Nameless King

When Seal of Darkness was promoted to the second rank, Wain as the owner of Void, gained one unique ability. He could see a detailed map of the Voids under his control. However, this ability had one drawback.

Wain could not see places that he or the monsters had not yet visited. It was similar to how a character in a computer game would gradually discover a map exploring a virtual world.

"I don't know how long it took to recover, but hopefully, in that time, the monsters have had time to explore Frozen Land fully." Wain muttered and closed his eyes.

The next moment a huge 3D map appeared in his mind. Wain saw dozens of passageways, multi-level ice caves, and a vast snowy desert with hundreds of massive dunes. He also saw himself next to an ice lake.

Unlike the other monsters that looked like blue dots, his mark was a crown. Likewise, Frigus had a special mark, he was marked as a knight's sword.

"Apparently, they did a good job. I'm not sure, but it looks like they've explored more than half of the entire area. It's amazing..." Wain muttered.

The number of caves in the Ice Caves area had increased several times over what the place looked like before Wain's arrival. Thousands of crystals simultaneously grew in these places, waiting to be collected. It was like a natural crystal farm.

However, the second area was only partially explored. The monsters in the Snow Desert were less active.

'Hmm, that was to be expected. It's quite difficult to explore the area under the dunes, especially compared to the Ice Caves. Trolls can easily dig a deep cave of a few dozen meters in a day, but it's much harder to work with sand...' Wain thought.

Wain wasn't happy about it. He thought there might be some resources in the depths of the Snow Desert as well. He had to know somehow what was beneath the massive dunes.

"As far as I understand, Rank-F territories only have one resource growing, since after Ice Caves became Rank-E territories, another resource besides crystals started growing on it..." Wain pondered.

Then he shook his head, "No, that's a wrong theory. Ice Caves was a Rank-F territory before I came, but the energy crystals didn't start growing until I owned that Void. This means that Snow Desert can have two resources, or it can have zero.

I need to figure out how that works. Without that information, it's hard to make plans. By the way, I need to find out what new resource is growing in this area."

Wain looked closely at the map and saw that above the lake, one floor above, was a spacious room. Wain couldn't figure out what was there, but as he looked closer, he saw something.

"Are those trees...?" Wain muttered puzzled.

The map was quite detailed, but the detail was limited. That meant that Wain couldn't see where the energy crystals were growing, how many branches were on the trees, and other such minutiae.

'Hopefully, the efficiency and functionality of the map will improve in the future, but for now, it's enough. Without the map, I'd have to spend days exploring the paths to understand what the terrain I own looks like roughly.'

Wain shook his head and walked out of the room with the ice lake. When the monsters saw him, they bowed respectfully and stepped aside, letting him through.

They respected Wain for his strength and decision not to take energy crystals for himself, but after the incident with Frigus, their degree of trust went to a new level.

Of course, they too wanted Wain to help them as much as the Ice Knight, but they knew it wasn't that easy. The Ice Knight had a good relationship with Wain, and the monster had come close to getting through Awareness on his own.

Wain could not give names to all the monsters and make them much stronger, it was impossible. He could help them if all the conditions were met, but no more than that.

Also, Wain had suffered serious wounds, and he didn't want to take that risk again without the proper reward.

"Damn, the tree cave is on the next floor, but according to the map, it's going to take me quite a while to get there..." Wain muttered.

The caves were not flat. They were like dozens of threads that intertwined with each other, sometimes that was a plus, but sometimes it could cause problems. There was no direct path to the trees, so Wain decided to fix this flaw.

Whoooosh.

Two swords appeared in his hand, one of dark energy, the other of platinum and unbreakable. He jumped high up and plunged the dark sword into the ice, thus holding on to the ceiling.

Wain took a few swings and cut through the ice cube. It fell down with a rumble, shattering into many shards. It wasn't enough, so Wain continued to climb up using this method.

Crackling.

After a minute, Wain cut his way through and climbed to the top. There he saw Frigus looking up at the icy trees.

"Hello. I see you're feeling better." Frigus said calmly.

"Yes." Wain nodded. "It was difficult, but I don't regret what I did. Tell me, how long was I in the ice lake?"

"If I'm not mistaken, six or seven days."

"Ugh. That's quite a lot, the time keeps getting shorter and shorter..." Mumbled Wain.

He was a little frustrated, for the island was just over fifty days away. In that time, he needed to find the last part of the map, the air transport, and prepare for the journey.

'Looks like I won't have time to evolve. Okay, it's not that important. I doubt there's a single person who's had time to evolve twice in five months. It's impossible.' Wain thought.

Wain spent a lot of time on his first evolution and recovering from each of the deadly battles. However, anyone who wanted to progress quickly had to put his life in danger, just as Wain did.

This meant that even if there was a man as strong and fast as Wain, their progress was at best the same. At worst, Wain was way ahead, especially given his progress in the World of Darkness, as well as his Title - The First.

Wain wanted to ask Frigus about the ice trees, but the Knight beat him to it.

"Wain, you have recovered, but you need to eat." Frigus said, pointing at Wain.

His body was gaunt, and he looked as if he had been starving for weeks.

