Chapter 541: Every Problem is Solved!

The group continued falling through the darkness, with the opening above them gradually becoming smaller.

At first, the descent didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but after several seconds passed without them seeing the bottom, it became clear just how deep the hole actually was.

Five seconds passed, then ten, and eventually thirty.

"How long is this going to take?!" Celeste remarked as the wind rushed past them. "We must be WAY below the surface at this point, practically in the middle of the ocean!"

Leon didn’t answer immediately, as his attention was focused on something shining beneath them.

After spotting it, he knew it was time to slow their descent.

He raised his staff.

Vines of Desolation!

Dozens of vines emerged from the surrounding walls, quickly wrapping around Leon and the girls before extending outward and anchoring themselves into the stone.

As the vines tightened, their descent gradually slowed, preventing them from continuing to fall at the same speed.

Leon then summoned even more vines beneath them, forming a dense web that caught the group near the bottom and absorbed the remaining impact.

Once their fall had been completely stopped, the vines slowly lowered them to the ground.

The four of them landed safely and immediately looked around.

They were inside a massive cave deep beneath the island, with its enormous walls glowing faintly and providing enough light to see their surroundings.

However, what caught their attention was the settlement built in the middle of the cave.

There was another village here, and it was considerably larger than any of the others they had visited before.

Ding!

[You have found "Secret Beach Village"]

[You are not supposed to be here, leave while you can, or face certain death!]

’Heh.’

"A few people just fell from the hole!" one of the native warriors posted nearby shouted in panic after noticing them. "Shit!"

"Who cares? They’re probably dead," another one replied. "Just give them to the beast as food."

However, Leon, Celeste, Emilia, and Violet were already walking toward the village without a single injury.

Before the natives could understand what was happening, a tremendous roar echoed throughout the cave.

ROOOOOAR!

A gigantic bat-like monster descended from above, its enormous wings spreading across the cave as its glowing eyes locked onto the newcomers.

"THEY’RE ALIVE! THE BEAST IS ON THEM!"

The entire village immediately went on high alert.

The natives rushed out of their houses, while the warriors began gathering to deal with the intruders.

They had relied on the monster to protect this settlement for a long time, as even they couldn’t defeat it directly.

Rather than risk fighting the creature, they had chosen to live alongside it and use its strength to defend their most important village.

Anyone who managed to reach the cave would have to face the beast first, and they believed that no ordinary player could possibly survive such an encounter.

Unfortunately for them, the monster had just encountered Leon.

SLASH!

One swing of his sword was all it took to kill the creature instantly.

Its enormous body fell from above and crashed onto the ground, leaving the natives staring in disbelief.

The monster they had relied on for protection had been killed before it could even attack.

Leon didn’t give them time to recover from their shock. He and the girls immediately rushed toward the village, eliminating the warriors who tried to stop them.

After only a few minutes, they had already killed half of the defenders and reached the area where the leader was hiding.

"W-What do you want?!" the man shouted, trembling as Leon approached. "W-We will do anything! D-Do you want to enchant your b-boat?"

"Nah," Leon replied with a widening smile. "Just show me where the altar is. I’ll do it myself."

The leader slowly got to his feet, his legs shaking as he prepared to guide them.

However, before he could take them anywhere, around three hundred natives suddenly rushed toward the group.

"LEAVE THE LEADER ALONE!" the commander shouted as they charged forward. "INTRUDERS LIKE YOU WILL—"

Divine Wrath!

Emilia immediately unleashed her ability, sending a massive golden beam rushing toward the approaching warriors.

The entire group was caught in its path and annihilated in an instant, with several houses behind them being disintegrated by the attack as well.

The warriors hadn’t even managed to advance very far before they were all killed.

"What power...!" the leader exclaimed, his eyes widening as he stared at the destruction. "How is this possible?!"

"Show me," Leon repeated coldly. "And explain how to enchant the boats."

By that point, there was practically no one left alive in the village besides him.

The leader understood that resisting would accomplish nothing, so he could only obey and lead Leon and the girls toward the center of the settlement.

There, they found a large structure standing on a raised platform.

"The [Enchantment Altar] was given to us by the [Heavenly One] so we could travel to other islands," the leader explained nervously. "W-We can use it to enchant boats, allowing them to cross the sea without being attacked by the monsters..."

Leon looked at the altar with interest.

It was a waist-high stone structure with a circular base, glowing runes, and a crystal floating above its center.

He stepped forward and reached out, picking it up without encountering any resistance.

"Wait, you can actually grab it?" Leon asked, surprised. "So that means... you could have placed it on the surface from the very beginning to allow other players to use it?"

The leader remained silent.

However, his lack of response was enough for Leon to understand the situation.

"Huh, we needed that to gain Eternal Coins to give offerings to the gods—"

SLASH!

He immediately cut down the man.

"Idiots," Leon groaned. "If these guys hadn’t kept this thing for their own profit and those offerings to the gods, so many players wouldn’t have died or wasted their time."

There had been no reason to hide the altar so far beneath the island.

They could have placed it somewhere accessible and allowed the players to enchant their boats themselves, but instead, they had kept it for their own use.

"Anyway," Leon sighed, looking at the ’altar’ in his hands. "Let’s grab this thing and place it on the surface."

He stored the [Enchantment Altar] before turning toward the hole they had used to enter the cave.

Getting back to the surface would be considerably easier than their initial descent, which was already easy enough.

Violet transformed into her dragon form, allowing Leon, Celeste, and Emilia to climb onto her back.

She then spread her wings and flew upward through the enormous opening, carrying everyone toward the surface.

After emerging from the hole, she headed toward the beach where they had initially spawned, landing near the shore with the neighboring island clearly visible in the distance.

Leon took out the altar and placed it on the sand.

Ding!

["Enchantment Altar" has been set.]

[Use your mana to enchant a boat, allowing it to traverse the sea while being protected from monsters.]

And just like that, they had solved every major problem on the island.

With the [Enchantment Altar] now placed on the surface, other players could finally enchant their boats without depending on the natives, including those who would arrive later.

They would be able to cross the sea safely and reach the next island without worrying about the monsters attacking their vessels.

"This is insane to me," Violet said as she sat down on the sand and laughed.

"What is?" Leon asked.

"I mean..." She looked toward him. "In the span of two hours, we somehow managed to get rid of an entire civilization of natives and fix every problem on this island that was probably present for decades."

"Well..." Leon sighed. "That’s what I’m aiming for, isn’t it?"

"What is?" Emilia asked.

"Overwhelming strength."

Leon looked toward the horizon before turning back to the girls.

"The four of us need to become so powerful that no matter who we face, we’ll be able to deal with them quickly and easily. That’s the only reason we managed to accomplish all of this in such a short time."

"Wow..."

The girls understood what he meant.

Their strength had allowed them to eliminate every native connected to the gods, defeat the monster guarding the hidden village, and retrieve the altar without encountering any difficulties.

"We’ll tell the other players what happened, then go on our way," Leon said. "I want to see if this domain has any other places like this so I can deal with them too."

After all, their objective was still to reach the Heretic King, and Leon had no intention of wasting time once they had finished dealing with the problems standing in their way.