We kept looking around the lower area for two hours, but we didn’t find a single monster, and it was the same for the other teams. No monsters and no traps. The area was empty from any potential threats.

As originally planned, we took our 2 hours break just in case the first team managed to stumble upon anything. Unfortunately, their search was in vain, and our shift came.

We were positioned a few miles north of the big lake. We kept looking around the bushes and trees while moving in formation. We tried making noise, unleashing a huge amount of mana and spells, but nothing responded. We kept moving until we arrived near the base of a mountain. There was nothing odd about it. We decided to split up into two groups and look at both sides of the mountain.

After an hour, the two groups met at the same spot where they left, and unsurprisingly, no one found any kind of clue.

When our shift ended, we managed to cover the whole northern area with nothing on our sleeves.

We relayed the message to the third team and decided to rest near the base of the northern mountain.

“This is too weird. After 8 hours and still no clues, no monsters, barely anything worth finding.” John punched the mountain.

“Calm down, we are all as frustrated as you,” I yelled.

“Then do something about this Mr chosen one. I don’t want to stay here forever with trash like you all.” He glared daggers at me while cursing his fate.

“Calm down guys, fighting amongst us won’t solve the problem.” Intervened Mika.

“Yeah she’s right, let’s discuss this from the beginning again. There should be something that we didn’t pay attention to.” Stated Lucas.

I sat down to listen to what they were discussing. I had a bad feeling about this whole raid since Vlad told me about it. And to add salt to injuries, I have two guys constantly trying to pick a fight with me. I just wanted to get powerful so I could find the truth about the whole thing. There are too many mysteries about what was happening in this world, that I could not pull out and live a normal life.

While I was on my deep thinking, I felt someone pulling my arm.

“Hey, Shiryuu, are you alright?” Asked Zinouseus.

“Ah yeah I am, sorry for dozing off.” I cut off my thinking to come back to what they were discussing.

“So as I was saying, everything was too normal to be right in this area. There was nothing wrong with anything here.” Said, John.

“Yeah, maybe…” Replied Lucas.

An idea came to my mind while they were arguing about the normality of this area. “How about we climb these mountains and check what’s on top?” I suggested.

“Climb up this big mountain?” Questioned Lucas.

“I thought about the idea, but when I looked at how big they were, I thought it would be impossible. Even the mages can’t…. No, they can, if we supplement them with enough mana, they could make stairs that connect the bottom to the top.” Replied Akavic.

“That’s a good idea Shiryuu. I knew that we could find a solution if we think it through.” Smiled Lucas

“Let’s wait first for the others to finish scouting the whole lower area and suggest this idea to them,” I said.

After we finished our discussion, I went near the plunge pool, took out my sword, and started meditating. We still had time until the next team finished his shift.

It became a routine during the past week. I tried pulling mana from my surroundings and injecting it directly into the sword to see if I can force a meeting with the old dragon, or just to find a way for my consciousness to go inside the sword-like last time.

***

Two hours passed by since I started my meditation.

I couldn’t get anything from it again, but at the very least, I stored more than enough mana for the next battles if we stumble against enemies.

I opened my eyes and saw someone looking at me from a nearby tree.

“What are you doing there?” I asked.

“Nothing, I just found it fascinating that you were this calm inside a dungeon and found time to meditate.” Replied Mika.

“Since we have time so I just used it for my benefits.”

“That’s true. To be honest, the way you channel mana from the outside to the inside is unique.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we normally pull mana through our pores, then we circulate it inside our blood vessels, and we inject it to whatever weapon we’re using. However, in your case, you just absorb the mana directly to your sword, and from what I have noticed, some of the mana stays stored inside the sword, and the rest is channeled to your body. I’ve never seen anyone use a method like this.”

“You have a keen eye. Maybe it’s a unique way, but I just find myself more comfortable doing it like that.”

“Oh that’s interesting, maybe I should try it too, hehe.”

“Suit yourself.”

I stood up from my place and went to look for the giant to talk with him since he was the only person I could call a friend here.

