Three days later.

Jio finished pointing new leaders around the forest and helped secure the territory. He suggested starting a reputation that no human nor group disturbs the peace; anyone will face unspeakable horror if they try and find out themselves. Monster kind follows Jio's order and moves all the human/plant corpse statues around the border as a warning.

*To use human and monster corpses as a warning is genius and frightening* Everyone thought after hearing what Jio suggested.

Inside the Ancient's cave, a place where the Ancient secludes himself away from the world and writes journals about his day. Jio picks one of the oldest books and reads about the Great White Ape named Harambe, considered the Ancient's brother by oath and died saving multiple young monsters from the human slave trader group.

*This Harambe guy sounds like a good guy... Too bad, I actually want to meet him* Jio thought after reading the book.

Jio looks around, and Lala accidentally pushes the Ancient's stack of books as it spreads around the cave like dominos, and she looks at Jio, trying to look innocent like it's not her fault.

"Lala! What are you doing here? Did you follow me?" Jio calmly asks, knowing that she followed him inside the cave.

"You tricked me! Sun and Moon are not my siblings, and I don't know how..." Lala protested, trying to avert what just happened about the mess she had just made.

"Did what?" Jio asks as he scratches his head.

"Bring me here back home, and Sewwa is sleeping so, so I can't play with her!" Lala let out with her puffy cheeks.

"Well, you're a heavy sleeper, and it happens to bring you home without me knowing," Jio answers calmly like he predicted what Lala will ask.

"I don't want to go back home! I want to travel the world and get stronger!" Lala looks at Jio with her puppy-like eyes like she wants to hitch a hike with him.

"Do you want to travel with me, little princes?" Jio let out as he smiles at Lala.

"YES!!!" Lala happily answers as she hugs Jio's leg.

"You know, you need to clean your mess, or the Ancient will get mad at you," Jio lies about the Ancient since Lala doesn't need to know and continue, "If you didn't clean, I wouldn't let you come with me."

Lala looks at Jio mad as she slowly drags her feet and cleans her mess while Jio follows the Ancient's instructions and pushes a small decoration. The mechanism behind the wall makes a sound like gears and opens a secret room filled with space rock and rare treasures he can use in the future.

Jio happily takes Jon out to devour all the space rock inside the secret room and removes all the impurities to upgrade his weapon/armor. With the upgrade, he can have wings, half-plate armor, and a weapon at the same time that makes him happy since it will help him win future battles.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Lala, are you ready?" Jio asks after everything is back neatly and better than they found the room.

"Yes, and where are we going?" Lala innocently asks.

"I'll be honest, I don't know where to start," Jio honestly answers.

"I want to go to a volcano!" Lala happily states.

"Why is that?" Jio asks even though he knows the answer.

"I'm a mighty Gecko; I need it to get stronger!" Lala replies as she poses with her right leg on three stacked books.

"If you say so," Jio smiles and grabs Lala's hand as they walk out of the cave.

With a map in Jio's hands, the closest volcano near Sera Madre is named Mayon, which will take them a week flying or two and a half weeks if they travel by foot. Jio makes sure they have everything they need and give a proper goodbye to everyone, especially the twins.

It will take Jio and Lala five hours to get out of Sera Madre, and Lala starts complaining after an hour as she begs Jio to carry her. Jio only agreed to Lala as soon as he got annoyed, and she immediately climbed Jio's back to his shoulder.

*HE HE HE HE* Lala laughs inside and smirks, holding Jio's hair.

"Geo? You told me you're a devil, yes?" Lala randomly asks.

"Well, my name is Jio De Vil. Why did you ask?" Jio answers, tilting his head and trying to look at Lala.

"I don't know... I think I heard it before. You're nice, but your name said you're a devil," Lala innocently answers.

"It's just a name, and I don't even know your real name. I'm the one who gave your nickname!" Jio jokingly protests.

"It's a secret! That's why! I'm taller, and you're short! I'm the boss," Lala proudly declares and tightly holds Jio's hair like she's driving.

"Oh really? What if I do this?" Jio smiles and starts to tickle Lala's feet.

"Hahaha! Please stop! I'll behave! I'll behave!" Lala holds Jio's hair tightly and uncontrollably shakes.

When they reached the closes city named after the hero Jude Valdez, who saved the site from being overrun by Hahehee when the Ancient kicked them out of Sera Madre. The city of Jude Valdez is the third most popular and largest city on the continent since trading is the primary income, and all the resources are from Sera Madre's border, which includes beast or unlucky monster kinds' products, plants, and ores.

Jio knows where to go first as soon as they enter the city, and it's none other than a restaurant.

"Good afternoon, sir. Welcome to Immortal Feast," the waitress greets Jio and startles when Lala reveals herself.

"Ello!" Lala happily let out.

"To you too, little miss," the waitress states.

"Can we have a table for two?" Jio asks the lady.

"Yes, sir. Please follow me," the waitress replies and walks upstairs.

The waitress introduced herself and gave them the menu after assigning them their table by the window on the third floor and will be back when they are ready to order.

Lala calls the waitress back as soon as she's ready to order after Jio reads the name of the food she wants to get.

"Little miss, are you ready to order?" the waitress asks.

Lala nods, smiling and pointing at the menu, "Chocolate and strawberry shortcake! And... Milk!"

The waitress looks at Jio, waiting for his approval, and asks, "What about you, sir?"

"Can I have this chicken and vegetables fried rice and a salad with sesame dressing," Jio answered, pointing at the menu.

"Any beverage?" the waitress asks.

"Just water for me," Jio replies.

While waiting for the food, Jio looks outside through the window and studies the architecture and culture of the continent. He compares everything and how it differs back home.

*Not bad! Traveling is fun!* Jio thought as he enjoys his time looking through the window.

The food arrives fairly quickly, which makes Jio and Lala happy.

Lala immediately grabs a spoon and tries her chocolate and strawberry shortcake while Jio eats his salad first and enjoys the fried rice and honey garlic chicken breast.

After Jio pays the bill, he asks about Maleficia's whereabouts and shocks the waitress and the people who heard him. The waitress bows her head and sends the two out since it's bad luck to say Maleficia's name. Maleficia is the Dark Magician said to have sacrificed half the continent's population to obtain immortality but loses control of his dark magic.

Jio doesn't believe in superstition and merely wants information about Maleficia since the Ancient mentioned him that would help him greatly with dark magic.

To be continued,