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Chapter 656 Tell Me More

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The capital of the Noel family's territory was extremely large, but that came as no surprise. A sprawling city covered both sides of a river 50 feet (15.2 meters) wide. White floor walls covered the length of the river crossing the city, setting the theme for the city's color scheme.

Oddly enough, there were almost no high rises in the entire city, with the only exception being a large, spiraling tower in the heart of the city that Lex suspected could double as a lighthouse.

The top of the tower also looked suspiciously similar to a bird stand. He could not imagine that the Noel family had built a spot for Sol birds to rest right within their capital. But then again, why couldn't they?

Lex did not speculate further on the topic, and instead focused on figuring out how to reach the teleportation formation. There was no boundary wall to the city, so entering was no problem. The real problem was navigating the maze-like streets to find his destination.

Although there were no highrises in the city, each building was three stories high and built closely together, making it so that while walking in the streets, the rest of the city could not really be seen.

It wasn't as if Lex did not ask directions, but there were just too many streets. It was difficult to cover any real distance in a short period of time. More than once Lex had to convince Fenrir not to jump on top of the buildings and just bypass all the traffic on the ground, though he himself began to wonder why he was stopping the trusty wolf.

Eventually, though, the conclusion that Lex came to about why they were having such a tough time finding their destination, was that both he and Fenrir were unreasonably hungry. The two decided to take a break, and once Fenrir shrunk his size down, they found their way to a tavern called Hippo House tavern.

The owner was a hairy man with a large belly and a laugh that shook the foundations of the entire building. He was sitting behind the counter, greeting each and every guest as they walked in, recognizing almost every patron.

Lex greeted the man with matching enthusiasm, and struck up a conversation with him about the city, though Lex did not talk about anything in particular and seemed to be interested in anything and everything. The owner was even more enthusiastic about conversing with Lex once he saw the amount of food that he ordered.

For cultivators, it was not unusual to eat a lot of food so Lex's order was not surprising. But even so, the amount of food Lex ordered was genuinely surprising, and for the owner, pleasing.

While Lex was eating and chatting, he naturally also brushed on the topic of the teleportation formation. That was when, for the first time, he understood the complexities involved in long distance teleportation.

According to the map he had been provided, his next destination was a place called Delurian Drip Bog. It was pretty simple to say that he just needed to take the teleportation formation and select that as his destination, but apparently this was one of the furthest places the formation teleported to. In a straight line, it was approximately 31,000 miles (49,889 km) away, which, if Lex remembered correctly, was greater than the circumference of the earth.

But he was already used to teleporting anywhere he wanted using the Inn, not to mention the teleportation he experienced to travel from one planet to another back in the Origin realm. That alone was no doubt countless lightyears of distance covered during one teleportation.

As a result, he had become desensitized to the complexities of the act. But conversing with the tavern owner brought him back to reality. Under ordinary circumstances, the teleportation formation would only be active one day a week, and each individual spot cost tens of thousands of spirit stones.

Lex naturally had such an amount. He had long since begun to gather as many physical forms of currency and valuables, which naturally included spirit coins, spirit stones, spirit liquid, gold, jewels, a few other valuable metals that were not found on earth and some other random spirit based currencies. He had received these mostly from the emporium, though some small exchanges he had set up in the Guild room also contributed.

𝓁𝑖𝘣𝑟𝘦𝘢𝒹.𝑐ℴ𝘮

Since he was going to be traveling, he naturally stocked up his spatial bangle with everything he could possibly need. That was not the issue. The issue was… this was so damn expensive for an ordinary person! He remembered back when he was at the academy and went out on the expedition, a massive group was traveling with them. He could not even imagine the cost of transporting so many people.

It seemed that, despite his efforts to gather as much general knowledge as possible, he had gaps in his knowledge. When he asked why it was so expensive, the tavern owner merely shrugged and commented that he'd heard some of the resources used in building the formation were extremely rare and expensive, and would often get used up. As for what they were, only actual formation experts would know.

