Chapter 594 Finds
Despite not finding another foreign race in which he could ask for some information about his current position in the universe and for support to return to Jundra, or to a place that can connect him to Jundra, at the very least, Nial was still satisfied with his finds.
The Devil Roc was making his way across the planet while Nial made his way underground. He had entered a cave that led deep down below the surface. Within a few hours, Nial had traveled more than two thousand meters underground. The cave system was quite intriguing and so were the beasts he encountered.
Due to the scarcity of mana, most monsters were at the Mirae rank. Controlling those kinds of beasts with Dominion didn't even require much dark energy. That made it much easier for him to find his way through the numerous tunnels of the cave system and to finally reach the huge cavern hall he had entered now.
There was a Prometheus Beast that reigned over the cave but defeating the python was far from difficult. He simply kicked the python's head and knocked it out for a few days.
"Even if it doesn't help me find a way back, I should take what I can get!" Nial told himself as he released his dark domain through the entire cavern hall. He released a few compressed crescent-shaped blades of darkness which he controlled precisely, cutting off thousands of huge crystals from the walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
The crystals were stored safely inside his spatial ring before Nial went ahead. He began to control a few more Beasts that were supposed to lead him to different areas with precious minerals. Using the Beasts accelerated the process of finding his way through the complex mining system a lot. Several days passed in the blink of an eye before Nial had found his way back to the surface and the Devil Roc descended onto his shoulder where it rested in the eagle form once again.
The scarcity of mana made it difficult for the Devil Roc to keep changing its shape. Furthermore, a few monsters at the Deux rank bothered it which was why the Devil Roc kept emanating a dangerous aura that drained a large amount of his dark energy reserves. It was not as if the scarce mana in the surrounding could replenish the Devil Roc's mana quickly, so it was about time that the Devil Roc spent a few hours resting. After all, the following days were going to be full of work because it was time to leave this planet as well.
Except for the rare and possibly useful minerals, there was hardly anything Nial could make use of on this planet. There was not even a powerful beast with a spatial affinity. If that were to be the case, Nial would have devilized it, or simply controlled it with Dominion, teleporting him from one planet to another until he would find another race or even stronger beasts that could teleport him to a different stellar system where useful people might be.
However, Nial didn't really have much hope in that regard. His expectations of this stellar system had already been surpassed after finding the existence of minerals on the second planet, and the purity of the mana within space. Nial was pretty sure that he could work out something as long as he spent enough time researching the minerals and the laws that restricted the mana from passing through the spheres surrounding the planets.
There had to be certain rules and laws of the Universe that were being played out right in front of him but Nial had yet to fathom them. Once he understood those laws, he could think about bending the laws or finding a loophole until he attained his goal.
Of course, that was the difficult and complex solution that had formed in his mind. Nial was still hoping for an easier solution such as fighting a powerful space beast that would send him somewhere else or meeting a foreign race with a Worldbridge residing on one of the remaining planets in the stellar system.
When they departed to the third planet, the Devil Roc had to travel for almost a week before they reached the proximity of the third planet. According to the Devil Roc, the third planet was also the second largest in the entire stellar system. Nial was hoping for a nice surprise, which he received as he was greeted with a large influx of mana on the planet.
As they descended on the surface of the third planet, they quickly noticed that the air was polluted and that plants and beasts had a hard time surviving for a long time on the planet's surface. Of course, that was not something that affected Nial nor the Devil Roc since they could shroud their faces with dark energy to filter the bad air if necessary.
The planet's mana was much stronger but the air was too bad for most lifeforms to survive and flourish properly. Nial understood that but he didn't really care much about it after a few hours of feeling down.
While the Devil Roc stayed by Nial's side this time, Nial chose to command a few beasts that had evolved to survive in the bad air. He controlled a bunch of beasts and made them lead the way to the overlord of the territory.
That way, Nial found his way to a six-meter-tall mountain goat at the Deux rank. Nial subdued it with Dominion before he made sure that the Overlord of the region would lead him to the Overlord of the adjacent regions.
Using this seemingly simple tactic, Nial got his hands on five 'Overlords' of surrounding areas. They were easily subdued, which lead Nial to the next step of the plan he had in mind.
"Lead me to the most treasured places you know of," Nial ordered at once and it was not long after that he was led to a valley that was surrounded by a huge mountain range in the form of a circular ring. Numerous cavern entrances entered his range of perception when he found his way to the valley. The cavern entrances were not the most treasured place the five overlords knew of but it was the gigantic tree in the center of the valley that was worth a fortune.
Despite being subdued and controlled by Nial, the five overlords didn't want to get closer to the humongous tree. This showed quite clearly that the humongous tree was not only gigantic and a treasure but also quite dangerous. Focusing his Mana Sense on the tree and its surroundings, Nial found a bunch of Deux Beasts inside the tree, all of them patiently waiting for a bunch of large fruits hanging down its branches to ripen.
It was only obvious that the fruits were of either immense value or nutrition. Thus, Nial didn't hesitate to unleash Dominion and enhanced both his vocal cords and the words coming out of his mouth with dark energy.
"Your desire to eat the fruit once ripened has disappeared!"
"You will return to the ground at this instance!"
"You will follow my commands!"
Nial issued three rather simple commands and the beasts complied readily. There was nothing else they could do but heed his commands, to begin with.
As for Nial, he didn't really care about the existence of the beasts or was interested in knowing more about them, but they may be of use, to a certain degree, at least!