A Lake

"How did you do it?" Ace asked his son who was sitting on top of Jumpy.

Ace couldn't find any pride in Geo's expression. He then said, "I said, I will protect their child and find a way to make it evolve to be a Phoenix."

"That could also work?" Ace asked in doubt.

Geo looked at Ace with a pleading look, "Yes! so Dad, please help me! I know Dad can make it happen."

Ace of course couldn't say 'no', after hearing his son's request, "Yes, of course, I will make it happen."

Ace didn't know how his promise today would bring him to an arduous journey many years later.

***

<It's done. We are on the way to your place,> Ace's voice could be heard on the party channel.

<Roger! I am still inspecting the area,> Sofia answered.

There was a reason why Sofia was the one who was scouting, not Ace, or the others. After entering the misty forest, when Ace and the others' vision was affected by the mist, Sofia with her new trait 'mana vision' could see better. She could find monsters who were hiding in the mist better because she could see mana that was contained in every object. 

Because of that, Sofia went to do the scouting, which usually was done by Ace before.

<Anything you have found?> Cloud asked.

<Yes, I have found the waterfall that should be one of the entrances to the place. However, after looking around, I found out that the environment around here was special. a large area here has rich mana density,> Sofia said.

As Sofia was looking around she was surprised after sighting a creature that flew to her at a fast speed. She still couldn't see the creature's shape because it was covered by mist, but based on its thick mana density, it was a high-level monster. Something that she couldn't face right now.

Looking at Red and Blue that were still calmly gliding hadn't been realizing the danger, Sofia shouted, "Run! Come back to Geo! This place is dangerous!" 

Red and Blue were startled, but as if realizing that it was not a time to dilly dally, they flew fast leaving the place.

Sofia nervously clutching Red's back, afraid to fall down. Once in a while, she looked back and saw the creature was getting closer to them.

"Faster! It was chasing us," Sofia screamed.

Red and Blue then increased their speed. They flew hastily towards Ace's direction. Sofia then looked back again and found out that it didn't chase them anymore.

She then sighed a relief. However, she still ordered Red and Blue to go straight to her party's location, as she thought the lake was a pretty dangerous area to fly.

***

"Have you chased them away? Geez, you shouldn't do it. Maybe they were just monsters that wanted to catch fish," Aria asked a blue dragon who just came.

"Spare me, Miss! I just got bored. Just how much time did the creature need to appear? He just has to recognize boss, and he can graze and sleep as much as he wants or leave this place altogether," Erica complained as she landed beside his brother who was sleeping. At his side, Aria and Gon were grilling some big fish.

"It is already done, here is yours, Miss," Gon gave a plate of smaller cooked fish to Aria.

"You are too kind Gon. If you are an angel, I would have fallen to you," Aria smiled.

Gon could only smile. He continued to grill a bigger fish.

"Don't praise him too much Miss! He will be big-headed," Erica said.

Aria frowned, "Don't say like that Erica. Gon is kind, he even often helps me with my experiments. Even a genius inventor like me needs help sometimes. You should be more sociable you know. As far as I know, you still haven't had a boyfriend or husband right? Actually, I have never seen you talk to another dragon except in this group. That's not healthy, you know."

"Wh-what are you talking about? I am just 25 this winter. It's too early at least 30 years for me to have that kind of relationship," Erica said with a flushed face.

Hearing Aria had defended him, Gon felt warm. After leaving Dragma Valley with Mars as one of his 'subordinates', Gon actually felt pretty relieved.

The ridicules and mockeries that he had received from other dragons made him feel isolated and uncomfortable. After traveling, he could talk well with Aria and even Eric. 

Aria was a strange woman. She liked to do random experiments, like one time she asked Gon's help to burn some trees with his fireball, just to check if the mist in the forest was created by mana-related phenomena or just normal atmospheric phenomena.

