Death Valley was on Ivrora Continent. Simr to the Eozen Continent, it was also highly popted by humans, but a few other races also lived. Though Death Valley covered about 4th of the entire continent, so one could say that they were its ultimate rulers.


    Some people imed that the valley had many rank 6 mages, however, they lived at the center of the Death Valley. While at the outskirts of the valley, there were many sinister spirits and lich and other creatures roaming. Though from time to time many necromancer apprentices woulde to capture humans for their experiments. That was one of the biggest threats in Death Valley, even bigger than vengeful spirits or roaming liches.


    However, the valley was filled with riches—so people still took their chances to adventure inside. Though many of theirpanions would be left behind, turning into one of those sinister beings, but human greed knows no bounds, the same could be said for these people.


    Kadyn''s group stood in front of a forest, the chili wind blew, hissing inside their ears. The fog spread all about them, no one could tell what was happening inside the forest. Though they could hear asional cries, dreadful and sinister. Terrifying screams. To terrify the invaders, to warn them about the dangers inside. To make them retreat, to give them a chance to live. But as the saying goes, when a wild animal''s deathes, it runs towards the city. Tens of groups were standing outside the valley to enter.


    Kadyn exchanged nces with hispanions and took a deep breath. Their faces turned grave as they had encountered creatures inside once before, and they knew how terrible and terrifying they were. Most frightened in the group was obviously Ha. It was her first time, and she had heard a lot of terrifying stories about this ce.


    "Don''t worry," Ceceliaforted the girl. "It''s not as frightening as you think. We have seen everything with our own eyes. Furthermore, you are rank 3 mage, you are one of the strongest members of our team. Even Dion and others, who are rank 2, don''t feel as nervous as you."


    "I—I''m fine," said Ha, clenching her teeth.


    "Good, let''s go," Kadyn said and strode at the front of the group. There were other groups, who were going inside Death Valley, but all of them avoided any contact with Kadyn''s. After what happened inside the tavern no one wanted to cross paths with this group of evildoers.


    As Kadyn stepped inside the forest a cold sensation wafted his entire body. Others also felt the same. A rotten smell filled their noses. The resentment and all kinds of negative emotions started to run wild in their heads that were mixed in the environment.


    Kadyn turned towards hispanions and warned them. "Don''t get distracted, or others might take advantage when we are not paying attention; protect your mind from negative emotions." he paused and went on. "We won''t go beyond a hundred kilometers. There are rank 4 necromancers beyond that line."


    The group members followed behind him.


    "Whoosh!"


    Suddenly the ground in front of them burst and a shadow dashed towards Dion. The boy didn''t panic and his hand morphed into a w made of a branch of a tree.


    His fist collided with the creature. Members of the group looked at what it was and found bones scattering all about, trembling continuously, there was a red gem amidst the bones that shone with glittering light.


    "Go, grab the lich-gem, or it will revive itself," Kadyn said. Dion rushed towards the glinting gem and ced it inside the space ring. The bones stopped trembling, and then scattered like dirt.


    "It was just a rank 1 lich," Dion said regretfully.


    "Now, now," Zelie said. "Don''t be so greedy. Do you remember what happenedst time when you encountered rank 2 lich?"


    Dions'' face flushed in embarrassment. "I''m not the same Dion I used to be," he protested. "This time I''m going to make them pay."


    "Just don''t lose your clothes again. The sight was really ugly. Whenever I remember I feel the urge to vomit."


    "You…"


    "That''s enough," Kadyn frowned. The duo shut their mouths as if feeling Kadyn''s mood. "There is a ce about 10 kilometers away from here. Last time we found quite a few Special rank 3 herbs there. However, we had to run away when the peak rank 3 lich appeared. Now, we are far stronger than before. Let''s go, check out that ce."


    "Oh, yeah!" Dion eximed, an excited light shone inside his eyes. Ha was walking at the very back of the group. Just the environment of this ce made her want to puke. However, she controlled urge.


    "If you want to be strong," Ceclia whispered from the side. "You need to battle in different environments. Different types of enemies. Only then you will be able to cultivate your willpower where you won''t feel surprise by your enemies."


    Ha looked into her eyes and nodded. She felt grateful as Cecelia constantly encouraged her, not mocking or looking down on her, just because she felt ufortable in this environment. That alleviated her fear towards Death Valley. Otherwise, she might have already escaped, either by the rotten smell in the air, or by ugly and gross creatures.


    As they traveled they were intercepted by many liches. There were many of them in this area. Kadyn guessed that this territory might belong to them. Otherwise, he would have encountered other creatures of the valley as well. Last time was also the same. Butst time, they hade to this ce after searching for a long time, so they had encountered many other spirits and creatures along the way.


    [An hour and a halfter.]


    "Boom!"


    Zelie used her fire spell to burn down the rank 2 lich and grabbed its gem with a wide grin on her face. "Hehe, I have about five rank 2 gems, now. Sister Elora, we needed lich gems for the new potion that we are working on."


    Elora nodded, but didn''t say anything. She was moreposed than herpanion. She looked ahead of them, a mountain appeared, half covered in mist, revealing only half of the mountain that looked like the skull of a human. "We are here," she whispered.. Others also became vignt.