Roughly an hour and a half after the

  group left Luxendorf behind, they finally reached the grand forest of

  the Silvervale Woodlands.

  The forest stood like a majestic tapestry of vibrant,

  natural colors which spread out beyond the horizon on either side. As

  the group approached, a breeze escaped the forest, carrying the scent of

  damp earth and decaying leaves. As the gentle, damp air grazed

  Sebastian’s face, he felt as if the entire forest was a living being,

  and he was feeling its breath.

  As they made the final trek to the edge of the forest,

  Sebastian turned to Bishop and said, “I never really got a chance to

  ask.”

  The two sat on the back of Rafi’s cart. Silas and Carvell

  had the other, and Dolan mostly ran alongside the group, or up ahead to

  scout.

  Bishop looked over to Sebastian. “Ask what?”

  “This isn’t your usual route, right? What exactly will that mean for us?”

  Bishop’s eyes narrowed, betraying the confident facade he

  had maintained. “No, no it’s not. It’s not like we’ve never been here

  or explored the area, but we could never find a good

  passage. We’re going to have to go mostly around the mountain on the

  western side. It’s not as if our usual route has some cobblestone road

  or anything, but over the years—both with us and people before

  us—something of a natural path has formed. There’s also a safe passage

  through the mountain that’s mostly clear and easy in the eastern hunting

  grounds. Up here, it’s pure wilderness. No path, no nothing.”

  Sebastian couldn’t help the concern building up. He was

  never much of an anxious person, but he was also never fond of the

  outdoors. “So how long will it take us to get through this way?”

  “Well,” Bishop started, “the usual route is about a 3

  week round-trip. Just under 2 weeks to make it through—with clients,

  mind you—and then about a week for us to get back on our own. We’re

  probably looking at double here.”

  Doing some simple maths in his head, accounting for

  the fact that this was a one-way journey, Sebastian said, “Alright, so

  that’s what? About four weeks, three if we’re lucky? That doesn’t sound

  too bad. What can we expect as far as monsters go?”

  “There’s a reason people don’t usually hunt up here these

  days. For this first section of the woodlands, there are definitely

  plenty of monsters, but they’re the annoying kind. You mentioned that

  you fought a pack of kobolds a while back, right? Think that, times

  about a thousand. A whole lot of weak—yet aggressive—monsters that don’t

  really give much experience or has much market value.”

  Once they entered the forest, they had to leave the carts

  and continue on foot. The carts’ wheels couldn’t quite gain the

  traction necessary to continue over the moss. The myriad roots that

  snaked along the ground didn’t make it any easier. They also didn’t want

  to subject the horses to the dangers of the forest, so they sent them

  back home with a slap on the backside.

  Each of them grabbed what supplies they could carry

  before venturing deeper into the forest. Sebastian felt his feet sink

  further down into the spongy, moss-covered ground than he had expected.

  Luckily the clothes—including shoes—he bought a while back were decently

  water-proof, a benefit of the [System] and the Skills of the craftsmen

  of this world.

  Even with the difficult terrain, they

  maintained a good speed. The hard part, Sebastian realized, wasn’t the

  speed, or aiming as he jumped from tree root to tree root. It was the

  balance. Landing with one foot, at speeds which would be considered a

  world class sprint back home, on a wet tree root, under the shade of the

  fairly dense canopy was hard enough on its own. Maintaining his balance

  for that fraction of a second before he jumped onto the next root was

  tricky to get the hang of.

  Over the course of the first hour of running, Sebastian

  had slipped on the damp surface as he landed, or tripped on some root he

  didn’t see as he jumped, or couldn’t get control of his momentum and

  smacked into a tree, or fell down into the mossy mess, dozens of times.

  It was exhausting. He chose not to use his [Mind’s Eye] due to the

  mental drain of keeping it active for too long, so he had to settle for

  his natural, albeit also supernatural, senses. Eventually he got used to

  it.

  The biggest factor of how he managed to keep up with the

  hunters was the manual in his backpack. More specifically it was the

  [Fleeting Cloud Step] Technique.

  He had only briefly made his first attempts at learning

  the Technique back at the base before everything fell apart, but he had

  every aspect of the Technique memorized and took the opportunity to

  practice for real.

  He circulated his essence as he ran, focused on the paths

  described in the manual. A thick strand of essence woven by his intent

  flowed from his Sea of Essence down to his legs and feet while thinner

  threads flowed around his torso and arms for balance. It took some

  getting used to, but it made a world of difference.

