Companions

Nero's arduous journey through the seemingly endless forest continued.

After the incident with the strange wolves and the Pegasus, Nero became even more cautious.

Unfortunately, this also significantly slowed down his progress, which frustrated Nero quite a bit.

Slowly but surely, his food supply was running low. He couldn't rely on plants or mushrooms for sustenance since he had no idea which ones were edible and which ones were not.

Thus, he began to ration his food supply.

Luckily, as a result of his transformation, he didn't require as much sustenance as he did when he only was a lowly mortal. The magic seemed to be responsible for that as well.

During his further travels, Nero tried to avoid any wildlife encounters as much as possible, but he couldn't avoid them and still came across some bizarre creatures.

Just a day after encountering the Pegasus, he encountered a giant bird that flew over him.

The bird was over twelve meters long, with long brown feathers and a sharp beak.

Nero immediately reacted and hid under a pile of leaves to avoid being detected. He was shocked by these creatures and their immense dimensions.

What was even more shocking was the fact that many of these creatures emitted a distinct magical aura.

After approximately three more days of marching, Nero was crossing a river when he suddenly felt a strong pulsating aura next to him. He quickly jumped aside, narrowly avoiding a massive water fountain that erupted from the water he was in.

A creature resembling a Kraken emerged from the ground and swam toward him. It had twelve long tentacles trailing behind it and three massive eyes.

However, it didn't seem to be swimming but rather being carried by the water.

The currents moved at its will and propelled it towards Nero.

Nero raised his hand and flicked it. A small wave of light collided with the water, parting it.

The water slowed down, along with the creature. That gave Nero enough time to raise his hand and shoot a small beam of light from it, piercing one of the creature's eyes like a needle.

The creature recoiled as black blood flowed from its wound. Nero was about to throw a blade out of light when suddenly a strong current pulled him underwater.

Desperately, Nero tried to pull himself back up, but the creature's tentacles wrapped around him and dragged him toward its hideous mouth.

Somehow he got his Arms free again and immediately drew his sword. With all his force he directly plunged the sharp blade into the creature's throat. The creature froze and then began thrashing uncontrollably as more of the black blood poured into the water.

The grip around Nero loosened.

He took the opportunity and forced himself to the water's surface.

Quickly, he swam to the other side of the river and jumped onto the shore.

As soon as he left the water he forced himself to put as much distance between himself and the river as he could, ensuring that the creature couldn't attack him anymore. Then he broke down. Nero was panting heavily and spat out the water he swallowed while wrestling the creature underwater.

After a few minutes, he wanted to get up, but the exhaustion from the past weeks was heavily gnawing at him, and the temptation to just lie down was intense.

However, Nero resisted the urge. He defeated the desire to simply lay down and rest for a while.

He unstrapped the blade from his belt and threw it aside.

He wouldn't need it anymore.

Then he resumed his journey. He looked up, using the position of the sun to orient himself. He shouldered his soaked backpack and continued on.

As he walked, he activated his magic, and his entire body radiated a warm golden light, hastening the drying of his clothes. After an hour, he was completely dry, and Nero retracted his magic back into himself.

Then he remembered something he had read in Jefferson Petie's book.

He used his magic and let it flow into his mind. The feeling he experienced afterward was difficult to describe.

It wasn't information that entered his mind after he did but rather a sensation. It wasn't like using the stone with the symbol from the Ascension Camp to check his credit balance; it was just a feeling.

Nero instinctively knew the state of magic within his body. He sensed that his body had already adapted to seven percent of the magic.

According to Petie, his body had to fully accept one hundred percent of the magic for him to ascend to the next realm.

Nero sighed; it would still take some time to reach one hundred percent.

And then he would also need to find one of those "magic streams" to break through his realm.

Nero hoped he would find the opportunity in the next city.

In the past few days, he had learned how weak he was compared to some of the creatures that lived in this forest. He despised this weakness. He hated his own weakness!

Therefore, he forced himself to keep going. He couldn't stop now!

Nero continued to follow and headed south.

Based on Koal's rough descriptions, he knew they were on the outer edge of a continent called Daisan and that he needed to go south to reach new territory.

And that's exactly where Nero was heading.

He wandered for almost four more days. When it got dark, Nero typically moved up into the trees to avoid potential dangers. Most of the time, he also encountered these strange monkeys that seemed to live throughout the entire forest.

During the day, Nero walked straight ahead, trying his best to head south.

He encountered various animals, some of which possessed magic, like small rodents that could fall trees in seconds without even touching them, or animals that seemingly lacked magic but were incredibly bizarre, like a reptile that moved through the forest like a grasshopper, jumping from tree to tree.

However, they were all relatively harmless, and Nero managed to avoid them.

What Nero didn't expect was the creature that threatened his life again after two more days.

Nero fought his way through the undergrowth when he heard a faint crack above him in the trees.

He looked up and saw those bizarre green monkeys, which, as it turned out, were following his every step.

Nero didn't know the exact reason, but the monkeys seemed surprisingly friendly toward him and occasionally even helped him. Sometimes they warned him of dangers, and at other times, they even brought him food.

Now one of the monkeys emitted soft whistles above him.

Nero struggled to make out the camouflaged creatures in the green forest, but he finally recognized the sound.

One of the monkeys hung from a branch with two hands while gesturing in a direction with the other.

Apparently, it wanted to warn Nero about that region, so Nero made a wide detour around it.

He didn't fully trust the monkeys, but he wouldn't risk encountering a predator due to suspicion.

Nero pushed through the thicket when suddenly a gigantic clearing spread out before him. No trees grew here, and no grass was visible on the ground.

Shocked, Nero stepped back, assuming that one of those worms he already encountered after the incident with the wolves was at work again, but he couldn't have been more wrong.

In the middle of the clearing stood a tree. It was enormous, larger than any other tree in the forest.

It was significantly taller and wider than any creature, plant, or building Nero ever encountered.

At first, Nero didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that its massive size was the reason it was the only one left standing. But then he suddenly felt an incredible aura emanating from the tree.

-What kind of being resides in this tree? -

Nero wondered, shocked.

The aura emanating from this tree wasn't as powerful as that of the bizarre bird-reptile hybrid he encountered at the beginning of his journey, but it was noticeably stronger than any other creature he had met so far.

There must be something dwelling in this tree that emitted such an aura.

Nero continued to step back. Suddenly, he heard heavy stomping behind him as something heavy forced its way through the forest.

Startled, Nero turned around. But even before he could see the creature, he could feel it.

It wasn't the same feeling as perceiving the aura of another being. While sensing a strong aura, like the one from the tree creature, felt oppressive and overwhelming, this feeling was like a stab in the chest.

Nero continued to step back, but he was too late. A creature as big as a bull raced through the forest, paying no attention to anything—and it didn't notice Nero either.

It simply stormed past him.

Nero caught only a brief glimpse of it before it was already gone. It was large and dark gray, if not black. The peculiar thing about the creature was that Nero could seemingly see through it. It didn't appear to have a solid body but consisted of smoke.

-What was that? Another magical creature? No, there was no trace of magic. But it's definitely not normal, that's for sure! -