*reader's discretion alert, bloody and gore scene.
"Uhm... This is not my main point but it has been a few months now... Real world time." said Blair.
"I see... Hmm... Why am I not informed about that though? Anyway, care to talk about that 'previous king' thing and how did it end up taken by Alliance?" Sky asked.
"I can't tell you in detail but there was a riot between people and the government, the riot is so bad that Mr. Thomas has no choice but to intervene. After everything is solved, the people refuse to accept the previous royal family to rule this land anymore and so we decide to temporarily take over this land." said K.
"Yes, and it's Colonel K the one that leads the army to stop the riot." said C-760.
"And those boys were the royal guards." said Blair
"Ah... I see. But why are the previous king's guard joining this tournament?" Sky asked.
"Well, we are curious as well. And I am a bit concerned about that curse magic, I had been detecting it from the beginning to the end of the defense test." said Blair.
"You mean it's there for the whole test? But seriously, who would have used it?" Sky asked.
"Logically it could be the winner of this test but we don't have any proof about it, so... Let's just keep it in view." said Blair.
Sky nodded. Then they continue exploring the deep forest...
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Half an hour later... They reached an area that is filled with vines and parasitic plants. One special thing about that area is the pungent odor of rotten flesh.
"Ugh... What's wrong with this place?" said Sky while covering his nose with hands.
"This smells like dead body." said K, rather calm.
"Should we go investigate the source of this smell? Although it could be just some dead animals." said C-760.
"This should lead us to an essential clue." said K.
"I see, I will go investigate it." said C-760.
"No, it's too risky for you to go alone, we will go with you." said Blair and the others agreed. And so, they started following the awful smell to find the source.
After a few minutes, they found what they were looking for, it is actually a huge carnivorous plant that is in the process of digesting its 'meals', they slowly approaching the plant in order to observe it clearer. And to their horror, there is a human leg in the carnivorous plant.
"Ah... Wasn't really expecting to see this." said Sky, in a casual tone.
Then, Maria noticed a blood trail that started from the plant into the bushes a few meters away from them.
"I don't know whose leg is this but I believe that person might still alive." said Maria while pointing at the bloody trail.
"Mr. Vlansky, can you take out the map? I would want to see where does this trail probably leads to." said Blair.
Sky nodded before took out and handed the map to Blair, however, before Blair even had a chance to take a look at the map, the map suddenly caught up on fire while still in Blair's hand, the map turned into ash in less than a second.
Blair stared at his slightly burned palm, he is astonished by that sudden occurrence.
"Ah! Damn it! Mr. Blair! Are you alright? Maria, give me your burn medicine!" said Sky, Maria did as he instructed.
"I'm alright... But the map is gone." said Blair, felt a bit guilty.
"Don't worry about the map, it's not a big deal. We had expected that since the beginning, there must be some sort of unusual aura that caused the map to burn on its own, judging from how everyone got lost in this place. Anyway... Here, this is the burn medicine made by Ben, it can heal such an injury in no time." said Sky.
Then, Sky handed him a small bottle of translucent ointment that was given by Maria. Blair accepted it and applied the ointment on his injured palm, the wound disappeared as soon as the ointment applied to it.
"This medicine from Dr. Ben is really amazing. But now the map had gone, what should we do? We can't just go in there cluelessly." said Blair.
"Rest assured. I had memorized every single detail of that map." said C-760.
"That's great, can you please lead the way? If you don't mind." said Blair.
"Yes, certainly. Behind the bushes is a clear path, so we can go ahead and check it out." said C-760.
Then, with C-760 leading the way, they headed towards the bush where the blood trail leads to, and just as C-760 said, it's a clear path behind the bushes, the blood trail can be seen even clearer and lead to a deeper area. The group continues to follow the bloody trail which leads them to a deeper and deeper part of the forest. Everyone felt something is off about this, as it is quite impossible for someone who had lost one of their legs to drag themselves for such a distance, this whole thing feels like a well set up trap that trying to lure them to a certain danger in the deep forest. However, since their original intention is to investigate about all these weird occurrences, so, none of them stop their feet.
And as they getting deeper and deeper, they start hearing some rather creepy and weird crawling sounds that don't sound like animals along with the ruffling noise of plants around them that sounds a little too aggressive...
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*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
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