Chapter 233: Farsight Woodland

[Zephyr Spear Art - Fire Dragon Splinter] Behind Zephyr manifests a strong burning dragon aura. Instantly, the majestic aura manifested into his burning spear while piercing the Monster Overlord Eskor. *BAMM*

The attack is so powerful that it scorches and destroys anything behind the Monster Overlord until it reaches the isolation barrier. Even the wall barrier itself is cracked from withstanding Zephyr's attack.

At the same time, the monster overlord instantly loses its life and creates an invisible wave towards all directions. The invisible wave is a sign of the dead monster overlord. Feeling the familiar shockwave, Zephyr and the others finally breathe relief.

"Huft… Damn it, what a persistent bastard. I even need to use my artifact power at the last second." said Zephyr while laying on the ground.

"Four.. It takes four seventh-grade combatants to kill this damn thing." said Ivan.

"Yoiyoiyoi.. At least it's dead now." said Cirrus.

"Agree. Let's collect its body first. This is what we are coming for." said Ellen.

After the four seventh-grade people take Eskor's corpse, they return to the leader's side.

As they arrive at the leader spot, "You take your time, huh??" said the leader.

"Well, we are dealing with a monster overlord. So, we need to be careful not to get hurt." replied Ivan.

"Yeah, especially nobody expects it to transform into humanoid form and have ridiculous regeneration ability." said Ellen.

"Whatever.. Let's get back already. We have been away for too long." said the leader.

Before they get away, Ivan approaches Jade.

"Jade, my man. It seems you are getting stronger now." said Ivan.

"Still, not as strong as you." replied Jade.

"Hahaha.. Don't belittle yourself. Anyway, the old man tells you to come by if you have time." said Ivan.

"Old man??" said Jade.

"Yeah, I don't know the details. But, it should be regarding your last agreement. Alright, that's it. I will be waiting for you at Porros." said Ivan before leaving Jade behind.

'Last time agreement? Don't tell me...' thought Jade.

While Jade is thinking something, the five people went in flash silently, leaving the Sur village group and the Alkin. A moment later, the isolation spell got canceled, and they found the hailstorm had already stopped leaving white snow everywhere.

"Uncle Jade, the hailstorm has stopped. Should we continue our journey?" asked Angus, who found his uncle was thinking about something.

"Ahh.. Yeah, Let's move out. The previous battle may attract many monsters." said Jade after coming out from his trance.

Hearing this, All the Alkin begin to accelerate on the snowy ground and resume their journey. During this time, everyone recuperates in the Alkin to recover some of their mana from the last battle.

Their last battle reminds them that there will be a constant danger in this place. They need always to be ready to fight for their life. They may not be so lucky to find a helper like Ivan and his group in the next battle. 

They could only recover their mana as fast as possible and stay vigilant ready to battle anytime. Fortunately, after the Eskor incident, they didn't meet any other obstacle except a few stray low-grade monsters.

All these monsters will be handled by the few surviving youngsters to let them have some fighting experience. This makes the other combatant save their mana from battling against any high-grade monster.

After a few days of continuous traveling, they safely passed through the Akas mountain range and entered the following territory called Farsight Woodland. This place is a humongous place that covers almost a quarter of the Endless Battlefield dimension.

Farsight Woodland is a sophisticated ecosystem with many kinds of living beings residing in it. According to Jade, this place is the most unpredictable. At ordinary times, this place is peaceful and calm, like a typical forest.

However, the next moment it could change into a battlefield between a high-grade monster and beast. Although it is very rare for a seventh-grade beast or monster overlord to participate, it is still dangerous for the entire group.

One carelessness may lead them into their doom. Throughout the years of living inside this dimension, Jade managed to map out a few high-grade monster and beast territory. Although the information is from many years ago, it is still better than nothing.

Unlike before, the Alkin didn't move at full speed but decided to move at slow pace so as not to alarm any high-grade monster or beast nearby. Angus's role as the sensor became crucial to finding and determining their route.

The climate in the Farsight Woodland is relatively stable compared to other places. It will only occasionally rain and have a typical sunny day. Moreover, it also has nighttime, unlike the Sur desert, where there is no night at all.

