Chapter 184: Sacred Flame of Nature
The Elder made a slight gesture with his hand, and the two of them slowly approached the planet, gradually moving around it.
Suddenly, Priam spotted an extremely bright golden point at the center of the largest continent.
"That’s the core of the planet’s formation. Your destination."
The Elder’s voice remained calm. At that moment, Priam was certain the Elder was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing: he was explaining everything and allowing him to see the entire route he would have to travel to reach his goal.
They continued moving through space, now heading toward the planet’s far north. Priam spotted an immense forest and, on the peak of a mountain, an intense crimson light.
"That’s where one of the six pillars of the planet’s sealing formation is located. The other five are in regions very far from where you’ll be dropped. Memorize this location. You should make your way there whenever you can, because its power keeps all Corrupted Beasts away from a large area. Once you’re there, you’ll be able to relax your mind and body and rest as much as you want."
Priam nodded gratefully.
The planet was enormous, but Priam would be dropped on its largest continent, which stretched from the center of the planet all the way to the northernmost pole. His route to the core was practically a straight line.
Of course, the sheer size of the planet was terrifying. Even traveling in a straight line with nothing blocking his path would probably take days, if not months.
As they traveled farther toward the north pole, Priam was surprised. Instead of the frozen landscape he had expected, there was a vast, scorching desert.
The planet’s far north was surrounded by a gigantic mountain range of active volcanoes. They blocked the moist air coming from the oceans while simultaneously heating the entire region.
Torrential rain fell constantly just south of the northern edge, while everything beyond the volcanic range remained completely dry, creating a massive, scorching desert that was permanently arid.
When they reached the desert, the Elder descended with Priam toward its center.
The two of them landed gently atop a mountain peak. Then the Elder turned toward Priam.
"This desert is probably the place with the lowest concentration of Corrupted Beasts on the entire planet. It’s a good starting point for you to get used to the danger before moving deeper."
Priam smiled faintly.
"Thank you very much for the help."
The Elder nodded.
"It’s good to see you’re still confident. No one has ever returned alive, but that doesn’t mean you can’t become the first. Remember this: Corrupted Beasts can easily sense your life force. On top of that, they’re extremely territorial. Be careful not to enter the territory of a powerful creature. Always take detours through unclaimed areas."
After finishing his warning, the Elder leaped into the sky.
He gave Priam one last look, waved goodbye, and disappeared.
"..."
Carefully observing the merciless wilderness stretching before him, Priam judged the vastness of the desert and took a deep breath of the region’s cold, dry air.
The horizon was a desolate painting of gray dunes and ancient ruins buried by time—a true prison planet forgotten by the universe.
[Divine Concealment]
[Activate?] [Yes / No]
Priam activated the skill immediately.
For any other Mage, walking across such a cursed land would have been an instant death sentence. No matter how careful they were, they’d eventually be found.
But for him, the danger barely existed. As long as he wasn’t seen directly.
The Corrupted Beasts ruled the planet, but because they possessed so little rational intelligence, they relied almost entirely on their sharpened instincts and senses. Under the effect of the technique, Priam was like an invisible ghost wandering among monsters.
’If I head straight toward the exit in the south, it shouldn’t even take a month,’ Priam muttered with a faint grin that revealed his excitement. ’But... where the hell am I supposed to find this Corrupted Core?’
Not even the most powerful Sages had managed to uncover the source of the planet’s corruption. But Priam had an unfair advantage: his Divine Treasure Sense.
The Corrupted Core, being the source of the planet’s entire anomaly, was without a doubt the greatest treasure on this world. He only had to get close enough, and the system would alert him.
Besides, a planet that had been sealed away for thousands of years could only mean one thing:
Legendary resources that had grown naturally and had never been touched.
Priam took a deep breath, focusing himself.
Then he leaped from the rocky peak, officially beginning his journey into the unknown.
...
The transition from day to night on that planet was brutal.
The desert nights brought an icy cold that seeped all the way into your bones, a violent contrast to the suffocating heat of the day. Fortunately, darkness lasted for less than five hours in that region, giving the nocturnal creatures very little time to hunt.
Priam spent the entire first day mapping the surroundings and studying the behavior of the local wildlife. Since the Corrupted Beasts couldn’t sense his energy, he was able to get dangerously close and observe them clearly.
Among those gray dunes, he spotted scorpions the size of carriages and a species of gigantic three-eyed wolves. They all shared the same mark of corruption: pitch-black bodies covered in purple cracks that pulsed like exposed veins. The rotten stench of decay and sulfur that radiated from them was suffocating.
Priam simply memorized their movement patterns before quietly moving away, always taking strategic detours. He couldn’t afford even the slightest chance of being detected. At his current strength, he definitely wasn’t capable of fighting even one of those beasts head-on.
Since he didn’t need to sleep that night, he continued moving forward with extreme caution. He wasn’t heading straight for the exit. His real goal was to explore as much as possible in search of natural treasures.
...
The following day, as the scorching sun once again baked the land and Priam was wondering whether he should change his route toward...
[Treasure detected!]
[Sacred Flame of Nature is nearby]
Priam froze on the spot, his heart violently skipping a beat. His eyes lit up like stars as he read the system’s green window.
’No way...’
He remembered reading about this treasure back in the Ylisse Clan. The Sacred Flame of Nature was an almost mythical resource for alchemists. It was a living flame born when an absurd amount of high-level elemental energy accumulated in isolation from the outside world for thousands of years.
Unlike ordinary destructive fire, this flame possessed unparalleled purifying power. On a planet consumed by corruption, finding a source of absolute purity was the equivalent of discovering a diamond in the middle of a garbage dump.
Priam took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.
Since the treasure was nearby, he would have to search the area in expanding circles. A relic of that magnitude would undoubtedly create visible anomalies in its surroundings.
’Damn... and I’m right in the middle of several Corrupted Beasts’ hunting territories.’
Priam remained silent for a few seconds, studying the sandy terrain.
Then he clenched his fists and made his decision.
The reward was worth the risk.
His footsteps became even lighter and more deliberate than before.
He watched every grain of sand, every ripple across the dunes, making sure to stay out of the enemies’ direct line of sight.
Night fell once again, bringing with it the biting cold, but Priam barely felt the physical strain as he moved toward a deep crack in the desert rocks.
*Bzzz...*
Then a low-frequency buzzing sound, accompanied by a violent vibration through the ground, reached his senses.
Priam froze instantly.
Although the night was completely dark, the silhouette emerging from beneath the earth under the faint starlight was enormous.
When he finally made out the creature’s true shape, Priam couldn’t stop himself from letting out a breath of pure shock.
It was over ten meters long.
It looked like a colossal earthworm, but its entire body was covered in segmented plates that resembled tempered glass or translucent crystal.
Those plates overlapped like impenetrable scales, and beneath that glass-like armor, Priam could sense a thick, poisonous fluid pulsing intensely.
It was a Corrupted Beast with incredibly high defense... and it was venomous on top of that!
The worst part came a second later.
Priam’s Divine Concealment was working perfectly, hiding his life force.
But this underground Corrupted Beast...
It hunted by sensing vibrations in the ground.
The instant it finished emerging, the creature’s circular maw, packed with rows of spiraling teeth, turned with perfect precision directly toward Priam.
"FUCK!"
Priam’s heart practically jumped into his throat. Without thinking twice, he spun on his heels and burst into a desperate sprint for his life as the ground behind him began collapsing under the beast’s advance.