Lex made a mental note to hire some formation experts for the Inn. There was no profession that the Inn should lack knowledge of, and as the Innkeeper, he needed to have an in-depth understanding of all such matters.

Lex also realized one more very important thing. In fact, it could be said to be crucially important to the development of the Inn. He did not want to admit it, but the food this random tavern gave was actually somewhat better than the food served at the Inn.

As of late, the Inn had started having better and better ingredients due to the turtle's efforts and the expanded farmlands, but that was not enough. At most it provided him with vegetables and fruits, but he lacked any kind of meat to go along with it. Moreover, even if he had incredible ingredients, the cooks he had were good, but not skilled enough to be mind blowing. If only he could put up a recruitment notice for someone with a cooking system, how great would that be?

With such thoughts in his mind, Lex finally finished the meal. After thanking the tavern owner for keeping him company, a satisfied Lex and Fenrir left. Although he had found out that the teleportation formation would only work once a week, he had no intention of waiting that long. The token given to him by Jolene should be enough to have them start the formation for him early right? Besides, he had a good relationship with the Noel family. He was sure, if nothing else, they could figure out some deal.

*****

New York, Earth

Rafael walked through the long, extravagant hallways of his fathers latest mansion with an extremely serious expression. The war on earth had been going on miserably, but they were alive. However, if his suspicions were right, that might soon change.

When he finally reached his fathers room, he did not bother knocking and just barged in. 'King' Marlo could be seen casually reclining on a chair, his butler standing beside him giving some kind of report. He wore no shirt, yet his chest was covered in bandages to help him heal from his many wounds.

"Old man, we have trouble," Rafael said, not bothering with semantics right now. He was having great trouble as it was, surviving in this new reality of his. It was nothing like the future he knew, and if it weren't for his skills and insights from all the battles he recalled from the future, he would not have survived. Almost every opportunity he could possibly gain on earth was already probably gone, and lord only knew if the threats and dangers he recalled from the future would even come now or not. Or, if they came, what would happen.

"What is it?" Marlo asked, taking his son quite seriously. Although he was not exactly satisfied with Rafael's personal strength, the kid had spent countless years in a coma. He could not be blamed.

Besides, his leadership in battle and his unmatched foresight and skill made him worthy of recognition in his own right. No longer was he called Marlo's son when people talked of him. He was Rafael, the greatest living human general on earth right now.

"If my guess is correct, we're going to face an attack soon. One we can't possibly survive."

"Oh? What makes you say that? We have many allies, I doubt they'd let us suffer such an attack unaided."

"That's where you're wrong," Rafael said, shaking his head. "I've been monitoring troop movements for a while now. Based on the trends I've seen, and the hints I've collected, I suspect that the deities and A.I. have reached a tacit agreement about us. Since we don't support the deities preaching in New York, we are nothing but an eye sore to them. If they can get rid of us, there will be one less competitor for earth."

Instead of being alarmed, Marlo smiled.

"Tell me more."

Chapter 657 Hidden Intentions

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"Right now, on earth, there are 4 forces competing against one another. The first is naturally the A.I. who have invaded with the intention of killing everyone. The second are the deities who have agreed to aid the humans in fighting them off. On the surface it seems like they want to help the humans, but more and more I feel like they have ulterior motives. After all, there is nothing of value on earth that they want to protect, and I find it hard to believe they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

"The issue with the third party, the devils supporting the remnants of the ruling families, is the same. The only thing is that I cannot guess what they are after right now. That finally leaves the fourth party, which is us - the unaffiliated humans.

"While theoretically we should be allies with the deities and devils against the A.I. I suspect something sinister is afoot. Based on reports from our scouts, all the 'allied' forces near us have been slowly yet seemingly inadvertently moving away. I think that they have tacitly consented to our demise, so that there is one less player for them to compete with."

"Alright, so where do you think the decisive attack will come from?" Marlo asked, seemingly still unperturbed. In fact, even the butler did not seem to show any emotions besides annoyance and exhaustion.

