After what happened earlier, Aldred questioned whether he should even continue this journey. He had never felt like this before. A feeling of doubt about whether to continue or not. He had never felt it because he had never lost someone he considered important… until now.
But stopping now and walking back would make everything pointless. Aldred looked at his wives: Mary, Mira, Mareona, Sophia, Ivette, Stella, Rachel, Zafrina, and Kiara. Then he looked at his friends: Bartrem, Joseph, Jeffery, and all the soldiers that joined him in his journey.
'I must not let them down. I have to continue. I have to keep going.' Aldred took a deep breath. "Lina and Nordig… She said that was the name of her parents. They are located in Burlisleho. Do we know where that is?"
Stella shook her head.
"I know where that is," the lizardman replied. "It's located on the south coast of Lympsian Theocracy. South from here."
Stella waved her hand, and a magical projection of a map appeared in front of her. She zoomed in and pointed. "Is this the place?"
"That's right." The lizardman nodded.
"We will find her parents after this," Aldred said. "We have to."
They all nodded in agreement. Just like Aldred, they thought that Richa would join their journey. Even though their interaction was short, they already treated her as one of their own.
After looking at the ice globe one last time, Aldred sighed and proceeded to move forward.
In a dimly lit hall, Aldred saw a man floating straight. His skin was replaced by scales, and his face was hidden by a robe. Behind the man were three doors.
"Give me something the most valuable to you, and I will tell you the right path," the man said without any greetings. His voice entered their mind, and his lips didn't even move.
Aldred's body moved forward in a standing position within the water as if he was flying. His manipulation of water was quite advanced despite having only a few amounts of skill in it.
The fish-man showed his right palm as if asking for the item.
Aldred raised his right arm, and then punched him in the face.
The fish-man was shocked and so did everyone else. Before the fish-man could react, Aldred followed up his first attack with another strike and pummeled the man for more than a minute.
Grabbing his neck, Aldred asked: "Which door is the right one?"
The fish-man stayed silent. Aldred frowned and raised his right hand again. Dark-red energy appeared around his hand and then formed into Phantom Doomblade.
Without hesitation, Aldred swung, cutting off the man's right arm, and scalping half of his face.
The fish-man let out a bloodcurdling scream. The people that saw this could only imagine the pain and secretly prayed that they would never be subjected to that.
"Don't let me ask twice," Aldred said.
"It's the left door," the fish-man helplessly said.
"I don't believe you." Aldred summoned a chain, tied the man with it, and opened the left door. What appeared was a dark-red portal.
Aldred looked at the fish-man. "This is your last chance. I will throw you into the portal. If you lie, then you will face the consequences."
"I am telling the truth,"
"Then you have nothing to worry about." Aldred threw the man in the portal and waited for a few minutes before pulling him back.
The fish-man was fine without any injuries. Aldred even scanned him with his godly eyes, but there was no poison, illness, or parasites within his body.
After confirming that the portal was safe, Aldred ruthlessly drove his Phantom Blade into the man's chest.
His wives saw the rage within Aldred's eyes. It was terrifying, boundless, like the eternal flame of hell. But when Aldred set their eyes on them, they saw love and passion, as if he would do anything to protect them from harm. Aldred had always been caring towards them, but this was way more than that.
They felt rather worried about his situation.
"Let him be," Stella said. "He has never lost anyone before, so he still can have fun and leisure in his journey, but now there are stakes involved."
"Will he stop having fun from now on?" Mary asked with a worried expression.
"I don't think so," Stella said "But he will surely work harder than before. But he still hasn't lost his way yet, so we should avoid doing anything for now."
They all agreed to do that because they didn't know what to do. They didn't want to make it worse for Aldred.
"Let's go in, guys," Aldred said to them with a smile before entering the portal.
After entering the portal, they found themselves teleported deeper into the Sea Tomb.
"We're 12 kilometers below the surface," Stella said. "The monsters here will be stronger than before."
"Will something like the Agile Fiz appear?" Aldred asked.
"From my experience, a special creature like Agile Fiz exists in this dungeon to kill at least one person or wipe the entire group before disappearing and never being seen again. And there is usually one of them in a dungeon."
"So there's a low chance something like that might appear again?" Aldred asked.
"A very low chance."
Aldred nodded. "All of you stay behind me. If something like that appears, I will open a portal immediately and all of you should enter."
"No, Aldred. We will fight alongside you," Mary said.
"I can't lose any of you."
"And we cannot lose you," Mary said. "Don't be selfish, and let us fight together."
Aldred looked her in the eyes and realized that he was being selfish.
"We are not that much weaker than you." Mareona crossed her arms. "Don't underestimate us."
"Also, did you forget that I am a Diamond Rank?" Stella asked. "Even if I limit my power to Gold Rank, I am stronger than you."
Aldred sighed. "Okay."
As they kept moving forward, they found an entrance to an underwater cave and swam inside.
Surprisingly, the underwater cave was huge with a lot of glowing algae and plankton moving around. There were a lot of monsters, but they were weak and ugly. Aldred wasn't interested in killing them because they were too low-level. But just as he was about to head further, his senses detected something.
Aldred frowned and swam towards the direction where his senses led him.
After passing by a large boulder, Aldred saw five blue-scaled goblins chasing three women ahead of them.
These goblins were different from the normal goblins he knew. They had fins, tails, and scales.
[Deep Sea Goblin]
Level: 85
Power: Water Shard, Deep Water Echo Location…
One of the goblins spat out a fast-moving water shard at the three ladies, the shard exploded and created a powerful current that slowed them down.
"You guys stay here. I will handle them." Aldred teleported using blood teleportation. Without a sound, he appeared behind a goblin and kicked the back of its head, the head burst.
He then grabbed two goblins by the neck and crunched them like twigs.
– 3000
– 2451
– 4400
His ruthless movements dealt a horrendous amount of damage, and it was instant death for the three goblins.
The two goblins seeing this were terrified, and as they were about to run away, Aldred was already grabbing their necks.
Slightly moving his thumb, he snapped their necks without any problem.
