Vitality surged through Kevin’s veins as the last of the healing elixir’s energies washed away what fatigue remained.
His injuries had been quite severe. Whatever cursed Skill
those demons used on him was the hardest hit he had taken since he
arrived in this world. It had taken four elixirs and the help of several
medical mages over the course of the majority of two days and two
nights for all of his broken bones to mend.
The pain and suffering didn’t weaken his resolve, if
anything it only served to strengthen it. Lyra had given him purpose,
which he had always lacked in life. That purpose was firmly etched into
his mind, body, and soul. All demons had to die.
Kevin stood up from the bed of his suite in the Luxendorf
palace. It wasn’t as grand as Lumiere Castle with its royal grandeur,
but it did have its own charm. The palace itself was a steadfast
fortress, though decorated in a style reminiscent of a rustic cabin.
He reached into his pack and took out a diamond the size
of two fists. It was clear, like an ordinary diamond, but with a red
core embedded in the crystal. He placed it down on the desk of his room,
the pointed side up, and touched it with his finger. A bright glow
erupted from the red core, and an image projected into the air above the
diamond.
“Blessed One Kevin,” Lyra’s disembodied head said, “I
heard what happened, and I was getting worried. Not only did you clash
with the demons, but criminals are running rampant across Luxendorf. Are
you alright?”
“I am, mostly. I— I’m sorry,” Kevin said, his head
dropping in shame. “They got away… I lost him. But you were right, he
truly is a demon! I will assemble a team and go after him. I won’t fail
again.”
Lyra just shook her head, he face soft and sympathetic.
“No, there’s no need. They rushed into the Silvervale Woodlands.
Ordinarily, I would have sent you after them, but these aren’t ordinary
times. He might be accompanied by experienced hunters, but nobody can
survive the woodlands right now.”
“But I can still—“
“Kevin, we need you back home. Your friends have returned
from their expedition and are worried about you. I still haven’t told
them anything. It should come from you.”
Kevin deflated a bit, but he nodded. “Alright, I’ll come back.”
POV Bishop and Dolan
The forest came to life during the night. Countless
animals, beasts, and monsters made use of the cover of darkness. Some
used it hide from predators, others to hide from their prey before they
pounced. A stench wafted through the air as they fought and killed each
other. Their various screams echoed throughout the forest.
Bishop and Dolan were keeping watch as the others slept,
or cultivated in Sebastian’s case. They had a long standing routine of
who kept watch and when. The Silvervale Woodlands weren’t to be
underestimated, and so there were always at least two people keeping
watch.
Dolan, as the teams ranger, always had the biggest role
when it came to keeping watch. As always, he had climbed up a tree to
get as good of a view as he could of the forest. It had been a fairly
calm night, but in the Silvervale Woodlands calm never lasted long.
He stood on a branch and peered out through the trees. Various Detection Skills pinged well before his eyes could tell why.
“We got movement!” he called down to Bishop.
Bishop gripped his axe. “What are we dealing with?”
“Hard to tell. It’s still a ways out but coming this way fast. It’s a single target, strong.”
“How long?”
“It should be in view soon— What the fuck?! Is that—? That’s a dreadbear!”
“What?! How? I’ve never even heard of a dreadbear this far east.”
Dolan jumped down from the tree and repositioned behind Bishop, so he could provide better support.
“Doesn’t matter how or why, it’ll be here real soon. Seems to be Rank 4. Do we wake up the others?”
Bishop shook his head. “No need, so long as it’s alone,
we can handle it. It’s been about a decade or so since I dealt with a
dreadbear. Their single target damage is fairly weak.”
The two readied themselves.
Bishop held out his great axe while Dolan nocked a
magical arrow manifested of his own energy. They both stared at the
direction from where the dreadbear was coming, and their highly trained
senses could feel it coming closer and closer.
Moments later, the rumble of small trees falling
gradually grew louder and louder as the massive dreadbear barreled its
way through the forest toward them.
Then it came into view.
The large bear ran toward them with a fervor that neither
Bishop nor Dolan could make sense of. It didn’t leave them any time to
think about it, though, as it moved faster than something that big
should be capable of.
Bishop stood in the dreadbear’s path of destruction with his axe held up to his side.
The dreadbear was the size of an elephant, if not larger.
Its shiny fur flickered between light grey and pitch black, like an
octopus with its camouflage. Large yellow, bloodshot eyes stared
straight ahead, and its tongue flopped around its open mouth. The beast
ran as though it were on fire.
