Two days.

Lyle had spent a full two days trekking across blistering terrain before finally leaving the volcanic region behind and arriving at the outer perimeter.

"Glug… glug…"

Wearing his usual loose-fitting black travel garb, with sleeves and cuffs tightly fastened to keep out sand, Lyle sat in the scorching sand, gulping down water from a leather flask like he hadn't tasted hydration in years. He hadn't even bothered putting on the ceremonial white priest's robe this time, no one was around to impress.

"Phew…"

After several big gulps, he let out a long breath and raised his head to survey the endless expanse of wasteland before him.

The Gobi desert stretched to the horizon, painted in dull earth tones. The heat was suffocating, the air bone-dry, and the ground covered in coarse, sunbaked gravel. The terrain was wind-carved and uneven, barren of anything that could be called life. Only a few scraggly shrubs and the occasional cactus-like plant dared to survive here.

"So this is where that natural teleportation gate inside the Lava Sea brought me," Lyle muttered, his expression both grim and oddly intrigued.

Back in the Lava zone, faced with the ancient fire dragon's devastating magic, Lyle had quickly realized he couldn't defend himself head-on. In a desperate move, he'd grabbed hold of a small La angler, one that had been flung out of the magma by the big Angler and crushed it barehanded. Using the creature's corpse as a magical reagent, he activated Wild Shape and morphed into a lava-adapted form to survive the intense heat.

That was when he'd realized the red dragon had submerged itself in the lava not to hide, but to heal. The molten sea itself contained restorative energy. Even more surprising, the La-Angler, didn't seem to mind the intruder using its territory for recovery.

When things got dicey, and Lyle's mana reserves ran dry, and even Valkyrie abilities were spent, he had no choice but to dive deeper to evade detection.

He hadn't planned on stumbling into a magical vortex that sucked him down like yesterday's bathwater.

By the time he clawed his way out of the other side, he was here - in this gods-forsaken desert.

"…So this goddamn place might not even be on the northwestern edge of the continent anymore," Lyle muttered, his fingers tightening around the water flask.

One thing was certain, no region on the human side of the world had such a massive, interconnected volcanic chain.

Worse yet, the magical tracking marks he'd left on the Twin Witches had gone completely silent.

If magical power was linked to spell potency, then magical range was determined by caster level. His current level in arcane casting, thanks to the newly acquired base class Sorcerer, had hit Level 50, capable of casting eighth-tier spells. Yet even with that level of skill, he couldn't sense a thing.

That meant the distance was… well, ridiculously far.

Lyle flipped his palm and summoned a roasted boar leg from his item box. He took a hearty bite.

He always carried plenty of preserved food for precisely this kind of emergency.

"Two options, really," he said aloud between chews.

First: wait for his mana to recover fully, then use Wild Shape to retrace his path through the lava gate and return to the Azerlisia Mountains.

It had only been seven days since he vanished. He was certain of that, mainly because his mana regeneration was so pathetically slow that he could backtrack the days based on how much he'd recovered.

Second: explore.

Explore this mysterious, uncharted region that he'd stumbled into.

It was risky, sure. Unknown lands meant unknown enemies, unknown ecosystems, and a very real chance of being turned into food.

Suddenly—

Whoosh!

A large grey-feathered hawk, wingspan nearly a meter wide, dove from the sky and arrowed toward Lyle at high speed. Just before it crashed into him, its form twisted mid-air, morphing and expanding into a familiar beast.

Thud!

The barghest landed on all fours, tail wagging, and nudged its head affectionately against Lyle's shoulder.

"Good work."

Lyle grinned and scratched the wolf behind the ears before tossing it a juicy slab of roast boar. The beast caught it mid-air and began tearing into it like a happy pup.

He'd resurrected the barghest just the day before using a resurrection spell, and immediately re-bound it with Companion Pact I.

The hawk transformation? That was the wolf borrowing Lyle's Wild Transformation via their bond. He'd sent it scouting earlier, but unfortunately, the results were less than promising.

Which meant the decision had been made for him.

Thanks to the pact, he could see snippets of what his companion observed. And what he saw was endless desert, a dry wasteland stretching in every direction.

Not a single living creature in sight.

After a short rest, Lyle swung into the saddle - or rather, onto the wolf's back and gave its neck a pat.

"One month. That's the limit for exploration."

It wasn't every day you discovered a hidden pathway leading to a lost region via a magma sea. Leaving without investigating would feel like tossing a legendary spellbook into the trash.

Still, he couldn't afford to linger long.

If the Twin Witches didn't see him again within the month, they'd probably assume he'd been eaten or fallen into another dimension.

"Arf." The barghest let out a low growl of acknowledgement and took off, heading in the opposite direction from the volcanic lands.

Night fell quickly.

Under the weight of the desert sky, the world became nothing but shadow and silence.

The barghest lay curled beside Lyle, chewing contentedly on a thick bone like it was a bedtime snack. A habit it had developed back when Lyle used to feed it leftover goblin corpses.

"No creatures at all… could this be one of the continent's abandoned corners?" Lyle murmured, seated cross-legged with his back against the direwolf's warm flank.

Well… not necessarily.

According to fragmented intel from his past life, this continent was vast beyond reckoning. The human-occupied northwest didn't even rival the territory held by some central nations. So the idea of entire uninhabited zones wasn't as absurd as it sounded.

Still, two more days passed.

Nothing.

Until the evening of the third day.

Shhh…

Sha, sha, sha—

A guttural snarl broke the quiet. The barghest rose, baring sharp fangs and locking onto something ahead.

From the sands, small mounds began forming, moving, drawing closer.

Something was tunneling toward them beneath the desert floor.

Lyle's dry lips curled into a smile.

"Well, finally. Something alive."

For three days, he'd been wandering this forsaken land without meeting a single creature. If he wanted intelligence, he needed something intelligent. And to find something intelligent, well… he needed to start by finding anything that breathed.

Boom! Boom!

Sand exploded upward as high-pressure mounds burst open, creating a blinding curtain of dust.

From within it, hooked tails shot out, aiming straight for Lyle and his companion.

"Scorpions. Great."

With a flick of his wrist, Lyle conjured a longsword and stepped forward. He didn't even bother chanting.

A casual slash swept through the air, severing the stingers before they could connect.

Tail segments flopped to the ground, writhing and spewing purplish venom.

"Screee!"

"Chhhhkk!"

The sand shifted again. A cluster of desert scorpions, each over a meter long, emerged with hissing rage.

Too slow.

Before they could even raise their claws, Lyle vanished into their ranks.

One step. One slash.

Each strike shattered chitinous armor like it was brittle clay.

[Experience gained: 421]

[Experience gained: 387]

[Experience gained: 405]

…

[EXP Bar: 108,632 / 120,000]

All five scorpions collapsed in under two seconds.

"Barely level twelve at best," Lyle muttered, checking his HUD. "Cute."

He'd gone with swordplay over spells on purpose, the last thing he wanted was some booming explosion alerting stronger predators in the area.

Besides, it was nice to stretch his legs.