Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

The skill Stealth leveled up.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The Frost Sorcerer's path received 660 experience points.

The skill Stealth leveled up.

The Frost Sorcerer's path received 670 experience points.

The skill Stealth leveled up.

The Frost Sorcerer's path received 650 experience points.

…

Seadir was astonished… they were passing above several sea dragons sleeping on the bottom of the ocean without alerting them. That was simply unbelievable. At the same time, Rain was also surprised to see that Stealth was gaining tons of experience just because he was using them against dragons.

"Yet another great find," Rain smirked.

Thanks to that discovery, Rain probably could master Stealth that night instead of waiting for two months as he had initially estimated… the wind sphere was still cold as hell, though. Seadir was trembling like a leaf.

"If are this close to the surface, why not fly over the water?" Seadir whispered.

"They would all notice once we reentered the water and nothing says that there are dragons flying in this area," Rain explained. "I am not one hundred percent sure if the normal dragons can find my mana while I am doing this. So, I am trying to be as cautious as possible."

Although Rain said that, the territory of the dragons was East from their position, not North… then again, no one was able to keep an eye on the ordinary dragons in thousands of years, they can fly, after all.

Putting that aside, Rain was astonished and Seadir was completely dumbfounded… they passed above hundreds of sea dragons, after all. It seemed that with their numbers, they could drown the whole world if they wanted too… moreover, they only attacked the sea folk with less than fifty of those.

"I feel like they treat other species like a lukewarm exercise before a heavy meal or a long nap," Rain thought while frowning. "The land dragons also act the same way… Anyway, I was planning to force our way out if we have to, but I am starting to think that this won't be possible. We will have to run for our lives once we free princes Peach. I mean, Seadrei."

It will be troubling if they don't find Seadrei soon, it will be even more annoying if he ends up in another castle. Regardless, they had only four hours before sunrise, to the clock was ticking against them.

In the end, Rain actually mastered stealth even before they could leave all that massive bed of sea dragons behind. Rain thought of trying to use Horsemanship and make it level up as much as possible, but he decided not to test his luck any further. The mana density ahead was getting so dense that Rain almost didn't have to try to hide it anymore…

Regardless, it didn't take long for Rain to realize that they were getting closer… the ocean was getting deeper as well, and that was a problem… Rain couldn't see anything ahead in the area where the mana was the most dense.

"Come on… why do you have to spike the difficulty of this?" Rain asked and then sighed.

"... Where is my father?" Seadir asked.

Rain pointed downward… Seadir was used to moving in the darkness of the ocean. The sea folk had good eyes for that, but even so, trying to go deeper into the sea dragon's territory was something unheard of.

Rain stopped to think for a second… even if the mana density in the area was high, they still would leave some traces behind if they tried to invade it normally… he could find the traces of the mana that Seadrei's spear left behind, so he decided to assume that the sea dragons could do as much.

"I guess I need something else…" Rain thought. "Fortunately, it seems that all of them are busy, and their guard is down since they don't think that someone could have passed their sleeping lines of defense."

Coming up with something good on the spot was hard… the stealthy technique that Rain just used was something that he thought for quite a while, after all. In any case, while looking around with his magic eyes, Rain assumed that no sea dragon had passed there in quite a while. Maybe they wouldn't for a while longer as well.

"Welp, it can't be helped… we will have to take our chances. We don't have time to waste here," Rain said, and then they went downward.

Seadir gulped… he was ready to rescue his father, but he didn't think that he would do something that insane, like swimming into a nest of sea dragons. He had quite a good opinion of Rain, even more so about their stealth and successful invasion, so he thought that he would do something more elaborate… he was dead wrong.

As they went deeper into the area, they had a hard time seeing anything around, they could see things that were surrounded by coral that had a lot of mana. So, things were quite colorful despite they being more than five hundred meters deep… and it seemed that they would go even deeper…

Deep in the abyss of the ocean, they found a gargantuan and foreboding hole that plunged into the depths of darkness. This chasm was unlike anything ever witnessed by human or sea fol, shrouded in an ominous aura that sent shivers down the spine of any who ventured near.

The hole was immense, its size defying imagination. It seemed as if the very ocean had ceded its dominion to this abyssal rift. No natural light penetrated the depths, and the darkness that emanated from it was absolute as if it devoured all illumination that dared to approach. The void it created was unsettling, a vacuum of light and life.

The surrounding waters seemed to ripple with an eerie stillness, almost in reverence to the sinister presence of the hole. Strange and unidentifiable sounds echoed from its depths, adding to the unsettling place. It was a place where the laws of nature seemed to bend and twist, creating an environment that defied comprehension.

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"Well… here we come," Rain said.