The three of them, carried by Kerchak, entered the foggy area with their senses sharpened. Other than the fog, it simply looked like any plain old plain.

There were no monsters to be seen, not even any tracks, which John took to mean they stayed far away from this place. That didn’t calm his nerves much at all.

‘This is gonna be such a pain if we have to keep our eyes peeled all the time. We can’t travel quickly in dense fog like this.’

The deeper they traveled, the denser the fog became, like they were sinking deeper into an ocean. The range of their vision went from a hundred meters to fifty, to thirty, to ten. In the end, they could barely see the ground below them.

“Hmm, this is an issue, isn’t it? Kerchak can barely see the ground below his feet,” Dennis said, looking up at the giant head of the monkey.

“Yeah, I’m trying to think of a solution… I could make Larang fly in front of us to see if anything big is up ahead, but that… Oh, maybe I can use my spheres?”

In an instant, thirty black spheres appeared around Kerchak, each flying away from John’s position. They spread out in a large circle, quickly moving out of sight.

John sat down in his chair again and closed his eyes, needing the focus available to him. The spheres were all summoned with liquid essence, giving him control of their movement. But handling thirty individual spheres at once was far beyond his current capabilities.

The only thing saving him was that they all moved in the same way, letting him command them all simultaneously. Once they were nearly a hundred meters away from them, he stopped them all relative to his own position. And there they stayed.

“Hah, now I can sense if anything huge is approaching us, at least. This lets me know if anything touches any of the spheres. I might add more later.”

“John, that’s great!” Rain said, giving him two thumbs up. She had really taken to that gesture, using it anytime John did something impressive. Dennis had received far less of them. None that John could remember, at least.

John smiled at Dennis once he realized. But the man didn’t seem to mind it. “I think you can speed up now. I’ll let you know the instant I sense anything.”

“Mmm, fine. I’ll just pretend the ground is perfectly flat, then. But don’t blame me if Kerchak falls,” Dennis replied, looking reasonably unhappy with the circumstances.

“Rain, can you point to our destination again?”

Rain furrowed her brows for a moment, looking confused. Then she turned in the opposite direction they were facing and pointed back to where they came from. “There…”

“... Good one, Rain. But we have to keep track of our direction in here, so please point in the right direction.”

“No, that… that is forward. We walk back now,” she replied, looking completely serious.

John had never seen her point in the wrong direction unless she pointed to something nearby, so he thought she might be telling the truth. Perhaps her power could only be perfect.

Then Rain started gradually pointing to the side, changing her direction even though they were walking straight ahead.

“Rain… How trustworthy is your power?” John asked, starting to doubt his own senses. It wasn’t impossible that the fog was messing with their sense of direction, but the only explanation he could think of was too scary to think too loudly.

‘Is… the tyrant here? Is this its realm, like the Lady of Fate had?’

“Full trust! Never wrong!” she replied tersely, like she was insulted by his question.

“Okay… Dennis, is Kerchak terrible at walking straight?”

“...Uhm, no? Even if he can’t see the ground, we can. And it’s looking good.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that… I’m starting to wonder if we should go back and journey by sea, around this fog. What do you think?”

“What? Why?” Dennis asked, not understanding the potential danger they might be in.

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John sighed, trying to calm himself and think about the situation rationally. “... The only ability I’ve seen that might be similar to this, creating a blanket of fog several hundred kilometers wide, and making it confuse anyone who enters… Is when I met the Lady of Fate.”

Dennis raised his eyebrows all the way to the top as he looked back at John. “... The tyrant? Here?”

“It’s the only explanation I have. But… I’ve never met a tyrant before.” John tried to avoid ripping up Dennis’ trauma, but he could hardly avoid it this time. He had met a tyrant once, and he would never forget it.

“... I… don’t know. Back then, the only effect we could see was the maze covering the planet. It might have had a large domain of sorts as well, but nothing like this.”