As I passed by the girl, she called me. “By the way, I forgot to thank you early. I’m grateful for helping me.” She smiled.

“No worries about it.” I waved my hand at her and continued moving.

***

When the third team finished his shift, Lucas contacted the other team leaders and told them about our suggestion.

After a few minutes, they accepted the offer and we decided to meet at our place.

After the arrival of all the participants, the four mages who could use earth spells made the stairs from the side of the mountain, and we decided to send 4 awakeners from each team. A scout, a healer, and two warriors.

From our team, Akavic, Kirin, Sydney, and I were selected to go up. From the first team, Sabrine the healer, Almerik the scout, Lancelot the swordsman –who was at odds with me for some reasons I didn’t know- and Steve the spear user decided to go. While from the third team, they sent Rian the healer, Ken the scout, Dani the archer, and Kamie the fighter.

It took us a few hours to reach the top. It wasn’t an easy climb since we had to constantly stop to regain our stamina and the mages to replenish their mana and then move again.

After arriving at the summit, the view was totally different. It was a total wasteland. We noticed that the mountains were all connected and made a circle around the lake.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At first glance, we couldn’t see the edge of the mountains. They were infinite in length, and nothing could be seen apart from the flat brown earth.

The scouts used their techniques to find any anomaly, but there was nothing to report.

Akavic took the lead on this meaningless search and moved forward to check the area with his own eyes.

After several dozens of minutes, he returned. “You need to come and see this. There is a weird thing around a kilometer away from here.”

We went after Akavic to the place that he found, and to our surprise, we found some carvings on the earth.

The words were not readable. They were clearly written in an unknown language.

“This is a puzzle.” Stated Rian.

Kamie tried to touch the ground, and suddenly a little block was extracted.

The block contained the carvings that we found on one face, while the others were missing some pieces.

“I think we need to find the right words and put them inside the block.” Suggested Lancelot.

“But how can we find them inside this big land. It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.” Replied Dani.

“Did anyone notice anything like a carving, or stone words, or anything like that in your shifts?” I stated.

“No, we didn’t.” Replied Rian.

“Us neither.” Shrugged Almerik.

“I think the best way is to look around this area first and see if we can find some hints.” Suggested Akavic.

While they were discussing, I moved closer to where the block came from and took a clear look at the crevice that it left.

I poured my some of my stored mana to my eyes to keep them from straining and kept looking at any hints inside the opening, and I saw something outstanding. “Hey guys, I think there’s no need to do that. Come look here.”

After they all took a look at what I’ve shown them, we all came to a single conclusion. “The block was directly located above where one of the waterfalls went through.”

As we were climbing early, we saw that the waterfalls didn’t flow from the top, but from holes inside the mountains, and this crevice was exactly on top of one of the holes where the stream goes through.

“Let’s go look at the top of all the other waterfalls. Maybe what we’re looking for is there.” I pointed at the other locations.

***

Several hours later, we all returned to where we found the block, and we found all the missing pieces.

We put the pieces that we found in their proper positions, and the block started glowing after we finished.

It returned to its place and we heard a rumbling, then everything went silent.

A few minutes passed, but we didn’t see any change in our place.

“This is bad something might happen at the bot—“

Before I finished talking, a big geyser exploded from within the lake. We saw the water going up to where we were. It was a big explosion.

“Quick, we should go down now.”

Fortunately, the earth stairs were still there, so we climbed down as quickly as possible.

***

Meanwhile at the bottom area.

“Guys, did you hear that rumbling?” Lucas stood up from his place in surprise.

“Yeah, the earth suddenly shook.” Zinouseus touched the ground to feel the rumbling.

“Stay all together, something might have happened at the top.” Lucas motioned to the other awakeners to gather.

A few minutes later, an explosion inside the lake happened.

‘BOOOOOOM.’

“W—what’s that?” Jumped Mika.

“Look there, a big geyser is coming from the lake.” Pointed Jessica, a guardian from the second team.

