In the Black Pit Forest, there was a massive 35-meter-long serpent. Its body was spread across a good number of tree branches, forming a circle as the serpent slept. On a tree branch near the serpent's head, two young men could be seen discussing, their faces etched with seriousness, as if debating a matter of life or death.
"This snake is at the Advanced stage, so its meat will definitely be delicious," one said.
"What? No way, man! I prefer the meat of that fat crocodile!"
Of course, these were Damian and Arthur. This was their seventh day inside the Black Pit. The duo had broken through several times and reached the Intermediate stage, Level 9. Their strength had reached a high level of proficiency and control.
For Damian, he had created Earth Flame, Water Flame, and Wind Flame. The first, Earth Flame, was a flame that gained weight as more mana was infused into it. As for the second, Water Flame removed fatigue and regenerated stamina, something Vitality Flame couldn't do, as it only healed without restoring stamina or removing fatigue. As for Wind Flame, when an enemy was hit by it, wind blades would begin to wound the affected part of the enemy's body. Additionally, its effects when combined with Fire Flame were excellent, as it could increase the Fire Flame's power and spread across the enemy's body. Naturally, any flame Damian used served only its intended purpose. For example, if Earth Flame was thrown at someone, they would only feel an increase in weight and not burn. However, it could burn if Damian merged Earth Flame with Fire Flame.
As for Arthur, he had learned many runes, including the Storage rune, so he no longer relied on Damian as his personal mobile vault.
The serpent sensed the presences before it, causing it to awaken from its slumber and look at the duo with intense hostility for disturbing its sleep.
"See? You woke the stupid snake. You should've listened to me and tried tasting it!"
"What? What kind of taste is that? Who wants to taste a worm-like snake?"
"Hissss!" The serpent could no longer tolerate the duo and lunged towards them, opening its mouth to swallow them whole. But before the serpent realized, the duo were no longer in front of it. Instead, they were above it. Damian created Earth Flame around his fists, then infused more mana into the flame, making it heavier, which caused Damian's body to descend faster onto the serpent's head.
"BOOM!" Damian's fist struck the serpent's head, causing the serpent to become disoriented, unable to distinguish between right or left, up or down. Damian gave the serpent no time, and his second fist landed on its head, followed by the third and fourth in succession. By this point, the serpent had passed out.
"Make way for the king!" Damian looked at Arthur, who was in the sky using the Flight rune he had learned, while he was creating a rune and infusing a large amount of mana into it. Damian moved away from the serpent's head, looking at Arthur with a jealousy that could be seen from a thousand kilometers away. Damian didn't want to admit it, but he desperately wanted to fly. He knew he would be able to in the future, but he was jealous that Arthur could fly before him. Arthur finished infusing mana into the rune he was forming, then a five-meter-long wind blade shot towards the serpent's head.
"WHOOSH!" The serpent's head was cleanly severed, falling from a height of 20 meters, followed by its body.
"BOOM!" The impact of the serpent's body hitting the ground caused an earthquake that extended for 100 meters.
"Let's extract the mana crystal and then break through to the Advanced stage," Damian told Arthur. Arthur nodded, and the two began to work.
Half an hour later, both broke through to the Advanced stage. Although the further one progressed in cultivation stages, the more mana was needed for breakthroughs, Damian and Arthur required far more than the required amount for the breakthrough. The duo concluded that this was due to their SSS-ranked classes.
"Let's go. There's not much further before we reach that building we saw earlier," Damian said. Since Damian and Arthur exited the cave, their destination had been the strange building they saw, so for the past few days, the duo had been heading towards the building.
Two days had passed since the duo killed the massive serpent and continued their journey. Damian and Arthur were walking through the forest as usual, but they noticed that the number of trees was decreasing. The duo concluded that they were approaching their destination. The number of trees gradually diminished until they saw their destination. Before them was a massive building, or rather, a huge palace adorned with ancient colors and carvings.
But what caught their attention was a human in front of this palace, or more accurately, a girl their age with pink hair and pink eyes. She was sitting in front of the palace gate, looking extremely bored as she stared up at the sky. The girl felt a presence nearby. She turned towards it, annoyance on her face, thinking it was just another monster, but when she saw two people instead of monsters, surprise suddenly appeared on her face.
Both parties stared at each other, waiting for one of them to break the silence. Damian decided to break it. "Ahem, hello, I'm Damian, and this is Arthur."
The girl stared at them, evaluating them. The first, with white hair and white eyes, was extremely unusual, while the second had black hair and golden eyes. The girl thought the two were from a powerful family, even though their clothes didn't suggest it, their faces certainly did. Let's not forget that Damian and Arthur were not only the strongest in school but also the most handsome. Had they not grown up in an orphanage, it could be said they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
The girl spoke after a short silence, in a husky voice, "Hello, I'm Aurora." The girl stated her name without mentioning her family name, fearing causing problems. Damian also did this, although he didn't know about his family or Arthur's family. After their last chase, the two couldn't afford another chase. Damian nodded, then said, "Is there a way for my friend and I to leave this world? Also, what is this palace?"
"As for your first question, I don't know. As for the second, I've been in front of this palace for days and tried every way to enter, and I couldn't. The door hasn't budged an inc...."
"WHOOSH!" Before Aurora could finish her sentence, the palace door opened, inviting the three to enter.
"Oh, it opened! Awesome! Is there someone inside inviting us in, hehe?" Arthur said, nudging Damian's shoulder.
"Calm down, we don't know what's inside this palace," Damian said, advancing towards the palace.
Aurora's mind was racing, trying to figure out what was happening. She had been in front of this palace for several days and couldn't enter, as if the palace refused her entry. But when these two came, the door opened as if pleased by their presence. She didn't know if she should be angry at the palace or happy that these two had come, but she pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on entering the palace now. Then Damian crossed the palace gate, followed by Arthur, and then Aurora.