Chapter 637 Contemplating The Future

Rex walks through the tall grass and flowers, cutting through the mist, and heads to the castle.

Many of the mutated animals are avoiding these tall grass and flowers due to the fact that these mutated plants are emitting a scent that can only be sensed by animals, the scent is not horrible or anything but it dissuades them from going through the open place.

Something that is pretty convenient as the place has already a built-in defensive mechanism.

Although the mutated animals are not a problem thanks to these mutated plants covering the entire open place, the cursed creatures are the ones to look out for as they are not affected by these mutated plants' scent.

This is why Rex and the others have been trying to clean the cursed creatures in this forest.

With the help of Flunra's ancient rune that would give Rex and the sensitivity of others to cursed creatures' powers, they would go in a pair and take down as many cursed creatures as they can while simultaneously avoiding the strong cursed creatures.

Rex has cleared the northern part of the forest of cursed creatures.

Despite not having too much experience against cursed creatures as he had only encountered a handful of them in his time, the system help him defeat the cursed creatures he met thanks to being able to identify their powers.

Knowing the power of the curse they have, Rex breezes through them easily.

Now that he has already cleared his part of the forest, he has been hunting the Mindless Vampires.

But the northern part is not actually cleared completely of cursed creatures, Rex had met a couple that is above the fifth Epiphany. Flunra told him to avoid those cursed creatures and not engage against them, it seems taking down the fifth Epiphany cursed creature or above needs more than just overpowering them.

Upon reaching the foot of the hill, Rex looks up at the castle lightly.

Sensing his presence at the foot of the hill, the circling sentinel descends down toward him and hits him directly. Rex's body slowly dissipated into particles of light before he disappeared from the foot of the hill and reappear on the hill.

Rex opens his eyes as he got teleported to the front of the castle.

Due to the castle taking the entire slightly round surface of the hill, there's only a little bit of space that is not the actual castle and he got teleported there. In front of him is a big gate that is attached to the walls and unguarded, the gate is robust and as tall as 40 feet high.

Walking leisurely with steady steps, Rex approaches the gate before the gate was open by itself.

Even though it's just a castle with features that can give immense security from external threats, the castle also can regulate itself almost as if it's alive. Rex as the owner of the castle is recognized by the castle, and he can pretty much go anywhere without hindrance.

Upon the gate opening, he was exposed to a bridge that leads to the entrance of the castle.

Either side of the bridge is quite deep and empty but Rex is planning to put some ferocious mutated animals there as another line of defense if the castle is under attack, it'll also act as an intimidation display.

'It'll be better if Delta would be here...', Rex thought with a sigh.

Since it's quite a distance away from the actual castle, Delta would be very appreciated here.

As if he has the ability of teleportation, Rex vanishes from his spot before he arrived at the entrance. Ancient writings can be seen all over the big entrance, it looks like symbols but they should be the letters of ancient time.

Rex didn't bother to learn about the ancient writings though, he doesn't have gold to spare.

Just like the glowing crescent moon at the very top of the castle, the center of the entrance to the castle is also engraved with the same crescent moon symbol. But this symbol is inside the symbol of a sun that is the actual flag of the nation under the Lycaon King.

Essentially, the system allows him to edit anything to his liking.

Starting from the writings that can be seen in some parts of the walls, artistic works if he wanted to, colors of the interior as well as the exterior, and anything else that he can think of. But Rex hasn't got the time to do that yet as he had more important things to do.

In the future when the situation calmed down, he would definitely edit some parts to his liking.

Pushing the door open, Rex was instantly greeted by the great hall of the castle.

Although from the outside the castle looks like any other black medieval castle with sharp features and magical accessories,  the interior is not traditional at all. Living in an advanced civilization for all his life, Rex's taste is obviously modernistic where anything and everything is convenient.

Just when he bought the castle, he briefly discuss with Adhara regarding the place.

It would feel weird to leave the place in default which means black marble, torches, woodwork, and golden ornaments which is why Rex scours the system shop and makes the place similar to his previous mansion just for the sake of convenience.

Despite having way more space than his mansion, it's still bearable for now.

The great hall gives an empty feeling due to many gaps aside from the decor that Rex bought and a majestic throne at the center, but it's going to be filled as time goes by there's no need to rush the simple things.

Not minding the great hall, Rex heads to the second floor to meet with the others.