“I’ll cover you, stay behind me.” Mika used a spell that made a big light barrier and protected the others from the fallen water.

“Is that a light spell? That’s so rare.” Stated Davidsky.

“Yeah, I can use light-based magic.” Replied Mika.

After the geyser settled down, a big shadow immerged from within the lake. It was a big black sea serpent.

“Don’t move, let’s see what that monster will do. Prepare yourselves. It’s time to get serious.” Lucas brought out his sword.

After a few minutes, the monster kept staring at them without moving an inch.

“Won’t it attack us? It just kept looking here.” Replied Ishiharu - the leader of the third team – with a puzzled look.

“That’s indeed weird. Let’s move towards it and take a closer look.” Affirmed Lucas.

As they were moving, they saw something moving at a high speed towards them.

Suddenly, something went out from behind a tree, but its attack was blocked by Zinouseus.

“That’s a sea monster.” Shouted Nicos.

“Brace yourselves, we’re under attack.” Lucas readied his sword.

More sea monsters went out from the woods and attacked the awakeners.

They all took their initial formation and the teams were separated.

More sea monsters kept swarming each team. They didn’t pose much threat, as they were quickly dealt with, but their numbers didn’t go down.

***

As we were descending, the scouts started feeling a change in mana at the bottom area.

When we got closer, one of the scouts became pale. “This is bad, look there.” He pointed towards the center of the lake. A big serpent-like creature was out from the lake. Its long black body gave us Goosebumps. It had yellow hair coming through its head.

Another scout run a quick scan of the area and was stunned. “It’s even worst. Our teammates are surrounded from all places.”

“Let’s not waste energy talking, use that to descend quickly.” Ordered Lancelot.

With only 100 meters left to climb down, we got a better look at the battlefield using our mana-enhanced visions. The monsters surrounding our teammates were green sea monsters that could stand on two legs and breathe outside the water. They should be around C-rank, but the number was the real problem. Their numbers didn’t decrease at all, it was only increasing whenever one was killed.

After we’ve arrived at the bottom, our teammates were no longer there, but we could see their positions when we were descending. The first team managed to push the monsters all the way to the lake where they came from, while the others were still inside the forest.

After splitting up, we went to help our respective teams.

We met some monsters on the road, but we dealt with them with ease.

The scout used his scan technique while moving to keep track of our moving teammates, and we managed to meet with them quickly.

They were in a circle formation, with the healers at the middle. The two mages, the archer and the gunner were sniping the upcoming monsters from distance, while the tank and the swordsman killed the ones who managed to dodge the distant attacks.

We sent the scout and the healer to join the circle to help them push away the enemies, while Akavic and I decided to hunt any monster that managed to get close to our team without being noticed.

With the help of the scout, we managed to push our way to the lake and meet up with the first team.

“There’s got to be something we could do to stop the monsters from swarming us.” Said Lucas.

“Didn’t you find anything else at the top?” Questioned John with a frustrated tone.

“No, just as we finished the puzzle, we heard an explosion at the lake and came directly here,” I replied.

“If we can’t lower the number of these sea creatures, then let’s attack the big one there.” Akavic pointed his dagger at the big sea monster.

The third team caught up with us and we all gathered.

“Hey Lucas, we agreed on attacking the big sea serpent, are you okay with that?” Bruno, The leader of the first team, addressed Lucas.

“We were discussing that too right now, we don’t know if it will be worth it.” Replied Lucas.

“The only way to know for sure is to attack it. We can’t keep wasting our energies like this.” Replied Bruno.

“You got a point, let the mages aim their attacks at it first.” Said the leader of the third team.

The mages all readied their spells and fired a plethora of attacks at the sea serpent.

The monster started screaming, but it shrugged off the damage easily. Then, it started charging an attack from its mouth.

“What’s that?” Said Ken.

“That’s a water bomb, dodge as fast as you can.” Shouted Lucas.

The sea serpent launched the water bomb directly at where we're standing, creating a big hole on the ground.