Chapter 108
Port Jaksen.
It is a small port at the north most point of the Muon Continent.
However, it is a pretty famous port for its size and number of visitors. It is because it is the only path to enter the Magman Continent.
Portals do not exist in the Magman continent, so you can only enter by taking a ship from here.
“It’s pretty stuffy.”
The northern part of the Muon Continent is winter all year and extremely cold, but Port Jaksen was warm like a spring day. It was because of its proximity to the Magman Continent.
The Magman Continent is extremely hot, to the point that it is called the ‘Land of Magma.’ That heat has traveled through the air and arrived all the way here.
The distance from here to the Magman continent takes four days by ship, so the fact that this much heat can make it here should help you antic.i.p.ate just how hot it is on the Magman Continent.
I first headed toward the harbor.
I then found a pretty aged sailor and asked.
“I wish to head to the Magman Continent. Can I get a ride?”
“Hoho, just what is going on? The Magman Continent is suddenly extremely popular. Five ships will leave again tomorrow. You can join them tomorrow.”
Five ships will leave?
But there was something even more shocking than that.
“Leave again?”
“They left about half a month ago with a load of people. Tomorrow is the second load.”
That means it is a total of ten ships. I heard that about 20 people can fit on a ship, so if I do the math, close to 200 people are heading to the Magman Continent.
Why would so many people be heading there?
Well, the reason is kind of obvious. Every so often, there are people who head to the Magman Continent. They all have just one goal in mind.
The Herb of Immortality.
It is a required ingredient to create the Immortality Potion. One stem of the Herb of Immortality can create 100 bottles of the Immortality Potion. As you probably expect, the quality of the Herb of Immortality is what determines the quality of the Immortality Potion. Because of that, they sell for quite a hefty sum. High quality Herb of Immortality trade at an average of 1 billion won. An expensive stem can even sell for over 5 billion won.
So if you can even find ten stems of it, there would be plenty of money for even 200 people to share.
But it is a futile challenge. It is not like just anyone can find some Herbs of Immortality by going to the Magman Continent.
They would be lucky to just safely return alive.
It is none of my concern. It’s not like they would give up because I try to convince them.
“The ships will leave at 7am tomorrow morning. Please do not be late.”
“Thank you very much.”
I finished most of my preparations. But since I still had some time, I stopped by a Magic Store to buy a Magic
Bag and a wooden box. Just in case.
‘And another pair of clothes just in case.’
I also stopped by the general store in case there was anything else I needed to prepare.
But suddenly, someone called out my name.
“Aren’t you Kang Hwi Ram?”
There’s someone who knows me all the way out here?
It was welcoming and amazing, so I quickly turned my head.
It was a guy with a long beard. The face was familiar. Although I only met him once before, I received quite the impression from him that time.
“Kenyon?”
“Hoho, you remember me!”
How could I not? He was the only champion of the Chaos Battle. He was the champion at the highest level of compet.i.tion at that.
Which means, he is currently the strongest human alive. Of course that is not counting the Ares Temple’s Warriors of Light.
“What are you doing out here……?”
I had an idea as I asked.
I was right.
“Is there any other reason for a warrior like me to come to Port Jaksen? Of course I plan on heading to the Magman Continent to look for some Herbs of Immortality.”
I guess you wouldn’t have any other reason to come here.
The 200 people must all be part of Kenyon’s team. That should mean that their aim is not money, but that they probably got a special order from the Emperor or someone important to ‘go find some Herbs of Immortality.’
“And what about you? Seeing as how you are alone, I do not think you are here to look for any Herbs of Immortality.”
The Herbs of Immortality are not my goal. But I do have thoughts of getting some Herbs of Immortality while I am over there anyways.
But I could not tell him the truth. I will be moving separately from them as soon as we arrive at the Magman Continent.
“The Magman Continent is so famous that I came to take a look at it.”
