Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(1-3VOL)

A Failed Attempt

"You should still go to the volcano as planned to investigate. If you manage to transfer back successfully, hurry and go get help. If it turns out to be the wrong place, then come back here and regroup." After giving instructions, Adrian prepared to depart down the mountain.

"Come back here?" I asked doubtfully. "How do we regroup? It will be very difficult for you all to come out again!"

"That's not necessarily true. The situation now is different from when you first escaped. If Alfreed and the others are alright, they still have ways. Moreover, there could be more than one method to exit the city." He looked back and smiled at me, then leapt nimbly down the mountainside.

"There are other ways to exit the city?" I didn't understand for a moment, but he didn't give me a chance to keep asking questions.

I had wanted to offer to fly him down, but seeing how Adrian had already jumped to the foot of the not-too-tall mountain after a few leaps, I could only swallow my words.

So I've become a messenger? How vexing.

After seeing Adrian off, I could only follow the agreed plan and fly to the volcano Selene and I had spotted earlier.

Although my current position west of Val City was not to the south, the unique shape of the volcano made it easy to locate its position in the vast southern plains when flying overhead.

It didn't take long to fly there. Soon, I arrived directly above the mountain top, where there was a circular pond.

From afar, the mountain didn't look very big. But when I landed on the peak, I realized the area was much larger than I had imagined, easily spanning several kilometers in diameter - about the same size as the deep pit in central Val City.

The water in the crater lake was quite clear. Looking out at the distant view of Val City to the north, I could make out the details fairly clearly.

If this was the transfer point, exactly where would the exchange happen?

While sitting by the lake waiting, I couldn't help pondering these questions idly.

But after waiting for a long time without any changes to the distant scenery, and recalling that the last transfer from Tethys Town had happened at dusk, I estimated there was still a lot of time. I sighed again.

Just as boredom was getting the better of me, I suddenly noticed several small black dots slowly emerging from the mountainside below.

What were those things? They looked like monsters.

To avoid detection, I hovered in midair and cautiously approached the targets below little by little, finally making them out clearly - they were several minotaurs holding axes, the same as the ones we had encountered in Elara Woodlands before.

Behind them were a few other monsters I couldn't name. Unlike the minotaurs, they were all very short, hunchbacked, and covered in green scales - not human.

"Could this be the legendary transfer point after all?" I muttered to myself. Looking in the direction they had come from, there seemed to be a cave entrance. But I didn't dare rashly go closer in case there were many more monsters inside - that would be jumping into the tiger's den.

With no way to escape skyward inside the mountain, my aerial advantage would be useless. I could easily get trapped inside.

However, speaking of aerial advantage... Noticing how the monsters were lined up single file and spaced rather far apart as they slowly advanced below, I suddenly had a bright idea.

Hehehe... Out here in broad daylight, don't blame me for snatching your women... Ahem, snatching your monsters!

I gained some altitude first, estimating the distance to be adequate. Then I took a deep breath and dove down towards them.