Sand Gathering and an Encounter Battle (1)

Because we had taken every precaution during the journey, no monsters attacked us in midair. All our thorough efforts to eliminate potential dangers had paid off.

"Looking down from up here, the 'Soul-Eroding Rust-Sand Sea' is pretty huge, isn't it?"

"It is, but more importantly, the field beyond here, which we can faintly see, gives off an ominous and dangerous impression as well."

We stopped Shiratsuki directly above the boundary between the 'Temptation Dark Forest' and the 'Soul-Eroding Rust-Sand Sea' and took in the scenery of the continent. As always, it was simply bizarre. No, now that we had entered the continent's interior and could see everything in greater detail, its strangeness was even more pronounced.

The 'Soul-Eroding Rust-Sand Sea' was filled with purple and black rust particles. Sandstorms swirled more and more thickly toward the center, making it difficult to tell what was in the field, though the outer edges were relatively clear. Apparently, we had been lucky when we visited before, since the sandstorms had weakened. Observing that colossal hermit crab this time would be difficult.

The sandstorms formed a curtain concealing the interior, but they were not strong enough to hide the adjacent fields. We could not see them in detail because of the distance and the aftereffects of the storms, but we could tell what sort of places they were. The land beyond seemed to be divided into three fields.

The first was a swamp of poisonous, murky green water. We had seen it before, but now that we were closer, we could make out the vegetation growing there—or whatever it was. Strange, writhing things resembling tentacles extended from the swamp, making the place seem even more unsettling.

The surface of the swamp was constantly moving in an unnatural manner, making it obvious that some kind of monster was writhing within it. Perhaps monsters that dragged their prey into the swamp lived there. The swamp was clearly dangerous, and even wading into it looked hazardous.

The second was a forest filled with trees whose branches and leaves blazed with flame. I had not noticed it from a distance, but those trees were enormous. No, they were so huge that I wondered whether my eyes had gone bad. They were probably about as tall as five-story buildings.

With trees that tall growing densely together, we could not see what sort of monsters lived there at all. There was a good chance that monsters as large as buildings inhabited it as well. I wanted to explore it someday, but without preparations against the flames, we would go up in flames...