After running for quite a while, Gerald finally arrived at the Thousand Sand Ridge. Upon arriving, he quickly found out why the area had been named the way it was. With probably no less than a thousand sand dunes overlapping each other, the inspiration for the area’s name was evident. However, even after looking around for a while, he still couldn’t find the ancient well that the Master of the Desert had mentioned about. It was sometime later—after walking around for quite a bit—when his nose picked up an odd scent, prompting him to look down. At his feet was a pool of blood! Squinting his eyes, he saw that the blood had traces of dark green in it. That alone was enough to tell him that the blood belonged to the beast. While Capra Nanny hadn’t initially reacted much after Gerald’s Dawnbreaker struck her chest, Gerald was sure that he had successfully harmed the beast, consequently causing it great discomfort. After all, no matter how strong the other party’s defenses were, th

“Well, the only way to find out is by trying to push it open, right?” added Meredith. “Indeed. While I do so, you girls should back away a bit!” replied Gerald with a nod. Based on the rumors his grandfather had heard from around the world—and subsequently told Gerald—treasures could usually be found hidden in places guarded by strange beasts or monsters. The picture of the sun itself was discovered by his family’s ancestors within a cave that was located in a dense forest. It was guarded—at the time—by a large, man-eating white ape, and many of his ancestors lost their lives before finally succeeding in retrieving the picture. Since Gerald was already here anyway, he may as well just go in and have a look. Gerald had told the girls to back off earlier since with how heavy the stone gate looked, he knew he needed to use his inner strength to open it. He was afraid that if they stood too close to him, they could end up getting hurt. Once they were at a safe distance, Gerald

As dust flew right into Gerald’s face, both Meredith and Giya walked toward him—once the dust settled—before peering into the box as well. Inside, lay a long, dust-covered sword. Despite the coat of dust on it, that wasn’t enough to hide the sword’s brilliant gleam. It was so shiny in fact, that all three of them felt that even people who saw it from far away would feel shivers run down their spines once they saw the sword’s sheen. “…Despite it probably being thousands of years old, the sword still looks pretty sharp!” said Meredith as she tried picking the sword up with a smile. Giya herself—who didn’t look particularly interested in the sword—simply returned to look at the murals. “H-heavy…!” groaned Meredith as she continued attempting to lift the sword. It almost felt as if the sword was stuck to the bottom of the stone box. “Let me try!” said Gerald as he reached out to grab the sword’s hilt. Applying a bit of strength, Gerald was able to lift the sword out quite easily.

“I’ll be taking your silence as approval for me to chase after Xadrian then! I’ll start going after him starting tomorrow!” said Meredith. “…Fine,” replied Giya in a soft tone. Taking in a deep breath, she reminded herself again that Gerald was the person she was in love with. So what if Xadrian looked like him? In the end, he still wasn’t Gerald. If Meredith truly liked Xadrian, then Giya knew she had no right to prevent her from pursuing her own happiness. ‘You can’t be so selfish, Giya!’ Giya thought, attempting to comfort herself. Regardless, neither of the girls slept a wink that night due to how preoccupied they were with their own concerns. Early the next morning, everyone was packing up—preparing to leave—when Meredith walked over to Gerald before saying, “Are you thirsty, Xadrian? I have some water with me if you want!” Hearing that, Gerald’s first response was to take a peek at Giya through the corner of his eyes. Realizing that Giya herself was secretly staring

Gerald had already memorized the map.Therefore, it would not be difficult for Gerald to find the eternal coffin.Gerald had a faint intuition in his heart that there might be a bigger secret hidden with the eternal coffin.This world was not as simple as he thought it was. Gerald felt that everything seemed to be even stranger especially after he had seen those murals.How could he describe it?It seemed as though two hands seemed to be secretly manipulating everything in the dark.It was already very dangerous in the desert, and it would be even more dangerous as he got to the outlands of the desert.Of course, Gerald, who was already a semi-master, did not take some of the beasts that he had encountered so far to heart.As it got closer to the evening, Gerald had already reached the deepest part of the outlands.He reached a place called Ullerwood.It was not yellow sand everywhere now, but instead, it was filled with black sand.Moreover, the wind was very strong here,