“Okay, nothing definitive, then… I suggest we turn back, but if you two want to continue… I’ll keep going.”

Rain turned to him with furrowed brows, letting her hand fall. “Rain follow John.”

Dennis chuckled and folded his hands. “I’ll agree, then. Let’s get out of here.”

John breathed a sigh of relief. He had some confidence about escaping from horrors at this time, but a tyrant was out of the question.

“Good! Then we just need to continue walking forward, right? Rain, you might have to keep your hand up.”

Rain did as she was asked, pointing to their left now. Dennis adjusted their direction accordingly, turning Kerchak to the right. John kept his spheres in the back of his mind, constantly checking for movement.

“We’re lucky to have the perfect squad for this, huh?” John asked, looking at the two others.

Dennis didn’t seem to agree. “I’m just helping with walking, though. And I think Kerchak deserves more credit than me.”

“You’re our wise man, Dennis! There's no need to sell yourself short; experience is invaluable in situations like this,” John countered, glad to have thought of something so quickly. Those were his actual thoughts, but he hadn’t considered them before now.

The raised eyebrows on Dennis’ face seemed to indicate that he agreed, having the same realization. “Well, I can’t argue against that, honestly.”

They kept walking, keeping Rain pointing behind them at all times. Kerchak was forced to turn several times, even though John could swear he was walking straight.

‘Something is definitely confusing our minds here. And we should have been out of the fog by now. We’ve spent more time walking out than we did walking in…’

“Hey, Rain, you’re sure about the direction, right?”

She scowled at him, giving her answer wordlessly.

“... I think we might not get out of here with this strategy. Since Rain is perfectly sure she’s pointing in the right direction, this should work, but…”

Dennis turned to him and nodded. “Indeed, we should have been out by now. I could speed up since this place seems perfectly flat, but I doubt it will help.”

Rain sighed lightly before turning to them. “Guidance perhaps only work one way. It is special power.”

“... You don’t think you should have told us that earlier?” John asked, with more than a hint of frustration.

Rain shrugged. “Was not sure. Also not bad to try.”

John rubbed a hand against his forehead, feeling less and less confident about escaping this fog alive. “What… do we do, then? Keep going? Or turn toward where Rain is pointing?”

“We have spent three times as much time walking out as we did while walking in. I think our only choice is following Rain,” Dennis said, sitting down in his chair with a sigh.

John nodded, sighing along with him. “Then that’s what we’ll do. No complaints, Rain?”

She shook her head and smiled. “None! Rain likes guiding better.”

“You heard the guide; turn this cart around!”

Kerchak turned on the spot and headed deeper into the fog, following Rain’s finger without question.

----------------------------------------

Another four hours passed by without any incidents. There was no single dent in the ground or movement in any of the spheres. There was nothing.

“This is going to get incredibly boring, isn’t it?” Dennis asked, having lost his fourth word game in a row. He had initially suggested playing ‘I spy’ but quickly realized the problem.

“The misty area seemed pretty big from the outside. And it might be bigger on the inside for all we know.”

John was also frustrated. He hadn’t filled any of his new slots for enchantments yet, either because he was too eager to test his black spheres instead of his lucky sword or because of dumb luck.

And the way things were going, he wouldn’t get the chance in the fog either.

“Rain tired,” Rain said tiredly, having been pointing ahead of them for hours already. Dennis had made her something like a shoulder cast of bone to support her arm, but it still took its toll. “And hungry.”

“Yeah, let’s take a break here. We surely can’t be moving in the wrong direction if we stand still, right?” Dennis asked, peeking at the ground below them.

“I think it’s fine,” John replied, grabbing hold of their meat storage to prepare some food for Rain. “Either way, we might–”

A sudden sensation made John turn to his right, looking deeply into the fog.

Dennis looked at him with a mix of excitement and wariness. “Did you feel something? Is it a demon?”

“Uh, no, it’s… Someone knocked politely on my sphere.”