Penal Hall Master Drake just arrived at the council building on a skateboard.An old lady in her hundreds was waiting for him in the verandah, eating sugarcane. Despite her age, she had all her teeth intact.“Did you meet him?” she asked.Drake nodded and tried to grab a sugarcane stick.But she slapped his hand away. “How was he?”“He’s good in some ways and clumsy in other ways, ma’am,” Drake replied, “but he seems motivated to get his hands on the secret treasure.”“In the past five years, the kettles of the top rankers have grown in strength by sweeping all the treasures from the caves,” she said. “They are growing stronger than the penal hall. The balance of power is shifting, and the biggest troublemaker among the rankers just has to arrive now.”“Whom do you prefer as the next king?” Drake curiously asked.“I prefer the one His Majesty chooses,” she replied.“Being diplomatic again,” Drake tried to grab the sugarcane stick again, but she slapped his hand away once more. His han

Holding the spear with both hands, Sheryl thrust it and pierced the boy on the side, utterly shocking him.“Nngg!” he coughed out blood from the mouth. “What… have… you… done!”As blood spilled and fell on Sheryl’s face, she let go of the spear and shivered in shock.Moments later, she recovered, and then grabbed a bag of fruits and ran away from the storage room.The boy, who was still hanging, had to raise his legs and pull the spear out with his feet. He tossed the spear up and caught it with his mouth.This movement made him bleed some more.Still he started spinning his body with as much force as he could, and the spear helped him balance his body effectively.The chain bundled together, and his body rose all the way to the ceiling.With one vicious down pull, he pulled the chain out of the ceiling and landed on the floor.Blood spurted out from his ribs.He had to take a few breaths to bear the pain and stand tall on his feet. Afterward, he removed the blindfold and rushed out o

A few minutes earlier.After closing her eyes, Sheryl could feel so many presences concentrating in the tunnels and were heading toward her.“There are so many of them…” she gritted her teeth and tightened the grip on the sword. “That damned Drake and the Mother Council… What the hell are they planning? If even some of these get out, the entire Nameless Zone might be in danger.”In a few seconds, dozens of hideous monsters who were being mind-controlled came dashing at Sheryl like a plague of death, creeping on the ground, the walls and the ceiling alike.There were human-faced blobs bouncing off the walls, shells of flesh golems springing up their boneless feet, chimeras with varied shapes and multiple heads, and the humanoid dead who were recycled to look like zombies straight out of horror stories.Most of them were creatures experimented upon to not just look scary but also possess strength, speed, and killer moves.“Talk about ugliness…” Sheryl muttered under her breath, just aft

The humid air hung heavy in the cave, thick with the smell of mildew and something acrid, like burnt metal, all of which signaled the arrival of the massive monster.Sheryl stood poised, her bare feet gripping the slick, moss-covered stone.Before her coiled a nightmare made real: a serpent of impossible size, its scales shimmering like obsidian in the flickering aural flame created by Durk’s forefinger.Five massive horns, like polished obsidian, erupted from its head, twitching as if sensing the vibrations in the stone.The red crystal on its forehead gave away its identity.This was Naga, the last remaining guardian of the Whispering Stone Caves, a beast whose legend whispered of venom so potent it could melt rock and metal alike.This was a beast which had once stood its ground against the wretched Cerberus, and their stories of their drool raining down as arrows on Nameless Zone and killing hundreds were still talked about by the old folks.Sheryl swallowed, the metallic tang of

In the royal palace.King Casil was sitting behind a screen and was having lunch.“Your Majesty,” Ingrid, the royal knight captain, wearing a gold earring and a white suit, was standing at the lowest stair leading to the throne. “You can hear it, too, can’t you? The caves are rumbling.”“The council members must be getting impatient,” Casil said.“They must be going after Denver,” Ingrid gripped his sword. “This isn’t right. Should I go and deal with the monsters?”“Don’t. Let’s see how he gets out of this one,” Casil stated.Ingrid slightly frowned. “Your Majesty, why did you let Denver leave for three years? If any other son did it, you would have killed them.”“Denver is different from his siblings,” Casil said. “He doesn’t covet the throne. He kills those who harm his people. He does what he believes is necessary. He has all the important qualities to become the king, but he doesn’t desire to be the king. Yet, he’s here because his brothers don’t leave him alone. So, let’s see wha