as they went they sailed through on the ostrich backs. Every hour or so they stopped to take on a random their four beast. One like that was almost butter for the three at this point.

With Alten's slight newfound courage and determination, Leon's ever-increasing sword skill, and Lyrian's new obsidian blade, they breezed past the beasts.

Of course, they still had to be very smart about their fighting tactics. One wrong move was enough for all three of them to be wiped out at once. However, they had now fought a Kailion together. They had fought a Hydro Serpent, a Diamond Lizard, and Lyrian had fought an Elder Poison Tarantula! Their experience was enough to allow them to not make any major mistakes while fighting.

ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm 5 hours had passed since they woke up. It was now 1pm. The sun was blaring in the sky, the brightest it would be for the entire day. Alten assumed that they would exit the forbidden lands in a few more hours, and by the time they had to go to take a rest for the night, around 11pm, they would make it halfway to the center from where they started.

As they continued on their ostriches, Lyrain suddenly saw an odd flicker of light ahead, tied across two trees.

He was immediately confused, "Huh?" He said, trying to discern where the flicker was coming from. Suddenly, as he got mere meters away from the flickering object, he came to a screeching halt on his ostrich, as Leon and Alten's ostrich jumped to the side to stop their movement.