Chapter 99

"It's time, let's go, — Alois said, addressing the group.

The second night in the Forbidden Zone, this time in its middle layer, was surprisingly peaceful. The sun was already rising above the horizon, and the cold night air was gradually dissipating.

Due to the fact that the beasts did not bother them at night, the whole group had a good rest and regained their strength.

They didn't waste any time, have a quick breakfast and pack up their tents and set off deeper into the middle layer. Today, their goal is to reach the central layer.

The whole group was ready to face the wave of beasts again.

And the Forbidden Zone did not keep them waiting long.

Before they had gone far from the place where they had spent the night, they encountered a wave of beasts that greatly exceeded yesterday's last one.

Alois stepped forward and, like yesterday, quickly dealt with most of the opponents. He decided to focus on the Platinum-ranked beasts, leaving the rest to the rest of the group.

Thanks to this, they didn't waste much time. After quickly dealing with the wave and collecting only some parts of the beasts above the "Golden" rank, the group continued on their way.

They didn't want to waste time butchering the carcass and extracting resources, trying to cover as much territory as possible between the next waves of beasts. However, something unexpected happened: the expected wave never appeared.

That wasn't the only thing that bothered them. Ever since they entered the middle layer, they had not met a single doppelganger.

Under normal circumstances, this would simply be impossible.

They should have encountered at least one of them, but instead, including yesterday's waves, they encountered a huge number of beasts. Their number has already exceeded all imaginable limits.

There were only six people in the group, and although there was a Diamond-ranked fighter among them, they had not yet encountered an opponent of this level.

Everyone was convinced that they would have to face opponents of the "Diamond" rank in the central zone. However, they were most afraid of encountering a "Perfect Doppelganger."

Feeling some tension from the suspense and the strangeness of the situation, the group continued on their way to the central layer. The closer they got, the more they felt the fear of the unknown. They were approaching the center faster than they expected.

As they walked, Arabel noticed Idan's strange behavior since the morning. He was quiet and calm, even his movements during the battles were a little different than before.

It made her worry if something had happened to him. She even wondered if he had been replaced with a doppelganger. To make sure that he was the real Idan, she used a mental link that only the two of them could use.

"Are you all right?" she asked worriedly.

Idan was slightly surprised by Arabel's sudden question and looked at her.

"I'm fine," he replied immediately, seeing the concern in her eyes.

When she heard Idan's voice in her head, she felt relieved that it wasn't his doppelganger.

Idan had been worried about a lot of things since morning.

Firstly, he was upset that he would not be able to sort out his bloodline in the near future.

Secondly, at night, while on duty, he noticed that the energy of madness that had previously penetrated into his body and filled it had stopped. His body was no longer responding to this energy.

This discovery was a signal to Idan that his body was already completely sated, and at that moment he resembled a fully charged "bomb" that was just waiting for a spark to explode.

He wasn't happy about it at all. On the contrary, he was on edge.

From that moment on, he began to feel a slow-growing desire to release and vent all that energy. It was bearable now and didn't bother him, but he knew that the longer he held back, the worse it would be for him.

At any moment, something could happen and everything could go wrong. He still couldn't fully control his emotions, and if something happened that alarmed him and he couldn't help himself, it could end badly.

Before Arabel anxiously asked about his well-being, Idan wasn't sure if he should share his concerns about the energy of madness. However, when he heard Arabel's question, he decided to at least partially share his feelings with her.

Idan, without realizing it, needed support to some extent.

Arabel, one might say, was the only person in the group who knew Idan better than others and was close to him.

Over the past two months, their relationship has improved slightly, but has not moved to a new level. Because of all these problems, they didn't have time for a relationship.

Idan would really like all these problems to disappear so that he could be with Arabel in a more relaxed environment, without unnecessary worries.

He was aware that this was unlikely to happen in the near future.

When Arabel heard about Idan's concerns about the energy of madness, she became concerned about him.

However, despite her worries, she didn't know how to help.

The system had already made it clear that Idan would be fine. They could only trust her.

Idan needed to stay fully focused and in control of his emotions.

As they expected, the group reached the boundary of the central layer pretty quickly. They didn't even notice they had crossed the border until Arabel received a message from Sierra. Although Idan could no longer feel the energy of madness pouring into his body, he could still feel the density of the energy surrounding them.

When they moved into the central layer, the energy density increased dramatically, as it did when they crossed the outer layer and entered the middle one.

"Little sister, I can't follow you. In the central layer, you are on your own. I'll be waiting for you in the middle layer. Good luck to you!" Arabel heard Sierra say as they crossed the border.

"We have entered the central layer," Idan said, surprising everyone with his sudden statement.

Nemo and Eulalia immediately understood how he found out about it, while Alois and his disciple could not figure out how he guessed.

During these two and a half days, all the members of the group were no longer strangers to each other and began to trust each other. Therefore, they immediately believed Idan's words and became more cautious and attentive.

They entered the territory that was considered the most dangerous place.

Having made the decision to face everything that awaits them with full confidence, the group moved further into the depths of the central layer in search of the Temple.

The couple again raised the issue of the unique beast. They had reached the right place. The questions now were how to find this creature, what kind of creature it was, and how to help Nemo tame it.