“What? Hahaha. You are really an idiot. That is somewhere you can easily lose your life. It is not somewhere for a low level like you to visit.”
At that time, I partic.i.p.ated in the under level 100 Chaos Battle. In Kenyon’s point of view, I am probably a really low leveled character.
“I know. Thanks for worrying about me though.”
“You still plan on going. I will wish you luck. Hahaha. You really are a funny person.”
Kenyon laughed out loudly as he left.
s.h.i.t. I didn’t expect to run into Kenyon here. That means that there will be a fierce battle between t.i.tans and Humans on the Magman Continent.
‘Things could go wrong.’
I needed to move faster than I expected.
The next day.
I headed for the harbor as soon as it got bright.
There were quite a lot of people gathered here. They were all Kenyon’s team. They were all waiting to head to the Magman Continent as well.
The t.i.tan race rules the Magman Continent.
It will take a long time to fight against them and secure some Herbs of Immortality. They will need a lot
lot of equipment and food as well.
But n.o.body seemed to be carrying much of anything as they were all in the magic bags.
I was the same way. Other than the magic bag on my side and the magic cabinet on my back, I did not need anything else. I could see Kenyon as well. But he did not seem to care about me as there were a lot of people he needed to control.
The ship set sail like that and after four days, we ended at the tip of the Magman Continent. Since there were no harbors on the Magman Continent, you could only swim the last 50 meters or so.
The waves were quite rough.
But any warrior who would travel to the Magman Continent would average higher than level 400. Although I raised my level to 305 on my way to Jaksen, I am probably still the lowest leveled person here.
Everybody easily swam through the waves and arrived at the beach.
“Ah, hot! You might burn your feet if you walk around barefoot.”
“It definitely lives up to the rumors.”
“Stop whining and move quickly. Each squad do a head count.”
“Contact the teams that arrived on the first trip.”
“Stay alert. You’ll die if you don’t.”
Kenyon’s group started to move quickly.
But some of them already looked exhausted. Both the air and the ground were hot. It made your face feel sweaty, and every breath felt like breathing in fire.
So it was no wonder they were exhausted after less than 10 minutes.
Of course it was different for me. My fire affinity was up to 59 % already. It went up without my knowledge while I was fighting in the Demon Caves while resisting the heat of the Fire Pillars.
Thanks to that, I did not feel uncomfortable at all.
‘My feet feel perfect right now.’
I did not move once I arrived at the beach and just sat there. I waited until Kenyon’s group completely disappeared.
That was the only way for them to not know where I was going.
The beach became quiet after about an hour. Kenyon’s group disappeared further in while the ships returned back to Port Jaksen for the next trip. A messenger ship will come around once every ten days to see if there are any news.
‘Then shall I start moving now?’
It may be called a continent, but the Magman Continent is really just a large island. Of course size-wise, it is larger than most countries.
The layout consists of thousands of mountains called the Immortal Mountain Range in the center with swamps in the West and a desert in the East.
I followed the sh.o.r.eline to the Immortal Desert in the East. I ran as fast as I could in order to reduce the time as much as possible.
My pattern consisted of running for about two hours before taking a 30 minute break and practicing Jewel Alchemy. After running like that for four days, I finally arrived at the entrance of the Immortal Desert.
The endless Immortal Desert. I
Desert. I could see the sh.o.r.e far to the right, while the left side was filled with a large boulder mountain with sharp cliffs.
‘It is around there!’
Chubach, one of the dwarves’ third generation heroes.
He was a hero in both the Dwarf world and the Human world.
It was because he was someone who surpa.s.sed the Best Blacksmith and was challenging the quest to become a Legendary Blacksmith.
The high-quality weapons that he made are still shining brightly in the world.
But what a sad ending for him.
He came to this Magman Continent for the Legendary Blacksmith quest. Although we don’t know the actual contents of the quest, his destination seemed to be the top of the Immortal Mountain.
