Chapter 148 - Entering The Forest
"Since we are all roughly around the same level, no one should have a problem with the loot being equally distributed after we sell it, right?"
Everyone nodded in agreement with equal distribution. It was only fair since they were cooperating together.
However, Leon's doubts were strengthened. As a 4th step Awakener, it wasn't strange if the team leader wanted to take a bigger portion of the loot. Everyone still agree since there were only 3rd step Awakeners.
In the eyes of the others, he was also a 3rd step Awakener after suppressing the energy fluctuation of his cultivation. Unless it was star ranker or stronger, they would not be able to gauge his strength easily.
"Mm, no problem." Leon was last to agree.
"That's good." Elias nodded, before doing a brief sweep of everyone's backpack. "It doesn't seem like anyone needs to stock up on supply… except…" Elias continued, before pausing on Leon's flimsy bag. "Is that everything you're bringing…?"
"Yes, I have everything I need here." Leon responded indifferently as he patted his slim bag.
Most of his necessities was stored in the Worldspace. He only brought the bag for appearance sake. It would be too strange to enter the forest empty handed otherwise.
"Fair enough. Just don't drag us down." Elias left it as is, before announcing, "Since we are all prepared, let's move out."
The team soon arrived at the forest entrance.
The forest was walled off with a set of tall black wooden gate as the entrance. The high wooden walls were used to prevent the mist from flooding into the town. Leon could feel the tremendous amount of yin energy coming from the forest.
As Blackwillow Town was built upon the deforested region of the Extreme Misty Forest, it wasn't strange for the mist to flood the town, if the walls weren't there to prevent it.
"With this amount of yin energy, it would be the ideal place for practicing cold attribute or ghost cultivation." Leon quietly mused. He wagered if he brought his two girls here to train, their cultivation speed would increase drastically.
But of course, they had to train with moderation when it comes to yin energy. If they don't properly filter out the negative and impure elements, it could lead to energy deviation and corruption of the minds.
Leon wouldn't be surprise, if he encounters ghouls and vengeful spirits in this sort of environment.
Even in the Divine Realm, a concentrate region of yin energy like this was very rare. Thus, while it was a perilous land to others, it was a blessed land of cultivation in Leon's eyes, except the benefits wasn't for him to enjoy.
"Hm? Did you say something?" Elena asked.
"It's nothing." Leon shook his head and stood behind the team leader. He glanced at the large black gate in passing.
Several teams began to gather in front of the closed gate, which was guarded some town guards. There was a fixed time when the gate opens and closes, if people wanted to use this section to enter the forest.
The 1-mile safe boundary was just a figurative term. It didn't mean it was absolutely safe zone. This was especial true at night, as the 1-mile safe boundary no longer exists at night.
The night is filled with unknown dangers and the drop in temperature makes the environment unfriendly.
Extended exposure to the forest environment was harmful to the living, unless they have ways to ward off the negative and impure elements from infiltrating their bodies.
A tense atmosphere surrounded the teams as they waited for the opening of the gate.
"Did you know-?"
"No, I don't know if you don't tell me." Leon immediately cut her off.
Elena stomped the ground grumpily and pouted, "It was a figure of speech! Mou! As I was saying, did you know that--"
"No, I don't know." Leon cut her off again. He smiled with amusement and jokingly said, "Why do people say that when they have something to say? Can't they just get straight to the point?"
"Ahh~! I'm so frustrated~! I want to kill you!" With her claw-like hands up, she wanted to pounce on Leon for a bite.
Garry appeared behind her and held her back. "Hahaha, let's not get violent here. We're a team now." He tried to calm her down with a laugh. A shade of redness soon appeared on his face as he wasn't used to having contact with the opposite sex despite his big build.
"Hahaha, Garry is blushing!" Nina pointed.
"N-No, I'm not." Garry denied in a panic, releasing his hold on Elena.
Regaining her freedom, Elena just stared at Leon with a puffed face. "I just wanted to say Blackwood Town got its name due to naturally phenomenon of the chopped ironwood turning black in this misty environment! Humph humph!"
She was just trying to lighten the mood. Was this fella trying to frustrate her to death?
"That's general knowledge that everyone should have already known, no?" Leon smiled.
"You had the look of someone who didn't!"
"Can't a guy look around curiously when it's his first time here?" Leon shrugged his shoulders helplessly.
"…"
Pft** There was a moment of silence before Elena broke into bouts of laughter. The others smiled, while Garry scratched his head awkwardly. He had taken Elena's previous words seriously.
Jeremiah: "…"
Nevertheless, the previous tenseness was dispelled.
Creak**
The large gates soon began to open, as the local authority made an announcement.
"The gate will now be opening. Just a friendly reminder that the gate will not open after 6PM. If you return later than the stipulated time, then we can only wish you good luck in surviving the night inside the forest. Happy hunting."
