After landing at Siren Gorge, Germain and his companions slipped into a dense forest.
The shadows of lush branches and leaves loomed over them.
"We'll head this way," said Bisky as she spread out a map drawn according to Chairman Netero's verbal directions.
She also pulled out a compass, looking quite excited.
"I can already smell the scent of my precious crystal," she said with a gleam in her eyes.
"First of all, this place is quite a distance from the volcano," said Morel, lifting his sunglasses with a finger. "Back in the day, Chairman Netero had to walk almost a week to get there."
"And second, crystals don't have a scent… unless you count the smell of dirt."
"You're a Sea Hunter who just stepped onto land. What could you possibly know compared to a Gem Hunter like me?" Bisky tapped her head and narrowed her eyes. "This is my Hunter's intuition!"
"Alright, alright. I can't win an argument with you." Morel raised both hands in surrender.
Bisky didn't press the advantage.
Instead, she rubbed her chin thoughtfully and frowned.
"But still, the distance really is far," she muttered. "We'll have to go on foot, and that's going to take quite a bit of time."
"Maybe not," Germain suddenly said.
Everyone turned to him in surprise.
"You have an idea?" Bisky's eyes lit up. "Ah… I knew you'd come through. You've never let us down."
"It's basically the same as before," Germain replied, unfazed by her deliberate praise. "If I can conjure a yacht, then of course I can conjure other things too."
Bisky understood what Germain meant and widened her eyes in surprise. She suggested, "You mean an airship? If it's an airship, we might be able to get there within a day."
"Yes, an airship," Germain replied. "But the one I conjure is like the yacht I made before—just for looks. It has no real features besides flying and carrying us."
"Got it, got it." Bisky responded quickly. "The 'fuel' is just our Nen, right? And there's no engine or mechanical parts. It's just a 'brute-force flight.'"
Germain raised an eyebrow. He remembered using the phrase "brute-force flight" when talking to Shizuku. Looks like Shizuku had passed it on to Bisky at some point.
"Exactly," he said with a nod.
He noticed a flat, open space ahead and told the others to stay where they were. Then he walked over to it.
To be honest, if time and energy weren't a concern, Germain would've preferred to conjure a carriage and travel slowly across the Dark Continent with the others.
The carriage would move along at its own pace. They'd deal with whatever dangers the road threw at them. That wouldn't be such a bad journey either.
But judging by how eager Bisky seemed to be about the rare crystals near the volcano, wasting time now wasn't a good idea.
A powerful surge of aura erupted from Germain's body, startling a massive flock of birds nearby.
They scattered into the sky in a dense wave. Smaller animals rustled and scurried away into the distance.
His aura poured into the ground and quickly began to take shape—outlining the frame of an airship.
More and more details appeared until a fully formed airship stood before them, completely materialized.
At this point, Germain could only conjure two types of objects: weapons of Gift of Resentments, and things he had seen and studied before.
Whether it was the yacht earlier or this new airship, each had a real-world model as its basis.
Riding an airship had its pros and cons. The good part was that it could take them straight to their destination, avoiding the mountains, rivers, jungles, and wastelands along the way.
It saved a lot of time.
Flying through the air had its downsides.
It consumed a huge amount of Nen, and at low altitudes, the flying object would become an easy target for airborne beasts or monsters with ground-to-air hunting capabilities.
However, those downsides meant little to Germain.
The so-called "heavy Nen consumption" wasn't even an issue for him—his recovery speed was faster than his Nen depletion.
As for "being targeted by monsters"?
That was hardly worth mentioning.
As long as he was cautious, it would be fine.
Germain raised his hand, and the airship's hatch slid open with a mechanical hiss.
A ladder automatically extended downward.
Then he turned to the group and said, "We can now head to our destination through the skies.
Bisky, I'll need you to continue monitoring our route and direction."
Crackle—
The firewood in the campfire broke with a sharp snap.
Smoke, thick and pungent, drifted with the night wind, slanting sideways.
The people sitting on that side instinctively shifted away.
From the darkness emerged a handsome man with short golden hair, a smug, irritating smile tugging at his lips.
He sat casually on a wooden stump nearby.
Pariston's once-elegant suit was long gone, discarded somewhere who-knows-where.
Now, he wore only a sweat-soaked, mud-stained white shirt.
It was a far cry from his usual neatly dressed, refined demeanor.
Beside him, gathered around the same fire, were two others—Beyond, with his long black beard, and Saiyu, the muscular fighter with a golden circlet on his forehead.
Both of them bore bloodstains and fresh bandages, but their expressions remained calm, collected.
Beyond leaned forward slightly, his left hand resting on his knee.
With his right, he tore into a roasted animal leg—its origins uncertain—ripping the meat with his teeth before chewing and swallowing it.
He didn't seem at all concerned about Pariston's return or what it might signify.
Saiyu, however, couldn't stay still.
He laid his Ruyi Staff across his knees and asked, "Pariston, do we have the casualty report from our team yet?"
"It's done."
Pariston's tone was light.
He flicked his fingers against the edge of the notebook in his hand, making the pages flutter slightly.
"When we set off from the Gate of the Deep Sea, there were 25 of us.
One person foolishly left the ferry ship's cabin and drowned.
Another got lured by the Siren's Song in the Sea Demon Gorge and was dragged into the ocean.
Confirmed dead."
"We used Nen to cross the Dark Continent swiftly, but both of them became violently ill—dizzy, vomiting.
Once we arrived, they immediately contracted a strange illness native to the land.
They died soon after, and their bodies were cremated."
"We reached the volcano crater.
One of us lost his footing and fell into the lava—dead on impact.
Later, two members left the team without permission, heading into the dragon's territory.
Most likely driven by greed.
They've gone missing ever since."
"Our infiltration was discovered by the dragons.
All three who used Nen to hide were instantly killed.
A chaotic battle broke out within the volcano."
"We used Poor Man's Rose to blow up several dragons—scale dragons, thunder dragons. Together, we managed to slay two more."
At this point, even Pariston paused.
Only after a moment did he continue.
"Then it appeared. The strongest dragon here.
The true disaster among dragons—the Flame Demon Dragon.
It absorbed the explosion of the Poor Man's Rose... and became even more terrifying."
"In the end, we successfully retreated from the volcano.
Our current status: eight wounded, thirteen dead, four missing."
With a sharp clap, Pariston closed his notebook.
He sat there calmly.
First, he glanced at Saiyu, who looked visibly anxious.
Then, he turned to Beyond.
*******
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