Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Hoshi’s vision darkened for a moment… and then he saw something incredibly beautiful!

Red, white, yellow, blue… Large amounts of flowers bloomed in varying colors here, creating a beautiful flower garden. Numerous small silver butterflies danced amongst the flowers, and abundant green leaves grew on vines that spread everywhere. These served to accentuate the flowers’ beauty even further.

Clear water poured out of a long crack on a wall to Hoshi’s right. The water cascaded downwards, forming a small waterfall that then became a babbling stream which curved through this entire area.

A giant red-leafed tree stood in the center of this area. It was apparently the same type of tree as the one from before, except that this one was bigger and also bore some black fruits.

“So beautiful…” Hoshi couldn’t help but praise the scenery. He then heard the sound of song again.

Following the sound, Hoshi carefully walked past the flower garden so as to not trample on any flowers. When he approached the large red-leafed tree, he saw the gold-haired girl sitting on a tree branch as he expected. Just like before, she was singing that mysterious and ethereal song.

Hoshi silently enjoyed the performance for a while.

No mist was appearing, nor were there any spiritual monsters… This appeared to be a safe zone.

Quite a long amount of time passed without any spiritual monsters appearing at all. Hoshi was now confident that this beautiful place was safe.

“Thank you for taking me here,” Hoshi thanked the girl who was sitting on the tree.

He then walked over to the bottom of the tree, sat down against the tree bark, and placed his shield down next to him. Hoshi finally relaxed himself and sighed deeply.

He had fought for so long by himself, running everywhere without daring to let down his guard… Now he could finally not worry and rest for a little while.

His originally tense state of mind eased itself. The accumulated fatigue of his body instantly overwhelmed him like an unstoppable tidal wave. The pleasant song echoed in his ears, making him feel drowsy.

He knew that he shouldn’t sleep, but…

Hoshi gradually closed his eyes, no longer able to fight off the drowsiness overcoming him. He fell asleep right there under the red-leafed tree, with a peaceful expression on his beautiful face.

Seiji stopped paying attention to how much time had passed after their search for Hoshi passed two hours.

His Interdimensional Locator Spell mark still indicated a clear direction. This meant that Hoshi was still alive and healthy.

Even Seiji was feeling fatigued after traveling in the Domain for so long. However, his junior had managed to survive for so long despite this being his first visit to an Inner World, and even remained in good condition. This was… amazing!

Seiji didn’t expect that Hoshi would be able to pull it off. He felt that he had underestimated his junior and Fourth Knight.

Any Awakened that managed to survive here would rapidly grow in power. Hisashi and Mika next to him were great examples.

After fighting here for so long and absorbing large amounts of mist, not only did their powers improve, they even learned new abilities.

*Bang!*

Hisashi kicked away an approaching black wolf with his right leg that had thunder entwined around it.

Hisashi was no longer restricted to only casting thunder spells with his hands. Even his legs and feet were now capable of producing thunder. This gave him powerful kicking strength, along with much greater agility for jumping, dodging, and close-quarters combat. The drawback to this was that if Hisashi used thunder on his legs and feet for too long, they would start to go numb or even hurt. He would then need to rest or receive healing from Seiji to help cure the symptoms.

Obviously, this ability’s best use was to improve Hisashi’s mobility. However, he also really enjoyed the feeling of kicking small monsters far away with his feet, so he kept using it often in such a manner.

*Whip!*

Mika shot out a black band from her Mashiro’s Clothes. This black band accurately impaled the black wolf that had been kicked into midair by Hisashi. The black wolf was then transformed into mist that was absorbed by the black band.

Mika was now able to control her Mashiro’s clothes to shoot black bands in a radius of twenty meters. She could control at most six black bands simultaneously to attack enemy monsters. Her accuracy with this was far higher than using the spiritual gun to shoot Mana Bullets, and this also had a lower Mana cost as well. The drawback was that these black bands had limited attack power, and could even be broken by boss monsters, which would cause a large amount of damage to Mika.

Although this seemed rather subtle, Seiji felt that this new ability of Mika’s might become something like a powerful tentacle technique if it leveled up some more.

Mika and Hisashi were continuously getting stronger. However, their fatigue was also accumulating.