If this place is not located at the Endless Battlefield dimension, everyone will think this is a typical dense forest. Currently, the sun is going low, and Jade decides to stop their travel for today.

From Jade's experience, it is better to stop at night and continue in the morning since many monsters are often active at night. He didn't want to provoke all these monsters while traveling with Alkin.

Stopping all the Alkin, the combatant begins to clear all the attracted monsters nearby. In the meantime, Angus and the others decide to inspect the nearby area while killing the stray monster.

He needs to make sure they are not inside a beast or monster territory. Monsters and beasts often leave clues to mark their territory. This mark could be in many forms, such as unique scent, excretion, claw mark, leftover scales, etc.

While inspecting the surroundings, Anna found many bubbles that kept coming out from the ground.

"Angus, Look! Look! There are a lot of bubbles!!" said Anna while popping the bubble happily.

Looking at this phenomenon, Angus began to inspect the ground and found that it was covered with some kind of mucus and moss. The ground covered with thick moss could easily produce a transparent layer like a bubble.

According to Jade's journey book, this is a kind of specialty in the Farsight Woodland. Unlike soap bubbles, the bubbles here are quite durable. People could even enter the gigantic bubble without a lack of air and popping it.

However, looking at Anna popping the bubble effortlessly like a regular soap bubble, he begins to think which part is durable. Then, Angus decided to poke the nearby bubble. To his surprise, it is not bursting like what Anna did.

Then, he found that Anna actually imbued her hand with a bit of miasma to pop the endless bubble.

"Hahaha… So many bubbles." said Anna while starting to get tired after expending some of her miasma.

*Bonk* "Ouch.. My head!!" said Anna while rolling on the ground holding her head.

"Don't waste your energy on useless stuff like this. You will only tire yourself." said Angus while hitting Anna's small head.

While Angus lectured Anna, Jayna looked at the bubble with curiosity. Suddenly, she slashed the bubble, and it burst into nothingness.

"Not fair. Even big sister Jayna is also playing with bubbles. Why can't I?" said Anna while pointing at Jayna.

"Err... Jayna, what are you doing?" asked Angus.

"Ahh.. I'm just practicing. Master Ban said that a true swordmaster could cut anything but couldn't cut anything at the same time. I think it means a true swordmaster only cuts what it wants." explained Jayna.

"Hee.. What a weird analogy. Hmm... lend me your sword, Jayna." said Angus.

As Angus took Jayna's sword, "I think you use Crimson Slash like this, right?" said Angus as he covered Jayna's sword with fire mana.

Then, he intently looked at the bubble in front of him and cut through it [Crimson Slash]. The fire slash not only cut the bubble but anything behind the bubble. However, the bubble is still intact and has not burst into nothingness.

Looking at this, Jayna could only open her mouth and was speechless.

"W-Wait.. H-How did you do that? Moreover, why does your Crimson Slash look more powerful than mine?!!" said Jayna.

'Damn... I forgot to hold back.' thought Angus.

"Ahh.. I guess I'm kinda lucky. Hehehe…" said Angus, giving the sword back to Jayna.

"What do you mean by lucky?? You need to teach me. How did you do that?" said Jayna.

"Haa… Alright do you want the long way or the short way?" asked Angus.

"Hmm.. What's the difference?" asked Jayna back.

"Well, the long way may take a long time but will benefit your experience, and you could perfectly learn it while the short way you could only not cut the bubble or something similar." said Angus.

"What is the long way?" asked Jayna.

"Performing a sword slash a million times or until you cannot move every single day for maybe ten years or more. Then, you could do what I did automatically." said Angus seriously.

"Ehhh… Ten years?? That's.. too long. What about the short way?" said Jayna.

"The short way?? Hmm… Just keep slashing the bubble until you can't pop the bubble." said Angus.

"Err… That's kinda ambiguous." asked Jayna.

"Well, if you are talented enough, you could do it in a day or weeks. Or probably one year." said Angus.

"Do you think I could do it in a day?" asked Jayna.

"Nope, not possible. I think if you get lucky, it will take you a month. But if not, it will take you at least a year." as Angus gives a harsh truth to her.