  “I’m impressed! You’re keeping up quite well,” Silas said

  as he looked over at Sebastian, all the while maintaining his speed

  through the difficult terrain without even really looking. “Although,

  with how fast you learned your swordsmanship, I suppose I shouldn’t

  actually be surprised.

  Sebastian barely had the mental capacity to understand

  what Silas said while simultaneously jumping through the forest at full

  speed, but he managed to force out a response. “It’s kinda pissing me

  off how effortless this is for all of you!”

  Silas chuckled. “It’s an occupational hazard. Any hunter

  who can’t navigate the wilderness isn’t much of a hunter at all. The

  trick is to trust yourself. People tend to have these pesky instincts to

  handle difficult situations manually, and often trip themselves up in

  the process. Let your senses—and the [System], of course—guide you, and

  your body to do the work.”

  “Just trust yourself,” Sebastian muttered under his breath as if the words would magically change anything. They didn’t.

  Along the way, they would take brief breaks to clear out

  various monsters. None of them were particularly dangerous to anyone,

  but they pounced the moment they came across the group. Sebastian

  couldn’t help but feel like they were walking through a wasp nest of

  pissed off chihuahuas. Except these beasts had long fangs and mouths

  that opened up twice as big as anything that would seem reasonable.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  While they were running, they would swat them away as a

  few individuals fearlessly came at them, but as soon as the numbers

  climbed too high they had to stop for a few minutes to clear them out.

  Overall, they had to stop about once an hour.

  They continued running throughout the night, something

  they said was only acceptable so close to the edge of the forest. At

  their levels, a night of running wasn’t much, but Sebastian was

  definitely feeling the mental fatigue build up.

  At some point during the morning, the

  terrain had transitioned from a mossy tangled mess to a much cleaner

  forest. The ground cleared up and they no longer had to jump on damp

  tree roots. The dark green moss was left behind, and this new biome of

  the Silvervale Woodlands was full of lush trees the smelled vaguely of

  vanilla. Countless light blue vines dangled from the canopy.

  Apparently the woodlands were filled with countless different areas, biomes of all kinds.

  Instead of being hounded by extremely aggressive

  rodent-like monsters, which the [System] informed Sebastian were called

  Koblings, they now had to keep their guards up for snakes hiding among

  the vines. The snakes camouflaged themselves so perfectly that the group

  had to react in a split second whenever a snake attacked.

  It wasn’t until later in the afternoon, when they arrived

  at a clearing, that the hunters felt it was safe enough for them to set

  up camp.

  They still had several hours left of daylight, but they

  all felt deserving of a break, not just because they ran all night,

  fending off aggressive monsters along the way, but because of everything

  that caused them to be here in the first place.

  Rafi and Carvell set up camp with a practiced ease while

  Dolan scouted the area. Bishop, Silas, and Sebastian sat down around a

  fire to rest.

  “I heard what he said,” Silas said. “That hero candidate

  back there. Well, not all of it, I was kind of busy myself, but I caught

  the gist of it. He wouldn’t hear you out, huh?” he asked.

  Sebastian turned sullen by the reminder. “No, he just

  took everything I said and twisted it around. They really convinced him

  that I was some sort of demon.”

  They sat there in an awkward silence for a moment until

  Bishop gave him a quick slap on the back. “So they got their hooks in

  your friends, no going back now. What’s your plan for the future?”

  “I wouldn’t really call them my friends, we really only

  just met. It wasn’t more than a few days. Still, I always thought we

  were… I don’t know, the same, somehow. I mean we all came here together.

  I sort of figured, in the back of my mind, that if I could talk to any

  one of them alone, without the royal assholes influencing them, that I

  could get them on my side. I guess I was just being naive.” He paused to

  take a deep breath before continuing. “As for the future, I have long

  since made the decision to seek revenge.” He stared into flames, feeling

  the heat and the smoke moving in the wind. “That, however, has been a

  personal matter. Between myself and the people who betrayed me. But now…

  Now I’m not so sure that’s the case anymore. All four of the so-called

  heroes have limits of about 100. With the endless support of the

  kingdom, it’s only a matter of time before they reach that limit. Four

  ‘heroes’ upward of level 100 who are fully brainwashed to do whatever

  the Lumerian royal faction wants… They’ll take over this entire world.”

  Both Bishop and Silas just sat there, almost visibly

  shaken. Although they knew that the hero candidates had extremely high

  limits, they never really thought about what that might mean. Hearing it

  out loud made it real, and terrifying.