Rex reaches a door that has the others' scents coming from the inside, he now knows that the others finished their day's task and were not gathered in the meeting room to report their findings.  Opening the door, he saw the others sitting at a round table.

Eight seats surround the round table with a map in the middle of the table.

Giving the others a nod, Rex instantly went to his seat which is way taller and bigger than the others' seats. Gazing his eyes at the others that are expecting him to start the meeting, he then finally gives a slight nod.

"Okay, start the report for the day"

"I'll start first"

Adhara returns the nod before she stands up and points at the west part of the map.

Since the castle is located in the middle of the Humming Damned Forest, they need to scour every part of the forest to determine whether there are things they needed to take care of. Adhara and Kyran are in charge of the western part of the forest, and that is the sector they're going to report on.

"We've taken out most of the lower-Epiphany cursed creatures, but there's a problem"

Grabbing a marker on the side, Adhara circles a certain part of the western part of the forest before she continues, "Kyran found about a hundred high-Epiphany cursed creatures near the edge of the western part, we don't know why they're gathered there, but I think it's best that we mark this place as red. It's better to leave it be until we clear the other parts"

Upon hearing this, Rex glanced and asked Flunra sitting on his left.

"Flunra, what is your take on this? Do you know why the cursed creatures gathered there?"

Out of the people here, he's the most knowledgeable one regarding everything there is to know about Supernaturals, cursed creatures, and even humans. Living and surviving the Radical Era, he must know literally everything there is to know.

Pondering for a moment, Flunra then replied, "Cursed Creatures are only attracted to two things"

"Either there's a cursed object there that supplies them with cursed energy and makes them comfortable there, or there's a strong cursed creature that occupies the place and commands the other cursed creatures", he added with absolute certainty.

Rex doesn't question Flunra's answer, he can only look down while rubbing his chin.

'If we want to know exactly what is happening there, then we need to go there ourselves and check it out. With the help of the system, I can definitely find out the reason but that's not necessary right now'

It's clear that they will eventually need to check that part of the forest out.

Going to sleep while knowing that there are many cursed creatures roaming around the forest as they go to sleep is an unsettling feeling, and that alone requires them to clear it out but it's not urgent yet.

Lifting up his gaze, he then finally comes to a decision.

"We'll postpone that part first, as long as they stayed there then that's okay. For now, we'll do as you say and mark that place red, nobody should go anywhere near there until I said so"

Upon hearing Rex's command, the others nodded their heads.

Although they are not weak entities whatsoever, they are inside an unknown territory.

Despite having immense strength and even having a ninth-rank realm entity like Rex amongst them, there are no such things as being too careful. The main objective right now is to identify threats that might endanger them, and they need to be careful about everything.

"Is there anything else?"

"Yes, I've infiltrated the Dark Elves' territory and managed to find interesting news"

Kyran replied before he in turn stood up as Adhara sat back down.

Even though Rex didn't instruct Kyran to infiltrate the Dark Elves' territory for information, he's glad that Kyran has the initiative to do that. Out of everything, he wanted to know about the Supernatural the most.

With the Supernaturals' defeat against him, he wanted to know what they are up to.

Pointing at the edge part of the map once again, Kyran then continues, "The Dark Elves have received a letter from the high-rank Supernaturals, I don't know exactly what they are saying but I do hear the Silverstar Pack being brought up"

"What I suspected is that the Supernaturals are trying to locate us", he added.

Obtaining this kind of news, Rex is not surprised as that would also be his move if he suffered a defeat as they did. Keeping an eye on their enemy is a must, it would allow them to watch every move their enemy makes.

But since they are still ordering other Supernaturals to keep a lookout, there's one thing for certain.

'It's now certain that they still don't know where we are right now, and that's good for us so we'll need to keep it that way', Rex thought with a nod, he needs time to develop a plan to detach him from the war and everything related to it.

All he wanted to do right now is get his revenge and disappear from the world.

In no chance that he's participating in the war again.

Not after the side that he defended for so long did that, there's no point in helping anymore.

Just as he thought of that his eyes notice Kyran and Adhara stealing glances at each other, it seems that there are something they wanted to say but were hesitant to say, "You can tell me whatever is in your mind, there's no need to hold back"

"Ermm... the thing is, I also heard something about Queen Shanaela", Kyran added hesitantly.

Upon hearing Queen Shanaela being brought up, Rex frowned as he remembered that he warned her to pull as many Supernatural races away from the war if she wanted to avoid being killed by him. But that is not the case anymore since Rex is no longer interested in the war.

