Lord of the Sky City

Although Karina returned to Backhill Village the moment she received Rocky's invitation, the times they met during this period were rather limited. There was no helping it; Rocky had been too busy recently, meeting too many people every day, so he really didn't have time to see Karina. Fortunately, Karina understood this, so as soon as he was done with everything, Rocky rushed to meet her.

After arriving at the City Lord's Mansion in Rose City, Rocky found Karina in the study where she was arranging the next steps with her subordinates.

"You've eliminated quite a few demons recently, haven't you?"

When Rocky arrived, Karina waved her hands to dismiss her subordinates, then Rocky sat directly across from her and casually brought up the topic.

Their relationship had grown very familiar, so there was no need for much formality when they met.

"It's been decent,"

With a slight smile towards Rocky, Karina didn't elaborate, but the delighted expression on her face suggested she had indeed made substantial gains during this time.

This was to be expected, given that it had been over two months since she came to Backhill Village. During this time, Rocky had been continuously busy—first collecting debts from families, then discussing collaboration with the Apple Tree Corporation, and finally inviting numerous guests over. However, Karina had been equally busy.

She had spent her time hunting demons near Backhill Village, constantly engaging in battle, so she definitely killed many demons and acquired a substantial amount of Demon Materials, which is why she was so pleased when Rocky mentioned it.

"So? Planning to keep going?"

"That depends on your decision,"

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Rocky couldn't help but look at Karina, catching the implication in her words.

Given Karina's abilities, she didn't need any help just to hunt demons, so her actions wouldn't depend on Rocky's decisions. Since she mentioned it, there must be another reason.

"Is this what you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes, exactly this."

Nodding, Karina stood up and walked to her desk, then gestured for Rocky to come over.

Seeing this, Rocky stood up from his chair and walked over to her side, both of them looking down at the desk.

"This is…"

Looking down at the desk, Rocky was instantly stunned. He saw a map spread out on the desk; the marked terrain clearly showed the region of Skybreaker Peak!

This utterly dumbfounded Rocky, because even he didn't have a map of the Skybreaker Peak region. How did Karina have one?

"How… how do you have a map of this place?"

"You don't have one?"

This question, however, made Karina reveal a puzzled expression. She looked at Rocky in amazement, then laughed, "You aren't telling me you haven't mapped the area around Backhill Village yet?"

"......"

As soon as Karina finished speaking, Rocky suddenly felt his face flush with embarrassment because Karina had indeed guessed right—he genuinely hadn't mapped the area around Backhill Village and hadn't even considered it.

"Forget it, I'll give you a copy later. That's not the main point I wanted to discuss with you," she said.

Helplessly glancing at Rocky, Karina, perhaps knowing him too well, didn't dwell on the matter and casually pointed at the map.

"I created this map in the last two months. It covers a 300-kilometer radius around Broken Mountain Peak and then, I discovered this," she said.

While speaking, she placed her finger on the edge of the map, "Half a month ago, when I was hunting demons, I led the fleet here and then I remembered what you told me."

"High-level demon?"

"Exactly."

Rocky was aware that Karina had been hunting demons near Backhill Village. Initially, they both planned to go together, but Rocky was too busy to join. However, he still discussed the matter of high-level demons with Karina.

The only high-level demon he encountered was near Backhill Village, so Rocky solemnly warned Karina not to take it lightly, thinking there was no danger because the village was occupied. On the contrary, it was very likely that other high-level demons were lurking around, so she needed to be extra cautious when hunting.

Such a warning was certainly taken seriously by Karina. After all, dealing with high-level demons was no laughing matter, which is why, despite spending much time killing demons, she never dared to be reckless, fearing she might provoke beings beyond her control.

However, she then said, "After leading the fleet here, I noticed an increase in the number of demons in this area. I thought it was because of a high-level demon, but I soon realized it wasn't. The reason there are more demons here is that there's a ruin."

"A ruin?"

Hearing this, Rocky furrowed his brow, then looked at Karina, "What kind of ruin?"

"The ruin of a town, no, it should be said, a city. I personally led the team to fly over the ruin and discovered that its area was very extensive, far from being a simple village."

"I see…"

When Karina finished explaining, Rocky finally understood what she had been trying to discuss with him earlier—it must have been about this matter.

"So you're saying you've discovered the ruin of a city... which means... this ruin is from the Land Era?"

After demons invaded the land, people officially entered the Sky Era, known previously as the Land Era, and the ruin Karina found was clearly a remnant of the Land Era...

This was a remarkable finding!

As everyone knew, even though people fled to the skies after the land fell, they didn't abandon their resistance in the last moments. Instead, they made numerous inventions and conducted research in an effort to fight the demons, leading to the birth of Sky City. The concept of Void Magic Armor also originated during this period. Not to mention, the Mana Rune Rocky found at the Lost Research Institute, all of which were from the last days of the Land Era. Therefore, any remnants or sites from the Land Era were incredibly precious because one never knew what might be discovered at these sites—possibly nothing, or possibly something extraordinary like a Mana Rune!

And the ruin Karina discovered clearly resembled these kinds of valuable sites!