As soon as it came within reach of Bishop, it swiped its
massive paw toward him. Its claws glowed increasingly red, and moments
after Bishop dodged, a fiery pressure wave shot out from its paw. The
ground caved in by the pressure of the attack. Several massive trees
were uprooted and crumbled to pieces. A large trench formed, which
smoldered as a sheet of fire covered the ground. The flames subsided
into nothing just moments later.
The dreadbear pushed forward, almost tackling Bishop in the process.
He didn’t let it. He swung his axe with all the strength
he could muster, which at level 56 was extraordinary. It cut through
most of the dreadbear’s foreleg by its shoulder.
It roared and stood up on its two hind legs.
Dolan didn’t let the opportunity pass and fired an arrow directly into its eye.
It caught the dreadbear by surprise and forced it back down. Its one remaining foreleg struggled to support its weight.
Bishop swung his axe down with expert timing, and he split its skull in two.
Dolan walked up behind Bishop and said, “Well, that was interesting. Are they usually that easy?”
Pulling his axe free from the beast’s head, Bishop
replied, “Definitely not. They’re not the worst to deal with, but this
one didn’t seem like it was paying any attention. It’s like it just
wanted to get rid of us and keep running.”
“That sounds ominous, any idea why? Or why it’s here in the first place?” Dolan’s eyes narrowed in thought, and concern.
“No,” Bishop answered, shaking his head. “I’ve never
heard of a dreadbear below the Redstone River.” He stared down the path
of destruction the dreadbear had left as it ran, as if hoping the
woodlands would reveal its secrets to him. “We’ll discuss it in the
morning, maybe one of the others have heard something.”
POV Sebastian
The commotion of the fight didn’t disturb the others. The
tent was made for hunters, and as such it was enchanted to not only
offer some basic protection against the elements and weak creatures but
from the sounds and smells of the woodlands. A calm sanctuary for rest
within the chaotic wilderness.
Sebastian had cultivated throughout the night.
Once morning came and the party stirred as they woke up,
he checked his Status to see if the night’s cultivation had yielded any
results, given the density of essence in the forest.
System status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Level: 37
Title
- Swordsman
Skills
- ★Mind's Eye
- ★Swordsmanship
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Cultivation status
Name: Sebastian Moore
Cultivation method
- Earthen Cultivation Art
Cultivation stage
- Essence Consolidation
- → Minor stage: High
Physical stage
- Leather
Titles
- Blessed
- Sole Cultivator
Talent
- Akashic Connection
Techniques
- ★Spirit Union
- ★Intergalactic Sword Art
- → Stage: Foundation
- ? Proficiency: Mid
Nice, the level estimate has gone up
again. Although, I suppose not all of it came from the night’s
cultivation. Those annoying koblings may not have given much essence but
every little bit helps.
My body is back to 100%, and the
pressure inside my meridian pathways is building like crazy. It
shouldn’t be long now until I finally reach the Peak minor stage of
[Essence Consolidation]. I— Wait?
The proficiency for my Sword Art
increased from Low to Mid? Oh, RIGHT! I did get that alert during the
fight with Kevin, but I just pushed it away.
It’s still a ways away, but it’s only a matter of time before I need to develop a second stage.
And I need to complete the [Fleeting Cloud Step].
And I need to learn the other Techniques.
And… the list of things to do is
getting pretty long. It should do me good to settle down in Celder for a
while. It’ll give me a chance to cross them off, one by one.
“Is that a dreadbear?! What the hell happened?” Silas asked when the whole party was up and getting ready to move out.
“It is,” Bishop answered. “It came at us in the night. It
was raving, crazed, like it was possessed. We barely even had to
struggle to take it down.”
Dolan jumped down from a tree branch and landed next to
Bishop. “Yeah, it was like it was running for its life, and we just
happened to be in its way.” He looked around at the rest of the party.
“Anyone know if there’s something going on up west?”
They all looked around, equally uncertain.
“I did hear that Yates and his party were taking some
time off, never heard why though. Maybe they know something we don’t,”
Carvell said.
Bishop let out a sigh and crossed his arms. “We’ll have
to keep an eye out. Our route takes us mostly due south for now, but
we’ll have no choice but to go west to get around the mountain. If
there’s some sort of trouble in the west, bad enough to drive a
dreadbear away, it might cause us some more issues later on. We keep
going, but keep your guards up.”
They packed up camp and continued their travel south, toward the mountain and the Calindor Federation beyond that.
It was less straining, both mentally and
physically, to practice the [Fleeting Cloud Step] when the terrain was
more even, but Sebastian could tell that it also wasn’t quite as
effective. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but there was more
to the Technique than he knew. He also had the feeling that he would
need more than just practice to master it, he would need to find some
way to push himself. So he tried his best to do just that, push himself
to move as fast as possible.