Luckily, there were three of them, so they all took turns fighting and resting.

Seiji didn’t know how much longer it would take for them to find Hoshi.

After the Domain or Inner World transformed… not only were there more paths now, every district was much larger.

As the three traveled in the direction that Seiji’s Interdimensional Locator Spell indicated, they even passed through a gigantic district that was larger than several football fields put together! There were so many monsters that appeared there which seemed like a tidal wave. It was impossible to count how many monsters were rushing at them…

Seiji and his friends broke through this district at the fastest speed possible. They managed to leave the tremendous group of monsters behind them by escaping to another district.

“What type of boss monster would appear there if we stayed behind and cleared out all the small monsters in such a district?” Hisashi asked this question after they escaped.

Seiji felt that at minimum, something like a tyrannosaurus rex would appear. He didn’t know what the maximum limit would be. Perhaps a giant dragon or an amalgamation beast like a chimera would appear.

Seiji wanted to find Hoshi as quickly as possible. Seiji was also really worried about Shika and Kazuko, but he also knew that he needed to remain calm.

If something irrecoverable truly happened, he would load… But before then, he would believe in his companions! Seiji thought that to himself.

They entered another corridor.

As they proceeded down this path and killed the small monsters along it, they suddenly heard faint sounds coming from down this direction!

Seiji’s first reaction was that of delight. However, he soon noticed that the sounds weren’t from Hoshi as he first thought.

*Tat tat tat tat…* This sounded like continuous gunfire from an assault rifle. This was a sound that Hoshi certainly wouldn’t be able to produce.

Out of the three that had gotten separated from Seiji, only Shika had a gun with her. But even if she brought out and used it, her gun wouldn’t sound like this one.

“Can you guys hear that?” Seiji looked towards Mika and Hisashi.

Both of them nodded.

“That’s not a sound that Hoshi, Shika, or Kazuko could possibly produce. I think that it’s highly likely that there’s others here.” Seiji had a serious expression.

“What should we do?” Hisashi blocked a black wolf that tried to jump him. He then swept it away with a kick from his lightning-wreathed foot.

Seiji pulled down the cover of his helmet so that his entire face was concealed. “Both of you stay behind here. I’ll go on ahead to check things out.”

“Be careful,” Mika reminded him while impaling two black wolves with her bands.

“I will.”

Seiji then cast a concealment spell on himself that made his presence very difficult to sense. It was as if he had put on a camouflage cloak.

Seiji carefully trudged, or perhaps a better word would be stealthed, towards the direction of the sounds. He wanted to investigate the situation.

He saw five people!

All five were male. Only one among them was wearing spiritual combat equipment, while the other four wore ordinary clothing.

The one in spiritual combat equipment was obviously a Spiritual Ability user. He wore a helmet, held an assault-rifle-type spiritual gun, and there was also a short sword visibly buckled to his right leg.

The other four in ordinary clothing were all Awakened. Three of them were all holding different blood-red weapons!

There was a brown-haired jacketed man who carried a greatsword.

There was a green-haired youth who wore athletic attire and carried a spear.

There was a shadowy-appearing youth who wore a hoodie and wielded a dagger in each hand.

These three were currently fighting together against a large dragon boss monster. Two acted as warrior type fighters while the third acted as an assassin. Their teamwork appeared average in Seiji’s eyes.

The fourth Awakened who didn’t have any visible weapons was a gray-haired boy who wore a normal shirt. He was holding a tablet computer… no, something that resembled a tablet computer. Every few seconds, this item would emit a circular red wave.

The Spiritual Ability user stood next to this gray-haired boy. It appeared as if he was either protecting or surveilling this boy.

Seiji silently observed them.

Just as he was assessing the combat capabilities of the three Awakened that were fighting the dragon boss monster, the gray-haired boy suddenly looked in Seiji’s direction!

‘Did he notice me?’

Seiji frowned at this. He knew that it wouldn’t help even if he retreated now, so he could only stay there unmoving and pretend that he was only a rock.

At this moment, the dragon monster suddenly roared and started charging. It abandoned the three Awakened it was fighting and charged straight at the gray-haired boy!