Dark Magus Returns-Chapter 994: The King Of The Jungle (Part 1)

As soon as the sun rose, both Lince and Zon were on the move toward the center of the jungle. They had decided to avoid areas they had already gone through, including the desert-like area that Lince had discovered Red in.

This was at Zon's suggestion, which was quite surprising for Lince. It was clear from their conversation yesterday that Zon wanted to meet this man, yet now they were avoiding him. Perhaps it wasn't the right time?

Regardless, the search for the Golden Globe was clearly more important, and Lince was happy about that since it was his only priority. Going through the darkened area of the jungle, thanks to Zon leading the way, they were able to avoid most beasts.

His hearing and senses were even better than Lince's, who was a highly trained specialist Pagna warrior. It was surprising-at times he could see things that were even hidden, or predict where beasts would be.

Eventually, this led them to a new area of the jungle. They knew this because the color of the jungle had changed once more. Where the outside by the sandy beaches was a light green, and the inner areas were darker, now this section of the jungle was almost a pale yellow. The large trees and leaves looked almost unhealthy in color, dried out by the heat, but the leaves and such were still plenty strong-it was just their coloration that looked this way.

Another key thing they noticed was that some areas of the ground would go from hardened earth and mud to sections of sand. There were also broken ruins in different parts.

Just pillars that didn't seem to form any type of structure, but were clearly part of one at some point.

"I have hope that the more ruins we see that the closer we are to the artifact," Lince commented.

"I would agree," Zon replied. "In other dimensions, the artifacts tend to be in areas of civilization, so it should be the same here, but we do have to keep in mind that this was an item that was purposely hidden."

"So it's either heavily protected or not in the most obvious place."

Lince was thankful that at least now the two of them were traveling together, as it was making the journey much easier for him. But traveling with Zon, he couldn't help but think about what they had spoken about the night before.

There were no beasts in the nearby area, the dark sky was out, and Lince had just revealed to Zon about his confrontation with the man known as Red.

"How are you even still alive?" Zon asked.

This was Zon's reaction to meeting the man. Lince had an inkling that the two of them knew each other, after all, they both had the same black suit that was hidden and attached to their skin, but to get this type of reaction?

"Hey, do you think I'm really weak or something?" Lince replied. "Remember I am the leader of one of the top clans in the Demonic Faction. I may not have a ridiculous title like 'the closest to the Divine realm' or anything like that, but I do have some strength." Lince turned his head away; he couldn't believe it.

Maybe him being lazy in matters had ruined his reputation around the world of Pagna quite a bit. Right now he wanted to go out there and prove to everyone something that only the Lost Clan could do, but the more he thought about it, the more of a drag and effort it sounded.

"I have evaluated your strength, and added a 20 percent modifier in my predictions," Zon explained. "Even then, based on what I know about Red, he would still win in a fight between you two."

"I know Red well, because the two of us are from the same world."

Lince had no frame of reference to how strong Zon thought he was, but to allow a 20 percent discrepancy and still say he would lose made Lince think back to the moments before Red acted.

He had a bad feeling, which was why he decided to abandon the fight, and realized that it might have been a good thing after all.

"If he's from the same world as you, then why is he here, why isn't he working with you?" Lince asked.

"I can only assume that he is here because of Alter," Zon replied. "I doubt he was able to gather information or come here on his own, and we only saw one set of ships on the way here. Alter working with the Light Faction and him being a part of it, it all makes sense."

"As for working with that man, it's an impossibility. That is a man who only loves war, he has no intention of going back home. I will just leave it at that."

A troubled past—as many of those who had lived a long life or held high positions had. Actually, Lince was one of the few who didn't have any of these things. He had earned his position in the Lost Clan, raised himself to be a strong warrior, and that was it.

The way it was meant to be in these clans: no mysterious past, no revenge plot to get stronger, no family issues to prove one's strength, and the reason he was helping right now was because he was somewhat friends with Belil and cared for Pagna.

"You don't need to tell me, but if you ever want to, I have an open ear. The good thing is, I know now that if I see him, he's an enemy, not a friend." Lince replied, although he kind of already figured that out.

Traveling deeper into the jungle, more pillars and ruins could be seen up ahead, and instantly, Zon could see the back of a large creature with dark fur. It was faced away from them.

"Why are we here?" Lince asked.

"Because, if you see, there's a wooden bridge right past that creature. So my guess is there's something there," Zon claimed.

After saying those words, the creature turned around and opened its ferocious mouth. They could see it was large in size with white fur on its body. It looked like the white-furred monkeys, only this one was the biggest they had seen so far.

The creature had four tails split on its back. Its eyes were fierce, and on its chest there was a patch of black fur.

"Judging by how strong the three-tailed giant white monkey was... I have no clue how strong this one is going to be," Lince commented.

The monkey picked up a fairly large black coconut-it was around three times bigger than a regular sized coconut-and hurled it towards the two of them. Both Lince and Zon moved out

of the way.

As the coconut continued, it crashed into a tree, ripping out the center of not just one, but several of the trees further on than the two of them could see with their eyes.