"Let's go." Elias stated.
Leon's team began to enter the forest after the teams ahead of time. The moment they step foot inside, they felt the rush of coldness. But as the team had come prepared, this bit of coldness was enough to faze them.
"I won't say too much since everyone should be aware of the dangers of the forest before coming. Don't wonder too far off from each other. It's easy to get lost in this mist and keep an eye out for ghouls." Elias instructed sternly.
As Leon anticipated, there were ghouls in the forest. Ghouls were divided into two types; the undead ghouls and the mutated ghouls.
Undead ghouls are birthed from corpses of humans after the vengeful spirits occupy their empty vessels, while mutated ghouls were humans with weak minds that allowed vengeful spirits to invade their mind and take possession of it.
After searching the peripheries of the forest without much luck, Elias suddenly declared, "There isn't any ghouls and precious herbs near the entrance. We will head to the 900-yard area to hunt.
"Eh? Isn't that too fast and dangerous? Elena said with misgivings. The others also expressed their doubts. They were going to jump straight into the deep end?
"Don't worry, I have entered the forest many times. The dangers are still manageable with our current battle strength. As long as we don't leave the safe boundary, nothing should go wrong." Elias comforted.
"Well… alright then."
Hunting ghouls wasn't a rare occurrence in Blackwillow Town. There were two different merchant branches in Rainwallow City that offers good prices for the yin cores found inside undead ghouls and fresh bodies of the mutated ghouls due to their strong vitality blood.
No one knew the exact purposes of these two items, but since there was a buyer with good price, who wouldn't be tempted to go hunt some ghouls?
It was also the most stable source of income for hunters and adventurers in the Extreme Misty Forest. Precious herbs were harder to find in the safe boundary. One had to venture beyond to find some.
As the group advanced towards the 500-yard mark, they encountered their first ghoul. It had the appearance of a fairly young man, when he was alive. It had its eyes rolled back, pale blue complexion, sharp black nails and carried a horrible stench.
"It's an undead ghoul, be careful." Elias warned dutifully and drew his steel sword, while the rest drew their ironwood weapons. Apart from Jeremiah using dual daggers, the rest had swords.
"Huh?" Nina noticed Leon's empty hands. "You didn't bring any weapon with you?"
"I have this." Leon displayed his needles briefly before hiding them again under the dumbfound looks of the others.
Such a small needle, what can he kill with it?
In the meantime, Elias had already charged forward and lopped off the ghoul's head.
"Stay focused." Elias said sternly, before requesting cover, "Watch my back." He proceeded to cut open the ghoul's head, but found nothing unfortunately. "Tch, it's a bust. This ghoul was still young. No wonder it was so weak."
"Let's continue to head deeper."
The sun hung in the peak of the day. They had plenty of time to hunt. Yin cores would usually form after a week and comes in different grades. Thus, it was easy to gauge the age of an undead ghoul.
"Alright."
The team agreed after seeing how easily their team leader handled the ghoul.
"The ghoul didn't have a yin core, but couldn't it have been a mutated ghoul?" Nina asked. "Its blood would have been worth something."
"Mutated ghouls have rosy red complexions due to their blood vitality. That one was clearly an undead." Elias explained.
"Oh."
The team soon walked past the 700-yard mark. Initially, there were about 1000 people that entered at the same time. Even when they couldn't see the other teams due to the poor visibility, they would at least hear them. But here, they could only longer hear anyone except themselves. The teams must have spread quite far apart.
Leon quietly observed his team. Only the team leader and the quiet Jeremiah was vigilant. The rest followed blindly. Leon shook his head at this sight. They were too carefree.
With the poor visibility, it was easy for a ghoul to sneak up on them. Coincidentally, something happened as he thought that.
"Ahh!" Nina screamed as she defended against an undead ghoul with her sword. It had pounced at her from out of nowhere. Luckily, she reacted quickly, however struggled to push the ghoul back. Its foul stench assailed her nostril and made her complexion paled. "Help me!"
"Careful, this is a level 3 ghoul!" Elias warned. Another ghoul pounced at him as he was prepared to help Nina. "Shit, there's another level 3! Someone else help her!"
Leon reacted quickly, shooting two needles into its eyes and brains, before retrieving it at lightning speed. No one knew what he did. Elena only saw his hands blurred.
His attack didn't kill the ghoul, but it did cause it to back off. Jeremiah, who was the closest took the opportunity to lop off its head. Elias finished his own prey shortly after.
As they dug out the yin core in their heads, Leon stood next to the shaken Nina and tapped her on the shoulder. "You alright?"
Nina jumped in fright, but she soon calmed down and nodded.
"This is not a bad start. 2 grade-3 yin cores. Let's continue." Elias said in a good mood.
His flaws were beginning to show.