"The point of the attack is to take us by surprise and give us no time to prepare so that they can decimate us. I suspect they will send in soldiers directly from orbit, landing behind our defensive lines, or come from the water where our visuals are blocked. Most likely, considering that in the past we have shown effective battle effectiveness in two separate groups, you being one group and me with the army being another, they will attack from three directions simultaneously."

Marlo nodded, and said, "not bad. Your analysis is getting better and better each day."

"Is this really the time to be focused on such a thing?" Rafael asked, feeling emotionally exhausted.

"I think any time is a good opportunity for a father to compliment his son," Marlo said, chuckling to himself.

Rafael… couldn't reply. So instead, he just waited for the 'King' to bestow him with a proper answer.

"You forget, my son, the thing I excel in most is self defense," Marlo finally said, seeing as how Rafael was not in the mood to humor him. "Let me show you a little something I've been working on."

Marlo merely extended his hand forward and used a certain technique. Rafaels' pupils shrunk as he stared at his father's hand in horror and surprise. His stupid father was a maniac!

*****

Lex made his way to the Noel family mansion, which was a lot easier to find than the teleportation formations. After all, the mansion itself seemed to be a tourist attraction of sorts. Apparently, once a month, during a special event, tourists were even allowed to enter certain portions of it.

He expected that the process to gain admittance would be difficult or complex, and he was ready to flaunt the token given to him by the Phillips family if necessary, yet his experience was quite unexpected. The moment he approached the gate, the guards seemed to recognize him and all suddenly stood at attention.

The gates were opened even before he arrived, and an escort astride some kind of beast suddenly appeared, to guide Lex deeper inside. At first he wanted to ask how or why they recognized him, but upon noticing the reverence on the soldiers faces as they watched him pass, he felt too awkward to do so.

Lex was led all the way to the front door, where a tall, well-dressed man seemed to be waiting for him.

"Mr. Lex, it is a pleasure to finally meet you," the man said as he gave a deep bow, before approaching Lex to shake his hand.

Lex did not hesitate to grab the man's hand and give him a firm handshake, a pleasant smile on his face. Yet behind his perfectly pleasant appearance, Lex had raised his guard to the maximum. It was not just his instincts that warned him, but that he himself could judge that there was something off about this overly enthusiastic fellow.

"The pleasure is mine. I have never had such a warm welcome somewhere before."

"Then you should come here more often! Had I known you were coming, I would have prepared an even grander welcome!"

The man laughed as he welcomed Lex inside the mansion, as if he was extremely pleased with himself.

"Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Marcus, I am Lord Joseph Noel's nephew. I look after the mansion and the city while uncle is not here. You may be somewhat surprised at your reception, but uncle sent your information to all the cities in his territory. You'll find that you will receive the best possible treatment anywhere you are recognized."

"That… I was not expecting such a thing," said Lex, genuinely surprised.

"Indeed. Uncle has not given any other information, except to treat you with the utmost respect. Although it's short notice, as soon as the guards informed me of your arrival, I passed orders for a banquet in your honor. All the dignitaries from across the city will be invited."

"That… that sounds wonderful," said Lex, successfully hiding the deep reluctance he felt upon hearing the news. "But unfortunately I have important business that is very time sensitive. Since you have already recognized me, and since Joseph has been kind enough to pass such instructions, things should be much simpler. I need to use the teleportation formation to Delurian Drip Bog. I can naturally cover the cost of having the formation activated ahead of time."

"Nonsense! If I make you pay, then uncle will disown me! How urgent is your task? I can have the formation readied within the hour."

"As soon as possible would be much appreciated. It's not that I don't wish to receive your hospitality, but I really cannot wait."

"Well then, please wait a moment while I go and get things ready."

Marcus left Lex in a lavish sitting room while he left to make preparations. Lex did not drop his guard even when he was left alone, nor did he let anything show in his expressions. That was because, after spending some more time with Marcus, Lex had clearly noticed a deep hostility buried in the man's heart. Of course, he had done his best to hide it, but with Lex's vast experience dealing with people, his sixth sense, his instincts, not to mention his extremely astute pup companion, he could hide nothing from Lex.

