Chapter 55: New World XVIII
In a lush forest, 4 people were fighting an Elemental Bear, which had a height of 20 feet, paws encased in glittering crystals, bright shining eyes, and dark fur.
It was a unique monster from the NW, whose level was in the high 20s. The people fighting it were the Orichalcum ranked adventurers team members known as Shadow's Blades.
"Attack it, now!" One of the members, a woman with auburn hair, slightly sunburned skin, and a sword in her hand, shouted.
Her name was Mara, a Sword Master and the leader of the Shadow's Blade.
"*Maximize Magic: Burn Lance*"
A male with blonde hair and a lithe physique spoke while pointing his staff toward the Elemental Bear. His name was Kellan, the party's mage capable of casting 4th-tier spells.
The lance struck the bear, who roared in response. He then stood up on his hind legs, and the claws on his frontal paws began to shine in firey color.
"Not so fast, buddy."
A female spoke while sitting on a branch and drawing her bow. She had green hair and a petite physique. Her name was Faela, the archer and ranger of the team.
She shot an arrow that struck the bear's eye, which caused it to instinctively attack where the arrow came from.
3 ethereal claw manifestations traveled toward the branch where Faela was located.
Sensing the attack, she jumped to a nearby branch, but one manifestation managed to hit her in the leg as she jumped, making her fall to the ground.
"Uhh," She groaned and tried to stand up.
"*Lesser Dexterity*"
The priest- a man with golden blonde hair, brown eyes, and a fit physique- cast a spell that increased Faela's dexterity.
Faela jumped to create distance between her and the bear and landed near the priest- named Lorik.
"Be careful while fighting a new enemy; how many times have I told you that."
Lorik said while sighing and preparing a healing spell.
"Soorry, I'll keep that in mind from now on," She spoke in a carefree tone.
"Like I'd believe that," Lorik mockingly replied.
"*Heavy Recover*"
It was a 3rd-tier spell that could heal the target as long as the caster had sufficient mana. Because the bear's attack was imbued with mana, Lorik had to use a high-tier healing spell.
"Thanks."
Faela thanked him and stood up after being healed. The remaining members of the party were keeping the bear busy.
She then jumped to a nearby tree and nooked an arrow, ready to shoot at the bear.
Lorik turned toward the rampaging bear and cast a few spells.
"*Decelerate, Health Drain, and Weakness*"
The bear shone in myriad colors; these spells reduced his stats, making it slower and weaker.
"*Fireball*"
Kellan cast a 3rd-tier spell, and a ball made of fire manifested before him before traveling toward the bear. It exploded when it struck the bear.
"Martial Arts; Ability Boost, Greater Ability Boost, and Cleaving Slash!"
Mara jumped and attacked the bear amidst the explosion. The Martial Art Cleaving Blade she used increased her strength for a single strike; it was one of her trump cards. Her blade was shining in a bright light due to Martial Arts.
'Here goes nothing,' She thought while aiming for the bear's neck.
On strike, her sword passed through its hide and stopped midway through the neck. Seeing this, Mara jumped back, and the bear slumped to the ground, dead. Blood flowed from the wound on its neck.
"And with that, we are an Adamantite Adventurer team."
Faela enthusiastically spoke while jumping from the tree and landed near the Elemental Bear's corpse.
"Let's head back to the town. I don't have enough mana to defend ourselves if an enemy attacks us, and I'm sure Mara is also exhausted."
Kellan spoke while walking toward the corpse.
"You're no fun; wait till I take something as a trophy."
Saying this, Faela took out a knife and began cutting out one of its teeth.
"Quit playing around and get everything of value from it. It's already late in the day, and I don't want to remain in the forest at night."
"Got it, boss."
Everyone spoke and began tearing the bear apart.
"Damn, even with enchanted weapons' its hide is very tough. At this rate, we might be unable to skin it completely."
Kellan spoke while skinning the bear's corpse.
"Yeah, it's pretty tough. It might take a fe--"
"Shesh."
Lorik's dialogue was cut short by Faela. Even though she had a playful character, everyone on her team believed her capabilities as a ranger.
She then placed her ear on the ground, trying to figure out the direction from which she heard the sound.
'I hope I am wrong.'
She kept her ear on the ground for a bit longer before quickly standing up and pointing in one direction.
"There is a massive horde coming from that direction. According to my analysis, there are at least 300 monsters."
Hearing her, everyone on the team became vigilant.
"I suggest we go back to the town; even with four of us, I don't think we can take them, not in our exhaustive state."
Faela spoke while looking toward Mara for further instructions.
"If that's the case, we should fall back."
Hearing her, everyone quickly packed their stuff and began traveling back to the forest entrance.
It had been a few hours since they began traveling back.
'I can still hear the horde,' Faela was shocked by this fact because they were near the entrance of the Great Forest of Tob, yet she could still hear the horde of the monsters.
"Guys, I can still hear the horde approaching. We should hurry back to the town and warn the guild; the horde may attack the nearby villages."
Her teammates stopped at this and turned toward her with vigilance in their eyes.