"Right... When was the last time I ate?" Wain muttered.

The average person would begin to feel hungry a few hours after eating. Wain was no exception, but thanks to his high stats, he could stay energetic and not be distracted by eating for much longer.

However, he spent a week in an ice lake, and before that, he fought in Dungeon. Wain had expended a large amount of energy and needed to eat to replenish his reserves.

He required a lot more food than the average person since his reserves were larger, and he spent a significant amount of energy during battles and healing.

Wain decided to check his supplies, and the Ring of Damned glowed brightly, but instead of a feast and variety of food, Wain was disappointed. All he had left was one tin.

"Yep...I totally forgot about the food. I should have told Gisle about it, given his influence. The organization's warehouse should have all the canned goods and other long-term foods from around town."

During the apocalypse, for the first few months, people were eating canned and frozen foods, it was obvious.

Of course, this was enough to survive, but many were not satisfied and tried to get food some other way. The quickest option was to plant something or find miraculously surviving non-mutant animals.

Fortunately, because thousands had died, there was enough food to sustain them for at least half a year. Otherwise, humanity would have already faced such a serious problem as famine, which would have been the second beginning of the apocalypse.

The deaths of some saved the lives of others. It was rather ironic and cruel, but it was true.

Click.

Wain effortlessly opened the can and ate it all in seconds. It wasn't enough, and Wain tried to figure out where he could get food. After a while, Wain remembered his new acquaintance, a real, walking black hole.

"Frigus, do you know where Black Rabbit is now?"

"No." The Ice Knight shook his head. "Probably asleep or speaking to someone. I never thought a monster could be so talkative."

Wain wasn't going to run all over the Void looking for Black Rabbit, but he was very hungry. Then the monsters standing at the entrance to this cave caught his attention. Wain decided to use his powers and give them some orders.

"Hey, you! Find the talking trunk and bring it to me now!" Wain said menacingly.

The monsters flinched and scattered in different directions. They didn't want to make Wain angry, so they would try to comply with his request as soon as possible.

After that, Wain finally looked at the ice trees. He had come here for them. Even though there was nothing but ice and crystals in the Ice Caves, these trees could grow here.

They sprouted from the ice, and then, with Soul Essence floating in the air, they grew in size and stronger.

The Ice Trees were something like an oak trees. These trees were up to fifteen meters tall. Their bark was like a strong protective layer of crystals. There were few glass-like leaves on the branches, with a slight blue tint, but the trees were not the main characters of this picture.

"Are these fruits?" Asked Wain pointing to the blue fruit hanging from the branches of the trees.

"Yes." Frigus nodded. "I'm not sure, but they must be ripe. It's been almost seven days since these trees have been here."

"I see. The fruit ripens once a week, that's fast, but it's pretty small, isn't it?" Mumbled Wain.

"While I was here, I had time to count everything. There are exactly forty trees, with four to six fruits growing on each. That makes an average of two hundred fruits growing in a week in this place." Said Frigus.

"Two hundred...that's a big number, but considering the total number of monsters, it's not enough. It would take seven weeks for every monster to get at least one fruit."

"Yes, but the fruits are quite large. If you divide each one into seven pieces, then every week, all the monsters will get their share."

"Fine, we'll do that."

Wain wanted peace in his territories. Of course, small conflicts were inevitable, but they could be resolved by sparring.

This was a great solution since sparring also helped the monsters test their skills and training results in practice.

His monsters should fight to the death only during a war against other Voids. He was fortunate that he was able to subdue such wild creatures as monsters through the idea of crystals.

Step.

He made his way to one of the trees and took a close look at the fruit hanging on a branch. It was the size of a large grapefruit.

The fruit was shaped like a perfect blue sphere with a white spot on the bottom. There were several icy spikes on the rind.

Wain touched the fruit, and information about it appeared in front of him. He didn't want to pluck the fruit prematurely.

[Delicate Icefruit (First Chronicle, Common Rating)

It is a fruit that grows on ice trees in places with low temperatures and special conditions. Despite its appearance, it is a delicate fruit, which requires a unique approach.

Delicate Icefruit is a drupe fetus, and the massive pit can ruin the delicate and soft flesh of the fruit. You have to remove it without destroying its structure to prevent this. This is quite easy but requires a certain level of skill and care.

Delicate Icefruit is perfect for those who love refreshments. Each bite is like a breath of fresh air coming from the glaciers, with a slight sweetness and sourness.

This fruit is suitable for all creatures, with the exception of creatures with the fire attribute. The icy energy found in the fruit can harm them and prevent them from storing energy from their environment for a while.

Delicate Icefruit contains a large amount of energy to help any creature progress faster, especially creatures with the ice attribute. Also, this fruit is quite nourishing and can help restore energy reserves in a critical situation.

*Increases resistance to ice attribute by 5% for a short time.

This fruit is quite rare and has no amazing properties, but it can be used in alchemy to make various potions and not only].

"Hmm, not bad, but now there's another thing on my task list. I need to find an alchemist somewhere. It won't be easy..."

"Wain!" Suddenly there was a shout from the other side.

He turned around and saw Black Rabbit running toward him with a tea set in his hands.