Ajax was in disbelief; the sheer power of the attack not only severed reality itself but also severed a mountain. He was now what earth weebs consider a mountain buster!
Ajax retracted his soul weapon and sat on the wheel of a broken carriage. He was exhausted and in pain. The damage the soul weapon did was too much, and he needed time to regenerate.
Ajax took out a potion and drank it; the potion will help in hastening the process of regeneration. Fortunately, he had two heritages and they were also highly leveled; this doubled the speed of his healing.
Ajax decided to meditate to stabilize his astral energy; he had consumed too much in the fight. While meditating, he felt movements near the carriage, so he opened his eyes and checked. There he saw Dioni and two guys wearing fancy clothes; they all had one thing in common: silver hair.
'Perhaps they are also heirs of the Lifeblood clan? Judging by the looks and color of the hair, I'd say it's 100%,' he thought. Ajax approached them, making sure they noticed his presence to avoid conflict.
The twins saw him and immediately covered Dioni; this act made Dioni look in his direction. "Wait! It's okay, I know him!" She spoke in a reassuring tone toward the twins.
The twins relaxed their bodies after hearing her confirmation, but they still didn't let Dioni go towards him. They were probably shaken by the amount of blood and gore everywhere.
He approached them and greeted the twins before talking to Dioni; he reported what happened to the guards and the assassination attempt on their lives. Dioni had a grim look in her face after receiving the report; the attack had greatly damaged their convoy, the guards and even the captain were dead. Dioni knew the only way they'll truly be safe is when they get to Valhalla, but even that seemed impossible now.
Seeing her worried expression, Ajax put a hand on her shoulder and spoke in a reassuring tone: "Don't worry, I'll do my best to keep all three of you safe. As long as you follow my orders, we'll get there in one piece." Dioni calmed down a little after hearing that and formed a small smile.
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After the discussion, Ajax and Dioni returned to the carriage and decided to introduce each other. Ajax took the initiative and introduced himself, followed by Dioni, and lastly, the twins.
"Im Ajax Harbinger; I'm a hired adventurer by Dion-Lady Dioni; I'm currently at grandmaster rank."
"I'm Dioni Lifeblood, heir to the clan Lifeblood, and I'm currently at master rank." Dioni said it in an elegant manner.
Now the twins' turns came. The first to introduce himself was the blue-eyed twin, who was named Sergei Lifeblood.
"I'm Sergei Lifeblood, also an heir to the clan Lifeblood, and I'm at veteran rank," Sergei spoke in a proud tone.
The next was the red-eyed twin.
"I'm Seraph Lifeblood, also an heir to the clan Lifeblood, and I'm also at the veteran rank," Seraph said in a proud manner.
'Aren't they a little too identical..?' Ajax thought. After the introductions, he addressed the elephant in the room. The twins' proud faces slowly turned into frightened expressions, but after Ajax reassured them, they slowly eased up.
He had formulated a plan, and that was to take another route; it would be stupid to continue their current path, surely more Assasins were waiting for them if they chose to advance.
He revealed his plans to the party to see if anyone disagreed, and sure enough, they had some opinions.
"We can't do that! It will delay us, and we might not make it in time." Sergei said.
"Our father will be angry at us if we miss this opportunity!" Seraph added.
Dioni sighed in a tired manner before speaking: "Do we truly have no other choice but to take another route?"
"But sister!" Sergei and Seraph spoke in unison.
"Enough!" Dioni said in a commanding tone, which made the twins shut up.
"As you can see, we were ambushed and our guards are dead. If we were to advance on our current route, we would only meet our doom." Dioni said.
"Your sister is correct, this path is no longer safe; we have to reroute otherwise we will never make it." Ajax added.
The twins had no choice but to unwillingly listen, and as much as they hated it, what their sister told them made a lot of sense.
Ajax took out a map from his spatial bag, and they started planning their next route. After some discussions and evaluations, they ended up on one route: the Servuktap Forest.
Servuktap Forest was one of the most dangerous places a person could possibly venture to, but under their current circumstances it was the most ideal route for them, not only was it the fastest route, it also somehow offered protection due to the high level abominations residing there.
Now that they had a route in mind, it was time for the preparation phase. Ajax instructed them to gather food and water from the carriages and dead bodies; afterwards, he collected them and stored them in his storage bag.
They took off immediately, and Ajax made sure to erase any trace. The dirt road they followed slowly vanished and was replaced by muddy ground and vines; they had officially entered the forest.
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After three days of travel, they finally reached the real Seruktap Forest. The forest was vastly different from the previous one: while the first forest was lush and peaceful, this one was eerie and silent; there were no birds, and some trees had stains of blood and occasional claw marks.
Fortunately, Ajax was skilled at this sort of thing, and he managed to spot and avoid some dangerous spots. However, his luck didn't last for long; while Ajax and the party were traveling, they were suddenly ambushed by a charging abomination.
Ajax was quick, and he managed to push them away before getting his ass dragged through the mud and vines. It was painful, but this amount of pain was bearable. He immediately used [Reality Armament] and summoned abyssal axe before cleaving the beast's head.
[Congratulations! You have slain the "Demon (+)" ranked "Orichalcum boar."]
He stood up and checked himself before checking on Dioni and the twins. When the twins saw him, they immediately ran to him and looked at him with eyes of admiration. Needless to say, it was very awkward for Ajax.
"Uh, yeah, let's go," he said. The twins followed him with great admiration in their eyes.
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7 days have passed since they entered the forest of Servuktap, and so far they haven't come across another beast. They would occasionally take stops so the twins could rest; after all, they were still at veteran rank.
Ajax and Dioni would exchange watches every 4 hours, and they moved as soon as the sun hit the horizon. While traveling, they've come across some low-ranking abominations, and Ajax would instruct the twins to take care of them; of course, Ajax kept a close eye on them.
This method was highly effective, as he managed to train them while they traveled. Ajax noticed that while they were indeed at veteran rank, they haven't killed a single abomination ever! This led to them freezing the first time they fought an abomination.
Ever since then Ajax made sure they get as much experience as possible, the twins were reluctant at first but after seeing how much they improved they accepted training with enthusiasm. 'They're improving too fast, how unfair.' Ajax thought.
Ajax also corrected their mistakes and taught them fighting tips.
As they traveled further the abominations became more common and the further they go the stronger they become. After traveling for a few more days the forest became silent again.
Ajax noticed this and didn't get a good feeling from this, sure enough a system messaged popped up.
[Warning! host is in immidiate danger!]