It was not until after dark that Hikaru and the others made it to the evacuation camp located on the southern part of the continent. The travel itself didn't take long, but the soldiers, who had been under extremely tense situations since last night, were exhausted, and so was Hikaru, so they had to rest.

Expecting the revolt and the monster attack to happen, Hikaru discussed with Doriach the construction of the camp. It was built in secret to reduce the chances of Ludend or Deena finding out about it. As such, there were only minimal facilities in place.

The citizens gathered around for a briefing in the morning. Ludend's rebellion and the subsequent quelling. The monster attack. The numerous casualties. Duinkler's death, especially, shocked the people.

Ludend and the rest of the rebels were on a s.h.i.+p headed for Vireocean. Since they were all quite literally on the same boat, lynching or revolts would most likely not happen.

This, of course, led to complaints from those who were left behind. Why did the rebels get to be the first to flee while they were stuck in the camp, cowering in fear of monsters? Gin, the man practically in charge of the camp, had his hands full in calming them down.

『Why did I get this job?!』he cried, but no one consoled him.

Meanwhile, Hikaru did not join the briefing. Together with Lavia, Paula, and Drake, they went somewhere far from the camp. They had to use Stealth to lose Paula's bodyguards since those men would definitely follow them.

To the south of the camp was nothing but empty, open wilderness. The camp had to be built in secret to prevent Koukimaru from finding out about it. Or perhaps he already found out about the camp's existence, but ignored it anyway.

I don't think humans can live here, Hikaru thought.

The fertility of the land aside, the sunlight was strong and there was no water. Above them were blue skies with no cloud in sight. Perhaps it didn't even rain at all here. Hikaru and the girls stopped behind a hill that served as a s.h.i.+eld.

「I think here's good enough. I'm sure the hill will block loud sounds.」

Hikaru came here for one thing only.

『Hmm… yeah. I think here's fine.』

Drake fluttered in the air and landed on the ground. He then started sniffing around. Is this really a drakon? Looks more like a dog to me, Hikaru thought.

「All right. I'll shoot first. If it's not enough, I'll be counting you, Lavia.」

「Okay.」

「Good luck, Hikaru-sama!」

「Lavia already did all the hard work, though.」

Hikaru held the revolver—loaded with six bullets; he had three extra—tight in his hand, aiming it at the wasteland before him. The original six bullets were still rechargeable, but the ones that Katy made were ruined after a few uses.

All nine bullets were loaded with Flame Gospel.

「Here goes nothing.」Hikaru said as he pulled the trigger six times in one go.

His vision turned incredibly bright as ma.s.sive flames spewed out of the muzzle. About twenty meters in front of them, pillars of flame rose with every deafening bang.

「c.r.a.p. Let's get outta here!」

The flames didn't seem to die down. They all took shelter as it was too hot to stay where they were.

「Will it work?」

Hikaru was trying to dig a huge hole. He thought Lavia's spells would do the trick quick. This would normally be a job for earth type magic, but Lavia specialized in fire magic. She didn't have any points available at the moment. Even if she did, without knowing the incantation, learning earth magic would be useless.

「I don't know. It might just burn the surface. Should I learn other types of magic, after all?」

「Hmm… I think you should once you have spare points. We've just been using our Soul Boards a little too randomly.」

「H-Hikaru-sama! What about me?! I can make up for what Lavichan can't do.」

「Ah, yes. That's a good idea. But then you'd be more of a jack of all trades, while not really mastering any. No, wait. I guess we just have to raise our Soul Ranks higher and higher.」

「You're not planning on adding more members to our party?」Lavia asked.

「I've thought about it, but it's hard to find people you can really trust.」

「I see… Okay.」

「He doesn't plan on having a harem at the moment」Lavia muttered under her breath. Drake was talking to Hikaru so he didn't hear what she said.

『The flames are dying!』

「Right. Let's go check it out.」

When they returned to the place where Hikaru had shot the spells, the earth around them was charred black, the air around so hot that it seemed to burn the skin. The ground had turned into a huge mortar, but with a depth of only three meters.