By testing his limits, Sebastian moved a little too fast.
Both Carvell and Rafi struggled to keep up. The hunters were all
veterans, and even as a tank and as a support mage, Carvell and Rafi
could still traverse the wilderness with ease. Sebastian was amazed that
Carvell could be so fast at his size, especially when carrying a
massive shield on his back.
The others were unfazed by the speed. They were all
running with a sense of ease as they cleared the path of various beasts
and creatures that lashed out at them along the way.
Before noon, they had reached a new biome of the woodlands where the trees were more sparse.
There were large gnarled trees that bent and intertwined,
as though all the trees were reaching out and holding on to each other.
The ground was covered in colorful clovers with various herbs and
flowers growing in small patches. Together they produced a scent that
made Sebastian feel like he was running through a perfume store.
As they moved through the forest, they were attacked
again and again. Mostly by weaker monsters but every now and then they
faced an slight challenge. Nothing that provided Sebastian with any
substantial amount of essence.
Thus far, it was far more efficient to cultivate within the Silvervale Woodlands than to hunt.
If not for the constant threat of monster attacks, he would have wanted to just stay here in the forest and cultivate.
By the time dusk came around, the entire group was exhausted.
The attacks had been nearly constant. It was practically a
stampede. The group was forced to fend off any monster who came close
enough to sense them, and was aggressive enough to attack on sight. Not
all of them did. There were plenty of monsters who simply ran past them,
crossed their path as the group traveled south and the steady stream of
monsters traveled east.
Dolan had carried the greatest burden. Using his
heightened senses and various Detection Skills, he accompanied the group
from above, in the tree branches.
Whenever he spotted monsters on a collision course, he
would whittle their numbers with his magical arrows. He couldn’t get
them all, but he made the numbers that made it through to attack the
group manageable.
They had no choice but to keep going even as night fell.
With the light of the sun gone, the myriad patches of
flowers and herbs began to emit a soft colorful light. The light from
the forest floor cast shadows of the bumpy twisted trees that gave the
illusion that the woodlands had come to life. And then it did, or at
least a shadow did.
“GET DOWN!” shouted Dolan with a sense of urgency in his
voice that hadn’t yet made an appearance even with all the attacks they
had endured.
Rafi sensed something at the same time as the shout. His
instincts took over, and he turned his head instead of ducking as he
should have. A shadow materialized into an open maw with sharp teeth.
The wolf-like monster bit down toward his face. His reaction time was
impressive, but as a mage he couldn’t compare to the others. It was all
he could do to shift his balance to make his shoulder take the full
force of the bite. The teeth tore into him. Just as the bones in his
shoulder gave way and cracked under the pressure, an arrow pierced
through the shadow monster’s head. Though dead, its momentum carried it
forward into a tackle, and Rafi fell to the ground.
The others turned around just as the dead monster fell off of Rafi.
“Nighthounds!” Dolan identified the threat.
“Stay away from the shadows!” Bishop called out.
Sebastian felt a tingle run down his spine as he realized
that this new kind of monster could meld into the shadows of the forest
and attack from any angle.
He immediately activated his [Mind’s Eye], and his senses spread out to cover almost 25 meters in every direction.
Mere moments after he activated his Skill, he dropped to
the floor. A large hound flew over his head, brushing his back with its
hind paws.
Before he could even stand up, Dolan fired an arrow into
the hound right as it attempted to meld into another shadow. It didn’t
die from the first arrow, but the hit stopped whatever Skill or Talent
the monster had. Dolan followed up with another 2 arrows which finally
killed it.
Through his [Mind’s Eye], Sebastian could see the shadows
of the forest stretch and take physical shape. It was a strange
sensation. His senses told him that there was nothing there, but he knew
that shadows shouldn’t take up space. He realized that the hounds
didn’t actually meld into the shadows
themselves but rather camouflaged themselves with some Skill and/or
Talent that turned them practically invisible and indistinguishable from
the shadows of the forest.
“Where are they?” Silas asked anxiously.
Sebastian pointed toward one of the living shadows next
to a tree a few meters away. “There! Dolan, shoot right next to that
tree!”
There was a slight delay from a moment of hesitation
before an arrow struck the shadow. A howl echoed. The hound had moved in
that short moment of hesitation, but the arrow still hit its hind leg.
Bishop took notice. “It hit! Baz, you can see them?!” he asked.
The group huddled up around Rafi.
Sebastian shrugged his shoulders. “Somewhat.”
Dolan jumped down from his perch up on a branch and landed next to Sebastian, bow drawn and ready. “You point, I shoot!”
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