Age of Adepts

Dark Forest.

Compared to the Wizarding World, the Zambis Empire is apparently still in a primitive state of obfuscation regarding the exploitation of the resources of its own locus. As a result, most of the inner planes were uncultivated primeval forests or barbaric areas, and all human activities were still surrounded by many dangerous creatures.

The Dark Forest on the western edge of the empire was one such area.

Inside the Dark Forest were numerous primitive creatures and fearsome beasts that hoarded there and thrived, forming an exclusive and unique extra-territorial world. This was a harsh problem that most of the surface worlds had to face as well.

It was the survival of the fittest!

The powerful demons, with their powerful physiques and fierce fighting styles, became the de facto rulers of most of the regions. They fought on their own, as families, tribes, or alone, occupying the most mineral and plant-rich areas of the Bit Continent.

Compared to them, intelligent communities like humans were hardly competitive.

When they were born, humans did not have powerful flesh* bodies, natural magical talents, or sharp teeth and claws, which allowed them to only hug and struggle for survival in the midst of many barbaric ancient beasts and ferocious demons.

If it wasn't for the exceptional learning and creative abilities of humans, being able to use the demons as teachers, learning some powerful and strange abilities from them, and passing them on and strengthening them from generation to generation, it would have been almost impossible for humans to become bit masters!

The first group of shamans in the world of shamans were ancient humans who acquired some strange and bizarre abilities by simulating the natural magic patterns on powerful demons. It was only after thousands of years of accumulation and perfection that they formed an effective system for training witches.

It was thanks to the witches who stood out from the human race that the humans in the Wizard World eventually defeated all kinds of powerful demons and became the largest race there. However, as the group of witches grew stronger, they had gradually grown into a new 'human race' that was completely different from ordinary humans!

The path of the bit is much the same!

The Envik dimension is apparently on much the same developmental path as the Wizarding World, except that its evolved power system is a cult of holy light similar to the beliefs of deities.

Most Envik humans believe in worshipping holy light, thus pushing an inanimate, unconscious, natural phenomenon onto the altar of the gods. Faith is also a power!

It was the continued faith of millions of Envik's population that had also turned the Holy Light into an immensely powerful force. At the very least, in the Enwik Plane, this power had been embedded into the laws of the Plane and had become an important pillar supporting the development and growth of the Plane Consciousness.

With the blessing of the bit consciousness, this holy light power had in turn pushed the devotees who believed in it to the pinnacle of bit power.

As long as the Enwek bit continued on its current path, after thousands of years, one of the 4th rank divine knights who had gone before and after would eventually break through the shackles of the bit power and become the 5th rank that created the history of the bit.

At the moment of his breakthrough, he will become the first deity in the Enewick Precinct to use Holy Light as the source of power. It was then that the Enwik Dimension would be considered to have initially gained a firm foothold in the Multiverse, with a cornerstone for outward expansion and development!

But unfortunately, before the Envik Plane gave birth to its own guardian deity, the Fraudulent Witches discovered it, broke in, and then built the Witches' Gauntlet in a place called Dabire Heights.

From that moment on, the Enwick Plane was on the countdown to enslavement!

It could be said that without the sworn fight of that Holy Knight of Ade Kale, who had destroyed the inter-dimensional teleportation formation inside the Witch's High Tower, according to the invasion process of the Fraud Witches, the Enwik Plane would have struggled for another forty or fifty years at most, and would have become the Fraud Witches' food on the plate, reduced to a secondary plane under their rule.

And now, as the situation changed, the Paladin side seemed to have the advantage again, with an opportunity to wipe out the Fraud Witches and drive the evil witch forces out of the Enwick Plane.

Thus, when signs of witch activity appeared in the western part of the empire, the local Chapel of the Holy Light immediately went all out to carry out a siege, and managed to contain that witch in the Dark Forest.

However, that witch's sorcery ability was too strange, and she was able to change herself into any creature form, then gain their trust and turn them into her guardian beasts.

A rank 2 Silver Knight accidentally fell prey to its abduction and rebelled against the Holy Light, becoming a veritable Dark Knight. And under the protection of this Dark Knight, the sorceress managed to escape into the Dark Forest, where she hid from the search of the Holy Knights.

