Rishi looks for a suitable Wyverm and turns it into a shadow creature. He then creates a comfortable seat using shadow energy and attacks it with its back. He sits on his back and invites Kajal. With a smile on her face, the black-haired girl joins him and sits before him.
The black-colored, three-meter-long creature with a wingspan of seven meters opens its bat-like wings with claws attached to them. It straightens its neck and raises its wings. It gently flaps them and slowly takes off, launching itself into the sky and then slowly gliding in the air.
The cold breeze greets the faces of the couple sitting on their backs. The long, silky hair of the girl danced like snake and touched the face of the boy sitting behind her. Instead of getting irritated, the boy enjoys their touch. They look at the place from the sky and discover its beauty.
Rishi notices many flying creatures that ignore them when they sense the pressure from the wyvern. This pressure could only be felt by the creatures with draconic bloodlines. It was why Rishi didn't use his contract beast as a mount in this place.
The boy and girl enjoyed their time, and the meeting after a small interval made them excited. They felt refreshed and joyful about meeting each other again; the feeling of missing something that was constantly lingering in their minds dissipated. After enjoying this moment and their ride through the area, they go back to their shelter.
Instead of creating another bed for himself like he usually does, Rishi quietly lays down beside her. His eyes gently closed, but the rest of his senses focused on noticing any change in the environment, trying to find even little details, and making sure that the girl beside him was not uncomfortable. After making sure that everything is fine, he releases a sigh and quickly falls asleep.
The next day, Rishi decides to look at the things he has not sorted out. He calmly examines the items he received from the pouches and storage of both tribes. He finds some very precious elixirs and treasures and divides them into various categories.
He uses his 'inspect' skill whenever necessary, after he is done. He finds out that the only item left is an old map. He inspects it carefully and finds out that it has clues related to some treasure. There were many letters he had discovered in the storage pouch of the female priest. After desciphering them, he discovered they were related to leading her tribe somewhere.
From what he heard, it led to the location of a strange fruit. This fruit was called dragon fruit. Rishi's eyes opened in surprise. He had heard about it from the memories of the priest, but there was not much detailed information on it. He looked at the map and clenched it tightly. It looked like this was a very precious treasure from this realm.
He wanted it, but from the information he had, it was very tough to obtain. He needed more strength; he needed a powerful force because he would face various forces that would fight among themselves to obtain it. This was a big goal and required careful planning and preparation.
From the information he had gathered, there was still some time until the fruit ripened and became ready to be used. This was big because, to complete it, Rishi needed to have a strong ally. "If I can increase the number of my Shadow Soldiers and increase their overall quality, I would have much better chances to obtain it, but for it I will need an Ally. Now that I think about it, why does it ring a bell?"
He thought for a moment before a certain someone came to mind. He clenched his hands, making the decision, "It looks like it's time to meet him."
***
Rishi gathered the shadow creatures, addressed them, and said, Everyone, it's time for all of us to meet that hidden being. I know everyone here is eager to meet him, but to meet him, we will need to find him. I have gotten clues; all you need to do is follow my commands, and we will discover his location."
Strange noises appeared around him. The shadow creatures were excited to meet him. Rishi was not bothered by it; he wanted to use this to his advantage and find the location faster. He drew a map after combining every piece of knowledge he had gathered. He then divided them into teams and sent them to different areas of the swamp.
The Saurus tribe priest had already searched the whole forest area and had still not discovered any traces of the location of its temple, so Rishi believed that there was a high chance that it was hidden in swamps. He asked his shadow creatures to search the swamp, especially the inner area.
Lizardman had a limitation: they needed to hold their breath while entering the water. Even the skinks could hold their breath for an hour at most. While shadows didn't have any such requirements, their ability to see in darkness also assisted them in searching deeper into the water.
Rishi used each of their advantages and systematically separated the whole swamp after dividing it into small areas. He found many other things while doing so. Still, his main focus was still searching for that place. His shadowfish creatures helped him a lot.
The search continued for some time, and there were few results. Some creatures have noticed some traces, but nothing more significant has been found. He was just enjoying his time with Kajal and trying to distract himself from the matter of searching for the shrine of the 'Ruler of Shadows.'
Kajal could sense that he was tense and worried about something. She tried to comfort him and motivate him. Rishi calmed himself down and thanked her; he then suddenly started to think in a different way. His eyes, shining golden, shut themselves, and he got lost in his thoughts.
He started dissecting the information and thinking about what he would have done if he were 'Ruler of Shadows'; he didn't have anyone that liked him here. So he would choose a place that is secluded and harder to discover. It could only be discovered by someone with shadow affinity.
After thinking for some more time, an idea appeared in his mind. He asked all his shadow creatures to look for the darkest place in the swamp. It took some time, and he got the location of many such places. He noted them and divided them into teams before sending them to explore these places, asking them to search for anything unusual.
This time it took a lot of time, as they searched everything carefully. The one that returned first told him that there was nothing unusual, and one after them, all of the teams reported him. It was then that his lucky charm, Nimo, appeared. It told him of a strange location that had a large amount of strange darkness.
The light suddenly disappears, and anything that moves toward the bottom of that strange rock disappears. After checking carefully, it was found that there is a strange whirpool below the rock that pulls everything towards itself. Anything that enters it never comes back.
"Could it be?" Rishi's eyes lit up when he heard it. He stood up and decided to look for himself.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