There are a total of twenty-one people in Beyond's team.
When it comes to exploring the Dark Continent, Ging believes that the standard configuration is twenty people.
But Beyond, who had once suffered a crushing defeat on the Dark Continent, understood better than anyone that numbers meant nothing in this vast land.
Even if it was an army of millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions...
Once faced with the numerous horrors of the Dark Continent, they would be reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.
That was why Beyond had brought only twenty teammates this time.
His only regret was that Pariston was unable to board his ship.
After landing on the Dark Continent's coastline, Beyond led his team inland.
They spent a week crossing a lifeless wasteland, only for their path to be blocked by an endless, blood-red mountain range stretching across the horizon like the Great Wall.
The surface of the rocky mountain, and even its summit, which could be seen from a distance, were so smooth that they looked as if they had been carved by humans.
At a rough estimate, the height of this flat rock mountain is about 500 meters, which cannot be considered high.
At least in a place like the Dark Continent, it can even be said to be short.
But-
The length of this rocky mountain was on the scale of a mountain range.
Beyond's team looked from left to right, but could not see the end of the rocky mountain.
So right now, there are two options before Beyond's team:
Should they avoid the rocky mountain that stretches to who knows where?
Or should they climb the rocky mountain directly and trek forward on the top of the rocky mountain where they don't know how far the end is?
Beyond, who has never been afraid of any challenges, naturally chose the latter without hesitation.
The team easily climbed to the top of the rocky mountain, which was only about 500 meters high, and what appeared before them was a clearly flat terrain.
"Smooth enough to be unsettling."
Curly, who was in charge of ancient language translation and intelligence gathering in the team, raised his hand and lightly pushed his spiral-patterned glasses, looking at the flat terrain with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
Mascher, the fat boy in military uniform and with a bowl cut, squatted down and stroked the smooth ground with his palm.
He was slightly surprised and said, "It's not just flat, it feels polished. Like it was cut and sanded down."
"Could nature really create something like this?"
Someone in the team murmured curiously.
Beyond looked ahead and grinned, "Who knows? This is the Dark Continent. No matter how impossible the sights, no matter how incomprehensible the creatures… it's all normal."
Having said this, Beyond suddenly paused and turned to face his team.
His fearless gaze swept across the group of like-minded teammates one by one, and then he asked:
"Are you scared?"
"…"
No one present spoke, but their expressions were enough to answer Beyond's question.
When Beyond saw their reactions, a more heroic smile appeared on his scarred face.
Soon, the whole team moved forward fearlessly.
If Beyond's team could view the vast blood-red mountain range from a bird's-eye perspective-
Then they will see-
That in the very center of the rock, there is a huge hole that looks like a gear placed upon the earth.
Compared to the vast and boundless Dark Continent, although the scale of this rocky mountain was enough to make humans feel insignificant, it was still nothing more than a tiny 'gear' in the grand scheme of the Dark Continent.
Beyond's team advanced swiftly across the mountain's flat summit.
On the third day-
The sky above them abruptly darkened, as if a storm were brewing.
However-
When Beyond and the others looked up at the sky-
What they saw was not rolling layers of storm clouds but a giant bird so massive it blotted out the entire sky.
It flew right over their heads, blocking all sunlight from above.
"Th-That's…"
The shadow that blocked out the sun and sky made Curly so dumbfounded that he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
If one took off the spiral-patterned glasses on his face, they can definitely see that his eyes were widened to their limits.
But the reason for his reaction was not because he was frightened by the giant bird's size, but because he saw the eight feathered tails trailing behind it, each as massive as a mountain range.
"The Eight-Tailed Bird."
Kyuki, whose eyes were as black as ink, softly uttered the creature's name.
This wasn't a name she came up with on the spot, but it originated from a mythological legend in one of the countries in the Six Continents.
Beyond raised his head, watching as the Eight-Tailed Bird soared across the heavens.
A huge creature like the Eight-Tailed Bird-
He had seen a few times before on his previous expeditions to the Dark Continent.
There were the three towering figures, as tall as the sapling of the World Tree, walking in the far distance. The pitch-black giant hand that burst from the earth and snatched a massive flying creature from thousands of meters in the air-
It was precisely because of the existence of these colossal beings that humans, no matter how much they fantasized about the Dark Continent, were always reminded of their own insignificance.
Like ants, like dust-
That was humanity's position in the Dark Continent.
Which was why, no matter how arrogant Beyond was, he had never thought about conquering the Dark Continent.
What he wanted-
had always been simple.
That is, to obtain things no one had ever touched before, to set foot on lands no one had ever reached.
As the Eight-Tailed Bird flew away, the sunlight once again enveloped everyone.
But after this incident, the atmosphere in Beyond's team underwent some subtle changes.
However, this did not affect the pace of the entire team.
The members of Beyond's team continued to move forward. From their position, they could still see the Eight-Tailed Bird, which is now reduced to a mere speck in the distance.
Suddenly-
A powerful gust of wind rushed toward them from the mountaintop.
The group, led by Beyond, noticed something and immediately stabilized their lower body, bending their upper body forward to resist the oncoming gust.
Whoosh-
The sharp howl of the wind roared in their ears.
But amid the deafening noise of the wind, there was suddenly a slight sound of muscles and bones being sliced apart by something razor-thin.
"Hmm?"
Sensing something was wrong, Beyond turned his head abruptly and looked at his teammates.
The bodies of three members of the team who were responsible for logistics suddenly torn apart, their bodies cleanly severed into dozens of pieces.
Immediately afterwards, the dismembered body parts and the large amount of blood that was spilled were carried away by the strong wind in the next second.
The disaster had struck without the slightest warning.
By the time Beyond and the others realized what had happened, the three teammates had already been reduced to chunks of flesh.
"Use Ken!"
In that split second, Beyond deduced the reason why the only those three had been affected, and immediately shouted over the roaring wind.
The difference lay in their mastery of Nen Techniques!
The three members, who are responsible for the logistics. were specialists in their fields, but their proficiency in Nen was lacking.
Therefore, Beyond immediately concluded that the strength of the Aura covering one's body could withstand this deadly, silent wind.
After hearing Beyond's command, which momentarily overpowered the wind's howl, the team members had no time to mourn the loss of their comrades. They immediately activated their Ken, reinforcing their bodies with Aura.
But at this time-
A giant winged lizard flew into the sky hundreds of meters ahead of Beyond's team.
No-
It's a dragon.