  “Four level 100s,” said Silas, feeling the weight of the

  words. “There’s not a single person at level 100 in the entire world.

  There hasn’t been for a thousand years. There’s a handful of people over

  90, but they’re old, they rarely make any moves.”

  Sebastian nodded, filing away the information for later.

  “And I’m the only one who can rival them. I need to get stronger. Strong

  enough that I can defeat the heroes before it’s too late, and I’ll

  probably have to destroy Lumeria in the process.” Another awkward

  silence ensued. A short while later Sebastian looked up and laughed it

  off. “Well, that’s enough about that. How about you guys? You mentioned

  that you had plans for something like this. I’m guessing those plans

  didn’t stop at a safe house in Luxendorf?”

  “You got that right,” Bishop said. “We’ve made some good

  connections in Calindor over the years. It won’t take long for us to

  settle there.”

  Silas jumped in to expand on Bishop’s answer. “A few

  years back, we bought a house in Celder, the town on the other side of

  the border. It’s been put to good use. It’s been a vacation home

  whenever we felt like staying a week or so before going back. It’s our

  contingency for this exact situation. And it’s our piggy bank. Over the

  years we’ve lived comfortably in Luxendorf, but we couldn’t exactly

  spend too much money in the city without attracting attention to

  ourselves. So, we’ve stashed a good nest egg in the Celder house for the

  future.”

  “Our lives in Calindor probably won’t be much different

  from before if we’re being honest,” Bishop said. “The border might run

  along the mountain ridge, with most of the woodlands within Lumeria’s

  borders, but it’s not like the guards patrol the hunting grounds. The

  passage goes both ways, we can just hunt our usual spots whenever we

  feel like. So don’t worry about us.” He flashed a comforting smile.

  Whether he was comforting Sebastian or himself wasn’t entirely clear.

  While they were talking, Rafi and Carvell finished up the camp.

  They had set up a tent big enough for all of them, and an

  enchanted version of an electrical fence for an added layer of

  protection. It looked like a series of black rods which Rafi had placed

  around the area in a circle. Unlike normal rope fences, however, the

  thin rope which connected each rod lay across the ground between them.

  One of the rods was slightly thicker than the rest and was tethered to a

  flat dark grey disc where Rafi had placed a small energy crystal to

  power the fence. Any monster that crossed in between two rods would get a

  shock. Not enough to kill but more than enough to pack a punch.

  Sebastian decided to call it a night early.

  He hadn’t cultivated properly for the past few days and

  was beginning to feel a little antsy about it. The continued practice of

  the [Fleeting Cloud Step] Technique had been a drain on his essence, as

  well.

  Inside the tent were some simple sleeping mats made from

  some monster fur. They were spread around a thick central rod which

  glowed ever so slightly. The rod was both the only lighting source and a

  source of heat.

  He sat down on his mat and crossed his legs.

  Shortly after, he began to breath according to the

  [Earthen Cultivation Art] and quickly fell into a cultivative state

  where the world around him disappeared, and his spirit body took shape

  within his mind.

  It was always strange to see the world around him in the Spirit Realm but this forest was unlike anything he’d seen so far.

  Back in the hunters’ church when he had been cultivating

  within the spirit bath he saw the most intense collection of essence

  he’d ever experienced, this was a close second.

  He was surrounded by thick almost dark green fog of essence.

  I’ve seen variations in the color of

  natural essence before, but nothing quite like this. Is the essence

  here of a different affinity? The manual talks about different

  affinities and how different cultivation methods made use of them to

  focus their cultivation and Techniques. I wonder what affinity this is.

  Wood? Maybe some generic nature affinity? I wonder what other affinities

  I’ve seen thus far without even realizing it.

  Sebastian gave up on his wandering thoughts and began

  cultivating properly. The [Earthen Cultivation Art] could handle any

  affinity of essence after all, so it didn’t make a difference.

  With his intent focused, the dark green essence was drawn

  into his spirit body and was gradually filtered and purified. By the

  time it reached his Sea of Essence as liquid essence it had transformed

  into a rich dark red.

  The sheer density of essence in the forest made it seem

  as though he had turned on a faucet within his meridian system. Liquid

  essence poured in and circulated faster and faster.

  The spirit baths had filled much of his meridian

  pathways. Now, as he cultivated within the Silvervale Woodlands, he

  could feel how close he was getting to his next breakthrough.

  Patreon to stay 10 chapters ahead of Royal Road and to get a preview of my next story!