At the entrance of the blood-colored Spatial Origin Door, Gurney looked with an expressionless face at the blood-eared elf who was pierced by the Fire Arrows within the fog.
After sensing his surroundings, Gurney confirmed that the specter spying on him had truly vanished. He let out a sigh.
"Alright, get up." Gurney kicked Pavel who was on the ground.
With a flip of his body, Pavel stood up in a lively manner.
At the same time, behind the blood-colored Spatial Origin Door, Avery, Yulair, and the rest came out.
Looking at the corpse that was currently being burned by the Fire Arrows, Avery praised, "Truly a spectacular battle."
"We were prepared and caught them unguarded. It was no wonder they lost," Gurney explained calmly. "Be careful. That female assassin escaped. She might return to exact revenge."
"Yes!" Everyone nodded lightly; they did not let down their guard.
Their plan was simple, but the actual effect was pretty much perfect.
Pavel drank an aura-concealment potion; together with the huge amount of blood they had access to, he easily pretended to be on the verge of death.
Next, Apprentice Light Elementalist, Black Dill, used her "Light Illusion" spell on Pavel. It cast an illusion on the area around Pavel after he came out. That way, Pavel could put up a show to lure the enemies into coming out, allowing Gurney's counterattack plan to take form.
The plan carried certain risks, but from the results, it was rather successful. They managed to kill the blood-eared elf that was a tier-two Summoner.
If the enemy had managed to put some distance between them, the peculiar spiritual lifeform and the tier-two kermo giant wolf that had high physical defense, along with the Transcendent Shadower who escaped, could have caused the group to suffer casualties; they might even get wiped out.
The only pity now was that the Shadower escaped.
Blood-eared elves have high agility to begin with, and that woman is a Shadower too. It's not surprising that she escaped. Unless I become a genuine tier-one Bloodcaster, or even a tier-two Bloodcaster, trying to kill them at the same time was always going to be very difficult. Even then, the fact that I managed to kill a tier-two Summoner was already quite good.
Regarding this result, Gurney was quite satisfied.
He went over to the body of the tier-two Summoner. The fire arrows made from his spell had pierced his chest, and they were burning intensely.
Sheron, who had plotted against Gurney's group, had eventually fallen prey to Gurney's trap.
Looking at this blood-eared elf's body, the cloak had already been torn by Gurney's spell, so it had no value remaining. However, this blood-eared elf did not have a bag or even a sack.
After searching the body for a while, Gurney found a light green metallic "Green Leaf Bracelet" on the right arm.
"A supernatural storage bracelet?"
Everyone's gaze shifted towards him.
Supernatural storage equipment was very rare, and they had high value too. They were normally as valuable as mystic silver equipment.
Among these rich aristocratic kids, only Avery had supernatural storage equipment; the rest did not have one.
Under everyone's gaze, Gurney quickly took out many things from this green leaf bracelet — water, food, low-tier potions, some mid-tier potions, as well as some supernatural materials. But the value of these materials was not even ten percent of this green leaf bracelet.
Even though Gurney had his own system storage, having this supernatural storage equipment as a concealment was a great idea. Plus, it might have some huge effect in certain situations.
"This green leaf bracelet has a cubic meter of space internally. It is valued at around 800 to 1,000 gold pounds. Counting the things inside, we will value this at 1,000 gold pounds. According to our battle distribution, I should be able to claim over sixty percent of the loot. After we return, I will pay you guys 400 gold pounds."
Gurney had priority pick, and nobody had an objection to him taking the green leaf bracelet and compensating them with gold pounds instead.
…
The night descended.
In the valley, at the side of a small mountain river stream, a fire was burning intensely.
After washing up and cleaning himself thoroughly, Gurney, who now felt extremely comfortable about his cleanliness, walked towards the fire with his hair dripping water.
At this time, several people had gathered around the fire, laughing and talking amongst themselves.
"Has Avery returned yet?" Turning around a corner, Gurney then saw Avery who was sitting by the fire.
Earlier, after leaving the Howling Canyon that was covered in dense fog, the group moved first, while Avery stayed at the back, defending against the Shadower if she chose to return.
Right now, with Avery's return and everyone's joyous mood, it seemed that the female Shadower did not follow them. After all, she would have had to face a mysterious person who easily killed a tier-two Transcendent and almost took her life.
If that female Shadower knew her limits, she would not approach or even tail them.
Arriving by the side of the fire, Gurney asked, "How was it?"
"I traced the aura of that blood-eared elf. She seemed to have escaped immediately and had no intention of following us."
"Hmm, she understands the situation at least." Gurney laughed. Frankly speaking, the current Gurney was not afraid of that tier-one blood-eared elf attacking him.
With their crisis resolved, everyone became happier and more relaxed.
"This exploration has ended. Then, we should head for our next target, the Ancient Architecture Ruin Grounds." While talking, Avery started to plan for their next step.
That Ancient Architecture Ruin Grounds was a cursed land that bred countless skeletons — skeleton soldiers, skeleton wolves, skeleton boars, and all sorts of skeleton creatures.
Even though those skeletons possessed some combat ability, the group did not intend to enter deeply, so there should be no danger.
In the past, the group had fought against the skeletons at the periphery.
Also, when they went into a supernatural wilderness, they would keep an eye out for resources while training their bodies to fight against supernatural lifeforms.
Fighting against these skeletons would be an extremely good form of training.
For the following journey, it would be a fun experience for them. Except, Gurney would take on the role of a "bodyguard" now.
Currently, having inherited the Bloodcaster class, I have already stepped onto the Transcendent road. My mental power seems to have broken free of a certain restriction. In just one day, I felt that it increased by a certain amount.
Hmm… it is said that after becoming a Transcendent, there would be a "puberty" phase where one's power will grow explosively. That does not seem to be a lie.
At the same time, my Cybona Origin Pool is starting to open the origin pool in my body.
Devotion Knight Breathing Style is able to quickly raise the strength of my body as well.
As for that Blood Pool Codex, it is also raising my supernatural trait — meaning my blood — rapidly.
Body, blood, and soul, I have three aspects of growth. By the time I return from this trip to the wilderness plain, my strength will have grown by a lot.
In that case, I will need to search for even more supernatural spells to raise my strength. The stronger the supernatural spell, the more gold pounds I would need to buy them.
Gurney rubbed his temples lightly.
As expected, every Transcendent's growth is an endless pit when it comes to money.