Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Deadly dangers were lurking in the Black Forest. It was especially so in a world filled with magical power.

In the ancient legend of L’Haronne, the world was initially formed from a boiling and violent ocean of “primordial elements”. The primordial energy of chaos undulating in the ocean of primordial elements produced the first big bubble in a collision. The bubble, called Anke, burst and divided the early lives. These lives struggled on the remaining fragments after the bubble burst, and they absorbed the energy of the primordial elements, cooling down the ocean around the bubble and forming the world. Meanwhile, the primordial elements, which had cooled down, became the first sea in the form of an endless ocean surrounding the continent of L’Haronne.

However, not all primordial lives had survived this process. Some of the primordial lives went mad. They desperately absorbed the energy of the primordial elements until they finally fell apart. These self-destructing losers became the source of all demons in that world. Their corpses turned into ash and spread throughout the whole world. Every speck of ash became a monster that inherited the greedy nature. They lusted over the nourishment of the magical energy, so much so that they all gathered near the sources of the power, making them the most feared opponents of every mage.

That was why Rheia had used the iron wand to practice the 36-move Enchanted Staff.

A dark-colored lizard covered with hard crystalline scales was smashed out and away with a shrill. The creature landed and plowed a deep ten-meter-long gully before it ground to a halt. As vitality faded from the monster, its catabolized crystal scales quickly weathered and fell off like sand, revealing the natural body of the lizard. A few seconds later, the lizard began to rot and shrink rapidly, leaving behind a pile of rotten flesh and white bones.

Rheia kept wielding her iron wand in front of her before slowly retracting it as she exhaled. “The demonic research expert Baerlie has already figured it out three hundred years ago that these magic-energy devourers were only the products of mutation after being severely contaminated by the magical energy. They did not gather near the source of magic energy because of greed, but they originally lived in these places, and slowly corrupted by the magical energy.”

Rheia tucked her wand. She watched in awe as Lily smashed a bear monster into the ground with a giant alloy X998 sword that was as large as a door. She shook her head and continued with her explanation. “Although the myths have turned into legends, the scholars have confirmed that there is no such thing as the sea of primordial elements. But the threat of these demons is real. Spellcasters fear these monsters because the monsters, with their magic-mutated bodies, are immune to magic. So, mages would usually use a stick to fight or simply leave the monsters to the warriors.”

Rheia’s eye twitched while speaking. She was with the corner of her eye Y’lisabet kicking the a** of a demonic lizard, pulling open its mouth and stuffing a massive fireball down the throat of the demonic lizard. This creature might be resistive of magic, but it did not mean it had a huge appetite. After the third fireball was shoved down its throat, the poor thing screamed in horror and died.

“Yeah!” The little demonic maiden jumped up in joy with an innocent smile spreading across her face.

Rheia completely lost her interest in doing the explanation. “Err, some special combat techniques also work for the monsters.”

The group had encountered monster attacks shortly after entering the Black Forest. It was not natural wild beasts but the demons that Rheia had mentioned. With recording the parameters of the environment of this world and collecting biological samples in mind, Hao Ren and his teammates waved their weapons and fought like the real mercenaries. But Rheia as their employer did not just sit by and watch but rolling up her sleeves and joined the action.

This mage was different from ordinary scholars. Everyone realized this when she lunged out with her wand. After all, no scholars could lift an iron wand that weighed tens of kilograms while bringing out a 36-move Enchanted Staff. As well-traveled as Hao Ren was, Anthony J. Alfonso was the only exception he knew. And now, Miss Rheia was the second exception.

But in the eyes of Miss Rheia, this group of mercenaries was no ordinary soldiers-for-hire.

The fighting style of this group of people was utterly unheard of and seriously challenge her understanding of each combat profession and practical tactic. Any qualified instructor would probably go home and burn their professional certificate upon seeing how these guys fought. The werewolf swordswoman knew nothing about sword skills but random smashing. The little girl of the school of flame magic knew only one technique—Fireball. The warrior named Y’zaks did not seem to have any organized moves in his attack as all he knew was to grab an enemy and then use it as a weapon. The snake demon therapist curled herself up into a ball since the beginning and did a disappearing act although she did throw a few healing spells during the battle. The cat maiden who was known as the Night Assassin was nowhere to be seen during the fight; she only appeared with a fish in her mouth only after the battle was over. No one knew where she got the fish from since there was no river in the forest.

