In truth, trying to operate on this Black Land presented even more problems than Riezel had imagined.
It was not only the bizarre and terrifying Abyss Creatures that posed a dreadful threat. The environment itself was also an enormous danger.
To say nothing else, the oxygen humans needed to survive was so thin here that one might suspect they had sunk into an invisible sea.
There were also invisible dangers, such as deadly viruses active within the Abyss Aura, acid rain more corrosive than sulfuric acid, toxic dust mixed into the air, and so on. All of them threatened human survival.
It could not be helped. The Abyss was a world completely opposed to the Source.
Life that had thrived in the Source would absolutely be unable to survive if it came to the Abyss.
Abyss Creatures did not need oxygen. Some did not even need food or water. Their survival requirements were entirely different from those of living races, and almost nothing about their ecology matched the form of existence known as "life."
If this were the true Abyss, the environment would only be harsher. The conditions on this Black Land were already considered relatively good, since it had once been part of the Source—the territory of "that empire," which had since perished.
Yet after thousands, even tens of thousands, of years of erosion by the Abyss's power, this land had also become unfit for life.
Had it not been Riezel and the others who came here, but someone else, they would likely have been on the verge of a life-and-death crisis by now due to insufficient preparation.
Fortunately, Riezel had mastered many spells, and they were exceptionally versatile, allowing people to overcome all sorts of harsh environments.
With those spells, Riezel had even ventured deep beneath the sea