𝑙𝘪𝑏𝓇ℯ𝑎𝒹.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Of course, Lex did not care why Marcus felt that hostility, or what his story was. As long as he did not interfere with Lex's task in any way, he would be happy enough to leave things be.

His wait was short and uneventful, as Marcus soon returned, taking long and purposeful strides.

"The formation is being prepared. Why don't we take a carriage to the terminal, it should be completely ready by the time we arrive."

"Excellent."

Marcus led Lex back to the front of the mansion where a carriage was already waiting for them, and accompanied him as they departed. The entire time, Marcus wore a massive grin, as if he was extremely pleased and enthusiastic to meet Lex. Any normal person would completely be fooled by the act. Even if they suspected something, they would only suspect that the cause of Marcus' enthusiasm was a desire to please his uncle.

"What's that tower for?" Lex asked when the conversation allowed, pointing to the massive structure in the middle of the city.

"That's the local Sol bird shrine. Although we, the Noel family, are not able to tame Sol birds in the way the Hum nation does, it is not a problem to establish a relationship. We have a flock of over 20 Sol birds who consider this territory as their home, and visit the shrine every month to be worshiped by the locals. I'm not sure why they like it so much, but this is quite a common custom in all remote territories."

Lex did not comment as various thoughts ran through Lex's mind. He was reminded of the deities, and wondered if the Sol birds counted as such. Why else would they give so much importance to being worshiped?

There was a very easy way to find out the answer. The turtle had adopted a Sol bird back at the Inn. All he needed to do was scan it to learn more. And if that didn't work, he could ask the turtle. He could also…

Suddenly Lex froze, as a thought occurred to him. He pretended to rub his eyes while he secretly put on the Fancy Contact lenses. It was time to see if these things were any good.

Chapter 658 Trapped

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The first time Lex used the Fancy Monocle, the amount of details it provided were overwhelming. It analyzed the material of each and every item it saw, and started randomly measuring things in detail he found difficult to even imagine ever needing. To be able to keep it at a level where Lex could actually use it, he had to disable many features and keep it limited in what information it provided him. As a result, in the early days, it had even saved his life by detecting the arrival of zombies before he himself was able to see them.

Now, honestly, Lex barely felt the need to use them. Not only were his instincts incredibly strong, but his own observation alongside the use of his spirit sense made it so that he felt like the Fancy contact lenses probably could not keep up with him. That is one of the reasons he hadn't really bothered using them. Another was that, although he kept his left eye's ability turned off, it could also see a lot of details that he still found hard to completely comprehend.

So how could the lenses possibly keep up? But right now, he tried them anyway. Especially because he had also picked up a special spiritual technique that he could use in conjunction with the lenses. He assumed that they might become helpful with that extra push.

He quickly realized just how much he had been underestimating the lenses. Due to his increased cultivation, his brain could now process the massive amounts of data the lenses were providing him with, all without actually distracting him from functioning normally.

Moreover, the Fancy Monocle relied on Lex to fill its database, so the information was a lot more detailed, and revealed information that Lex didn't even know how to comprehend. For example, when he put on the contacts, he looked around the carriage and learnt that the Gangileon atmospheric density within the carriage was 7. What did that even mean?

But aside from the data he could make no sense of, there was plenty of information that he could comprehend. The carriage was made from a kind of material called Sublime composite, which was artificially created using various extremely valuable materials which had excellent energy insulating capabilities. He also learnt that exactly 3.4 tones of Sublime composite was used in the construction of the carriage, and that there were a series of other valuable materials fixed at various edges of the carriage, making it aesthetically pleasing. Yet, underneath all that was a carefully planned formation which used the Sublime composite as a foundation and other items as supporting materials. The lenses were able to recognize the existence of the formation due to key principals which were being applied, though it could not determine the specific formation being used.

