203 Ch. 203 'The Torturous Tunnel'

Niken walked around, endlessly amazed at her surroundings. Leafy trees and a variety of unique flowers with beautiful colors.

Niken saw that little pegasuses were playing, and there were also small animals flying above the flowers.

This place was magnificent as if this place was a noble's oasis, and Niken felt rather pleasant to linger here for a long time.

Just like Niken, Lionel had never come to this place before, and he admired the sight of this magical place.

Ah, if only he could bring Florence here, how perfect would this memorable moment be.

In contrast to the two individuals who continually admired everything on this floating island, Kazuto looked normal, as if this place wasn't anything special.

Well, this place wasn't something unique as he had been coming here a lot since he became an Elementalist knight.

From here, he learned how to control the beasts and fight against some of the weak creatures below.

Usually, he wouldn't come in during the day as the beasts were more likely to avoid him and didn't want to fight.

But if he appears at night, he would encounter night creatures such as bats, snakes, hyenas, and other wild animals. They often appeared at night to hunt prey. While they were pursuing their prey, Kazuto came to fight them in order to hone his skills.

One night he was seriously injured because he engaged snaca, one of the strongest beasts on this land. However, his wound quickly healed in just one night because he was born a descendant of a wolf shapeshifter.

Cell regeneration and wound healing that occurred in his body was many times faster than humans in general.

Even though Kazuto often met Snaca when he entered this inner side, Kazuto never intended to take the beast's horn.

He never even intended to make his magic circle breakthrough and reach the indigo stage. All this time, he had thought he would never meet a magic user as his opponent, let alone a wizard.

But he changed his mind when he realized there were wizards out there who could potentially become their enemies. Even more so when he found out that one of the mix-blood wizards had evil intentions and had harmed Niken.

Kazuto becomes eager to defeat Snaca or Cerberus to consume their horns and make the magic circle breakthrough.

For now, he needed to increase his magic cultivation so that his blue magic circle could reach its final phase. He could also take Niken with him if she also wanted to hone her magic skills.

After all, his heart would be much calmer if Niken was with him when facing the beasts than leaving Niken against the creatures alone.

Apparently, Lionel also had the same thoughts to help Niken become stronger.

"Kazuto, do you think Niken could sharpen her magic skills here?"

"Alright, then. We'll be back here tomorrow night. For today let her have fun and rest."

Kazuto agreed right away before walking to join Niken, who was currently playing with the little fairies surrounding her.

Just a few minutes before sunset, Kazuto ordered the same bird to bring them down and landed directly at the main gate that separated this country's two sides.

This country had very high and sturdy walls with giant gates operated by a magic mechanism that automatically opens and closes. The gate would open when the sun rises and will close when the sunsets.

These walls and gates prevented humans from entering the inner side and ferocious night creatures from coming out to the outer side.

They didn't need to worry that the winged creature will fly over this wall because there was a defensive barrier above the wall to the sky to keep the winged beast out of the inner side.

This was all thanks to the beastmasters' efforts, which prevented the beasts from settling across the country.

The intention was that no human would be harmed by the beasts' ferocious attacks. On the other hand, the wizards would not carelessly hunt the magical creatures to enhance their magic cultivation.

But for those who want to hone their skills or for wizards who wish to hunt horns to breakthrough their magic circle, they could enter the inner side through an underground tunnel.

This tunnel was very long and tortuous, causing one to get tired after walking only for five minutes. The entrance was at the end of the West continent gate to the end of the inner side, where the exit was adjacent to the ocean area, where the water beasts live.

It took them at least one to two hours to walk from one end of the tunnel to the other. They did not have to worry about getting lost because the tunnel only has one path.

However, the tunnel's path was tortuous, like a serpentine. Not to mention, several traps would trigger if they touched something they weren't supposed to touch.

This trap was actually created to kill the beasts that slipped into this tunnel. The creatures were different from humans, as they were not smart enough to keep their hands to themselves.

In addition, their bodies were so large that they could not help but brush against the tunnel walls triggering the trap.

On the other hand, the human bodies were much smaller than the beasts, and they could keep their hands to themselves while walking.

Still, it all depends on the stamina of each human's strength. Will they be able to walk for two full hours without oxygen, or will they pass out inside because they run out of oxygen and die inside the tunnel?

It wouldn't be surprising if they would find two or more corpses in the tunnel.

That's why Lionel advised Niken to rest and entertain the girl first so that Niken's stamina and mental strength were strong enough to travel long distances in this tunnel.

Niken heard Lionel's explanation of their next plan and had a little objection if she had to fight against the innocent beasts.

"You don't have to kill it. I will help you control them to give up and go away."

"Really?"

Kazuto gave a reassuring smile that made Niken even more impatient, waiting for tomorrow night.

She had seen the unique and fascinating creatures that came out during the day. What kind of night creature will she meet?

Regrettably, they did not know what will happen in the future. If they had known beforehand, maybe they would never have thought of bringing Niken to the inner side at night, where almost all night creatures would come out from their lair.