Chapter 37: Journey to Ashes

They each returned to their respective dorms, picking up equipment for the journey. They all met up at the south exit of the cavern, which led to a small outstretch of land on the bottom shore of the Hasbin gulf.

As they exited the cavern, they all took in the warmth of the sun, this being the first time in about a week that they'd felt it.

"We've no time to enjoy the scenery. Let us make haste for the Soot pond," Clyde said, summoning his tachi from his weapons ring. The rest of the group followed, Rein summoning his dual blades, Reggie summoning his knuckle brass, Quint summoning his battle axe, and Core summoning his club, which was only used to knock enemies away. Chloe was the only one who stood there with an air of confusion.

"Why are you guys already summoning your weapons? We're not even close to the location," she remarked.

"Oh, you've never been out on the wild roads like this, have you? They're littered with monsters. Goblins, slimes, bandits, and all kinds of different species. It's gotten especially dangerous on the roads after the war started. The monsters have evolved in aggression," Rein explained.

"I see…" She summoned her sword. "... Will we be killing them..? You know, the monsters that attack us…" She reluctantly asked.

"Depending on the monster, yes. For example, if a slime or a goblin attacked, those are instant kills. No remorse. Those two creatures are not attacking out of necessity, slimes can live forever without consuming anything but their element, and goblins do nothing but attack and kidnap people. Conversely, if a bandit attacks, we knock them out. If an animal that is hunting prey attacks us, we also knock it out," Rein informed her as they walked down the path towards the Soot pond.

"Oh… Okay..."

"You don't look like you're up to ending a creature's life."

"... I'm sorry..." She apologized.

"No need to apologize. Trust me, that's just your inexperience. This world is a shitty place. You're thrown in, with no choice but to kill or be killed. That's how everybody here has lived their lives, me especially…"

They continued walking down the path. They made it halfway there without encountering a monster.

"This is quite strange. I have never gone this long without encountering a slime or two. There is something strange afoot," concluded Clyde, beginning to scan his surroundings.

"Yeah, I don't feel anything around us," Rein kneeled down and inspected the ground under him. "Looks like this dirt's been off-put."

Quint ducked down along with him, beastifying his nose and sniffing the ground.

"Someone's been through here recently. They smell like…" He continued to sniff the floor until he came to a conclusion. "Copper. More specifically, coins. Also a small whiff of Gold."

Clyde twitched as he heard Quint's words, attracting everyone's attention.

"Nevertheless, let us continue. Hopefully, this person with coins is not too dangerous," Clyde recomposed himself.

They continued walking down the path, talking about previous occurrences.

"Hey Rein, during the tournament, you had a wind Spring, didn't you? If you can copy the opposite of someone's Spring, does that mean that a wielder of the earth Spring was near?" Chloe inquired.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that. Who's the earth dude you copied from?" Core followed.

"Sorry, can't say. Feel free to guess though."

Clyde lead the group, followed by Quint and Reggie a few steps behind, Chloe a few steps behind them, and Rein and Core a few steps behind her. She was previously walking with the two behind her, but walked ahead while trying to guess the earth Spring wielder.

"So, you gonna spill the beans?" Core asked Rein.

"About what? The earth Spring wielder? I told you, you've gotta guess. Just look at Chloe, she's already on it."

"Not that. Why does nobody remember that guy you fought in the second round?"

Core's remark surprised Rein, making him stop walking for a second and look at him with a shocked face.

"You remember him?"

"Course I do. Can't exactly forget about a piece of work like him," Core said, going into a thinking motion. "Though, I can probably guess how you did it." Core made his guess, and not to Rein's surprise, he got it spot on.

He expected him to figure it out, as Core was the one who figured out what Rein's System was. He was always quick on the uptake, and sharp when it came to theory.

"You're exactly right. But that's incredibly strange. The only people who should've retained memory were Emria, Saphrilla, and me. Maybe it doesn't work on cursed Spring users…" Rein theorized.

"I wonder about that…" Core put a finger to his chin in a thinking motion, which also got Rein thinking. Before the two could make any kind of conclusion, they heard Clyde's voice.

"We've arrived. Be on guard."

They reached the peak of a hill that overlooked the Soot pond. It was a pitch-black body of water. Anyone would mistake it for a pool of tar if they didn't know better.

"I don't see anything, you sure this is the place?" Reggie pondered.

"Let's head down and investigate. There must be something we're missing," Rein proposed.

They made their way to the Soot pond and began investigating. The shoreline around the pond was charred with ash, and some spots further out also looked burnt. As they continued investigating the surrounding area, they noticed Quint inspecting the pond's water very closely. The group gathered around him and asked him what he was doing.

"Oh, I was just wonderin' if giving this water a taste would do us any good…" He strangely proclaimed, which left everybody confused.

"What?" Reggie reacted.

Quint beastified his face, and dipped it into the blackened pond, coming back up with a mouth full of water.

"The hell? Spit that out! It could be poisonous!" Core warned, he and everyone else alarmed by Quint's actions.

Quint began swirling the water in his mouth, tasting it on every corner of his gums before spitting it out. He heaved a breath out, and continuously spit.

"Damn that tastes bad," he looked around, seeing everybody's dumbfounded face looking at him.

"What?"

"You're okay? The water isn't poisonous?" Asked Chloe, concerned.

"O-oh, no it is… I guess I did forget to mention, the parts of my body that are beastified are immune to corrosion, burns, and poison. Don't ask me why because I don't know," he explained, to which everybody gave a sigh of relief.

"Well? Did you discover anything?" Clyde asked.

"Yeah, I think so… This pond… it's actually a volcano."

"Hm? If it were a volcano, wouldn't there be vapor rising from the water?" remarked Reggie.

"No… I believe Quint is correct. This place used to be inhabited a long time ago, but one day, a tragedy befell that forced citizens to evacuate. Back in that time, civilization was just beginning to flourish, so they did not have the equipment to figure out where the eruption originated from. After a while, the volcano went inactive and the continent lost interest in the incident, and it went unanswered for a long time," informed Clyde.

"And how do you know about it Clyde?" Rein questioned.

"That… Is not important at this moment. If this pond is an inactive volcano, we should be able to enter through somewhere…"

As Clyde began thinking to himself, Rein suddenly reacted to something that appeared behind them. It was an incredibly loud, ear-piercing noise, produced from an unknown location behind them. Rein erected an earth dome, using the inverse of Chloe's Spring. The group covered their ears, and the extreme sound waves began crashing against the dome.

The group was able to effectively defend against the sound, being blocked by their hands and by Rein's wall, but even through those 2 lines of defense, the sound almost caused them to go unconscious. As he had to maintain the wall, Rein couldn't defend his ears against the noise, the unbearable pain weakening the strength of the wall. As a last-ditch effort, Rein let go of his grip on the wall, grabbing the group and jumping into the pond with them, sinking them into the void of pitch black.