The moment Amanda drank the potion, she felt a strange sensation spread through her entire body.

The first thing to heal was her eardrums, which had exploded from the blast earlier.

Next was her internal organs. She noticed this as she stopped coughing up blood.

Soon her twisted limbs and bones began to put themselves back together.

She groaned in pain from the sound and feeling of her bones putting themselves back together.

The pain was so much that she almost passed out. She had to will herself to keep her eyes open.

After an agonizing couple of minutes her body had healed. Though, not fully.

A few of her ribs were still broken, and the damage to her muscles was extensive.

Still, it was enough for her to walk. Slowly she reached out to a nearby object that she couldn’t quite make out since her eyesight hadn’t fully return to her yet.

The object was sturdy, and she rested her full weight on it and used it to pull herself to her feet.

As she staggered to her feet, she glanced around to get a better look at her environment.

She quickly realized she was standing atop a massive sand dome!

Even though her vision was blurry, she still narrowed her gaze and looked around her for any signs of Liam, but there was nothing. Not even a cactus.

Frustrated, she clicked her tongue before turning around to take a look at the object she held onto to climb to her feet.

That was when her eyes widened in shock.

It wasn’t an object at all. Instead, it was a person.

Fiery red hair, a handsome, lean build and, worst of all, a condescending smirk.

"Phoenix King."

She hastily took a step back only to be immediately grabbed by the wrist.

For a moment she felt as if she were dreaming.

’What is he doing here?!’

What were the odds?

"You look like shit. Was getting to the second strata really that hard?"

"Let go of me."

Amanda struggled as she tried to pull her hand free, but her strength was clearly not enough.

This caused a wide smile to appear on her face and a soft chuckle to escape him.

"When I saw someone fall from the sky like a lifeless corpse, I never thought it would be the prodigal daughter of Cassius Veymont."

"I said let me go."

Summoning all her strength, Amanda pulled her hand free and whipped her foot towards his head.

The young man didn’t react as her foot impacted his jaw.

The kick snapped his head to the side, but other than that, he didn’t even react.

A deafening silence hung in the air.

Amanda knew the personality of the man in front of him very well. She had crossed paths with him many times, and each time, she had to restrain herself so as not to get in a fight with him.

He was careless and arrogant and treated the non-player characters of this world as if their lives were meaningless.

While every guild leader formed a contract with an existing kingdom, the Phoenix King decided to become a king himself and ruled like a tyrant.

Once someone was in his territory, they couldn’t leave, and they were also considered his personal property.

Countless died under his rule, yet they couldn’t do anything about it.

Everyone was forced to bite their tongue and watched as he did whatever he pleased.

His attitude had even worsened since his brother died. He wanted revenge against the person who dared harm his flesh and blood, but since he was unable to take revenge himself, he took out his frustration on his people.

But now the opportunity for revenge suddenly fell from the sky and is now standing in front of him.

This caused his smirk to grow even wider as he turned to look at her.

Then in one fluid motion his fist impacted the base of her stomach, sending her flying off the sand dome.

A guttural croak escaped her as her body impacted the ground, but before she could even process what happened, she felt something grab her hair before something hard impacted the bridge of her nose.

Her mind immediately went blank as she could no longer fight the urge to pass out, but even after she had passed out, the Phoenix King didn’t relent.

He laughed hysterically as he continued to punch her in the face until she was within an inch of her life.

Afterwards when her face was a bloodied mess, he grabbed her by the hair and began pulling her through the sandy terrain as he went back to where his party members were waiting for him.

He was so worked up that he didn’t even notice the massive hornet watching him from high in the sky.

...

I spent the next few hours practicing my chaos magic. I was slowly getting the hang of it as I figured out new ways to apply it.

"You should be careful, master." Suddenly Lily’s voice rang through the sound of exploding firebolts.

I turned towards her only to see she was looking the other way.

"Is everything alright, Lily?"

"I can’t say much, but you should be careful of the type of magic you’re wielding."

Huh? That’s strange. It is not normal for her to be vague about things. Usually, if she has something to say, she just comes out and says it.

"Do you know something about chaos magic I don’t?"

She let out a deep breath.

"Telling you might put your life in danger, so let me explain it the best I can. Chaos Magic isn’t meant for players. If someone saw you using it, it may cause them to get angry."

She quickly averted her gaze, which told me that was all I was going to get out of her.

The whole thing bothered me since Lily isn’t usually the type to keep secrets.

What or who could she be so afraid of?

Another player? No, that’s unlikely.

Seeing she was unwilling to say anything more, I didn’t force her and instead continued practicing my magic.

"Woah this is so trippy!

[Quicksand]

I activated my quicksand spell and allowed myself to be swallowed up by it.

Immediately as I was swallowed, I suddenly appeared in another location as if I had been teleported.

It was difficult to control where I ended up when I activated the spell, but I was slowly getting the hang of it.

It seemed all my spells had cool features and could be used in ways I never imagined before.

It was truly incredible. After a few more hours of practicing, the ground beneath my feet began to rumble as if something were coming my way.

A few minutes later Dracule’s head popped out of the ground as he collapsed right in front of it.

"Dracule! Are you alright? What happened to you?"

"Humans. These are more here. They attacked me before I even noticed their presence."

Humans? So other players managed to make it to the lower strata too.

To be able to injure Dracule like this, they must be formidable.

"Do you remember what they looked like? Or how many of them attacked you?"

"It was a woman. She was huge and strong. There was a small army of them, all of whom were women."

"I see."

That actually narrows it down. I think I know who it was that attacked Dracule.

In fact, I was certain she was a guild master.

Luckily, all Dracule’s wounds were superficial. There were just a few scratches that would heal over time.

It was honestly surprising that he came face to face with a guild master and only received a few scratches.

As if knowing exactly what I was thinking, Dracule spoke.

"They were being attacked by massive ant-like creatures. If they hadn’t been distracted, then I don’t think I would’ve survived, Sire."

I could say for a fact he wouldn’t. I don’t think even I could survive a conflict with another guild master.

At least not yet. I still had ways to go in terms of strength.

As soon as Dracule told me all he could, he passed out. He had lost a lot of blood from his injuries, and it looked as if he had raced to get to me, causing him to be tired.

As he lay unconscious on the ground, Lily nursed his injuries.

She created several healing plants before crushing them into a paste and applying them to her wounds.

I watched her work as I was deep in thought about what to do next. Soon spotted a bright orange object flying towards us and quickly realized it was Aphrodite.

I felt relieved to see her. After what happened to Dracule.

She elegantly landed on top of Dracule’s body, uncaring about the wounds on him.

"Aphrodite, did you find anything?"

Based on the air of confidence she was exuding, I could tell for a fact that she indeed did find something.

"I managed to locate Amanda."

Hearing her words, I was ready to celebrate, but then the next sentence out of her mouth caused my gut to twist.