The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon hearing Minos' suggestion, the members of the frightened crew fell temporarily silent as they considered what might happen if they followed the two options.

'If we try to go back the way we came, we'll have to face that.' The level 92 Sea Folk woman looked to the south and saw that the energy circles were much more fierce now. 'I don't think we'll make it back in one piece. Besides, we won't have any proof except our memories."

Although the Sea Folk could share their memories, which was enough for this woman to convince her people that there was something in the North Sea, it couldn't compare to having one of those giant armors.

With just one of those and the essence that Minos had gotten his hands on earlier, they could convince the entire Spiritual World to attack the North Sea!

Without it, it would take months or years to put together a minimally relevant alliance. But with just one of those beings, they could attract the attention of even the level 99 Demigods of the Spiritual World!

'The risks would be great, but we would have almost no interesting information. In short, we'd be taking a lot of risks for little benefit.' She thought to herself.

'Not if we venture north.' She looked in that direction and clenched her fists.

The wounded dragon did the same, imagining it would be just as dangerous or more so to go north instead of back south, but the rewards for the risks would be much greater.

'If I get one of these for my dragon tribe, I'll be rewarded considerably by the elders.' He thought to himself.

Then Ruth said. "We will have to face them sooner or later. In the future, they will be even more prepared to deal with us or others, and we won't have a chance to discover their weaknesses until they are ready to deal with us. 

Better to take the risk now than in the future! At least we'll get valuable information for our people!"

Listening to the black-haired human, the Fish People, as well as the Arctic Whale and other sea creatures in the group, looked at each other in agreement.

"All right. We're ready to proceed." The strongest Kraken in the group said as he looked at Minos.

"Since we've come this far, there's no reason for us to stop now!" One of the phoenixes said.

The other agreed. "We managed to defeat one of them. Then we'll definitely be able to fight others!"

In the blink of an eye, almost everyone agreed, while Dunyxa felt like she was in a crew of madmen.

Unfortunately, with most of them ready to move on, there was nothing anyone who was afraid of the situation ahead could do. If she tried to return south alone, she would surely be killed by the enemy's defenses!

With no options left, they and those who weren't so lucky had no choice but to agree to continue their journey into the depths of the North Sea.

'Damn it! I'll probably die in the next confrontation!' Dunyxa thought, feeling rather frightened by what had happened earlier, as she looked at Titus and saw that annoying fellow laughing.

'What's wrong with this old fox? He's weaker than me. Isn't he afraid to die?'

Titus didn't want to die. But after all he had learned from Minos and all he felt he could learn from the invaders of the world, he was full of desire to continue this journey.

That was a chance for him to learn the truth about this world!

As Titus laughed, Minos smiled at his crew and gave his orders. "Then let's go!"

With that, their ship would soon be moving again, this time without any strange phenomena in front of it other than those common in the seas around the Spiritual World.

...

Meanwhile, on one of the few islands in the central part of the North Sea...

On an island with an area of about 5 square kilometers and a large volcano in its center, a beam of energy continuously shot out from the inside of the volcano toward the sky.

While this white beam of energy seemed to go on forever, several lines and circles like the ones Minos had seen earlier could be seen in the sky of that area.

Some of them spread out in all directions, indicating that such a thing covered the entire North Sea. Meanwhile, some of these special circles and lines formed what looked like a semi-transparent dome.

From inside that protected area, you could see all those lines and circles of energy in the sky or even the beam of white energy to infinity. But from outside that area, none of that could be seen.

Not only that, if you looked at this place from a distance, you would see this island as just another ordinary piece of land. But if you looked from inside that dome, you would see that the huge volcano was filled with complex structures on its side walls, with various entrances and exits here and there.

If one were to float above its top, one would see several entrances between the entire volcano and the lava plane, through which various green creatures with big black eyes, big hands and feet, and small bodies would go from one side to the other.

Meanwhile, giant armors like the one Minos and his crew had faced earlier would pass through occasionally, carrying things or flying back and forth.

Meanwhile, in the center of this gigantic secret base, the strongest man in the place, level 91, was being updated on yet another incident around his North Sea.

"Commander, a Protector has just moved to the southwest of the North Sea. It seems that another crew of fools from this world is trying to challenge us." A being very similar to many of the others around this facility said to his leader while standing on a plane closest to the lava of this volcano.

Hearing this level 89 Sage, the level 91 Demigod, who was sitting with his eyes closed in meditation, continued as he was but said. "Another group? This is becoming more and more common, isn't it? In the past 100 years, we've faced ten times more enemies than in the past 500 years. Have the inhabitants of this world noticed us?"

"Impossible." The Sage said, thinking his leader was joking. "Those peasants are light years away from our Mechanic Empire! Not even the greatest blacksmith or array master in this small world could understand our robots and formations. How could they know about us?"