System's POV
chapter-272-1

"Uncle Boo, have you caught any fish?" A teenage boy with short blonde hair asked.

"Kids these days have no patience," a man, who seemed to be in his late forties, muttered. "Listen here, kiddo. Fishing is not just about catching fish. It's a spiritual act that allows you to temper your willpower, as well as your mental strength."

"… Uncle, it's okay. We will share the fish we caught with you," the teenage boy said with a wry smile on his face. "I mean, all of us have already caught more than thirty fish. It's alright even if you couldn't catch any, you know?"

The middle-aged man, whom the boy called Uncle Boo, lightly cleared his throat before shooing the kids away with his hand.

"You guys can go ahead and grill that fish, Lambert," Uncle Boo said. "I'm not hungry yet."

"Okay, if you say so." Lambert nodded. "Guys, pack up. We're going back to the camp."

"Um, aren't you going to try to at least persuade me to come with you guys?"

"Nah. Men with no backbone are not popular with the ladies."

"You bastard child!" Uncle Boo glared at Lambert, turning the boy into stone.

The other teenagers who saw their comrade get turned into stone chuckled before leaving the petrified boy behind.

"Everyone run! Uncle Boo is getting embarrassed again!"

"Last one to run will get turned into stone!"

"Hahaha!"

Uncle Boo snorted before returning to his fishing. Clearly, he intended to only leave the river once he had caught a fish. He didn't believe that he would be unable to catch anything if he tried.

Thirteen watched this scene unravel from a safe distance and frowned. Everything that he saw seemed unreal that he was having a hard time believing it.

According to Tiona, the middle-aged man named Uncle Boo was the Beholder that they were looking for.

Monsters transforming into human form wasn't uncommon. In fact, it was very common, especially for Rank 7 Monsters and above.

But not all monsters would choose to transform into demi-humans because they felt like it was beneath them to take such a form.

'Why are the Wanderers acting as if one of their comrades getting petrified isn't a big deal?' Thirteen thought. 'Have they been brainwashed?'

When he returned to the Second Island, he told his sister and the others about the current situation on the First Island. After that, Thirteen didn't tarry and immediately began his trip to the Fourth Island, intending to check the Pyramid located there.

However, just like he did on the First Island, he decided to check the conditions of the Wanderers first.

Unlike the First Island, where the Unicorn had gathered the girls to serve him and left the boys behind, the Beholder in the Fourth Island seemed to have integrated himself with the team of Wanderers, even allowing them to call him Uncle Boo.

Jinns and Majins liked to eat humans.

But, they loved to eat Wanderers more because they were like a delicacy to them.

This was why Thirteen found the relationship between the Beholder and the Wanderers on the Fourth Island truly strange.

Not only were the kids getting along with the Beholder, they didn't even seem worried when one of their comrades had been turned into stone right in front of them.

Just as Thirteen was thinking about these things, the petrified Wanderer returned to a normal state as if nothing had happened.

"Hah~ Uncle Boo. You should learn to control that temper of yours," Lambert said. "You won't get popular with the ladies if you're always like this."

"Shut up, or do you want me to turn you into a stone and throw you at the sea?" Uncle Boo snorted. "I'm sure you'll be popular with the fishes there."

Lambert lightly cleared his throat before walking away while whistling. Clearly, he pretended that he didn't hear what the Beholder had said and went back to their camp to eat some fish.

Seeing this scene, Thirteen couldn't help but scratch his head.

He didn't know what to feel or think about this sudden turn of events.

Of course, he knew that there were Majins who liked to coexist with people, and some of them even became the Guardian Deity of several human cities.

But seeing the Beholder, who was known as one of the fiercest and deadliest Majins in existence, act like this made him wonder if Uncle Boo was an exception to his racial traits.

'Well, as long as they are safe, I guess I don't need to make contact with them,' Thirteen thought before he stealthily left the scene and went to the cave were Blacky was currently resting.

He didn't dare to bring Blacky near the Beholder because there was a risk that the Rank 8 Sovereign would feel the presence of a lower-ranked Sovereign.

The last thing he wanted to happen was for Blacky to become dog food to the Beholder.

Uncle Boo, who was still fishing, glanced in the direction where Thirteen had been hiding earlier with a calm expression on his face.

He stared in that direction for half a minute before pulling his attention back to fishing. Until he caught at least one fish to show the Wanderers that he, too, could catch them, he had no plans on returning to the camp.

After nearly an hour of backtracking, Thirteen reached the cave were Blacky was currently resting and saw the Nightmare Black Hound chewing a piece of bone that belonged to a monster that it had killed the day before.

"Tiona, remember—safety first," Thirteen stated.

Tiona nodded her head in understanding before burrowing into the ground.

The ten-year-old took a deep breath before closing his eyes to meditate.

While the Beholder's actions confused him, he knew that this was the perfect opportunity for Tiona to do her infiltration mission.

The Black Snake swam under the ground at great speeds, reaching her destination in just fifteen minutes.

She had gained a bit of confidence after her first infiltration mission against the Unicorn, so she was feeling more motivated than last time in checking the second pyramid in the Arcadia Archipelago.

After triple checking that the Beholder was truly not within the Pyramid, Tiona poked her head out of the ground and looked around at her surroundings.

The structure of the two Pyramids were nearly identical.

Since she had already visited one of them, it was not that hard for her to find out where the rooms containing the writings were located.

Using her previous experience, Tiona crawled up the wall and moved towards the center of the Pyramid.

Just as she expected, the room with the Monolith was in the same place. The only difference was that instead of purple, the color of the tablet in this particular room was gold.

Tiona looked at the tablet from top to bottom and from bottom to top, making sure that she had seen everything.

When she was done, she went to the next room and looked at the symbols written on the monoliths and walls.

Unlike what happened in the First Pyramid, the Beholder neither returned nor showed any signs that he had detected someone inside the Pyramid.

This emboldened Tiona, but she still practiced safety above all.

Her Master had repeatedly told her that overconfidence was a slow and insidious killer. So, even if she wasn't sensing any threat in her surroundings, she made sure to keep her guard up and to be prepared for anything.

Three hours later, Tiona had already visited all the rooms in the Pyramid, as well as seen all the symbols on the Pyramid's walls.

After making sure that she had truly visited all the rooms, the Black Snake once again burrowed herself on the ground in order to head back to her Master.

Thirteen, who had been paying close attention to Tiona, sighed in relief before opening his eyes.

However, as soon as he regained his vision, the first thing he saw was a middle-aged man crouching in front of him with an amused look on his face.

Blacky, who was supposed to be guarding Thirteen, was curled up behind the boy and shivered from time to time.

As much as he wanted to protect his Master, there was simply no way he could do anything to a Rank 8 Sovereign, who was now looking at the ten-year-old with a devilish smile on his face.