"You are the fastest of us; you go ahead."
Mara spoke while looking toward the depths of the forest.
"Are you sure? Traveling without a ranger will be dangerous, no?"
"Even so, we need to inform the guild of this. This is an unnatural event; it's not every day that hundreds of monsters attack together. If this horde is left to wreak havoc, who knows how many would die. Considering all this, I think informing the guild of this unnatural event should be our first priority."
Mara spoke with determination in her eyes.
'Alas, we might not even be able to celebrate our ascension to Adamantite.'
Even though she was sad inside, she didn't let it show on the outside.
"Understood, then I would go ahead."
Saying this, Faela jumped to a nearby branch and raced toward the forest entrance.
~Scene Change~
E-Naeurl was a coastal city situated at the north end of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Because it was regarded as a simple port town, it had no strategic purpose.
It was dusk at the moment, and the commoners were closing up their shops. Adventurers were traveling to the many pubs in the town, and the guards were getting ready to change their shifts.
Faela was running through the crowd toward the Adventurer's Guild.
'I need to hurry,' Thinking this, she increased her speed. Because she was an archer and a ranger, her agility was very high, even among people with similar strength.
It took her only a short time before she reached the guild. Opening the doors, she dashed toward the reception desk.
"Where is the guild leader," She spoke hushedly despite her out-of-breath state.
The remaining adventurers in the guild were shocked to see her like this. As the only Orichalcum-ranked adventurer, everyone knew her.
"Hey, isn't that one of the members of the Shadow's Blade?"
One of the adventurers, a male sitting on one of the benches, asked his friend who was seated near him.
"Yeah, I think so. I heard that the group was completing a quest that would allow them to reach Adamantite rank. But, looking at her current appearance, I fear something bad happened to them."
Similar murmurs spread throughout the guild, but Faela paid them no head.
"The guild master is on the first floor; you can meet him."
The receptionist spoke politely, but Faela didn't wait for her to complete and dashed toward the stairs.
Reaching the guild master room, she didn't knock and directly entered it.
"GUILD MASTER, I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!"
The guild master was shocked to hear this. Faela moved near his table and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
"Let's calm down first, shall we." The guild master, a man in his late thirties with black skin, white hair, and a buff physique, spoke calmly.
His name was Alden.
"Yes, I apologize for my outburst just now. Now, moving on to the thing I wanted to tell you."
For the next minute, she began to tell the guild master about the monster horde.
"What! A monster horde with over 300 of them, and they are traveling toward the forest's entrance?"
Alden dumbfoundedly asked her. Even though he had been the guild master for over 10 years, he had never heard of a monster horde this massive.
Also, they still didn't know the difficulty ratings of these monsters. Who knew? Some of the monsters might only be defeatable by an Adamantite adventurer.
"Yeah, and we don't have much time. It might take them a few days to reach the town, but the villages surrounding the forest area are at great risk."
Faela spoke gravely.
"I understand the situation. I'll make an official request for the adventurers above Gold rank to immediately go and protect the villages. I'd also contact either the capital or E-Rantel for reinforcements."
Alden spoke while in deep thought.
"Understood, then I'll go and look for my team. They ought to have left the forest by now."
Saying this, she turned toward the exit of the room.
"Take care of yourself out there."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Saying this, she exited the guild and began traveling toward the town's exit.
~Scene Change~
In the callosum on the 6th floor of the Nazarick, two figures were fighting each other.
Enri was fighting a level 79 monster summoned by Helios.
"She certainly has improved." Helios spoke while sitting in one of the sofas in the VIP section. Elara was seated beside him, tightly hugging his arm. She had also placed her head on his shoulder.
She nodded after hearing Helios.
"Umu. She has; unfortunately, she wasn't able to learn any of my magic skills. But, she did manage to learn some things from Cocytus."
Lupusregina was also standing behind the sofa as Helio's maid for the day. It had been a few days since the Army of Death took over many bases of the Corpus of the Abyss. And now, they were preparing themselves for the big fight at the HQ.
Malachar had been observing them and was satisfied with their results.
'I should also get going and start preparing for the completion of the new PTP.'
Everyone in Nazarick was doing something. Hermione was teaching Nemu, Albedo was keeping all the guardians in check, Cocytus was busy teaching Enri, Elara was handling the medicinal herbs on the 11th floor, etc.
While I, on the other hand, was doing nothing productive. I was done with the study of the Yggdrasil's magic system, which was very similar to many magic systems from my past life.
However, there was something unique to it: its tendency to communicate with the world's laws and manipulate them.
Every magic system does something similar, but what was unique to Yggdrasil's magic system was that the number of laws it could communicate with was far higher than any other magic system I knew.
The majority of the magic systems only communicated with 10-15 laws, and most of them were elemental. Yggdrasil's magic system, on the other hand, could communicate with more than 25 laws.
This thing made it truly unique, and editing it and making a new magic system was one of the ways I had planned to transcend past Rank 1. But that would only be feasible after going to other worlds.
For right now, the preparations for world domination needed to be completed.