The tense atmosphere in the forest kept increasing the more that everyone stepped further inside.
The silence which occasionally had the sound of light footsteps and breathes mix in with the wind and the trees being hit by the wind only made everyone more on edge.
The importance of the mission for the White Storm meant that they must complete it with as many casualties as possible so that they could help the White Storm gain much more reputation in the world.
They could retreat and abandon the mission so that they could avoid losing any lives even if it meant gaining a poor evaluation on the mission but it would be better if they at least tried to accomplish something or bring back something of use whether it be proof of their arrival on the island or some intelligence on the island and its residents.
There were a couple of presences that came from a couple of animals which had been prowling around nearby, Alyssia sent out her Conquerors Haki to keep them away from her group and prevent any battles that would only create enough noise to draw people to them.
More than half way through, more presences were discovered so Alyssia signalled everyone to be on alert and protect themselves.
Alyssia flash stepped away and appeared far away from the ground as she used her Observation Haki to find the best weak spot to penetrate the groups formation and slip behind them.
Her eyes fell onto the dark green cloaked people who held several wooden tubes and vials along with them.
Once she had closed her eyes, the system brought up their skills and she collected each of them so her current skills were updated a little.
The herbalism or other similar skills were updated the most so it showed that many of the people she had discovered were well versed in the use of herbs whether they were used for healing people or harming them.
They moved quietly and seemed to pick up tracks of Alyssia's group then signalled the others to continue tracking.
They removed some wooden tubes and inserted a needle shaped piece of metal while placing on end of the tube into their mouths while pointing the other end towards where Alyssia's allies were walking.
Alyssia finally moved and appeared behind one of them while dealing a quick chop to the back of their neck. 'So weak.'
She thought the people she would encounter first would be some kind of monsters but she was very mistaken.
They were only a little better than the average human but they did possess some decent knowledge and experience with hunting, tracking and using herbs.
Their main weapon of choice was a blow dart because it was small, sharp and quiet which suited their way of fighting against humans or animals.
A little further away, there was another one which walked towards the group while trying to hide their presence.
They pointed the blow dart towards the group and were about to fire it but a smaller figure appeared behind them from underneath the ground.
Yvie had dug underneath them and came out behind one of them, she jumped out of the hole very quickly and was in her wolverine form.
She jumped up and grabbed the back of the head then pushed it towards the tree in front of them. 'One down.'
She wasted no time as she jumped back into the hole and dug underneath the ground towards her next target.
Yvie had gained a lot of experience against different opponents while taking on different tasks, it allowed her to test her physical capabilities and improve herself.
One of the areas that Yvie had improved most in was the control and use of her own power while being able to measure her opponents limits then apply the right amount of strength to subdue them.
While training in the modified martial arts which had been formed from the dragon claw and finger pistol techniques, her gripping and piercing power had increased a lot so there were times where she would need to hold back in order to not kill her opponents.
If she wished to do so, then in her wolverine form, Yvie could have easily crushed his skull or penetrated the back of their skull before they had a chance to respond.
If Yvie had been a trained assassin aiming for the kill then they would have died right away but Alyssia had carefully taught Yvie only to kill when it was absolutely necessary and the present situation was not one of those times.
The people on the island were only doing as they always had and were probably hostile to intruders so it was natural for them to attack outsiders.
The worst possible scenario would be if Alyssia and the others killed someone the moment they entered the island and had earned the hatred of the residents of the island.
Their mission was to explore the island and bring back some useful things from there, it was not to suddenly start a war.
It did not matter if those on the island were weak or strong and if their military power was weak or strong, what mattered was that they had been concealed for a very long time and there would be reasons for them doing so.
More wished to know about those that lived on the island and what kinds of things they were in possession of while some feared what they did not know.
While Alyssia was appearing behind some people and knocking them out, Yvie did the same in her own way before the members of the group were attacked with the blow darts and needles that had been poisoned.
Ideo was walking around casually without much vigilance because many others had surrounded him and kept up their guard but his gaze became sharp once he picked up on the noises nearby as the enemy were subdued in a variety of different ways.
Yvie had missed one person nearby and would not get to them in time so she raised her arm and pointed it towards that person then fist tightly. 'Come on and work.'
A pop green was fired and hit the person then from within the pop green burst out a long green vine which wrapped around them.
The blow dart fell to the ground as they were constricted by the green vines which ket Yvie feel relieved so she jumped back into the ground.
Meanwhile Sunila had yawned a little as if she was tired and not paying much attention to her surroundings.
Anyone observing would judge her to be excellent prey which had let their guard down, the next moment she had moved her body quickly and removed an arrow from her quiver.
It pointed in one direction and fired far away, once it had hit the person a wire had come out and wrapped around the person.
Since they were close to a tree, the wire wrapped around them and bound them to the tree.
The sudden impact and constriction had caused them to drop their blow dart.
Jester was playing with something in his hand which looked exactly identical to the weapons those people were using then another appeared in his hands before he tossed one aside to grab another. "Snatch."
His snatching ability was still very useful in many types of situations, if there was ever a need to use it then many lives would be spared with a single use of his ability.
A single deadly and silent weapon was removed from the hands of his enemies before any harm could fall upon any of his allies.
Milky and Wanda who had joined were impressed by how the problem had been resolved so quickly but they were a little disappointed that they could not offer some assistance to the group.