They had a day of experience under their belt so they naturally climbed the learning curve and their pace hastened. They successfully traveled for a duration of about 3 to 4 hours without encountering a single demonic beast.
This isn’t just good luck, more importantly than that, everybody perked up their senses and raised their guards to the max. Nobody screwed around and everybody did their jobs which meant things went a lot smoother than yesterday.
Fei Fei, Bing Ling, and Bishi led the expedition at the helm of their group. The expedition proceeded with an arc shape formation. Wu Yan & co stuck with Sylph at the center of this formation.
They adopted this formation after discussing with each other during the morning meeting. Conserving Sylph & Wu Yan & co’s strength took top priority since the monster will only get stronger from this point on. Before they encounter demonic beasts that they absolutely can’t handle, Sylph & Wu Yan’s company will stay behind to save up their power.
These 11 individuals are the core of this expedition team, they are this expedition team’s trump cards.
After what felt like an eternity, the expedition team that evaded a lot of demonic beasts finally stopped as the leaders looked at the condition in front of them.
It’s still a sea of trees but they felt like the air is different, it isn’t just them, the other expedition team members reported feeling a sense of suppression due to massive magic power in the area.
Fei Fei, Bing Ling, and Bishi turned grim. Wu Yan & co gasped but they aren’t too surprised, they have finally managed to reach the end of the inner regions of the Giant Beasts Forest.
“We are about to enter the deeper parts of the Giant Beasts Forest!”
Compiling the observation of countless humans who have traversed the Giant Beasts Forest, the Giant Beasts Forest can be generalized into three regions. The weaker demonic beasts, those that are tier 5 or below, lived in the outer areas. Stronger monsters rarely make an appearance in the outer regions. Meanwhile, the inner regions belonged to the tier 6 and tier 7 demonic beasts. Their encounter with the thorny Green Cat happened here, this is also where the hilly area they camped at is situated.
The last region is the core region, the centermost area of the Giant Beasts Forest.
This area is way smaller than the outer regions and the inner regions. The population of demonic beasts is also small in this area. But, the demonic beasts are ridiculously strong, only the toughest monsters can live here.
The peak of tier 7 is the bare minimum for the monsters here. Most of the monsters here are tier 8 and above.
If a monster wants to own a territory here then it needs to be at least a tier 9 demonic beast.
“Alright, let me remind you all one more time…”
Bing Ling scanned everyone, he took over Fei Fei’s role.
“Inside this deeper area of the forest, anything can happen. If you think the situation before this was okay then you’re in a for a big surprise. There won’t be any tier 7 demonic beasts because they are too weak to stay in this area!”
“At the borders between the deeper and the center region, it’s common to find peak tier 7 demonic beasts as well as tier 8 demonic beasts. If luck isn’t on our side, we might even see tier 8 demonic beasts traveling in groups larger than the number of tier 8 individuals in our expedition team, worse yet…”
Bing Ling stopped since he can sense that everyone’s already very nervous. Tier 8 demonic beasts are already a nightmare for them, if it’s a stronger beast then…
Sylph and Wu Yan & co started turning serious as well.
Bishi took a few steps forward and he addressed everyone.
“We will have to be exceptionally careful, that’s the only way we are going to come out of this alive.”
“The three of us will scout out the route ahead, everyone is to remain a small distance behind and look out for any weird signs or tracks of demonic beasts. As for Sylph, Wu Yan, and his comrades, I hope you will be ready to assist us at any moment.”
Yes!”
The elite expedition members answered in the affirmative. Sylph & Wu Yan nodded, they have no objections.
Fei Fei, Bing Ling, and Bishi finished up their preparations and they entered the forest in front of them with the others in tow.
They deliberately slowed down so they can spend more time scouting. Nobody loosened their guards, with the threat of an encounter with tier 8 demonic beast near every corner, nobody can afford to be slack in vigilance. They would rather slow down than to get into a fire they can’t put out. Nobody wanted to rest in peace forever in the Giant Beasts Forest.
The trees moved past them as they made their way deeper into the Giant Beasts Forest. The air is chilling and eerily quiet. Almost everybody had goosebumps at one point, they also started getting closer to each other out of natural instinct.
The ladies are also not spared from this reaction. They are foreigners to this world so they are more aware of the present circumstances than the others. Hinagiku and Mikoto held hands while moving. Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda, and Takitsubou Rikou also stuck to each other.
Shokuhou Misaki who is allegedly “hating on Wu Yan” subconsciously grabbed Wu Yan’s arms. This silent and heavy air weighed down on the girls.
Ikaros, Astrea, and Flandre-chan are the ones who are least affected by the mood here. They strode forward in steady steps. This is only to be expected since one of them lacked emotional development while another one is missing a bit of circuit in her brain, and the last one is a vampire who couldn’t like this quiet and dark air more than anyone.
As they moved forward, it suddenly turned misty, everyone’s expression changed for the worse.
“Everyone, watch your steps…”
Fei Fei cautioned everyone.
The mist only got denser the deeper they traveled. They can barely make out the trees in a distance based on their silhouettes. They all tensed up in disquiet.
The mist seems to be enveloping this entire area. The situation didn’t lighten up and eventually their field of visions was severely impacted by the dense fog.
This is a very troubling matter, the fog slowed them down since they have to take more time to get their bearings correct. It’s also very easy to get lost in this kind of situation, they might even run around in circles if they aren’t careful enough.
“Hmm, we are in for it now…”
Fei Fei mumbled. She stopped in front of the expedition team members, the others caught up and they stopped moving as well.
It’s going to turn into a hellish scenario if somebody got lost. Getting lost is one thing, it’s going to jeopardize their mission if the expedition team splintered up without noticing it until it’s too late.
Giant Beasts Forest is a very challenging terrain to traverse. It’s also larger than the area of all three empires combined.
It’s only a matter of time before they unwittingly broke up.
