Chapter 275 Dark World Zone
"Is that it?"
Jayna pointed at a distant place where a black dome-like membrane covered the whole area. Compared to the clear sky we are currently traveling to, just by looking at it from a distance, it\'s already giving off an otherworldly feeling.
The interior of the place couldn\'t be seen. Much like that Concealed Area back at the Dark Elven Fortress or the Breached Portal Zone back on Earth.
Even so, occasionally, Dark World denizens and Noxians could be seen coming in and out of it.
"Yes. That\'s our target. Do you remember what I told you?"
"Perfectly. Let\'s wait at a distance and pick an incoming Noxian or Dark World denizen to disguise into."
Jayna steered the miniature Spirit Ocean and landed somewhere far from the Dark World Zone. It\'s to avoid the notice of a Transcendent if ever there\'s one. Also, we\'ll once again infiltrate it using her disguise. To dig information and somehow learn more about the Zones.
"Alright. I will once again be awed by your disguising skills."
"Stop flattering me, Daisuke. You\'re already too naughty last night."
Eh? This girl… Why are you mentioning last night?
"Was it me who\'s naughty? You seem so innocent so I thought you will not know anything about it. But you came out as even more assertive than Yumiko."
"… Shut up, Daisuke."
Jayna\'s face turned as red as her Earthfire as she turned around to escape my gaze. And due to that, her control over her miniature Spirit Ocean became somewhat erratic that it tilted sideways.
"Look at what happened. Ugh. You owe me with this, Daisuke."
"Alright. I\'ll show you more of my love later."
"When did you become this shameless? I remember how you awkwardly wanted to not have anything to do with me when we first met."
Is that how I acted? What I can remember is her misunderstanding my desire to join the competition hosted by her father as me wanting to become her Spirit Pair.
Ah. I guess she\'s right. I didn\'t want to pledge with her back then because the first two ended up becoming tied to me after fulfilling it. In the end, we still got pulled closer together.
Even if she didn\'t say it, she\'s also interested in me back then considering she\'s not someone without male contact. There\'s Ren who somehow ended up treated as her older brother despite her being older than him.
"I also wonder when. Hmm? Maybe when I stopped worrying about things and accepted everything that went my way. I can\'t deny that I\'m also interested in all of you so… This is just me not having to act like someone I\'m not. If you don\'t like it, I can stop. You know how important you are to me."
Yumiko confessing to me and learning about Destiny from Yse changed my view about them completely. It\'s like I was waiting for something like that to confirm what I\'m feeling for them.
And here with Fleur, I took the initiative upon realizing my interest in her. But yeah, that was a bad start. Forcing her to make a choice. Good thing I realized it earlier and managed to salvage it.
"… I didn\'t say you should stop. Just… keep it moderate."
"Understood."
Jayna giggled upon hearing my answer and moved closer to me while still controlling her miniature Spirit Ocean to land it somewhere covert.
"Also… I\'m looking forward to tonight."
She bashfully whispered before moving away from me to check out the place.
This little seductress…
Alright. That motivated me. We have to finish this objective for us to have the time tonight.
Where we landed was not as covert as before but yeah. It\'s not like we\'ll camp here.
We\'re just waiting for a prey to change into. We learned our lesson that we shouldn\'t use those who had just gotten out of that place. We have to use those who will be going in to replace them.
That\'s why for the next 2 hours, we observed the traffic of people going in and out of that Dark World Zone.
From our observation, it\'s fairly active since they\'re trying to expand it further. They were mainly using Noxians not part of any Aristocratic Family. They\'re expendables if I will have to put a name to that.
They all knew that the World\'s Will was attacking these Dark Zones so apart from those guarding them, either a Transcendent or a group of Rank 5 Mortals, everyone else is expendables that will not impact their strength if they all died.
Another hour after concluding our observation, we\'re already on our way while disguised as two insignificant Noxians.
"This is even more realistic than before. I can even use these wings to fly."
I whispered to her as we stayed with a group of Noxians going inside the Dark World Zone. We can already fly without wings but using their race\'s wings was probably more convenient for them.
