The group eventually took the water source with them.
There was no other choice... it was a resource vital for their survival.
Having come to the Dark Continent, such minor matters were not worth dwelling on.
The six of them quickly left the area, disappearing from the surface.
Time slowly passed... Oboro's squad moved intermittently. Generally, as long as Oboro didn't sense any danger, they would proceed quickly.
Although, judging solely by their life energy, none of them, except Oboro, were particularly remarkable, they were Nen users after all... When moving at full speed, they could cover at least a hundred kilometers a day.
However, they still hadn't managed to get out of this desert.
According to the illustrations reconstructed by the system, this desert area didn't seem very large. Moving further would lead them to a forest and a river... but in reality, it remained elusive.
It appeared close on the map, but the actual distance was likely extremely far.
At noon, the desert's temperature reached its peak. The six could only hide in the shade of rocks. Even then, they were drenched in sweat, their bodies completely soaked.
If they stepped out of the shade, it felt like their skin would be scorched... Moreover, they had encountered various creatures with strange forms.
Based on Oboro's judgment, this area was on the very edge of the Dark Continent. Therefore, the life forms appearing here were likely relatively singular, mostly large monsters with some innate talent. They didn't involve supernatural elements, bizarre phenomena, or rules. The deeper they went, the greater the probability of encountering other life forms.
From the perspective of the Dark Continent's ecosystem, these monsters being driven to the edge areas indicated... that they were basically at the lowest tier of the food chain.
The weakest?
Upon hearing Oboro's explanation, Menchi and the others couldn't believe it.
Because in their eyes, any one of these monsters, if placed in the human world... would be beyond the capabilities of Nen.
Ordinary Nen abilities were a joke in the face of absolute, powerful flesh and blood.
"Prepare yourselves... we might be in this desert for a long time," Oboro instructed.
Thus, the group traveled during the day and rested at night.
As their journey lengthened, they encountered more and more monsters.
Without exception, they all eventually fell to Oboro's hand.
Firstly, this desert was not a good place to hide; they couldn't find any safe havens. Secondly, it seemed that monsters were more active at night, making it inconvenient for Oboro and the others to travel. During the day, due to the high temperatures, many creatures tended to hide, making it relatively safer.
Although the temperature was somewhat unbearable.
...
Half a month later.
Oboro and the others were in tatters, their clothes ragged, their faces covered in dirt, looking like a group of beggars, utterly disheveled.
It was dusk, and a sound echoed across the desert.
A large expanse of black mist swirled in the sky, eventually returning into a single person's body.
Oboro's body slowly descended from the void, shedding its spiritualized form.
On the ground, a large spider covered in sharp spikes curled its legs, lifeless.
The surrounding sand had been completely corroded by a milky white liquid, emitting a pungent green smoke. This was the spider's venom... Oboro held his breath, closed his eyes, and contracted the pores on his entire body.
Even after the venom evaporated, a scorching sensation still permeated the air. Fortunately, his physical defense was not low.
If it were Menchi and the others, they probably wouldn't have been able to prevent the poison from entering their bodies.
After waiting for a long time, when the poisonous gas dissipated, the teammates carrying backpacks gradually approached.
Menchi, holding knives in both hands, immediately went to the corpse to inspect it for any parts that could be dissected and used as food... Anthony and Fant, meanwhile, scanned their surroundings, maintaining vigilance.
Gebuwich took out his diary and began taking notes...
On this journey, Gebuwich recorded all the monsters they encountered, making it easier for everyone to analyze them at night and better deal with them if they encountered them again.
Rita was assisting Menchi.
Everyone had different tasks, but it was all done in an orderly fashion.
The initial fear and unease were long gone.
But... Oboro glanced at the five people and sighed inwardly.
The mental state of these five people was a world apart from when they first set foot on the Dark Continent.
Fatigue, extreme tension, and frequent moments of panic... Every emotion was a test and trial of their will. Moreover, this was just the desert area, and the monsters encountered were already frequent.
The power disparity displayed by each creature left Menchi and the others feeling utterly despairing.
If not for Oboro, they would have died long ago...
Even at night, even with Oboro on watch, they couldn't sleep soundly, waking up at the slightest disturbance.
This living environment was too harsh!
The five of them had bloodshot eyes, forcing themselves to act.