But the Immortal Mountain is not somewhere you can enter. It is protected by the t.i.tans who have overwhelming fighting abilities.
That was why his choice was to use the naturally created secret pathway underneath the mountains.
Chubach headed down the secret pathway. And that was the last anyone ever heard of him. He had died in this Magman Continent where neither humans, dwarves, or elves live.
His grave should be inside a cave that is most likely hidden somewhere around that cliff. That is the direction I should go.
I took out BachuPichu’s Twin Blades from my bag. I have the blades that Goonto made for me, but I needed to raise two more levels in order to use combo.
By the time I get through the Immortal Desert and fight the boss monster inside the cave, I should be able to use it.
‘Let’s go!’
I took my first step into the desert. As soon as I entered, the extremely small Desert Ants slowly crawled over and attached themselves to my legs.
The hot sand felt like it was at least 70 degrees. [1]
And then these thousands of ants that bite at you without any regards.
No wonder humans cannot get through this area no matter how high their level may be.
But this was not all of the dangers in the Immortal Desert.
Psssssssssh- Pssssssssh-
Multiple sand pillars started to shoot up into the sky. These sand pillars quickly started to take shape.
Sand Warrior.
A human made of sand with a sword made of sand.
But you cannot take them lightly. Although the blades may be dull, you’ll still receive a lot of damage if they hit you.
In addition, there were quite a lot of these Sand Warriors. At least one every 2 meters. It was almost like all of the sand in the Immortal Desert was the material for the Sand Warrior.
Another reason the Sand Warriors are so scary is the fact that they just come right back to life once you kill them. Within 5 seconds at that.
No matter how much stamina you may have, your stamina will run out if you fight in this area for just 1 hour.
There are only two methods of surviving in the Immortal Desert. You either get through before you get tired, or you retreat before you get tired.
Taaaaaht!
I naturally pickedtired.
Taaaaaht!
I naturally picked the former. I kicked off the sand that was deep enough for my ankles to sink in and started to run forward.
I used Drake’s TBSA as I started to swing my blades against the Sand Warriors that filled the area like a bamboo forest.
Papapat-
The Sand Warriors that managed to last five or six hits at first started to crumble after just one hit as my combo went up. But another Sand Warrior shot up in the same spot.
But I was already quickly past that area.
The surroundings were full of Sand Warriors. There were so many that I could probably land a critical hit even with my eyes closed.
As I continued like that, my combo started to endlessly go up. Since they moved slowly, they were even better sandbags than Deathworm.
Papapat-
……91 combo, 92 combo, 93 combo!
‘Bladestorm!’
I started another combo as I continued on.
I continued to hear messages about a new combo record. After running for about 30 minutes, I had even managed to land a 126-hit combo.
I seem to have at least 9 bonus stat points from new combo records alone.
The end was right in front of me as well. As I ran toward the cliff while slashing the Sand Warriors, I could see the entrance to a large cave.
The distance was about 300 meters.
It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to get there.
Do good things happen together? I heard a nice message as well.
I started to smile.
‘Alright! I can change my weapon……ah!’
I knew things were going too well! The moment I started to cheer, I felt an emptiness under my feet.
‘A trap!’
I quickly pushed my body back in surprise.
However, it was already too late. Even though I wanted to push myself out, there was nowhere for me to push off. I fell forward just like that.
The sand was just an illusion. My body pushed into the fake sand and started to fall straight down.
I still made sure not to let go of the blades in my hand. These were my lifeline.
In addition, I could still see clearly in the completely dark area.
It seemed to be a sink hole that was created in the middle of the desert sand. The depth was about 20 meters. I could see the bottom down below.
I put some strength into my legs and fixed my center of gravity. I then bent my knees to reduce the impact as I landed.
I quickly looked around as soon as I landed.
Swiiiiiiiiish-
I could hear the sound of wind. It did not seem to be a natural sound. It was as if a large monster was making the noise with its mouth.
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[1] 70 C ~ 156 F