Novel Full Chapter 674: Strange [Edited!]
Chapter 674: Strange [Edited!]
For a moment, if not for the subtle weight in the air and the strange stillness, this could have been some remote icy wasteland in the human realm.
Michael stood very still and let his senses adjust.
One should not be deceived.
Just because it was called Hell did not mean everything was fire and lava. There was a reason people said each floor was like its own world.
He knew that.
Yet seeing it with his own eyes was different.
It did not feel like he had entered Hell at all.
Michael drew in a slow breath.
He released that breath as a misty cloud that drifted away on the cold wind. Then he closed his eyes and let his senses expand.
One hundred meters.
A thousand.
Two thousand.
Five thousand meters.
His awareness settled across the frozen plains, tracing every shift in the wind, every disturbance in the snow, every flicker of movement across the icy surface.
Nothing.
No demons, no other races, no lurking beasts.
More importantly, no other students.
He was completely alone.
“So it is safe. For now.”
Without hesitation, Michael reached inward and summoned the palm sized Damaged Coffin of the Forgotten.
Two shadows slipped out from the coffin.
The air rippled as the two undead materialized beside him—briefly taking on their humanoid forms before dissolving into streaks of color.
A heartbeat later, they both fluttered around him like streaks of soft light and then—
Click.
They settled against his ears, transforming smoothly into butterfly shaped earrings.
Blue on the left.
Purple on the right.
Before entering the gate, he had stored them away due to worries that the portal might identify them as individual entities and they’ll separate.
Now that he was in hell he didn’t have such worries again.
Michael raised his wrist and tapped the compact watch the Federation officer had given them.
A single arrow appeared, glowing with a pulsing light.
It pointed to his right.
Michael nodded.
“Good. At least I won’t wander aimlessly.”
He looked out across the endless white plains. The landscape stretched so far that even with his vision, nothing broke the horizon but snow, stone, and distant mountains.
He tilted the watch slightly, watching the pointer adjust and tug toward the same direction again, confirming the route.
This small thing was going to be his guide.
He thought back to the academy’s evaluation mission.
The goal was simple in words, difficult in execution.
Pass five floors of Hell.
Bring back proof of a demon from the fifth floor.
Only then would the evaluation be complete.
To accomplish that, he needed to find the entrance to the second floor, then the third, then the fourth… and eventually the fifth.
Diving in blindly would be foolish—not dangerous for him, but a waste of time.
He glanced at the compass again.
Better to head to the Federation station first.
Gather information.
Confirm routes.
Understand current floor conditions.
Then move.
Michael glanced once more at the endless icy landscape.
“Hell, huh…”
He shook his head.
It still did not feel like Hell.
But he knew better.
The moment he relaxed, it would remind him.
Michael started walking, boots crunching softly through the snow. Each step was steady, unhurried, leaving a faint trail behind him that the wind slowly began to swallow. The arrow on the compact watch remained firm, tugging him toward the Federation station far beyond the horizon.
He kept his senses spread wide—always five thousand meters out, always scanning.
The world here was quiet.
Michael moved for several minutes without incident, letting the rhythm of the snow and wind guide his thoughts.
Then—
His senses twitched.
Something entered the edge of his awareness.
Two signatures clashing repeatedly, kicking up waves of energy that rippled faintly through the frozen ground.
A fight.
But that wasn’t what made him pause.
It was the nature of the signatures.
Something clicked in Michael’s mind, and his heartbeat thumped once, just a little faster.
A guess formed.
His anticipation sharpened. His lips twitched slightly.
He didn’t think he would encounter one this soon.
But he didn’t jump to conclusions. Assumptions in Hell were dangerous, even for him.
“Let’s see.”
In the next instant, Michael blurred from his spot.
Snow exploded behind him as he shot forward, moving like a streak across the frozen plains. He cut through the cold wind, his senses locked on the chaotic clash far ahead.
The compass on his wrist flickered from the sudden acceleration, but he ignored it.
He wasn’t changing course permanently.
Just taking a small detour.
Michael closed the distance in seconds and slowed just enough to stay unseen. Snow drifted lazily around him as he stopped atop a jagged ridge of black stone, gaze sweeping downward.
The clash he sensed came into full view.
Two figures tore across the snow-covered ground, each movement carving violent streaks into the white landscape.
The first was a tall warrior wrapped in nothing but an animal skin skirt, his muscles thick and corded like braided steel. His skin held a faint earthy glow, and his feet barely sank into the snow. Every step seemed to carry the weight of a mountain.
He held a huge bone sword.
His opponent was another tall figure—but far different.
He looked far less intimidating physically.
Slimmer.
More graceful.
Almost delicate.
He fought defensively, steps light, almost floating above the snow. His blade shimmered with faint mana, each parry producing a soft metallic hum.
Compared to the hulking warrior, he seemed fragile.
But he was fast.
Precise.
And despite being pushed back again and again, he had not fallen.
Michael’s eyes narrowed slightly as the details became clearer.
The massive warrior in the animal skin skirt wasn’t just any brute.
He was a barbarian—but not the kind Earth’s history books would describe.
This one belonged to a race said to come from the Ancient Tribe Realm.
Michael had read about them.
A world of warring clans.
A culture built on trial by blood.
A realm where children lifted boulders before they learned to speak.
Barbarians from the Ancient Realm were famous for their absurd physicality, their natural connection to the land, and their terrifying combat instincts.
But something was wrong.