Based on his own instincts, he knew that the carriage was no threat to him, but he had been completely ignorant of the fact that the carriage itself was a moving formation.

As such, this served as a learning experience for him. Moreover, due to his increased mental capabilities, encountering these items and gaining an in-depth explanation about how they were being used was enough for him to learn about them for good. In the future, if he ever encountered a similar situation, he would be able to identify them on his own. Moreover, they were serving as inspiration for things to do at the Inn.

He turned to look at Marcus, who was still smiling and talking, and was intrigued by the information the lenses were able to gather.

The first thing the lenses informed him of was that they could only gather surface level information from him because he seemed to be employing a protective technique that protected him from probing. Yet it could still identify his height, weight, skin temperature, and much more. The thing he found most intriguing was that by studying the subtle tightness and relaxed state of the muscles all over his body, the lens could reasonably guess what kind of emotions Marcus was actually feeling. Of course, this was again not a detailed review for a more thorough scan was blocked.

That was the point at which Lex used the accompanying technique for the Fancy contact lenses, and things reached a whole new level!

The contact lenses, instead of providing him with the final conclusion of its analysis, began giving him raw data on what it was seeing. That's when the technique took over.

The world itself became more vibrant, as if Lex was suddenly able to see new colors. Moreover, he could see those colors to absorb new information from them.

For example, the hidden hostility that Lex had detected from Marcus was now as apparent as day, and seemed to paint the entire man in shades of green and red. Feelings of inferiority, jealousy, envy, hatred and a tinge of admiration made up the foundation of his hostility. But that was not all. Lex could almost see into his mind, as if reading his thoughts. Marcus was jealous because… he thought Lex was engaged to Greta Noel, and would thus be joining the main family, and that was the reason he was so appreciated by Joseph.

He felt overlooked and underappreciated, and there was a seed of sinister intentions that seemed to be sprouting within him. Lex could almost actually see what actions he was planning to take, as if he was watching a movie.

Lex looked out to the tower, and saw that it seemed to be acting as some kind of funnel, channeling some unknown energy through its base to its tip, where the energy was gathering. He could tell that when enough energy gathered, the birds would probably come and rest there, and the monthly worshiping ceremony would commence. How intriguing.

Lex spent the rest of the carriage ride in relative silence, as he absorbed the information the lenses were giving him.

When they finally arrived at the building where the teleportation formation was, Lex interestingly looked around like a child at a zoo. The lenses still did not recognize the formation, but since Lex already knew the purpose of it, he could extrapolate even more information. Moreover, he was now more easily able to guess Marcus' plan.

Lex didn't know how much he trusted the information from the lenses, so he started planning out a way to ensure everything went smoothly, without preemptively attacking or punishing Marcus. It was an intriguing challenge, since he already knew what he wanted to do.

"Are you sure you won't accept any payment?" Lex asked one last time, as Marcus led him to the teleportation room. This time around, only he and Fenrir would use the formation, so he expected it to cost a lot, but Marcus was insistent that they could not accept payment.

One had to admit, his acting of being the perfect host was quite remarkable.

"Impossible. Something as minor as this is not even enough to count as being a good host. Next time you visit, you must allow me to throw a banquet for you."

"Then take care of yourself. Next time, we will definitely dine together."

With a smile and a nod, Lex walked to the center of the teleportation platform, a tiny Fenrir following along. A few minutes later, the formation completely turned on, and the two disappeared.

As if a switch had been flipped, Marcus' generous smile turned into an ugly scowl. He had no idea who Lex was, or why his uncle gave him so much importance. Irritation and jealousy filled his entire being, engulfing him. There was a minor struggle in his mind as he wondered if he should really do something. In the end, he concluded that there was no way for anyone to detect if he did anything, and so made a move.

Prior to the teleportation he had not interfered with the formation, as there were many ways to detect such things, and he did not know if Lex would be able to tell it had been tampered with. Yet now that he was already gone, or to be more specific, mid-teleportation, there was nothing he could do.