Rheia could still explain it away with ‘anything is possible in this world’ if there were just two lone wolves. But here, it was a group of strange fellows. She began to question herself whether her hiring of these helpers was a wrong decision. The unique fighting style of these people aside, they could already go and do whatever they liked with their kind of power. How on earth was she going to believe that they were down-and-out and needing to work as mercenaries to get by?

But Hao Ren quickly interrupted her thought. “These things are not as ferocious as you said.”

Rheia’s eyes twitched. “No one can smash the monsters like all of you do. Are you guys really adventurers in need of a job?”

“Look who is asking! A mage who uses a wand to kick the a**es of the monsters?” Hao Ren guffawed. He did not intend to answer Rheia’s question. He was only a passerby in this world; he cared not about it. “You do not have to worry about who we are. We will definitely fulfill our obligation under the contract. Is there not a saying in the mercenary community that goes ‘never ask the name, just count the gold’?”

Rheia’s eyebrows arched. “Hmm, this sounds a lot more legit.”

At this time, Vivian came up as she was grabbing Rollie by her waist belt. “We have begun to encounter monsters. How far are the ruins?”

The cat maiden was struggling to get down. “Let me down! Let me down! I only went to catch fish when I saw you all did not need help!”

“When the devouring monsters appear, we will not be far from the entrance.” Rheia ignored the cat’s protest and turned to look at the enchanted scroll, the magic map of which she had made a duplicate copy earlier. The map automatically recorded the course and action of them in the forest. “As I have expected, the ruins still have leakage of magic energy, which could help us locate the place easily.”

While speaking, Rheia tucked the scroll and lifted the iron wand to draw a simple magic rune in the air. As the symbol faded, she looked up and into the jungle. “This way,” she said.

With the mage leading in front, and after a few more monster-attack encounters, the group finally came before some broken walls in between the vines and giant trees.

They were close to the ruins.

“These are…” Vivian was baffled as she saw more and more of the same type of collapsed structure. “They all look familiar to me.”

In the dim of the Dark Forest, the ruins from the ancient times quietly lay in the vegetation, suffering from erosion and decay over the years with vines and thick moss slowly covered buried them in the soil, leaving only a few spires and broken bricks still exposed to the air. But it was these few broken pieces that gave Hao Ren and Vivian an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Hao Ren was dead sure that it was definitely not the architectural style of the goddess of creation.

He had seen enough of the goddess of creation’s style. Whether it was the temple complex in the Gate of Solenne, the goddess’ palace seen in the illusion, or the battleships of the guardian giants, they all have a distinctive feature. Coupled with that he had been studying these things recently, he would have instantly recognized them if the things were related to the Star of Creation.

Then, what were the ruins before his eyes?

Hao Ren’s brows knitted together. Some vague images began to appear in his mind. But just before he grasped the crucial clues, Rheia had brought them to the main body of the ruins.

“Ahh, here we are! It is here!” the mage exclaimed with joy.

The space ahead suddenly opened up.

Surprisingly, there was a vast open space in the forest. Time had not allowed the vegetation to reclaim the place occupied by the ruins of the ancient civilization. On the open ground, the pillars had collapsed and were half-buried in the ground. The once magnificent palace walls had crumbled and surrounded by broken bricks and tiles. There was something particularly striking; at the center of the ruins was the roof with gorgeous ornamentation and smooth pattern protruding out of the ground. It was covered with moss and vines and had a hole at one side, out from which a broad-leaved tree grew.

The long period of weathering and erosion had almost wholly eroded the original colors of these ruins, leaving them coated in a layer of gray and black. But beneath the faded colors, some golden lines and patterns were still visible.

Golden lines and ornamentation. The style of luxury, streamlined design.

Something crossed Hao Ren’s mind. He immediately began to compare the ruins with something from his memory while at the same time, he painted the ruins in golden paint in his mind.

It began to dawn on him that he knew this architectural style, especially the delicate patterns which he had seen before in the Gate of Solenne. It was on the spaceship of the deicide.