And they were very worried that if, one day, Oboro had to leave the team for some reason, or couldn't protect them in time...
Although the few of them didn't say it, Oboro could feel it.
To have lasted this long, honestly, as humans, as Nen users, they had already achieved a great deal.
"Captain, it's drinkable."
A moment later, Menchi held up a bag made of animal hide and said softly.
It was filled with the spider's blood, which was pale green... and had a fishy smell.
On the side, Rita used her ability to control the plants immersed in the blood to curl up.
The team was now living a life of eating raw food. When hungry, they ate the monsters' flesh and blood, sometimes cooked, sometimes raw... everyone had gotten used to it.
In the desert, usable and findable resources were extremely limited. If not for the monsters Oboro hunted, they wouldn't have been able to travel this far.
Menchi only cut off a piece of flesh, enough for one meal, leaving some as reserves, and then they left.
When night fell, the group used stones to build a simple fortress and sat around it.
Oboro then opened the system panel and took a look.
In the past half a month, he had killed dozens of monsters, but neither his food chain position nor his ecosystem rating had increased.
This made him realize that leveling up in the new power system seemed... unusually difficult.
Far more difficult than in the human world.
"That potion... is gone, right?"
Oboro put away the system and looked at Fant.
"Gone."
Fant nodded heavily.
The so-called potion was the 'lizard's urine.' Not only was it a source of water... Rita, who had been injured by the sea octopus, had quickly recovered after drinking that liquid.
This liquid clearly had healing properties, but they had only collected a small amount in their haste to escape the battlefield.
In subsequent hunts, although they had kept their distance, they had still been affected to some extent. Thanks to this potion, they had managed to maintain their condition.
However, not all creatures' tissues had peculiar effects; that lizard was just an exception.
A moment later, Menchi handed over pieces of processed white meat.
The group took them one by one and began to eat them directly... The meat was very tough, as hard as weathered leather, but they still ate it without changing their expressions.
"Captain, how much longer until we get out of here?"
Anthony asked.
The man's meticulously styled pompadour was long gone, his hair disheveled, and his face covered in dust.
Monsters and such, they had gotten used to them.
They just wanted to escape this harsh environment.
"It's hard to say. Maybe a few months, maybe a few years..." Oboro said calmly.
"…"
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.
The atmosphere became somewhat oppressive.
"Huh?"
At this moment, a faint light appeared above their heads.
It was quite noticeable in the night sky.
Gebuwich glanced up and exclaimed, "Fireflies?"
In mid-air, pea-sized glows flickered, gradually converging and emitting a pale yellow light.
It wasn't surprising that Gebuwich was momentarily dazed. From the moment they set foot in the Dark Continent until now, this was the first time they had seen such a small creature... similar to the flies and insects in the human world.
It looked... seemingly harmless.
Instead, it was beautiful...
These insects seemed highly sensitive to sound. The moment Gebuwich spoke, the swarm instantly spun into a yellow vortex, circling and descending directly towards the rocks where they were hiding.
"Scatter!"
Oboro's pupils contracted, and he shouted fiercely!
Fant grabbed the still-dazed Gebuwich and sprinted away instantly.
In just two seconds, only Oboro remained among the rocks.
However, the swarm instantly split into several groups, each tailing the squad members at extreme speed.
Forming a swirling ribbon of light in the air!
Oboro had no time to think. He immediately threw a punch through the air towards the swarm.
When the first small insect was shattered by the force of the punch, it didn't turn into debris or drift away with the wind. Instead, it exploded! A single insect seemed small, but at the moment of its explosion, the burning, expanding fireball and its power were like a compressed super missile, terrifyingly potent.
What was even more critical was that the death of one small insect seemed to trigger a chain reaction... causing the entire swarm to explode.
Under the night sky, on the dark earth, specks of light flickered, and with deafening explosions, they turned into a boundless sea of light, engulfing everything.
Oboro only had time to unleash all his Nen and transform into his spiritual form. The next second, he was submerged in the blinding ocean of light.
Flames and high temperatures melted everything.
Oboro's ghost fog swept in all directions in an instant, and rolling black tides attempted to engulf the exploding flames.
But... the black barrier formed by the ghost fog, or Nen, was like a torn piece of cloth, quickly burned through and rapidly dissolved.
This extreme heat and flame were so intense that even Oboro's Nen... could not resist!
