Ten days later, a lightly equipped adventurer party set out from the fortress city of E-Rantel, heading north toward the Tob Great Forest.
Encircling the southern stretch of the Angelisia Mountain Range, the Tob Great Forest formed a vast U-shaped expanse of primeval woodland. It supplied humanity with abundant biological resources—medicinal herbs, timber, and game.
But deep within the forest lurked countless dangerous monsters.
Ordinary people could only gather within roughly a hundred meters of the forest's edge. Adventurers with some strength would venture deeper in search of rarer herbs or treasure, where dense explained foliage crushed visibility down to barely ten meters.
And as visibility dropped, the number of lurking monsters skyrocketed.
One careless step could mean being ambushed from the darkness.
But that era was over.
A broad concrete road—leveled and reinforced with earth-style ninjutsu—now ran straight through the forest, linking its northern reaches to the Angelisia Mountains.
As for the so-called three great rulers of the forest—
The southern great monster Forest Sage King,
The regenerating battle ogre Eastern Giant,
And the Western Demon Serpent, whose upper body resembled an elderly man while its lower half was a snake—
All of them had been captured and taken to Konoha.
The weaker monsters that remained were hardly worth mentioning.
The only thing that truly gave the combat ninjas trouble—causing real casualties—was discovered during a carpet-style sweep of the forest's northeastern depths:
A massive plant-type monster.
According to ninja reconnaissance, its strength surpassed that of an ordinary Shadow-level combatant. Chiyo of Sunagakure had been forced to retreat after clashing with it.
If not for the creature's inability to move freely, Chiyo would likely have perished on the other continent.
"President," Minako reported as she rode beside him,
"according to intelligence Iwagakure obtained from the Slane Theocracy, the monster is known as the Dragon King of Destruction—Setorquay."
"It's one of the terrifying beings that appeared when the sky was torn open hundreds of years ago. It possesses the power to destroy the world, and was later defeated or sealed by the True Dragon Kings."
Traveling via an avatar, Uchiha Soren listened calmly.
Beside him rode Uzumaki Minako, mounted on a warhorse.
Soren himself sat atop a peculiar four-legged beast—hamster-like in appearance, with silver-white fur and a snake's tail. Its body exceeded two meters in length, while its scale-covered tail stretched over twenty meters.
Its fur was soft, with the texture of a top-tier sofa.
This creature was none other than Hamsuke, the former Forest Sage King.
After having over ten jin of blood drawn and parts of its fur and scales harvested, it had been spared—and now served as Soren's mount as they strolled through the Tob Great Forest.
Back on its native ground, Hamsuke wore a look of lingering fear mixed with the joy of surviving disaster. It walked briskly along the solid concrete road.
Its keen nose could smell countless monster corpses buried beneath the soil.
As a result, while it feared the great figure riding on its back, it also felt an indescribable sense of security.
Stick with the boss—three meals a day.
Behind Hamsuke rode Chiyo, along with several Sunagakure ninjas tasked with logistics.
The three women of the Four Weapons followed as well. Soren had deliberately brought them along to broaden their horizons.
Among the humans of the Magic Continent, Orichalcum-rank adventurers were already rare elites.
But by ninja-world standards, they were merely around elite chūnin level.
Facing a being like the Dragon King of Destruction, this was a perfect opportunity to shatter complacency.
Chiyo watched Soren's back, her thoughts drifting inevitably to the scene of her first encounter with the magic tree.
A main trunk over a hundred meters tall.
Six tentacle-like branches extending beyond three hundred meters.
And beneath the center of the trunk—a gaping mouth ringed with horrific, saw-like teeth.
The aura it emitted felt like a berserk tailed beast—at least equivalent to Five-Tails level.
(The Magic Continent is just like the ninja world…)
(There are weaklings beyond count—and monsters beyond reason.)
A trace of worry crept into Chiyo's heart.
Following Soren was one thing—but what about Shukaku's jinchūriki, Bunpuku, and the Sunagakure forces dispatched to the desert city?
If they encountered something like the Dragon King of Destruction, one mistake could plunge Sunagakure into irreversible decline.
Fortunately, Hanzo of the Salamander had also suffered losses under a Baharuth Empire counter-ambush. The war had entered a true stalemate.
Iwagakure's conflict with the Slane Theocracy was advancing more and more slowly as well. With Amegakure as a cautionary example, the Fifth Tsuchikage Han had grown increasingly cautious.
Among the three great villages, Kirigakure—the strongest—had chosen the same approach as Konoha in its campaign against the Kingdom while subjugating the Argland Council State: steadily replacing local demi-human administrators.
Recently, rumors spoke of them encountering a particularly troublesome obstacle.
With the top three villages all bogged down, Chiyo finally breathed easier. At least Sunagakure wasn't being left completely behind.
She silently offered her blessings to Bunpuku's distant expedition—
May everything go smoothly.
Unaware of her thoughts, Soren spoke evenly.
"The Magic Continent is no weaker than the ninja world. There were the True Dragon Kings before—and now otherworldly invaders."
"Today, we'll use the Dragon King of Destruction, Setorquay, as a warm-up."
"Minako," he added calmly,
"this battle is yours."
Six Paths–level combat was difficult for Soren to restrain.
But anything below that?
He was confident.
Minako returned his words with a gentle, assured smile.
As time passed and the concrete road ended, the group dismounted and proceeded on foot into the forest.
Before long, a scene of utter desolation unfolded.
A colossal, sky-piercing magic tree—reminiscent of something straight out of cosmic horror—stood rooted in the land.
Six dragon-like branch-tentacles pierced deep into the earth.
The surrounding trees and soil visibly turned gray and ashen, all vitality being drained and devoured to fuel the monster's growth.
For those from the ninja world—already accustomed to colossal tailed beasts—the sight was shocking, but comprehensible.
For the three women of the Four Weapons, however…
They stared in utter disbelief at Setorquay, coiled across the land.
Like ants gazing upon an elephant, their instincts screamed absolute helplessness.
All past pride shattered in an instant.
"Above level eighty… but not yet ninety," Soren murmured.
"A transcendent. Minako—this is perfect for you."
Linking his consciousness to the Sea of Magic, Soren used high-level insight empowered by his formidable spiritual strength.
He pinpointed Setorquay's power range.
At the same time, the dense other-dimensional aura clinging to the creature stirred something in his heart.
(Looks like… I won't be bored in the future.)
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