974 Monsters Above Monsters
“…” Elysia had nothing to say regarding Number One’s arrangements. Zera was responsible for it, and Number One was well-behaved and didn’t try to do anything funny.
Since this ‘pawn’ wouldn’t bother her for the time being, she left those matters to Zera to take care of.
After checking for another vitality herb on the Unknown Continent, Elysia and her adventure group departed for another forbidden region. The place was long untouched and unreachable by people’s hands. It was a suitable place for vitality herbs to grow.
“This place is the Boundless Desert, a remote forbidden region northwest of the Beastkin Continent. Northeast of this place is the Eternal Winter Continents, the most expansive and coldest forbidden region on the planet.” Rhea pointed downwards.
“Boundless Desert, a lost region where countless monsters and corrupted beings were consumed by the accursed delusions. Those heretical creatures worship the Ruvoid Gods as their Patron Gods.” Ai observed the vast expanse of the desert below.
She knew a thing or two regarding this forbidden region because Lifa had mentioned it a few days ago. Still, the name of this place reminded her of that realm.
“This forbidden wasteland isn’t too far from the Beastkin Continent and is only separated by a large ocean from the Beast Continent. However, the more extreme place is the combined snow continent over there, huh…” Elysia was more interested in the snowy place in the distance.
“It’s basically the north pole, but much wider and divided into three parts.” Elena nodded in understanding. The extreme north obviously held much more treasure and mystery than any other forbidden place. They would go there once the business in this desert was finished.
“Heretical sects? The Goddess of Life, Gio, and Cherub have come here to exterminate them, right? However, it seems there are still some rats left. Would you mind for me to clean them up?” Zera glanced down and felt like destroying a place or two for no apparent reason.
“It would be easy to exterminate them in one sweep with Gio’s complete control over the earth elementals, but we don’t need to do that. They have already learned their lessons from the previous severe blows. We are here to pick the vitality herbs if any.” Elysia petted Gio’s head while communicating with the surrounding nature spirits.
Unfortunately, the nature spirits didn’t know anything about plants with great vitality. They also don’t dare to venture deep into the forbidden territory for fear of being corrupted.
Even so, there was a senior spirit who was almost all-knowing. The little one told Elysia and Rhea that an oasis containing life essence existed in a separate realm beneath the desert.
“All right, thanks for the information. I won’t hold you any longer if you want to leave now.” Elysia released the nature spirits into the sky, and they flew away after telling the Goddesses to be careful.
“The truth is unknown because the nature spirit dares not go further than two kilometers into the forbidden land. It’s just rumored. So, are we going to venture deeper into the desert?” Rhea twirled a lock of her hair. She could only ask for information from the nature spirits far up in the sky above the desert, but there needed to be more precise and definite details.
“We have Gio, right? He is the main protagonist when it comes to the ground exploration!” Elysia raised the little earth dragon high. Gio was the key to treasures and the best guide in ground adventures.
“Rawr!” Gio was delighted and excited because the spotlight was only for him now. He felt that his new specialty was related to the treasure-hunting adventure with his master.
“Rawr!” Cherub responded enthusiastically, as he was happy when his brother was happy.
“All right. Fly down slowly. It’s too quiet, and I don’t feel it’s a natural atmosphere.” Ai patted her pet’s back.
Cherub flapped his wings and slowly approached the ground.
*Boom!*
The Cherub had just landed in the desert, but several explosions greeted him, and a mountain of sand was thrown into the air. Several gigantic desert death worms popped out from the ground. Those monsters surrounded Elysia’s group of adventurers.
“Roar!” Gio was furious. Those lowly scaly worms pretended to be eastern serpents and openly challenged the authority of the authentic ancient dragons.
“We’re surrounded, but those giant scaly worms are like challenging my Cherub? Wait, they’re just worms, not the dragonic serpent, right?” Ai scratched her head.
It was known to everyone that dragons usually wouldn’t get along with each other if they didn’t have a similar origin. Moreover, the desire to kill the serpent-like dragon and the lizard-like dragon always exploded every time they met.
“Roar!” Cherub roared and released the intimidating pressure typical of an Emperor-level ancient beast.
