......
After a few more days of traveling, the airship reached a certain part of a high-level region. It was part of the Sea of Death which divided the Aurora and Awakened Continent. But despite them being a part of a single body of water, they were still on a whole different level.
The Sea of Death near the Aurora Content was filled with powerful sea monsters and quite a lot of high-level regions, which were still quite hard for the current top experts to explore. There were also a couple of islands in those regions filled with powerful land monsters, which far surpassed the current limit of the players.
But all of these were nothing in front of the Sea of Death bordering the Awakened Continent. The sea monsters in this place were all on the same level as the ones that Shin had fought during the trial that the leaders of the Mysterious Instructors had prepared for him.
Some of them were even harder to deal with due to the difficulty of fighting under the water. Fighting under the water was much harder than the land. It could be similar to fighting in the air, but since the pressure under the water was much harder to deal with the air resistance, an underwater battle could be considered the hardest.
When the airship was right above the border between the two Seas of Death, Uno suddenly stood up and looked below.
He also opened a virtual map, seemingly trying to confirm the coordinates. Then he closed it again immediately after before turning to Alice, who was watching the view from her usual spot.
Since her first conversation with Uno, she regularly came to this place to accompany him and sing a couple of songs whenever she was free.
Uno was too lazy to bother with her, but he did not chase her away. He just ignored her presence and let her do whatever she wanted whenever she appeared.
He stared at her for a moment as she looked back at him with a confused look on her face. It was his first time leaving that spot since the first time seen him sitting in that place.
After a minute of silence, Uno finally opened his mouth. "Tell the others that am going ahead."
Alice frowned her brows in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"I still have some others that I have to deal with, so I will be leaving first," Uno did not explain properly as he suddenly jumped down from the bow of the airship and fell straight to the sea underneath.
Alice gasped when she saw that and quickly leaned forward to look. But Uno's figure immediately disappeared as the airship was moving quite fast.
She did not even see how Uno was able to pierce through the barrier protecting the airship as his figure suddenly turned into a blur that seemed to have been teleported out of the barrier and continued falling toward the water.
She felt quite conflicted as she saw a huge torrent of water flying toward the sky in the distance. She could only suspect that it was due to Uno's descent.
She squeezed something in her hands as she continued to watch from the distance. After that, she dejectedly walked back inside the airship with slumped shoulders and heavy steps.
...
Uno fell straight to the sea as he did not even bother to look back. He then consumed a pill that he had prepared for this moment, which would let him able to breathe underwater for a day.
Building the Spiritual Vessel for this stage would take less time given that Shin possessed the Spiritual Embryo Physique, which was the perfect vessel for Mentalism.
Creating his Spiritual Force would also follow naturally since the foundation that Shin had built was already perfect. The breathing techniques themselves were already a shortcut that he had unconsciously taken.
This was the reason why Uno had changed his mind when recalled what Berlin had mentioned. He would no longer accompany the group at the Awakened Continent as Shin's advancement in Mentalism was more important.
Once Shin had proceeded to this step, Uno could also advance with his Martial Arts and reach the Ethereal Opening Realm. After all, they both had to advance at the same time so that they could maintain the balance of 'their' body.
He also believed that this would put them back at the same starting point once again once Shin came back.
Thinking about this, Uno could not help but curve his mouth into a grin as he was somewhat getting excited.
It had been a while since he exchanged blows with each Shin after all.
***
Back at the Aurora Continent, all the apostles of Immortal were gathered on a certain shore.
Daven and Kazin stood at the forefront of the group as they looked at the group. The latter nodded his head after making sure that everyone was present.
"Where is the boss?" asked Rust as she walked over to the two.
"The boss is still in a bad mood because of what happened. There is no need to disturb him for something trivial," said Kazin as he clicked his tongue.
"Who would have thought that the Empyrean Talons would still be ahead of us," commented Rust as she recalled what happened within the came that they were exploring after the world announcement was broadcasted to everyone.
"I told you that we had forgotten something at that time," said Daven as shook his head. "We have forgotten that Sickarius is the first to become a Tier 3 Class. Of course, he has more clues on reaching the second continent!"
"There is no need to dwell on it. At least, we are not left that behind," said Kazin as he turned around and saw a large boat coming their way that a skeleton skipper was rowing.
Looking over his shoulder, he signaled the group behind him to get ready. "Empyrean Talons – it seems like they are still our main target."
"Don't get too excited. Our destination is the Forsaken Islets while they are most likely heading to the Divine Empire," said Rust as she patted Kazin's shoulder. "It will take a very long time before we clash against them."
The moment when the huge boat reached the shore, Davin waved his hand and signaled everyone to embark.
......