"I don't see why you need to bring that up, we're not participating in the war anymore", Rex replied.

But then Kyran quickly continues, "We need people, Rex..."

"I know that you find it hard to trust either side, but this castle is huge and we need people to keep this place operating. You might think that detaching from the war means detaching from everyone, but there must be people out there who are also sick of the war. I think you know of their existence which is why you let Queen Shanaela go. Isn't that who we are now? A third party that is independent of both sides?"

Rex looks at Kyran's clear eyes calmly, he kept silent for a full minute without saying anything.

Knowing that it's going to be hard to persuade Rex since it's only been more than a week, he then added, "If you're not ready to accept people as the third side of the world, then do it for security reasons. We need people to defend ourselves, we won't get lucky and got help from others like before all the time"

Although Rex doesn't feel like they need help, he needs to admit that the SCO greatly helped him.

Without them then the fight would definitely be way harder than it already is, and Rex also knows that what Kyran is saying right now is true. In order to defend themselves from the Supernatural and Humans, they need more people.

Shifting his eyes away, Rex sighs before he replied softly, "Give me time to think about it"

Not wanting to force an answer right now knowing that bringing the matters up is already good enough, Kyran didn't press further as they move on to the next topic. The next item on the list is elemental stones, Rex needs them to obtain more gold.

Doing his own research on the things he needed to buy, he realize that he still needs more gold.

The second priority right now aside from identifying threats is searching for elemental stones, high spirit has the ability to try and located elemental stones of their own element, just like how Devo did it way back in the canyon.

With that, Adhara and Kyran can also search for elemental stones.

But the two of them shake their heads as they haven't found an elemental stone mine, leaving them still on the lookout for the elemental stones. Flunra and Gistella don't have anything to report, the eastern side is going smoothly with no weird occurrences.

Rex then finally conclude the meeting, he got something to think about from the meeting.

Everyone went out of the meeting room with different things in their minds and headed back to their own bed chambers, Rex's mind is too occupied by what Kyran brought up at the meeting that he decided to not put more into his mind by learning about the Lunirich and just instantly went into his bed chamber alongside Adhara.

A couple of hours later, Rex is leaning on the headboard while looking out of the window.

Glancing to the side he finds Adhara sleeping soundly beside him, wearing only a revealing nightgown that he bought from the system. Since they came here without preparing, they don't bring their necessities.

With that Rex decided to buy clothes for everyone from the system shop, it's cheap so it's fine.

Rex looks at her sleeping face for a brief moment, a couple of hours back Adhara expresses that she's not on board with what Kyran is suggesting, she said that they will be fine on their own. Knowing that Rex can only sigh as he puts the blanket away and heads out.

Following through the hallway with a pondering mind, he heads to the courtyard on the first floor.

Upon reaching the courtyard with he looks up at the night sky solemnly.

Contrary to other nights that don't bother him at all, the cold air this night shiver Rex's body as it breezes past him. It's a feeling that he hadn't felt for a long time ever since he becomes a Werewolf, 'It's very cold this night, probably due to the approaching full moon...'

Looking at his front, there are two tombstones there for his foster parents.

Rex already buried Mrs. Greene and Roberts' corpses in the courtyard, inside the walls where he can visit as much as he wants.  Since he had already erupted all of the mounting anger from knowing that his foster parents are dead, all that is left now is sorrow and longing.

Sighing to himself for letting this happen, Rex takes a couple of steps forward and stood in silence.

Just like the name of the forest surrounding his new home, a distant humming sound that comes from the mutated trees can be heard which sounds like a somber melody that makes the vibe that surrounded him heavier.

On top of his regret for not being there when his foster parents died, he also has another regret.

It was the fact that he had not spent more time with them when they were alive as he was too fixated on seeking revenge. At that moment, the faces of his birth parents also appear in his mind which further dwindles him in sorrow.

"I still wanted to kill Giana, but is it really the right choice?"

"After I kill her, then what am I going to do...?"

Upon finding it hard to find the answer as he's uncertain of himself, Rex closes his eyes and seeks an answer inside of him. But then he remembered the last thing Ruston said to him, "A peaceful world with no war, should I pursue that dream so that the people I care about would be safe?"

"Or should I just protect what I have until the war is over?"

Just as he was contemplating the future, a voice suddenly penetrates his ears from the back.

"Master, may I accompany you...?"