Two days!
It took Minori a full two days to leave the active volcano area and reach the outer regions.
"Glug… Glug…"
Dressed in a black, close-fitting suit with loose overall clothing, Minori sat on the sand as if no one was around, gulping down water from his water bag.
This was the suit he usually wore, but without the white priest robe on top.
"Huff…"
After taking several large gulps, Minori finally exhaled, raised his head, and looked at the endless desert before him.
The temperature was high, the air was dry, and the ground was covered in brownish-gray gravel. As far as the eye could see, there was uneven terrain eroded by the wind, with not a single decent plant in sight.
There were only sparse, short shrubs, and some cactus-like plants.
"Is this the area connected to the natural teleportation gate deep within the lava sea of the 'Lava Zone'?" Minori was silent for a long time, muttering to himself with a solemn and strange expression.
In the Lava Zone, when faced with the magic released by the ancient red dragon, Minori knew that he couldn't withstand it. He could only rely on the small Sunken Fish that was accidentally brought out of the lava by the Sunken Fish - Lava Dominator.
After forcibly crushing it to death, he used a part of the small Sunken Fish's materials to activate the "Wild Transformation" ability, which allowed him to avoid the scorching heat in the lava.
Minori discovered after entering the lava that the ancient red dragon entered the lava to use the energy within to recover from its injuries.
And the Sunken Fish - Lava Dominator, as the "Lava Dominator," actually allowed the ancient red dragon to heal on its territory…
Realizing that the situation was not right, and still being on the other party's territory.
Minori's own magic power was exhausted. In the brief but intense confrontation, the skills of the [Valkyrie] were also used up. He could only choose to temporarily avoid the conflict and planned to sneak into the depths of the lava.
He wanted to restore his magic power while avoiding the search of the Sunken Fish - Lava Dominator and the ancient red dragon!
But in the depths of the lava, he was inexplicably sucked in by a suction force. By the time Minori came out of the lava again, he had already arrived in this area.
"So, this damn place, wouldn't it already be far away from the northwest corner of the continent where humans live?" Minori squeezed the water bag in his hand, his eyes flickering.
He was very certain that there was no such large area of volcanoes in the area inhabited by humans.
In addition!
He could no longer accurately sense the location of the magic mark that was originally left on the Twin Witches.
If the power of magic is related to the basic numerical value of the magic attack, then the effect of magic is related to the caster's level.
Minori's magic-type caster level, plus the newly acquired [Warlock] basic class, has reached 50 levels after stacking, which is equivalent to the level of being able to use the eighth-level magic-type magic.
A caster level of this level can't even feel the location of the magic mark, which means that the distance between the two sides is too far.
Minori flipped his hand and took out a roasted wild boar leg from the item box, and ate it in large bites.
He always carried enough food with him to guard against some special situations.
"Next, there are two choices."
Minori's cheeks puffed slightly as he chewed on the wild boar meat, a look of contemplation on his face.
The first choice: wait until his magic power is fully restored, and then use the "Wild Transformation" ability to return to the Angelicia Mountains along the natural teleportation gate in the depths of the lava.
He has now confirmed that seven days have passed since he left, which is not a long time.
The reason why he can determine the number of days is thanks to his own slow magic recovery speed. It is not difficult to infer the time through the duration of magic recovery.
The second choice: take the opportunity to explore this unknown area. It has to be said that this is a rather risky behavior.
An unknown continent area represents completely unknown risks, completely unknown information, and completely unknown enemies.
Whoosh!
In the sky, a black-gray eagle with a wingspan of one meter quickly swooped down from the air towards Minori.
When it was about to approach Minori.
The eagle folded its wings, its body twisted in mid-air, and quickly expanded into Kuro, landing in the air.
Bang!
Kuro's limbs stepped on the ground, and it excitedly ran to Minori and rubbed its head against his shoulder.
"Thank you for your hard work."
Minori smiled, raised his hand and patted Kuro's head, and then took out another wild boar leg from the item shell and threw it to Kuro.
Yesterday, he had already resurrected Kuro with resurrection magic, and re-established contact with it using "Partner Contract I".
Kuro's behavior of transforming into an eagle was naturally through the ability of the partner contract, allowing it to use Minori's skill "Wild Transformation."
He had just sent Kuro to transform into an eagle to investigate the surroundings, but the result was not ideal.
Obviously!
These two options have already been chosen.
Minori could also perceive some of what Kuro observed in the air through the ability of the partner contract. This desert is larger and more uninhabited than he imagined.
At least so far, Minori has not seen a single creature.
A moment later.
The man and Kuro finished their rest.
"A maximum of one month of exploration time."
Minori turned over and rode on Kuro, squinting his eyes, and raised his hand to pat Kuro's neck.
Being able to come to this mysterious unknown area with the help of the lava sea in the Lava Zone can be regarded as a remarkable discovery.
There is too much information and intelligence to collect. It would be a pity to give up such a unique passage, but with his current situation, he cannot spend too much time in it.
Just those two twin witches, if he doesn't appear in front of them in a month, there may be problems.
"Woof." Kuro growled softly, immediately moved, and began to move in the opposite direction from the volcanic area.
Night gradually fell.
On the empty Gobi, darkness quickly enveloped.
Kuro was a little tired and lay beside Minori, chewing on a thick bone in its mouth, using it as a snack for dinner to grind its teeth.
This little habit was formed when Minori used goblin corpses as food for Kuro.
"Still haven't found any creatures. This can't be a very remote corner of the continent."
Minori sat cross-legged on the ground, leaning against the soft Kuro, thinking silently.
Of course, not necessarily.
According to the limited information he learned in his previous life, this continent is very vast, and the northwest corner where humans live is not even as large as an area ruled by some countries in the center of the continent.
With such a large area, it is normal for some sparsely populated areas to appear. The exploration continued for the next two days, with no harvest.
Until the evening of the third day.
Sha!
Sha! Sha!
"Roar." Kuro's four limbs showed sharp teeth under its mouth, staring at the sand in front.
Mounds of sand were quickly gathering from the sand in front, as if something was attacking from under the desert.
Faced with this sudden situation,
A smile appeared on Minori's somewhat dry cheeks: "It's good to have creatures."
After exploring for several days without encountering a single creature, he wondered if this area was really a barren land.
To collect intelligence, you must communicate with intelligent creatures, but without even encountering a living creature, let alone an intelligent creature.
Pfft! Pfft!
The sand in front exploded, and a large amount of sand rose into the sky, forming a yellow sand curtain that blocked the line of sight.
Gray, hooked, earth-brown tails followed closely behind these exploding sands, and quickly pierced towards Minori and Kuro.
"Scorpion-like monsters."
Minori glanced at them, a steel sword appeared in his palm, he took a step forward, and his wrist flicked.
With a casual swing, all the stabbing tail hooks were easily cut off.
The severed scorpion tails fell to the ground and twisted, and the wounds flowed with purplish-red, fishy-smelling blood.
"Hiss——"
"Hiss——"
"..."
Painful hissing sounds came from underground, and then several desert scorpions with a body length of about one meter drilled out of the sand.
Before these desert scorpions could make any attacking movements.
Minori moved his feet and rushed into these scorpions. The iron sword was swung casually, easily shattering the earth-brown, solid carapace.
[Gained experience: 421]
[Gained experience: 387]
[Gained experience: 405]
[…]
[Experience bar: 108632/120000]
A total of five desert scorpions were killed by Minori in two breaths.
"The strength is not high, it should be at the level of eleven or twelve." Minori quickly analyzed after seeing the experience points gained on the panel.
He chose to use physical attacks instead of magic to avoid the noise caused by magic.