Looking at the burning trees she just nodded and wrote some notes, without uttering any explanation. Out of curiosity, Gon asked her conclusion about that, he only got, "I need more data," answer. After that, he helped her to do some more 'experiments'. Sometimes they were weird and sometimes trivial.

Eric, The blue dragon was boastful and annoying. However, his attempt to look rightful always made Gon want to laugh. He also tried hard to look clever by giving some of his 'scientific' opinions to Aria, to only get some vague nods or just a disregard. 

However, he seemed to be satisfied with that and then walked away proudly. He would come back when Aria did another experiment to comment on that. Gon was amazed at how naive he was.

If he could get along with Eric, Erica was another story. She was really annoying and always targeted Gon. She was also short-tempered who would get angry when Gon did anything, literally anything. He often asked himself if he had offended her in the past. He was powerless when facing her. 

As for Mars, not like when in prison when he was quite chatty, he was like a cool cucumber. If he didn't spend time together with him in the prison for a few days before, he would think that he was a model leader. Gon thought it was another manifestation of his 'role playing'. He was just too immersed in his role as a leader.

And he was quite right in this case. One day, when everyone was resting, Mars suddenly said, "Hey guys, I have thought these days really seriously. And I decide I don't want to be called King, leader, or head. Call me Boss! I think it is just like myself."

As he said that, all people were dumbfounded. It just came out of nowhere. Yes, everyone except Gon. He just smirked and said, "Okay Boss!"

Mars smiled and gave him a nod, "You seem adapting fast, kid!"

Gon thought it was more like Mars that he had known.

"He comes," Mars's loud voice woke Gon up from his recollection. He then saw the water surface was turbulent. A massive creature emerged from the water.

***

Back to several hours before.

This morning, Gon with the 'gang' arrived at the shore of the lake. These several days' journey was like a vacation for Gon, as no monsters dared to attack them along the way here. Gon was marveled at the fact, until he looked at 15 meters Mars. 

It was normal that no monsters dared to attack them. If they saw a giant lord creature walking in front of them, they would run away a second after seeing it.

Aria said that they had arrived after seeing a vast lake in front of her. She said that angels had found several places that were suitable for building a city, as it had a mana vein under it. They knew it by wandering around the continent with their floating islands. 

The misty forest as a vast jungle should have several places that had mana veins. However, because it's abnormally thick mist, the angels could only identify a spot that hadn't been built a sanctuary on its surface. The lake and its surrounding was the place.

After hearing her, Mars ordered Eric, Erica, and Gon to inspect the lake. Eric then flew in the North direction, Erica flew in the Northeast direction and Gon must dive underwater to find potentially dangerous monsters.

Didn't dare to refuse the order, Gon did it half-hearted. However, despite his not too serious attempt, he found the threat after he arrived at the bottom of the lake. 

A huge creature was sleeping on the bed of the lake. It made him nervous. As he wanted to leave the place and report his finding. He saw the creature opened its big eyes. It looked around for a while.

'Crap!' He said in his heart. Because of the terror that he felt, it made him shudder and freeze. Instinctually he activated his innate ability.

His ability was not actually pretending to die. His ability was to hide his mana and slow his breathing, heartbeats, and blood circulation. So creatures around him couldn't feel his presence. Its after-effect that made him couldn't move during the activation of his ability also made him unnoticeable.

Only some people like Ace who had extraordinary senses could detect him, as for others, they would unconsciously ignore him.

And the huge creature didn't seem to have extraordinary senses as it dozed off again.

Gon was relieved when seeing its big eyes closed again. After waiting for 30 minutes, Gon slowly swam upwards.

He then told his finding to Mars. 

His 'Boss' thought a bit, but finally decided to dive underwater to check the creature.

"I suggest you wait for a bit of B-boss!" Aria said. She seemed to haven't used to call him that way.

"Do you have a suggestion, Miss Aria?" Mars asked.

"Underwater battle will make you at a disadvantage. I have a way to make him come up. It just needs a moment," She said confidently.

***