To Daru's astonishment, the wooden chest unlocked with a click.

He couldn't help but think about how Nando somehow had the key to the coffer.

Was it a mere coincidence formed by the old man's diligent efforts in scouring the other side of the river?

If so, then why was the key there and the chest here?

Daru knew that the answers to such questions would have to wait, though, plus he was more curious about the coffer's contents, pulling it open with his fingers.

It was…an old page of a book.

Daru smiled, his breathing growing a little heavier in excitement. After all, each page collected meant that he was one step closer to the Surface.

He pulled it out and read its contents:

"The promising ivy once wore a princely crown and bore admirable skills, yet he sought a sweeter leaf than any throne could offer, and that was how he fell. He wanders still, craving what poisoned him, each bloom a chain and a crown. Steal his fruit, and he will falter."

'The Ivy…'

Daru read the contents a few more times, attempting to learn a few things before moving on.

From what he could understand, the horror seemed to be…another drug addict.

It appeared that, somehow, he was fated to meet royal drug addicts.

'First, that feline king, and now this prince seeking some sort of sweet leaves or blooms…' Daru shook his head.

He found them to be quite the pathetic opponents.

There seemed to be nothing more he could infer, so Daru kept the page in his inventory, deciding to look around the plateau a bit more.

Finding the chest reignited his hope that there might be something else in this area. He spent the rest of the day attempting to look for more hints.

Unfortunately, Daru found nothing else of value.

He was quite spent after the meticulous scouring, so he decided to rest here for the night — although the sky was still the same, hopeless, unchanging gray.

The plateau itself was already quite safe.

However, Daru didn't want to perish out of carelessness, so he looked for a slightly more hidden spot.

The one he found closest to his tastes was the ritual stone table atop the Stone Altar, or rather, the shadows behind it.

The only path was through the ancient stairs, after all.

It would be difficult to spot him behind the table, unless the enemy circled around it.

And so that's where Daru slept.

Thankfully, the hours passed peacefully, and he woke up in one piece, feeling well rested.

Daru consumed sustenance before proceeding to descend the Altar Mountain.

Now more confident of his skills, Daru's progress was more than twice that of his ascent, and the vertical distance he was covering every hour couldn't even be compared.

A huge part of this was because he had learned how to use his sword for shortcuts.

Instead of traversing a long stretch of a gentle ridge, Daru would choose to slide down the dangerous cliffs, stabbing his weapon into the outermost layer of the sides to slow himself down.

Of course, he only did this when there was another ridge waiting below.

Daru was not confident or mad enough to take such shortcuts in unsurvivable falls.

Nonetheless, he had already covered half the mountain in just around sixteen hours.

His arms and legs were sore, and he was feeling hungry and thirsty again, so Daru decided to rest at a flatter part of a ridge, sitting on the ashen ground while enjoying the rather eerie yet picturesque view.

Below him were snaking ridges and the vast expanse of dead trees, stone slabs, and sad shrubbery.

In the distance, the Underworld River howled, though Daru couldn't hear it from where he was resting.

The chilly winds blew…

It was quite peaceful, really, and the serenity allowed his mind to recover a bit faster.

He had been — both literally and figuratively — on edge the entire time, as making even a single mistake, especially during shortcuts, could prove deadly.

Daru had already discovered a resting spot nearby: a cozy root hollow, whose entrance he could conceal with the special camouflaging cover he had brought from the Supplies Shack of Egress.

He could go there anytime he wished.

But for now, Daru still didn't feel like sleeping yet, so he continued enjoying the eerie peace, at least for a while longer.

He didn't expect that it would be broken so soon.

Beneath him, the world suddenly shuddered as something crashed and thundered, jolting Daru back to vigilance.

He instinctively looked down, finding two monstrosities locked in combat.

One was Rocante, a horrifying, heroic smile plastered on his face as he wielded his massive stone greatsword as though it weighed nothing.

The monstrosity's back was as straight as a spear, confidence oozing out of every harrowing pore of his hulking body.

Across him and seemingly a bit battered was a slim, bony, long-limbed horror with four arms.

It crawled on fours like a ghoul while wielding two stone swords using the other two grotesque arms growing on its skinny back.

The horror was quite literally skin and bones, its abyssal eyes sunken.

There was a mad look on its face as it snarled at Rocante.

Daru narrowed his eyes as he watched the two contrasting abominations.

'Is this the Swordspawn who always defeated Rocante?' he wondered as he watched the ghoulish horror. 'Is it one of The Five?'

It must be.

Unfortunately, Daru couldn't see the horror's nameplate, as he was too far.

It wouldn't even be possible to watch their battle closely, had it not been for their sizes.

Rocante was still a fair bit larger, though, and seemingly stronger.

The hulking monstrosity charged valiantly and slashed at the ghoulish one, sending it skidding back a few dozen meters and crashing into yet another dead tree, despite it managing to cleanly block the fearsome strike.

It was evident that Rocante was the stronger of the two.

In fact, Daru's heart skipped a beat after witnessing the horror's prowess, or at least the aftermath it brought.

His eyes couldn't keep up with the hulking horror's speed at all.

As for its raw strength…he probably wasn't qualified to block even a single blow, or he would perish instantly.

Daru would've loved to appraise its level of swordsmanship, but it seemed like he wasn't qualified to.

Not yet.

With such a gap in physical attributes, technique was irrelevant.

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