He had reached the first location on the map.
Loa stood atop a Redwood Tree beside the lake, his toes resting on two slender branches growing side by side, his body rising and falling gently with the crown. He pushed aside the broad leaves blocking his view and looked into the distance.
Thunderstorm Lake was larger than he had imagined.
The lake lay as still as a slab of deep blue-green mirror stone, reflecting the thin clouds overhead. A breeze passed, stirring fine, scale-like ripples across its surface. Flecks of light like scattered silver spread in layers, struck the rocks along the shore, and dispersed. There were no waves, only an unbroken whisper.
The water was deep, its bottom invisible. Its color shifted from pale blue-green along the shore to dark green at the center, finally gathering into an almost black jade hue at the edge of his vision.
There was an island in the middle of the lake.
More precisely, it was a rocky hill. It was not tall, perhaps twenty or thirty meters, and blue-black all over, with sparse vegetation on its surface, like a balding head. A hollow was faintly visible at its summit, as though something had struck it.
Loa jumped down from the treetop and landed on a flat rock beside the lake.
His surroundings were quiet.
The core of the Magical Beast Mountain Range saw few human visitors to begin with. Very few mercenaries came here. The lap of water against the shore was the only sound, and a faint aquatic tang drifted through the air.
He stood beside the lake for a while, set down his pack, and made a simple camp behind a rock sheltered from the wind.
He had obtained little information about Thunderstorm Lake. Even information brokers struggled to get