Chapter 279

His scream pierced the night sky, sounding so hoarse it felt as though he wanted to claw his own throat out.

A second.

Just a split second was how long the agonizing pain actually lasted, yet to the Tribrid, it felt like several grueling hours had already passed since the onset.

His brain had been on fire.

It felt incredibly hot inside his head, but now, the intensity slowly subsided to reveal Ray panting hard, covered in a cold sweat.

Catching his breath for a few seconds, he groaned softly and then sat upright on the cold dirt.

"Seriously, I need a break and to stop doing foolish things," he muttered to himself.

[I’m glad to know that you realize how foolish you are.]

"Stop adding salt to my injuries, you stupid system!" Ray snapped back.

Huffing and puffing angrily, the youth sucked in a sharp, deep breath and then proceeded to exhale slowly, letting all the residual tension leave his rigid body.

Regaining complete control of his racing mind, his brows knit together in confusion.

"Now, what the hell was that?"

Luckily, it seemed like the system was actually capable of providing some coherent answers this time around.

[Host has just consumed a modified pill.]

[Effects of pill: Host is now completely and absolutely immune to all sorts of mind attacks, no matter the origin. Celestials; Supreme beings; Dae.... Whoever the entity is, host is immune to their mental assaults.]

’Huh? Wait a second... why did you cut the text off at that specific name?’

[...]

The interface offered no further explanation, therefore leaving Ray utterly confused as he stared at the truncated word for a second.

’What entity owns that name? Why did it get cut off by the system? Is it actively hiding something from me?’

«Let’s forget that for now and think about what you just gained instead. A permanent, absolute buff against mental attacks? That’s crazy good,» Elyon interrupted Ray’s spiraling thoughts from within the mindspace.

And the distraction worked perfectly, as the Aspirant’s focus moved smoothly to another pressing question.

"The most important question is, how did that beast get its hand... scythes on a specialized pill like that? Where had it been coming from that rendered it in the battered condition I found it in?"

Rubbing his chin in deep thought, the boy stared out from the hill he occupied, thinking back to the various webnovels he had read and the anime series he had watched in the past.

"Hm... could it have ventured into a hidden fortress with a powerful guardian, and that guardian rendered it in this dying condition?

If there’s a place like that nearby, doesn’t that mean there would be even more rare rewards like these hidden inside? Something much more useful for the future?"

His gray eyes were beginning to shine greedily the more he conceptualized the theory.

«You are becoming far too greedy by the hour, Ray. Remember how powerful that creature was? It was a King-rank beast even while weakened.

So if it was left in such a terrible state, doesn’t that inherently mean there’s something infinitely more powerful roaming this land?» Elyon questioned sensibly, forcing the bright light in Ray’s eyes to dim slightly as the reality of the situation set in.

Shaking his head, he quickly dispelled the dangerous thoughts.

"You are right. I’m nowhere near strong enough to embark on those kinds of high-risk adventures right now."

Trying to shift his position slightly, he suddenly felt a sharp, shooting ache running through his entire frame, forcing him to yelp out in discomfort.

Touching his throbbing temple, he winced for a second.

"Right. I’m still heavily injured from my clash with that damn monster."

[Celestial Healing Activated]

Immediately, a warm stream of pristine white light appeared all around his battered body.

Even the deep crack across his temple was flooded with the soothing energy, as his torn flesh and fractured bones could be seen knitting back together at an impressive rate.

Soon enough, he was fully healed, the fatigue washing away as he felt himself flowing with renewed strength.

The exact moment he was healed properly, he looked around his immediate perimeter, and then a sudden, somber expression settled over his face as he recalled his current situation.

Staring straight ahead, he slowly shifted toward the edge of the hill, and from that vantage point, he could finally see the movements of all the creatures in the area.

Tons of Earth Shaker beasts were prowling the lands as far as his eyes could see.

"The others... Wh—where have they fallen? If I barely survived the first night I came in and was attacked by a King-rank beast, what is stopping them from encountering something stronger? Are they even a..."

Shaking his head to dispel such ominous thoughts, he planted his feet firmly and decided to scan the surrounding terrain, trying to absorb every single detail into his mind.

Stretched across the land like the jagged spine of a slumbering giant, countless hills rose from the earth in uneven clusters.

Some were gentle slopes covered in patches of stubborn green, while others rose almost vertically, their rocky sides scarred by time and weather.

They stood close enough together to feel like a maze, yet each one was separated by narrow strips of land, winding paths, and pockets of still water that cut between them like veins.

The hills were far taller than they had first appeared.

From a distance, they looked like ordinary rises in the earth, but stepping closer revealed their true scale—massive, stone-backed elevations, many reaching high enough to cast long shadows over the surrounding waters.

Some climbed so high that their peaks vanished into drifting mist during the early hours, giving the illusion that they were far taller than they truly were.

Water surrounded the entire valley, wrapping around the hills in a natural barrier that made the region feel completely cut off from the rest of the world.

The calm surface perfectly reflected the towering formations, turning them into dark, mirrored pillars when the light dipped low.

Small islands of rock jutted from the water between them, some no larger than a house, others wide enough to support entire groves of twisted trees.

The air out here was strangely quiet.

Winds moved between the stone rises in slow currents, carrying the scent of wet earth and moss.

At times, the hills blocked out sound so completely that even footsteps seemed swallowed entirely, while other times the narrow passages amplified the smallest noise until it echoed through the entire valley.

From above, the terrain of hills resembled a broken crown scattered across the water.

It was a land of elevated stone and hidden paths, where one could easily disappear between the valleys and remain completely unseen, even while standing within sight of the open sky.

"I have faith in my squad. They won’t fall so easily. They are surely alive. Somewhere on these godforsaken lands."