Reigns and Nyxara were given a place where they had to make their own small wooden house. Since both of them were oblivious to such work, Gunther suggested hiring professionals for the task. After all, they were going to stay here for a long time.

Staying here for a long?

The heck was this bullshit.

They did not come here to stay on some nice vacation. They had to get out of this place.

Two people were hired to build the house, and the work was finished within just two hours.

Reigns and Nyxara stood outside and looked at the house. It looked ancient yet quite cozy and comfortable. With a roof over their heads, there would not be any problem staying for now.

"Reigns, the food stock is almost over and we have just a bottle of water."

The sudden revelation struck him like lightning.

Nyxara made a guilty expression and lowered her brows slightly.

"I didn’t expect to get stuck in such a situation. Also, food and water can be availed from outside, so I stocked a few other things."

"What other things?"

"I have stocked potions, armour, weapons, and some clothes. Do you want to see it?"

Nyxara’s eyes suddenly lit up with a mischievous glint.

Reigns quickly waved his hand.

"No need for now."

He had no interest in seeing those weird things right now.

"It means we need to hunt monsters, and as for water..."

Reigns pressed his lips tightly while not liking where this was going.

Sacrificing monsters to get water...

This was insane and weird as hell.

"We will see what we can do."

*******

The night was not pleasant for Reigns.

The sky was entirely dark with no sign of stars or moon. The only source of light was the huge flame pillar maintained by the villagers of Canopy, but it did little to soften the horror because at night, the Shattered Canopy looked like a ghost silently biding its time for everyone to fall.

From the moment he could not speak his keyword, he had already marked this place as troublesome.

He tried to mutter Bloom, but as always, it got stuck midway.

Why couldn’t he mutter it?

Also, of all things, why this?

The only plausible reason Reigns could think of was that whatever this tree was, it might feel threatened by him, and sadly, Reigns had no way to break this stalemate for now.

Maybe leveling up was going to help, but fighting alone without the backing of troops made him feel crippled because in every fight, no matter how perilous the situation became, he always had them beside him.

All these thoughts made him restless, but the same could not be said for Nyx, who slept soundly while grabbing Reigns like a teddy bear and clinging to him like an octopus.

The next day...

"Be careful. Don’t touch anything until I say."

Gunther led them toward the outer zone, the periphery of the dungeon.

While following him, Reigns asked,

"Gunther, just how big is this place?"

"Roughly as big as a city in the real world. Might be a bit more or less, can’t say for sure, but it’s big enough to survive."

Trailing behind him, Reigns observed the terrain carefully.

The ground had a blackish ash color, and at every few distances there were parched and broken highland-like hills scattered around.

At first he did not notice it, but then a sudden realization dawned upon him.

"This place... There isn’t a single sign of vegetation except the Shattered Canopy."

Nyxara frowned and looked around carefully.

Gunther laughed after hearing this.

"You finally found it."

"And that’s the main problem with surviving in this place. With no plants, every single thing here is carnivorous and deadly."

After walking for a few hours, they finally reached the edge of the taboo land, and the sight before them made Reigns swallow his saliva nervously.

"This is?"

"Yes, this is it."

Gunther smiled faintly and extended his hand forward.

"This..."

Reigns’ lips opened wide. He wanted to curse, but no words came out.

What he was seeing was utterly devastating.

Hundreds of meters away, the land turned into a steep slope that descended downward, and beyond it lay a vast misty darkness filled with swelling fog.

The darkness churned around constantly as if trying to crawl inside, but there seemed to be some kind of barrier or mysterious force keeping it at bay.

Reigns slowly turned toward Nyxara and saw her sombre expression. Even for her, this thing seemed to come as a shock.

"What’s up with this?"

Gunther shrugged helplessly.

"I don’t know shit, buddy."

"It has always been like this and stirring around. And that smoke... don’t take it lightly. That’s utterly harrowing."

"If you touch it, you are gonna mutate and turn into some weird monster."

Reigns quietly closed his lips.

So seemingly there were some people with balls of steel who had actually tried touching it. Even from afar, it was giving him creeps.

The person who took the leap of faith was either extremely strong and confident in his abilities or a complete fool.

"Let’s go back. This place is unsafe. There might be chances of us getting affected by it if we stay near."

Nyxara spoke seriously, and while grabbing Reigns’ hand she turned around.

"I agree with your girlfriend."

Gunther scowled while casting a jealous look toward Reigns.

"Wait guys..."

Reigns grabbed Nyxara’s wrist to stop her.

"I want to take a look around here."

"NOOOO!" Nyxara and Gunther shouted at the same time.

"What no! I am not an idiot to jump there. I just want to try something."

Reigns blinked his eyes while signaling Nyxara, who stared at him silently for a few moments before sighing.

"Okay."

"Can I watch too?" Gunther asked curiously.

"Whatever..."

Reigns shrugged and jumped closer near the slope.

He was not trying to examine the dark fog. Rather, he was thinking about something else.

"This should be the absolute edge of the land, so I think that tree won’t be able to exert its influence properly."

The taboo of not being able to pronounce Bloom...

Thinking about it, Reigns wondered if this was due to the interference of the Shattered Canopy.

Maybe as a plant, it was able to sense something and distort his memories or something similar.

Coming closer, he spoke,

"..."

"Huh?"

He pressed his lips and tried muttering again.

"...."

However, to his horror, no sound came from his lips when he tried to say bloom.

"Okay... Now this is getting weird."