Benedict and Marina still flapped their wings.
Sofiel and the other Luxians too. Perhaps it has already become a habit that they can\'t stop now.
"I\'m already a Transcendent. It would be shameful if my disguise skill stayed at the same level, right?"
Jayna whispered back while proudly lifting her chin.
Though we will infiltrate the place, if there\'s nothing else of note there, we\'ll destroy it without wasting any time.
The World\'s Will already sent me the method to effectively destroy the Zones and in turn, use the Dark Energy that will be dispersed as nutrition for the land. Or we can also partake in it as part of our cultivation resource.
Also, she set the time for us to simultaneously act to destroy the Zones. That way, no reinforcement from either side will be able to arrive in time.
10 minutes later, we\'re now in a line, waiting for our turn to enter.
We learned that every Noxian here was someone who didn\'t want to fight at the frontlines. The Aristocratic Families gave everyone a directive of choosing either become cannon fodder or an expendable.
Those two are almost the same however, it\'s safer for them to become expendable than cannon fodder. Most of the cannon fodders at the skirmishes were dying without accomplishing anything after all.
And unfortunately, none of these guys heard about those defecting back to our side. The two Aristocratic Families were probably limiting their recruitment as a precaution towards the Transcendents staying there.
Not that I will be doing anything for these people. They will just be collateral damage to what we\'re about to do.
"Unlike the World\'s Will, we\'ll be entering earlier to avoid any traps from the perimeter. Stick close to me, alright?"
"Un. I\'m your Support this time."
Soon enough, we reach the front of the line.
Two Dark World denizens were guarding the entrance. On their hands was most likely a Power Level scanner. Thanks to Jayna\'s disguising spell even the fluctuation of our Power Level was being masked.
The two guards looked at us before activating the scanner.
A green light shot out from that device which scanned our bodies from head to toe.
A few seconds later, a beeping sound was produced from the device followed by the waving of one of the guards for us to enter.
Without any hassle at all, we passed through their front entrance. Now I feel like we\'re thieves that were about to rob a bank. The security guards just let us pass without becoming suspicious at all.
As soon as we stepped our feet inside the Dark World Zone, a familiar notification rang out.
[You\'ve entered a special zone. Dark World Zone 3A]
[This zone is cut off from the World\'s Source Energy.]
[The existing Source Energy inside this zone is Level 2 Dark Energy.]
[You aren\'t adapted to the Level 2 Dark Energy]
[Flux Energy Automatic Energy Conversion can be activated]
[Rate of Conversion: 1 unit of Dark Energy = 3 units of Flux Energy]
[Conversion Debuff: -15% Strength and Endurance]
Though there were some new lines, it\'s really almost the same as that Breached Portal Location.
If not for our need to destroy these zones, this place can be a good Absorption Zone for Transcendents. However, I\'m sure that the Dark Energy permeating here was limited.
From the information given by the World\'s Will, there are two devices that are crucial in each Dark World Zones.
One is the device that spewed out stored Dark Energy to maintain the zone.
And the other one is the device that was converting the surrounding Elemental Energy to expand the zone.
And surely, both were set up in the middle of each zone. Once the Zone touches another Zone, the two Zones will merge and will amplify the expansion and conversion speed depending on the size of each zone before the merge.
If these Zones were left alone, it would just be a matter of time before they occupied all the spaces in this world. By then, all that\'s left for the Dark World to do is to assimilate the World\'s Will to theirs.
"Your duty is mining the Elemental Stones. Next. Yours is… wait a minute…"
When we reached the makeshift construction where the man in charge of giving out each expandable\'s duty is located, there\'s still a line of Noxians waiting for their turn.
Due to that, we got some time to observe the place. Like always, Jayna\'s curious nature kicked in as her head turned to whichever caught her interest.
I\'m also the same as I started observing how things work around here. Just from seeing this line, the management is too lousy or they just didn\'t care too much whether they will do enough work or not.
There\'s still around 30 minutes before the appointed time. Will there be a Transcendent here or will this turn into an easy job?