The rest of the journey was peaceful thanks to Gaya killing the alphas before they could attack the rafts. Judging by the frown on Ross's face, Michael could tell that doubts are rising in Ross's heart.
"How long?" Michael asked Ross. He held the paddle bamboo in one hand and the map in the other. For a few moments, he just studied the surroundings
"If everything goes smooth, we'll reach the center in three hours"
As far as he remembered, the river was running through the island's center which meant they could reach the artifact sooner than later. The sooner he gets the artifact, the sooner he could return to dominate the Southern continent as well as meet his new demon subordinate.
"Are you hearing that?" Maria asked after everyone started to hear a faint humming noise. It was very faint yet one could hear it if focused enough.
Gradually H's raft moved towards the shore as Ross paddled the raft to follow them to the shore.
"It's good to be on the land" Logan let out a heavy sigh of relief. Even Michael felt relieved to step out of the raft.
"Follow my lead" Ross took the lead into the dark forest. The forest looked ancient with giant trees and lush vegetation on the ground. Apart from the faint humming noise, only the croaking of the frogs, the gurgling croak of ravens as well as trees rustling could be heard.
"The air reeks"
Logan twitched his nose. He was right, the air did reek of rotten flesh.
"Keep your guards up"
It was not like they dropped their guards yet they focused more on the surroundings after hearing Ross. Every single one of them took the next step with utmost caution. Even H who seemed to be in the rush to get the artifact walked slower.
The lush forest made following Ross difficult. In the distance, they could hear the thunderclaps. Pushing the foliage away, Michael and Logan followed the team behind. Without uttering a single word, they kept walking.
They kept walking as the faint humming noise began to sound louder and louder. Michael used his Environmental Scanning senses to scan for any undeads yet he found nothing. It was surprisingly unusual. Although there were no undeads nearby, he couldn't shake the eerie feeling. Except for the humming noise, there was no sound, not even a chirp of a bird.
After an hour of walking, the thick forest seemed to decline. They could see the light coming through the forest a few hundred meters ahead of them.
"I'm getting closer," Michael's instincts told him that the artifact is nearby. He could vaguely feel a tremendous amount of energy coming from ahead of him.
When they finally stepped out of the thick forest, they were welcomed by a huge surprise.
"Holy fuck!"
Logan's jaws dropped, just like the rest of them. What they saw was a pyramid, a miniature size pyramid surrounded by an army of undeads and trees. It was at least fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide. Instead of sandstones, this pyramid was built using a greyish stone that gave the pyramid a dark look.
"What is this place?"
Logan asked as his eyes widened in shock.
"The question should be, how do we reach the inside?" Still, H's focus was on the artifact, not on the pyramid. He had the least surprised look on his face. Even Michael was stunned by this wonder but not H.
[The system is sensing strong First energy fluctuations]
"First energy? Do you think I can use it through Energy Devourer?"
[Since your body and soul endured the First energy before, you'll be able to use the First energy with no problem ]
"Awesome" his face brightened. When he first sucked in the First energy, he was able to get from the Body Strengthening stage to the Core Formation stage in one go. Luckily, he was again presented with the First energy source.
"What is this artifact?" He wondered. The artifact never ceased to amaze him.
"Look over there" Jonah pointed at the other side of the pyramid as they vaguely saw a rope bridge connecting to the pyramid's top from the cliff on the other side. If they walked carefully through the edge, they could reach the other side without alerting the undeads.
"Hey is it me or do these undeads look weird ?" Logan looked down on the undeads from the cliff.
"They are hibernating," Jonah said, lifting his glasses up. Michael heard about this phenomenon from Dular. It was like when the Netherels had nothing to attack in the vicinity, they would enter into a state that could be compared to humans sleeping. Until they could sense prey, they would remain in this state.
"Hibernating? What does that mean?" Logan scratched the back of his head.
"You can think of it as an undead version of sleeping" H quickly interfered before Jonah could start a lecture about undeads. Carefully looking at the undeads beneath them, they began to move towards the other side.
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