The ghost fog, or Nen... instantly evaporated.
After a full five to six minutes... the surging sea of light finally subsided.
However, the entire desert was covered in flowing lava and rising black smoke, making it feel like being inside a volcano.
The air itself was boiling... making it impossible to breathe.
In mid-air, concentrated ghost fog formed a giant black cocoon, enveloping Oboro in his spiritual form.
When the ghost fog opened, Oboro revealed himself.
Half of his face, along with a small part of his body, was burned!
Heart-wrenching agony!
But Oboro couldn't afford to care at this moment. Like an arrow released from a bow, he flew out of the molten landscape.
After a while, as he descended from the sky, he was stunned.
On the ground below stood two people, two charred corpses...
Although Oboro's timely intervention had caused the swarm to detonate centered on him, everything had happened too quickly!
Even though they were far from the epicenter of the explosion, the outward blast of high temperature was enough to destroy ordinary life forms.
Using Nen to resist such power was unrealistic.
If not for his ghost fog briefly suppressing the spread of the blast's power... giving his teammates a small window of opportunity, then... Menchi and the others might have been vaporized, rather than being scorched by the high temperature after running so far.
The corpse in front was Fant.
Judging by his limbs, he seemed to have tried to protect his teammates before death... He was an Enhancement-type Nen user. Based on his physical prowess and Nen strength, he was the best choice to bear the brunt, resisting and cushioning the impact of the first wave of the explosion.
Fant had always been the 'bodyguard' type within the team... After all, he was older and more mature.
The corpse behind was undoubtedly Rita...
Her hands were touching the ground, suggesting she had used her ability before death, activating vegetation to form a 'protective shield.' Although she didn't have many seeds left, she had always carried them with her...
Behind the two corpses were the unconscious Menchi and two others.
Their bodies were already red from the burns, but they were still breathing.
If they stayed any longer, the still-cooling high temperatures would also claim their lives.
Oboro closed his eyes, stepped forward, and patted the shoulders of the two charred corpses. Then, taking the three unconscious individuals, he quickly fled.
...
Dead.
Sudden death and danger.
Without any warning.
His prematurely released ghost fog hadn't even detected the appearance of those insects...
The soul and spirit are related. These insects clearly lacked 'thought' and were merely following some instinct... Therefore, their soul fluctuations were minimal.
To those large creatures, human life energy was weak, but to these insects, it was precisely the 'food suitable for them.'
The Dark Continent's food chain was not a single strand but a complex web of countless interconnected chains.
Large life forms could hunt beings of equal standing, and small life forms naturally had their own circles.
Oboro made a mistake. The strength of life energy could indeed measure a species' power, but it was not applicable to all life forms in the Dark Continent.
At least, when it came to supernatural powers, bizarre phenomena, and rules, it was useless.
The insects' life energy was minuscule, but their danger was terrifying.
Life energy should not be equated with danger.
Oboro was taught a lesson.
The price... was the sacrifice of two teammates. His thinking still hadn't broken free from human common sense.
Supernatural power...
These insects belonged to that category.
The extreme fire element, with its explosive power, could even burn his spiritual form.
It caused the ghost fog formed by Nen to melt like snow.
In essence, it meant that the life energy he released was destroyed by external attacks.
What is supernatural power... it refers to a power that has reached its extreme, capable of disregarding the 'effects of Nen abilities.'
The effects of Nen abilities are imbued by individual will.
'Soul matter' should be ethereal to external forces, untouchable.
But... this is the purity of power!
Half an hour later, Oboro, still bearing significant injuries, placed the unconscious Menchi and two others on the ground. He looked up at the night sky and said, "Did we... go too deep..."
Even after only half a month, he felt that Netero and Beyond and the others had probably not ventured this far. More likely, they had just wandered around the coastline.
"Sound."
Oboro murmured again.
Those insects were attracted by sound. Even the faintest sound seemed to be detected by them.
They were extremely sensitive to sound frequencies.
Gebuwich's slight whisper had caused the swarm to riot.
"It could have been avoided..."
Oboro looked down at his half-burned, peeling skin and furrowed his brow.
If, at that moment... he had been able to detect it in advance and told everyone to remain silent, or even briefly stop their heartbeats, perhaps... they could have escaped.
But now... it was too late to say anything.
Oboro's eyes flickered, and he fell into silence.
____________________
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