𝒍𝓲𝒃𝙧𝒆𝒂𝒅.𝓬𝙤𝒎

With eyes filled with sinister intentions, Marcus moved, not towards the exit, but the control room. The teleportation formation, in truth, was quite massive and could not really fit inside a room. The entire formation was hidden from view, with only two points within reach. One was the teleportation platform, and the other was the control panel in the adjacent control room.

Yet the moment Marcus tried to enter the room, he hit an invisible barrier. As if triggered by something, the invisible barrier became opaque, making Marcus realize that he was trapped inside.

"Young man, you're a thousand years too young to be playing such games in front of me," a familiar voice said, startling Marcus. He turned around, but could not find Lex anywhere, so then where was his voice coming from?

"As a small punishment, I'll leave you in this small room for a few months. Use this time to contemplate your life decisions. The next time we meet, I'll ask you about the conclusion you reached."

A trace of fear crept into Marcus' heart as he tried to figure out what was going on. Yet no matter how he searched, he could not come up with an answer, and he could not break the barrier either. He was completely trapped.

Chapter 659 Nemesis

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Marcus was not a weakling. Since he had been trusted by Joseph to take care of things in his absence, then not only did Marcus have to have a minimum cultivation, he needed to have proved himself over the years. He was a mid level Nascent realm cultivator, with excellent administrative experience as well as battle experience in skirmishes against neighboring nobles.

All in all, he could be considered to have vast experience in various fields. Yet at the moment he found himself completely at a loss. He did not even consider how Lex was able to discover his intentions, for that no longer mattered.

What truly befuddled him was how Lex was able to trap him after he had already left. After all, the opaque barrier surrounding him had not appeared until he tried to enter the control room. Moreover, the fact that Lex's voice spoke to him after the barrier appeared also meant that this was no accident.

But his panic dissolved quickly, and instead he focused on breaking the barrier. He took his time to use one of his most powerful spiritual techniques which had a long starting time, and attacked the barrier full force.

Truthfully, this was not a good idea as using such a destructive technique in close quarters would also harm him, but he would deal with that after he broke free. Unfortunately, not only did he not break free, the barrier did not even waver.

Disbelieving of what he was seeing, Marcus tried again. Then again. The barriers were not breaking. Moreover… to his alarm, he discovered that as he absorbed the spirit energy in the atmosphere to fuel his techniques, the energy density of the room was falling. That meant that the barrier prevented more energy from coming into the room!

This was even more alarming. If such a trend continued, not only would he soon run out of energy to fuel his attacks, he would run out of energy to sustain himself. If what Lex said was true, and he was trapped for weeks or months, he had to be extremely sparing in his energy consumption. Such a period of time was not a problem for him to survive even without food or water, so long as he had enough energy to fuel his nascent soul.

Desperation began filling his eyes and he took out some weapons from his spatial ring and continued to try to break free, but it was not destined to be. There were many things Lex could not claim to be skilled in. But as far as putting up barriers that could absorb a lot of damage was concerned, Lex felt himself an expert.

A few minutes later, Lex's teleportation ended, and he found himself in a smaller room with a few guards standing by, taking note of all the arrivals. This was the arrival terminal for Delurian Drip Bog. The area was not really a part of anyone's territory, but bordered the territory of various nobles and so was considered somewhat of a transit area.

There were a minimum amount of facilities available for travelers, but that was it. This was because the Bog was actually quite massive, and home to numerous savage beasts of considerable strength. In fact, even Trelops had given up on using the bog for themselves, as the local fauna was not conducive to occupying territory. Therefore, building too many facilities was also not a solution.

Usually, traveling through the bog meant following certain, pre-established routes which avoided the known beast territories. Even that carried with it a risk, which usually prompted large groups to gather and form caravans.

Lex, of course, was not going to bother with any of that. He would make a beeline towards his destination, only taking diversions if his instincts warned him. Well instincts and now his lenses. He was truly beginning to like them.

