Alex's group and the special grades had joined forces and had walked for day and night, though, there was no day due to the blood moon. The reason why they were able to walk for the entire day as due to Elvis's power that not only heals them but completely resets a person's body, causing their stamina to be full once again, which enabled them to technically walk forever without needing food or water.
With this method, everyone had walked for several days without sleeping or stopping, which eventually made them reach the middle part of the rotting peninsula. However, they would soon be stopped as after walking a bit in the morning, they saw a large lake.
The lake's water was a reddish color and was noticeably boiling. There were skulls, ribcages and many other bones in the lake and multiple creatures were swimming in it.
Zombie immediately dipped his hand into the water, which melted his skin, revealing his bones. Despite his skin literally being melted, he didn't show any signs of pain and simply told Elvis to fix it, which she gladly did.
"It seems that simply crossing the lake won't work" Vivian said, standing a few meters away from the water, smoking peacefully.
"Move" one of the unknown special grades ordered, who crouched and touched the water, turning it into ice instantly. Within seconds, the entire lake turned into Ice, making it safe to walk.
Ronx was stunned, he had never seen anything like this. "This guy must be pretty strong. Are all special grades that powerful?!"
"Hmph, that makes it easier" Blake said, calmly walking on the ice with both hands in his pocket.
Slowly, all of them safety crossed the Lake, or so they thought. As not even a second after crossing the lake, a creature attacked them. It was a high-level creature and looked like a crocodile, except much larger. It had a few gigantic pimples on it's body, at least half a meter big.
It's skin was much paler than a regular crocodile as it looked like grey and had many scars. Not only that but it also had wings on each side that looked torn.
Barrett instantly blocked it's attack and launched it far away with a single strike, though, he wasn't done. As he instantly teleported behind the crocodile while it was still in the air and split the creature in half with one powerful slash of his greatsword.
"That was a high-level creature?! There's no way he defeated it that easily?!" Ronx said, mesmerized.
"That is one of the strongest special grades" Alex said calmly without any reaction. "He could even be compared to Kenji."
"That's...interesting. I guess this mission is going to go quite smooth with so many powerful special grades" Ronx said, slightly smiling, thinking of spending time with his uncle.
However, suddenly, Alex's expression darkened. "Well, I am not so sure about that. This is the rotting peninsula after all. There is a great chance that we all die and never return."
"Dude...you don't have to be so pessimistic" Ronx said, his mood ruined.
"Anyway, we have to keep walking, let's go" Alex said, slowly starting to walk.
"Whatever" Ronx said, closely following him.
After only waking for a few hours, they saw something in the distance.
There was an enormous gothic castle in the far away mountain, the blood moon perfectly behind it, causing a reddish moonlight to highlight the castle even further, giving it a more haunting vibe.
"That must be the castle" Alex said, looking directly at the castle.
"But before that, we need to get through this cave" Petro said, staring directly at a giant cave, ten times bigger than him.
"Indeed" Barrett said.
And with that, all of them entered the cave. Which was filled with spider webs and strange glowing eggs that nobody dared to touch. There were also a few red glowing crystals that slowly illuminated the path, though not by much.
After walking for a bit, the path split in two.
"We'll have to split up" Luke said, approaching the first path. "Half of you, follow me while the other half will follow Zombie."
Everyone looked at each other, slightly hesitant but eventually split up into a group of two.
Barrett, Ken, Alex, Ronx, Petro, Cilia, Luke and Elvis went down the first path while Zombie, Vivian, Blake and the two unknown special grades went down the second path.
Ken was closely following Ronx and Alex, looking around frantically.
"H-Hey Ronx, do you think there are spiders here?" Ken said, clenched to him. "I am deeply scared of them.."
"From the spider webs and the eggs, I can tell that there are definitely spiders here and most likely giant ones" Ronx said with a slight smirk.
"W-What? No, no, no, I can't do this! Take me back!" Ken screamed, trembling and sweating.
"Tch, Alex, why did you bring this loser to the mission?" Petro asked. "You knew that the mission would be dangerous and hard, so why bring him here?"
"None of your business" Alex replied firmly.
Petro sighed. "Fine then. If he is in danger then you will be the one to save him, I won't do anything."
"I don't need your help" Alex replied once again without hesitation.
Petro slightly smirked. "We'll see about that."
Soon, their conversation would be put to an end as a giant spider appeared right in front of them. It was a giant black widow, the size of a bus. There were several pimples on it's body and one on it's eye.
"Finally, some entertainment" Petro said, cracking his knuckles.