"He is stronger than the dead ones." Ben said as he looked at the beast standing at the entrance.
The beast at the entrance was similar to the dead three-horned dire wolves, but instead of three horns, he had one unicorn horn at the center of its forehead.
Just like the dead wolves, it had blue fur. It was a little smaller than the dead ones, but everything was almost the same.
Except for one small detail.
When looked at carefully, the beast at the entrance had a white nose, while the dead ones had black.
[A white mark on its nose… It's a servant of the ruler of this forest.]
Through the connection that Cedric instantly formed between the four, Ben shared his observation as all of them frowned.
[What's a servant doing here in the green zone?] Ann asked, as she didn't expect to run into one this soon.
[It must be here for its dead people?] Ben made an assumption, as the beast wasn't looking at them but at its dead people.
Tap Tap
Anel, the wolf, walked towards its people as he ignored the humans looking at him.
'That damned anomaly,' he cursed as he looked at his six strong kin, who were now lying dead on the ground.
Extending his front paw towards them, the ground shook for a moment before the ground opened up, and the six wolves were eaten by the ground as their traces disappeared.
This was the only thing he could do as their leader.
From the outside, his emotional state was loud and clear, as he was emitting a frightening aura.
The four humans could clearly notice it as they became stiff.
They wondered what would happen if they fought him here.
He had an advantage as they were inside a cave surrounded by rocks from every direction.
So they knew that if they had to fight him, they would suffer heavy injuries.
Tap Tap
After some time of praying, he turned around as he walked towards the humans and sat in front of them.
All four of them were on their guard as they looked at him with caution.
"Hmm… You humans are strong. What are you doing here?" Anel said as he observed the four humans.
Understanding the situation a little, Ben walked forward as he communicated with Anel.
"It's a pleasure to meet someone who directly serves under the ruler." He said this as he looked at Anel, nodding his head.
"We came here on a mission to rescue this child." Ben said as he pointed at the city lord's unconscious child.
"Hmm. This child."
Looking at the child, Anel remembered something as he made a small comment.
The small comment didn't leave the four of them unnoticed, as they wondered if he knew something.
"Do you know something about him?" Ben asked as Anel carefully looked at each of their faces.
"I won't say I don't, but it's something you humans shouldn't bother." Anel said as the four of them became silent for a moment.
"Are you sure? Because he is the son of the city lord, and if what you said is true, then he was innocently involved in your matter." Cedric, who was listening to their conversation, said as Anel looked towards him for a moment and then towards the city lord's child.
"Hmph! You humans think you can get things done just after stating your rank, don't you?" Anel scoffed at Cedric, as he clearly didn't care who all five of them were.
"And don't worry. It's this child who interrupted us beasts matters out of his own accord." Anel said as he pointed his paws at the city lord's son.
"We did warn him to leave." Anel said as Ben frowned.
"May we at least know what happened?" Ben said as Anel looked at him.
After thinking about it for a while, Anel shook his head as he stood up.
"I think it's best for you humans to leave now that your mission is over. Don't barge into our matters." He said this as he walked away from them and exited the cave.
"And he just left," Ben said as he scratched his head. He felt a little disappointed, as he wanted to know what would happen if they fought him.
If Chlory knew what he was thinking, she would have definitely stabbed him from behind and snitched to the city lord.
"What really happened to him?" Chlory questioned as she looked at the city lord's son.
The blue book that was floating in front of her disappeared.
"We can question him once he wakes up." Cedric said as the silver book in front of him also disappeared, and he unsheathed his sword.
"Ok, then, now that we have retrieved him, let's return." Cedric spoke as others nodded their heads in agreement.
"Uhh. I would like to return from the west." Ann spoke out as others looked at her.
"Why?" Ben asked.
"I would like to take a look at the three dead bodies." Ann said that, as others agreed with her, they didn't think much of it.
Ultimately, they split into two groups, different from before.
Cedric and Chlory together decided to take the city lord's son with them as they walked towards the portal platform located at the west, while Ben and Ann decided to leave from the west to retrieve the three dead bodies.
"Ok. See you at the city." Ann said to Chlory as they waved their hands.
Chlory was happy to finally be freed from Ben, but now she had to deal with a bigger pain in the ass.
Chlory looked at Cedric as she felt wronged.
Chlory didn't really understand Cedric much, as they had never talked before, but from her past encounters, she could tell that he was… a difficult person.
…
"So, why do you want to take a look at the bodies?"
As they were walking, Ben asked as Ann opened her eyes.
"Hollow dead bodies missing internal organs—that sounds like a pretty unique case. I just want to take a look at it." Ann said as Ben nodded his head in understanding.
Ann's reputation was that of a crazy girl who likes to experiment with crazy things, so no one was surprised when she said she wanted to take a look at the bodies.
After walking for a while, both Ben and Ann reached the dead bodies.
Ben told Ann what she knew about the dead bodies as Ann listened carefully to them.
Ben became hungry as he sat on a rock and started eating while looking at Ann examining the bodies, but as he did so, he remembered Chlory recently telling him not to look at dead bodies while eating, so he turned around.
As soon as he did so, Ann noticed it pretty immediately as she quickly walked towards the black flame that was still alive on a dead bush.
"Oh ho. It looks creepy." Ann smiled as a purple book appeared in front of her.
[Lightining store]
She used a skill as a purple holographic box appeared in front of her.
At first, she only stored a small part of the fire, but she saw that the fire went out immediately inside the box.
After a while of trying and failing to store the fire, Ann decided to store the whole ground bushes that were burning.
She finally succeeded as she dismissed the book, and it disappeared with the purple holographic box that had black fire and bush inside it.
After finishing her main goal, she stored the three dead bodies inside her dimensional ring as both she and Ben left for the portal located at the west.
No one noticed it until now, but as soon as Ann stored the fire inside the box, the tree in the area stopped turning gray.
Whoosh
From a big tree near the scene, a lady with green hair appeared from within as she looked at the two leaving figures.
The green haired lady's green hair was made of green vines, as there were small white flowers growing in them.
Yes, just like Scarlet and Anel, she was also a servant of the Biju.
Her eyes were emerald green, and her body was covered by small green plants growing from her body.
"So, they took the fire." She muttered with a smile as she walked towards the trees and bushes, which had turned gray.
[Recover]
Using her skill, a green light engulfed the surroundings for a moment before it disappeared.
After the green light disappeared, the gray bushes and trees in the area turned into dust and fell to the ground.
Looking at the dust, the lady smiled as she turned around and walked into the big tree from where she had appeared.
It wasn't visible, but she had seen the small baby plants growing and thriving from within the dust. Her job was done.