After all, based on the data provided by the lenses and his own instincts and intuition, Lex was able to predict that Marcus would take one of two actions. He would either leave without doing anything, or interfere with Lex's teleportation, sending him instead to some unknown territory.

Having narrowed down Marcus' possible actions, Lex began devising his actions. Although he had incredible defensive techniques, he could not deploy them without being there himself, so the only alternative was to use arrays.

That in itself was not an issue. He quite enjoyed arrays, and with practice he was slowly mastering stronger and more complex arrays. He also kept consulting the book in his ring, though by now he had covered almost the entire book and would soon need a higher level book to consult.

The real issue was twofold. First, he had to ensure that the array would only trigger its trapping function if Marcus tried to take some action against him. Second, he needed to trap Marcus in barriers strong enough to actually hold him.

If he could use his techniques that might not be an issue, but his arrays never benefited from the strengthening effect of Regal Embrace. Ideally he wanted to create some kind of barrier as strong as his Impervious Hands - his strongest defensive technique.

Creating a condition for the activation of the array was challenging, but not impossible. He entered the Overdrive state and ultimately came up with a solution. Creating a barrier strong enough to trap a Nascent realm cultivator, though… also ended up being pretty simple!

Back when Lex was going through the floors in the pagoda, one of the rewards for clearing the floors had been an array character that meant 'self'. Learning that character enabled Lex to try something new. Instead of creating complex functions that would eventually result in a strong barrier being created, he used the techniques he could use as a natural standard. Conveniently, the array seemed to work.

With both the issues resolved, Lex happily entered the teleportation formation without concern for what happened. The fact that he had arrived safely either meant that Marcus had not attempted to harm him, or that he had, and his plan was foiled by Lex's own array.

Either way, Lex was satisfied with the outcome.

"You ready?" Lex asked Fenrir as they exited the terminal. "This next part will be longer, and probably more dangerous too."

Fenrir only gave a single, excited bark, indicating his answer.

An odd thought occurred to Lex as he climbed onto Fenrir's back, allowing the pup to begin his sprint through the bog. Fenrir was in the golden core realm, yet the pup could still not talk. Yet Lex had met so many other beasts who had been able to actually talk with him even at the Foundation realm.

He wondered why there was a difference. Clearly Fenrir was intelligent, and his abilities were powerful and numerous. So then why was the pup still limited to barking and yelping, instead of talking like other beasts? He refused to believe that other beasts had a higher pedigree than Fenrir. This belief was not a result of a bias, but a clear answer provided to him by the system.

After pondering for a bit, the only answer he could come up with was that Fenrir was still a pup, and would have to grow for a few more years before it could gain the gift of speech.

Unlike the previous time, where Lex had a clear destination, this time Lex only had a direction. He had to travel using the Crystal realm equivalent of a compass, and head north-east until he reached the territory owned by Sentinels, one of the main races of the Crystal realm. Moreover, the trip was also much longer than his previous one.

Traveling through the bog was not easy or pleasant. Besides the various pungent smells of unknown gasses, which only made one lightheaded due to the overpowering scent, there were also many poisonous gasses.

Fortunately, Lex quickly discovered that both he and Fenrir seemed to be immune to most of the poisons they encountered. Moreover, by reading about them from the lenses every time he encountered them, Lex began to learn exactly what types of poisons his body could withstand. Of course, there were some poisonous gasses they had to avoid, for they could harm even them.

Besides that was the extremely damp and humid environment, not to mention the endless puddles, the soggy, squishy ground and what often looked like firm ground, but ended up being a soft layer of dirt covering some strange viscous liquids.

The extremely uncomfortable environment almost made one ignore the numerous decaying corpses they encountered on almost every turn. That was because hidden in every puddle, under every clump of soil, behind every rock was some kind of creature, waiting to devour its prey.

Fenrir quite enjoyed the game of tag the endless creatures played as they chased them through the bog. Lex, too, would not have cared so much, if he hadn't encountered his oldest and most hated nemesis in the bog: mosquitoes. Moreover, they were overgrown, mutated mosquitoes!