"Tell me, Isha. Where are they?" Ryuk asked as Isha looked into the distance, then pointed her hands.
"These forests are shaped like a circle of some sort."
"The closer we are to the center, the weaker the beasts are—right now, anyway. We’re at the exact center of this area. And the farther away from the center, the stronger the beasts become."
"There is an edge to these circles, of course, which is where this forest ends. And at these edges, there are creatures who are by far the strongest of all—just at the edges..."
Isha stated, pointing further into the distance, and Ryuk’s eyes narrowed, recognizing a familiar sight.
When he had arrived here, he had keenly sensed those terrifying beasts that resided at the Plane of Cataclysm. They had made his spine grow cold.
"The truth is, I have noticed—the farther away one is from the center of this forest, the greater the concentration of Mana, and the higher the grade of the artifacts."
"There are some little artifacts around here that can help your Mana attunement and growth of potential, but they are not that effective."
"However, that changes the farther you move toward the edges of the forest."
"My hypothesis: The deeper we go toward the edges, the denser the Mana, and the more artifacts we’ll find."
"That makes sense as to why the most powerful beasts place their territory at the very edge of the forest.
"And by my guess, those places where the beasts take their territory and never intrude into others’ are most likely due to the fact that within their territory lies a powerful artifact whose power they are using to actively increase their strength!"
"They don’t leave their territory much, and their auras keep growing, meaning they are somehow increasing their cultivation even without actively devouring."
"I can only blame this on the existence of artifacts within where they cultivate!"
Isha read out her suspicions as Ryuk’s head worked at full speed, devouring everything and processing it into something greater.
’So these beasts that are Lords of the Forest are lords because their territory has the best concentration of Mana.’
’And not only that, it also has special artifacts that help them boost their cultivation to such crazy levels without them even needing to leave.’
’Perhaps that’s why there’s so much peace amongst them, unlike in this part of the forest where beasts fight for resources.’
’They’ve all literally gotten the best resources suitable for them, and they probably don’t even need to fight for them because each got what was best for them—in short, their elements.’
’If I can lay my hands on these resources, I can plant them into the Pet World, improving the entire ecosystem, inducing different areas with different elements.’
’Isha right now, she has just turned a part of the world into a frosty area, which is good for her resting place. But if I contract new beasts, they won’t necessarily be frost-inclined like Isha.’
’But if I can get my hands on these resources, I can find a way to terraform everything, making sure there is a spot for every beast!’
Ryuk thought deeper, his eyes flashing.
’And also, if I exchanged moves with these beasts who are truly at the Initial Phase of the Stage of Cataclysm, it would be just enough for me to get injured and increase my Mana attunement!’
’I fight beasts at the Plane of Cataclysm, get injured to increase my attunement, eventually kill them to gain EXP, and take their artifacts away to terraform my Pet World.’
’And once my attunement reaches 100%, I can finish my Apex Realm, implant the Absolute Zero skill into it, and manifest my Apex Domain, therefore reaching the Plane of Dominion...’
He thought deeper, eyes flashing, before he slowly rose up.
"Wow, you’ve grown taller!" Isha stated to Ryuka, looking up at him.
Right now, Ryuka had truly grown. From his already tall height of 1.9 meters, he now stood at exactly 2 meters in pure height, his snow-white hair furling around his head, with well-proportioned muscles and a more matured yet deadly handsome face.
It seemed the Nabody evolution didn’t just increase his power. It increased his charm too.
"I have made up my mind, Isha..."
Ryuk stated as the bones on his body crackled, sounding like thunder and echoing with ferocity.
That sent a slight shiver through Isha, who quickly straightened up as Ryuk’s calm aura began glowing into the sky, seemingly changing from a small flickering flame of a candlelight in a storm—to a billowing, erupting lava.
"We will pay a warm visit to every single one of these beasts at the Plane of Cataclysm and politely ask for their artifacts."
"We, of course, can’t afford to be denied, having approached them with such noble intentions. To be denied would be to be slapped right in the face by them, which is not something very warmly accepted."
"Therefore, if they refuse to give up their artifacts, we will have no choice but to use force to seize them."
"And if they resist, then we will bring an end to them..."
Ryuka stated, his chest sticking out in a righteous form as Isha snickered.
"Hehehe, you greedy bastard. You could just say you want their artifacts and want to steal them."
"Why sugarcoat it so much?"
Isha said, rolling on her eyes before rolling on her back, her huge stomach bubbling, facing up at the sky, and another belch left her lips.
It seemed she had only just started digesting the Drab Cube and was still absorbing it.
"Also, you’re at the Core Stage of the Plane of Ascension. How do you plan on taking on beasts at the Initial Plane of Cataclysm? You won’t even reach their territory before fearsome beasts end you before you even get there. I told you of territory, didn’t I?"
Isha asked, scratching her belly with her withdrawn claws, but her eyes widened in shock when she felt Ryuk grab onto one of her legs and then...
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
The air parted like a hot knife through butter as Isha felt the world rapidly zip by with horrifying speed, numbing her from shock.
When her head finally touched the clouds in the sky, she saw Ryuk looking up at her from below with an interested smile on his face.
"WHAT?!"
"WHAT THE HELL?!"