Underneath the blackish color, the earth seemed to s.h.i.+ne. Apparently the ground had turned into molten gla.s.s due to high heat.

「Not very efficient, huh.」Hikaru said.

「Looks like it. What now?」

「Hmm…」Hikaru wracked his brains hard.

「My Lady! My Lady! You're all right!」

Paula's bodyguards came running from afar, their faces so desperate that Hikaru couldn't help but feel a little scared.

As soon as they arrived, it took five minutes to confirm Paula's safety, and five more minutes to tell her about how they were scared to death when an explosion occurred while they were searching for her.

「You are free to do anything you want, but if you can, there is no greater joy for us if you tell us where you are going.」Galixon said with teary eyes.

「I-I'm sorry…」Paula answered gingerly.

All in all it took a little over ten minutes.

『So what were you doing exactly?』

Aware that Lavia could speak their language, they asked her to translate.

「We were trying to dig a hole.」Hikaru said bluntly.

Galixon nodded.「In that case, just leave it to us!」he declared as he tapped his fist on his chest.

The other men flexed their muscles as well.

「Tch… I-I'm not… jealous at all.」Hikaru felt a sense of defeat seeing their clearly superior physique.

After that, they returned to the camp to borrow some tools from Gin.

『What? What are you digging a hole for?』Gin asked, but Hikaru ignored him.『Hey, why are you ignoring me?!』

The Flower Masked G.o.ddess Bodyguards, now known as the Muscle Squad Born to Dig a Huge Hole, went down the hole, smashed the gla.s.s like a thin sheet of ice, and started digging.

「Wow, they're fast.」

「We should've just done this from the start.」

「Yeah. Relying on magic and magic items for everything might be a bad habit of mine.」

「Well, earth magic can do the job too. Should I learn it?」

「So we're back to that. Wait, you want to learn it too?」

「Hehehe. I've always wanted to say “Since when were you under the impression that I could only use fire magic?”」

「I see.」

Apparently it was a line from a tale in this world, spoken by a Sage. Hikaru though the author, perhaps the Sage himself—most of the stories in this world were nonfiction—was definitely from Earth. He refrained from telling her, however.

The men spent the rest of the day digging the hole. Gin arrived while they were in the middle of their work.

『What, you guys making a well or something?』he said.『There's one over there.』

Hikaru couldn't use that one for experimenting. If it failed, those at the camp would surely give him h.e.l.l for it.

「Thank you, everyone.」Hikaru said.「I think that's deep enough.」

「I'm glad we could be of service.」Galixon answered with a smile.

It was hard to imagine that he was once covered in blood, cutting down enemies in a frenzy.

The sun was starting to set, bathing the open wasteland in an orange glow. It was the first time Hikaru saw such a wide orange sky.

「All right. We're gonna check it out. You two wait here. 」

「Okay. Come back soon.」

「We will.」

Wrapping Drake around his neck, Hikaru went down the hole. Although narrow, there was a spiral path. The hole was over ten meters deep, the bottom two-meters wide. It was chilly, and the earth was a little damp.

「Well?」

『Yeah. I thought so. This place will do.』

Drake flashed a smile, exposing his teeth. Unfortunately, a drakon's smile was nothing but ferocious in Hikaru's eyes.

『Your destroying dragon stones reduced the evil influence in the land. I can feel the earth's vein.』

Underneath the earth were huge veins that ran through the planet. These veins were infused with mana which the magic items like the Linga's Quill Pen used for long-range communication.

But the dragon stones throughout the continent corrupted the veins, preventing the pen in Lands Harvest from working. Since there were no Roots on the southern part of the continent, Drake could feel the veins.

「So it'll work?」

『Yup. It's finally my time to s.h.i.+ne.』

Drake got off Hikaru's neck and sniffed the wall. Hikaru didn't know if there was a point in doing that.

『So when are we doing it?』

「As early as tomorrow. We'll have to explain this to Gin first. I don't know if they'll believe us, though.」

Hikaru heaved a sigh. If only he knew about this, he would've come up with a different strategy.

「Who would've known you could open a Drakon Pa.s.sage that directly connects this continent and Virocean?」