“Let Gio and Cherub handle those giant worms then. We will try to find life essence oasis and vitality herbs if there is one here.” Elena opened her palm. She was confident that their dragons could handle those presumptuous desert worms.
“All right. Gio, Cherub, please accompany them to play. We will explore the desert. Please catch up with us after they are taken care of.” Elysia stroked Cherub and Gio’s back, then took some distance from them.
After Gio and Cherub agreed, Elysia’s group of adventurers flew away from there to explore more deeply what was hidden within that vast desert.
*Boom!* *Boom!*
Several explosions and earthquakes occurred. Gio and Cherub gave those giant worms some life lessons about never messing with or challenging the ancient ones.
“…” Number One just followed behind in silence. She glanced up at the sky several times, but unfortunately, she couldn’t see the moon from there.
“I can’t see any string of fate related to the vitality herb in this Boundless Desert. The treasure we are looking for is not here. But, I can see we will encounter several separate realms under the desert. The oasis with rich life essence may exist in one of those places.” Fortuna raised her hand for attention and announced the results of her predictions.
“Then, so be it. Let’s take the oasis and put it in Nature Realm. It might be the best relaxation place to accompany our hot spring of life.” Elena put her hands together. She had already guessed that what they were looking for was somewhere other than that desert.
“Mm, Lady Tifa will be pleased with the gift.” Elysia fully agreed, and everyone started to go explore the mentioned separate realm below the desert.
There were four separate realms. Three were just traps filled with dangerous mechanics and deadly monsters with no eye-catching treasure other than archaic gems and jewels. Unfortunately, the ones who visited were not ordinary adventurers but a group of Goddesses. Thus, no significant threat could block Elysia’s group from exploring deeper.
*Bam!*
A scary-looking monster opened a stone gate to the treasure vault, then quickly escaped from there. He let the intruders get what they wanted just like that. He and his bros were beaten half to death, and he hoped the intruders would leave immediately.
“Hmph, we should have waited for Gio and Cherub first. We were so unlucky. Three out of four, there wasn’t the oasis we were looking for.” Ai peeked inside the room and raised her fist at the runaway monster. The monsters could only recognize their place after getting a few beatings.
“Yeah, we’re dealing with corrupted monsters wihin the separate realm. They should only be in ruins and underground cities in this desert, right? Why are they suddenly everywhere?” Fortuna rolled her eyes as she stared at the monsters cowering in fear in the distance. She felt her group was the monster in the eyes of those scary-looking creatures.
“We didn’t kill them?” Zera pointed at the monsters in the distance.
“!?” The monsters gasped in fear and tried their best to hide. It was only an onslaught for a few minutes, but the divine terror of those Goddesses was genuinely terrifying. Their puny strength could do nothing to those monsters in human skin.
“Ah, just let them be. We’re reasonable treasure hunters. We were just visiting with no malice, but they attacked us. It’s a natural thing to do self-defence. They now know that we are not someone they can mess with and offer their treasures with pleasure.” Elysia shook her head.
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“E-eh!? That’s so mean!” Fortuna was wide-eyed in shock.
“It is difficult to find the treasure we are looking for in the vast desert without any proper clue. It will be more challenging in the Eternal Winter Continents. The extreme north with close to none living creatures must hold a lot of mystery and unexplored treasure. Exploration there will obviously take some time, and we’ll call it a day afterward for a hot dinner, regardless of the result. Don’t worry about dinner.” Elysia spoke in a soft voice.
“Ely, you are my angel.” Fortuna hugged Elysia’s arm.
“Go and collect them all.” Zera snapped her fingers, giving orders to her maid.
“Yes.” The Number One responded with a nod and then used a bit of elemental manipulation to pick up all the shiny things in the vicinity. The proud and strongest Ruvoid Avatar was treated as a maid and the scavenger of treasures for this group.
After the treasures had been plundered, Elysia’s group left that separate realm. The monsters in the vicinity could finally heave a sigh of relief.
They were the monsters supposed to protect the ancestral treasures. Still, they finally found out that there were monsters above monsters. Fortunately, the powerful beings were reasonable and immediately left after obtaining the treasures without slaughtering their whole seven generations.