Chapter 3: Nameless Valley.

"You want to join the resistance army and form your personal squad?" Asked a tattooed vulture responsible for team registration in the resistance army barracks.

This man looked over at the group of ten in front of him. Eight young children stood in line behind two fierce middle-aged men. From the looks of it, the two men brought a group of youngsters to experience the active battlefield.

The middle-aged man with copper rings on his fingers scratched his goatee and smiled. "Yeah, that's about right, boss."

A two-month trek through the wastelands under the lead of Mark and Anderson brought Aza'zel and his entourage of seven to the local barracks at the periphery of the earl's territory facing one of the seven Great Evils: Nameless Valley.

The entrance to the valley lay at the bottom of a slanted precipice, and although it was called a valley, it was in fact an underground maze that explored the depths of a dormant volcano.

Yes, the high precipice was one face of a massive volcano, judging from the clouds of volcanic ashes that accumulated above, merging into the gray clouds to paint a contrast of white and black.

The fierce vulture nodded his head and spoke in an impatient tone of voice, "Just jump right into the dungeon and scramble for resources. Anything you find that's listed on this booklet can be exchanged for contribution points, and only when you have accumulated over 1,000 points can you register as an official team."

The man then tossed over a booklet and a few resilient bags to store items. He said, "The evil miasma inside is quite infectious, and if you stay for too long, you might experience hallucinations or some tendencies to act impulsively. I recommend you maintain a safe distance from one another if you don't want your teammates to ambush you all of a sudden."

Mark and Anderson received the booklet and the bag respectively, casting their eyes at the massive mountain in the backdrop of the barracks with heavy expressions.

The man seemed to have other things to take care of and so, after explaining the situation in brief detail to the group, he turned around and left.

Once all alone, Mark tossed the booklet over to Aza'zel as he stretched and scratched his goatee once again.

"That's all for our task," Mark said, "You little ones can dive into that creepy hole all on your own now."

In the last two months, Mark and his friend Anderson got to know Aza'zel and his entourage of seven pretty well. Although these kids lacked worldly wisdom and outdoor experience, their combat experience and wits didn't fall off too much.

The group adapted to the harsh lifestyle pretty much at an exemplary pace, and what intrigued them even more was the blind youngster, who despite his handicap, didn't fall behind at all.

"Thanks for your time," Aza'zel said, "You two have been very helpful to us on the journey."

"Hey now, we got paid for it, so we might as well do it to the end," Anderson replied, fetching an old and weary cigarette from his shirt pocket to light it up.

He took in a deep drag before exhaling a cloud of smoke with an intoxicated expression. "The pleasure a few contribution points can afford, we should find the time for a few dives ourselves, Mark."

"Hey, you can't waltz your way to your death for a cheap cigarette!" Mark cursed in a low breath, slapping Aza'zel on the back in a friendly manner and saying his goodbyes before chasing after Anderson.

As he ran, Mark clenched his hand with the illusion of his palm growing numb from the impact, but he didn't give it much thought as his priorities lay in stopping his friend from committing to some idiotic acts.

Once they were all alone, seriousness covered Aza'zel's young features as he asked, "Have you checked the items in the booklet?"

"Tu is reading it at the moment," one of the cloaked girls said, "She skipped the introductory information at the end of the booklet to grasp the rules."

"Alright then," Aza'zel nodded his head. "Hailie, you can grab one of the three bags, and leave the other two with Zof and Ce… The four of us will go through the first dive, and the other four girls can go around the barracks for information."

Aza'zel wanted to investigate why the natives of the lower abyss had an innate immunity or resistance to the so-called evil miasma in the lands of Great Evil.

To get the answers, he needed to personally explore the underground dungeons, but he didn't dare explore on his own given the circumstances with his limited scope of vision.

With help from Tu, Hailie, Zof, and Ce, he figured that the exploration efforts would go smoothly. Moreover, something in his instincts told him that the evil miasma was anything but harmful to his existence.

It might be an illusion, but he felt an indistinct familiarity that resembled the ephemeral sensation brought to him through the black throne in his inner world, this sensation seemed to sync hand in hand with the vibe from the evil miasma.

"These items are so expensive!" Tu exclaimed in shock while reading from the booklet. "10,000 points for something called an Origin Spell! Hm, it says these are the spells tailored for supernaturals who command source energy…"

The girls weren't ignorant in regard to the matters concerning supernaturals, source energy, the myriad races, and the Secrets of Nine Transformations.

They understood these principles under the tutelage of their lord, but this was their first time learning about the existence of origin spells.

Even for Aza'zel, this was his first time hearing of this thing, and only now did he realize how the myriad races could contend with the disgraced race despite the former's sharp edge with the existence of totemic seals.

"Let us see," the other six immediately swarmed Tu, exploring the assortments of origin spells on display in the contribution exchange section of the booklet.

They were overwhelmed by the descriptions, and they almost forgot about the arrangements laid out by their lord in the heat of their excitement. That was, until Aza'zel coughed lightly to draw their attention.

"We have our own priorities," Aza'zel said, "We need to certify our team, exchange for a tent of operations in the barracks, and get some tools and weapons so that we could dive deeper into the dungeon. Moreover, even if we had origin spells, can any of you use them?"

The girls were embarrassed. Indeed, among the group, only Aza'zel had the ability to harness source energy through his source crystal and thus, only he could practice origin spells.

Tu piped up, "I have a vague feeling that this Nameless Valley can help me condense my source crystal, my lord!"

"Are you serious?!" Aza'zel was astonished, rushing toward Tu as he whispered in a serious tone, "This is no joking matter, are you absolutely certain?!"

As he spoke, and even though he couldn't see with his eyes, he swept them over the other six girls as though he was waiting for their response.

He didn't know if this vague feeling was exclusive to Tu or was it something related to their unorthodox method of interacting with source energy through him as a medium.