Along with a slight sensation of weightlessness, the white light before his eyes gradually faded.
When Nate opened his eyes again, that oppressive military tunnel had vanished without a trace.
In its place was a vast primordial forest, the kind that seemed to exist only in science fiction films.
Giant trees dozens of meters tall blotted out the sky, and thick vines coiled like dragons around rocks blanketed in glowing moss.
A heavy, humid scent hung in the air, and the low roar of some enormous creature drifted faintly to his ears.
Nate looked around.
Just as Hiroshi had said earlier, entering the Ruins meant being scattered by indiscriminate random teleport.
Right now there wasn’t a soul around him.
The grand procession that had marched in together was long since dispersed across every corner of the Ruins.
He didn’t linger long where he was.
After a quick survey of the surrounding terrain, he picked a direction and set off, exploring toward the denser vegetation deeper in.
Rustle, rustle…
But Nate had barely gone a hundred meters when an unusual scraping sound suddenly came from the bushes to his right.
The next instant, an intensely frenzied, bloody gust slammed into his face!
Shing!
A massive mantis over two meters long, its body a dull yellow all over, eyes blood-red, came lunging out of the shadows brandishing forelimbs like a reaper’s scythes, carrying a nauseating, fishy stench, hurtling straight at Nate’s face!
[Flying Kamakiri #2, Level 4, Insect, ATK: 1500] Looking at this monster bearing down right in front of him, more than capable of slicing an ordinary person clean in half, Nate didn’t retreat even half a step.
Click!
The Duel Disk on his left arm unfolded in an instant.
His right hand drew a card from the Deck in one smooth motion and slammed it down hard onto the monster zone slot.
“Sparkman, take it out.” Nate’s voice held not a ripple as he simply pointed forward, offhand.
Boom!!
A blinding golden bolt of thunder cracked out of thin air, and [Elemental HERO Sparkman], his body wreathed in high-voltage arcs, instantly planted himself before Nate, raising both arms without hesitation.
[Elemental HERO Sparkman, ATK: 1600] Zzzrt!
The 1,600-attack lightning blast turned into a thunderbolt as thick as a barrel and crashed hard into the [Flying Kamakiri #2] in midair.
Without even a sliver of room to struggle, that menacing yellow mantis monster was pierced through by the violent thunder in midair, then burst with a bang into a cloud of light particles.
The particles swiftly coalesced in the air, finally forming a physical card that drifted slowly down.
Nate stepped forward, pinched the falling card between his fingers, and glanced at it.
[Flying Kamakiri #2] Nate casually tucked it into the card holder at his side.
The card wasn’t of much use to his current Deck, but as a generic resource or something to trade later, it always held value.
Without wasting time on this small fry, Nate put the card away and continued toward the depths of the Ruins.
About half an hour later, Nate stopped at a clearing.
He’d gained quite a lot along the way.
Besides that first [Flying Kamakiri #2], he’d also offhandedly dealt with a few [Killer Bee]s and [Giant Rat]s that had attacked him.
Just as the Ruins exploration guide had said, not every Spirit in the Ruins was fiercely aggressive, nor did every one of them need to be subdued through some elaborate Dueling ritual.
“Puji?” A soft, mushy little cry came from beneath the leaves nearby.
Nate stopped and looked down to see a snow-white monster, shaped like a square cube of cotton candy, blinking its tiny eyes and gazing up at him with a dopey, adorable expression.
[Mokey Mokey, Level 1, Fairy, ATK: 300] Like this little fellow that had now dropped at his feet.
These monsters had almost no combat power on the dueling field, but in the Ruins they were extremely rare, belonging to the category of Spirits with exceptionally gentle temperaments.
Nate bent down and reached out to scoop the little thing up.
The feel of it in his hand was indeed as light and springy as cotton candy.
He smiled and rubbed a finger against Mokey Mokey’s plump little cheek, then said with a grin.
“Off you go.
You’re not right for me.” Nate loosened his grip, and the [Mokey Mokey] happily wiggled its short little limbs and, like a balloon, drifted leisurely up toward the heights.
With that, he kept walking forward, but before he’d taken two steps, a clamor of shouting and the rapid sound of unfolding Duel Disks rose from the woods not far off.
Nate turned his head to look, and saw three students in Class 10 uniforms huddled back to back, staring in terror at several figures across from them.
A few green-skinned monsters wielding huge clubs, faces savage, radiating a violent aura, had them blocked in.
[Goblin Attack Force, Level 4, Warrior, ATK: 2300] “This is bad…
it’s the Attack Force!
Our monsters can’t stop them at all!” One of the Class 10 students’ teeth chattered, the Duel Disk in his hand flashing wildly.
Under the Ruins’ rules, high-attack monsters that appeared in numbers and possessed tactical discipline counted as “elite monsters,” and they had to be turned into cards by establishing a dueling network through the Duel Disk and winning within the rules.
Nate’s steps paused.
He’d just been about to head over and offhandedly bail his classmates out of their jam.
He was about to step forward when a soft sigh, carrying a trace of vexation, drifted out from behind a red maple tree not far away.
“Ah…
it flew off.” Nate turned his head and looked toward the sound.
Standing beneath the tree was a girl with ice-blue, shoulder-length short hair.
Even in this perilous Spirit Ruins, her uniform remained spotless, her posture straight and poised.
Rio Kastle.
Class 1’s universally acknowledged “Ice Queen,” the flower on a high peak admired by the whole school.
But at this moment, this flawless young lady was tilting her head up slightly, her ice-blue eyes fixed with reluctance on that [Mokey Mokey] drifting ever farther away, one hand still instinctively raised in midair, holding a pose of wanting to grab it but, regrettably, coming up empty.
As if sensing Nate’s gaze, Rio Kastle’s body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
But only for an instant.
The hand raised in midair drew back naturally, and with an elegant motion she tucked a stray strand of blue hair behind her ear.
When she turned her head to look at Nate, that girlish reluctance from a moment ago had completely vanished, replaced by a flawless, faultless polite smile.
“Hello, classmate Nate.
May I ask…
is there something on my face?” Her voice was cool and pleasant, her tone giving nothing to fault, her perfect bearing making it seem as if the person who’d just wanted to grab the “cotton candy” hadn’t been her at all.
Watching her so swiftly assemble this dignified facade, Nate couldn’t help smiling.
“You wanted that [Mokey Mokey], didn’t you?” The perfect smile on Rio Kastle’s face developed an exceedingly faint crack.
But she maintained that composed elegance, shaking her head slightly.
“I think you’ve misunderstood.
I was merely observing the flight patterns and ecology of the native Fairy-type monsters in this Ruins.
There was nothing more to it.” Without waiting for Nate to speak, Rio Kastle turned with perfect naturalness and cast her gaze toward the few Class 10 students not far off, who were being driven steadily back by the goblins, changing the subject.
“Those few appear to be wearing Class 10 uniforms.
As their classmate, it seems you shouldn’t be standing here discussing such a tedious question with me.” “Roar!!” As if to confirm her words, one of the goblins suddenly swung its huge club, smashing it hard into the rock by a student’s feet.
Shards of stone flew, and the few of them shrieked in fright.
Nate drew his gaze back and looked again at Rio Kastle before him.
“True enough.” He gave a simple two-word reply, and the Duel Disk on his left arm lit up in an instant with a faint sapphire glow.