The Mystery of the Arid Zone

Without knowing the fate of the man that gave him the two swords for free, Shiba had reached an inn and paid fifty bronze coins for a night.

It was expensive, but he was already getting a discount, so he didn't complain.

He could also eat dinner and breakfast, so it wasn't that expensive, given the prices of the food in the town.

Anyway, he had decided to leave the town the next day to hunt another beast, so paying for a night wasn't a problem for him.

If someone could live a long time in the town by catching a mere level 2 beast, there wouldn't be so many beast hunters taking risks to hunt stronger beasts.

The food Shiba ate at the inn was better than the one he ate at the previous town, but for some reason, he felt that if he could choose, he would choose the food of the previous town.

The next day, Shiba left the inn and went to the exit of the town. The previous time he used the one that connected with the arid zone to enter the town, but he was heading in the opposing direction at that time. After all, it was difficult to find beasts in the arid zone.

Shiba was carrying the backpack with some remaining food and clothes on his back and the swords at his waist.

Besides the two real swords he obtained, he also had the almost broken wooden sword. Although that sword wasn't too useful and would probably only last for a single attack, it was a gift, so he didn't want to throw it while it could still be used.

Moreover, he didn't have the luxury to discard things just because they weren't in a perfect state. He was still wearing the clothes that were damaged in the previous battle. After all, although his looks were worse with them, the damage on the clothes wasn't that great, and he was planning to battle again, so it was possible that they would be damaged again.

Once Shiba left the town, he was surprised to see the outside. It was full of grass and trees. That sight wasn't possible in the arid zone. His previous owners had isolated areas with beautiful flowers and trees, but artificial gardens and true nature weren't the same.

Shiba had left without spending the three hundred remaining bronze coins. He thought about buying armor or clothes that gave better defense, but since he wouldn't be used to them and he didn't know if he would be successful on his first hunt, he decided that saving the money would be better.

Anyway, his body was already quite sturdy due to reaching the limits of level 3, so his defenses were already good without needing to rely on external things that might even difficult his movement.

Since his battle style relied on speed, he didn't dare to bet losing speed.

After all, Wind Blade would be useless if he didn't manage to hit the target, and he didn't have any other offensive skill.

Shiba had only found the previous best by luck. Specifically, it had been bad luck. Thus, he didn't know how to find them. However, he had already decided that he would just explore the area and see if he could discover one that he could beat.

After walking a bit, Shiba turned back and looked at the big gorge separating the terrain from the arid zone.

That gorge was so big that it was difficult to appreciate the arid zone on the other side. He couldn't believe that something like that was natural.

Moreover, the change in the weather and the energy in the air was just too big. Although the areas near the city on both sides seemed like a transition area, the changes were still too abrupt.

After walking for fifteen minutes, Shiba could feel that training would be far more effective than in Border Town.

If it weren't because the area wasn't safe enough, a lot of people would prefer to live there. Of course, Shiba would be able to find other towns if he continued to walk in the opposite direction of the arid zone, but living in those places was too expensive, so those without enough resources could only choose a worse place like Border Town.

There was definitely something wrong with the arid zone. Even since Shiba heard that in the past, there was a sudden change in weather, it looked that something big happened.

In fact, just by the fact that his previous owners decided to live there, the ores that the slaves had been mining should be incredibly valuable, which showed that the arid zone wasn't as a poor land as it seemed.

Moreover, he saw Master Liye choosing it as his reincarnation place. Although he didn't know the reasons, since Master Liye came from another planet, Shiba didn't believe the place was just random.

Master Liye's reincarnation was a strong point in Shiba's belief, but the truth was that not even Master Liye knew why he had chosen that place. When thinking about what place chose, he suddenly had the feeling that it would be a good place and decided to trust his intuition.

Of course, the fact that someone like Master Liye was attracted to that place even if it was by intuition was also proof that something abnormal was related to that place. After all, the intuition of strong experts couldn't be underestimated.

If he knew that someone else with the Fake Origin Path was also in Border Town, he would be even more sure that something strange was hidden in the arid zone.

However, Shiba lacked a lot of information, and given that he wasn't strong enough, he decided that it was better if he ignored the mystery of the arid zone for the moment.

That wasn't something Shiba could understand, but it was something that Master Liye and Eini's sister understood the first time they put their feet on that planet. However, it was useless for them. Other Law Gods might die of excitement finding something like that, but those Law Gods wouldn't even be able to discover the truth. Not even the other three among the five strongest Law Gods had that capability.

At that moment, Eini was walking through the arid zone.

From the random part she appeared after being sent to that planet, she traveled until reaching Border Town, and after being stopped for some days after being scammed, she finally went to the arid zone.

Her sister hadn't told her the exact reason since it was just a short message, but for her sister sending her a message as soon as she reached the planet, Eini could understand that there was something extraordinary that could benefit her.

The only thing Eini knew was that the approximate area where that thing was and that the only way to obtain it was through having fate with it.

As for how her sister knew about it, Eini didn't have any idea.

In fact, it was that Eini's sister already owned it. There were only five of those through the universe, and those who owned one were able to sense the others. Master Liye was in the same situation. Thus, neither of them was interested in trying to obtain that thing for themselves.

There wasn't any requirement for the level in order to obtain that thing, fate was everything. Even someone like Eini's father, an Origin God, would be unable to get it without being fated with it, but a mere mortal could obtain it.

She had even heard that the son of her father's best friend obtained one while still being in his mother's womb.

Thus, she wanted that Eini gave a try despite still being in the Mortal Rank.

"This area stinks."

Eini put her hand on her nose to avoid the smell of the area.

She walked for several hours after leaving in the first hour in the morning, and she had been walking through the area her sister told her, but even the approximate area was incredibly big, so she didn't expect to find it in one day.

"Probably, a lot of people died here recently. This seems to have been a resting area, but given the quality, I doubt that anyone of Border Town would have worked here. Probably, this was for slaves. What disgusting!"

She didn't like those who enslaved others, so once she guessed the situation, she was utterly disgusted.

One didn't need to be a genius to guess who had killed those slaves. The only option was the owners themselves or their subordinates.

Although the corpses had already been removed when Eini discovered the place, after killing so many people, it wasn't possible to remove all traces with the means they had in just two weeks.

That was the place where Shiba almost died together with the other slaves.

"Who is here?"

When Eini was still surprised by the smell of the place, she heard that voice, and she immediately knew that she couldn't beat that person.

"I need to flee."

Immediately, Eini generated a pair of flaming wings and flew as fast as possible.

The skills of that type were rare, but given her background, it wasn't something that difficult to obtain.

Seconds after she flew away, a group of guards reached the place, but they were too late to catch Eini.

"Send people to pursue her. Anyone who sees this needs to die. If we fail, we will be killed."

The guard leader, who had spoken before, issued his order, and a group of guards was to pursue Eini, but they lost trace of her.

After all, she was flying and departed far before them, so once she managed to reach enough height, the guards didn't know in which direction she fled.