As time passed, two 3rd rank Gold Knights had appeared in the ranks of the Holy Knights gathered on the outskirts of the Dark Forest, and the 2nd rank Silver Knights were as high as twenty-one. But the guy they were searching for was just an ordinary Tier 2 witch.

...........

In a dark and damp dense forest, Devin was searching carefully.

In order to facilitate fighting and movement, he took off his heavy metal armor and wore only a silver chain armor with a thick, airtight cloak over it. The customary greatsword he usually used was also replaced with a fine thrusting sword, and with a small round shield of steel that had been given a matte finish, that was all the equipment he possessed.

The Dark Forest lived up to its name, the straight and tall ancient trees held open a huge canopy of trees that blocked most of the light cast from the sky, making the forest dark and claustrophobic. Even in daylight, the forest was so dark that it was almost impossible to see the sky.

And in this claustrophobic environment, grows and thrives horrible demonic plants that are hard to describe.

They are so muddled with ordinary green plants that it is difficult to identify them without an erudite or experienced hunter. If an ordinary person approaches them defenselessly, they will be dragged by the violent vines into the magic plant full of activating thorns, pierced by the sharp wooden spikes or branches, and then sucked alive and die of flesh and blood.

In order to avoid alerting the snake, as a 2nd level Silver Knight, Devin didn't give himself any holy light protection, but used his keen reflexes and swift, windy sword to clear away the demons and magical strains that had attacked him.

The holy light mastered by the holy knights was good at gaining blessings, healing and purifying, but not good at detecting and searching, so in this dark forest, Devin needed to use his sword power more than the overly blinding holy light.

The dark forest was silent.

The demons and beasts that live in this forest need to learn to be quiet as long as they haven't grown to the point of being unbeatable. They complete the entire process of hunting, feeding, breeding and resting in silence, even if it's the last moment before death, so they need to be as quiet as possible.

The sound will bring enemies for them, and so will the overly blinding holy light.

The previous groups of Paladins that had entered the Dark Forest to search for them were not small, and there were also high-ranking Paladins leading them, but they all ended up with heavy losses because they were too loud. The beasts and demons hidden in the Dark Forest seemed to be extremely repulsive to outsiders, and were easily attracted by the sounds and lights emitted by the teams, thus stealthily attacking the Paladins.

The Paladins were, in the end, nothing more than a group of human warriors that had been enhanced by the Holy Light.

If the plains fought, with their added strength and physique, they could easily crush demons of the same class. However, in the dark forest where they couldn't see their fingers and hands, the Paladin's battle prowess would be greatly reduced.

Long jungle treks and trips through forested ravines prevented them from wearing thick, dense metal armor, and they were unable to withstand sudden venomous attacks launched from dead leaves or vines. The shrubs and spider-like webs of vines and thorns from which they were accustomed to wielding their one-handed swords were impossible, and the fine-thrust swords or short swords they had changed into were unable to smoothly cut through the neck bones of powerful demons.

As a result, several of the Paladin teams that had delved into the Dark Forest had returned hot and lost a number of Black Iron Knights.

Thus, the two golden knights who were forced to do so could only scatter the many silver knights into the forest, carefully searching for the whereabouts of the evil witch and the renegade knight. As long as they found their tracks and passed them back to the camp in time, the two Gold Knights could lead a large number of Holy Knights straight over and end this search operation with minimal cost.

Nightfall.

As the light of day dimmed, the dark forest became more unpredictable.

Devin wandered silently through the depths of the forest on slightly slippery and sticky dirt.

He was very particular about where he set his feet each time, either on the muddy ground where mounds of mounds of mounds of mounds of mounds of rotting leaves were exposed, and almost never set foot in places where thorns and branches were dense.

On the one hand, it was likely to be a trap disguised by the demonic plant, and on the other hand, if you stepped on a dead branch, it would easily make unnecessary noise, thus attracting the attention of those dark creatures.

In addition to needing to pay attention to his feet, Devin had to keep scanning the green vines hanging down from the tall ancient trees. Many of them were also vampire vines in disguise. There are also many poisonous snakes and leeches that like to lie on top of the vines, so when someone passes by from below, they can silently climb on top of each other's bodies.

So, Devin swung his fine spiked sword quickly as he moved forward cautiously.

Under the cutting of the swift sword wind, a vampire vine was cut off at the waist, and purple-black fetid blood was splashed all over the sky. One by one, spotted snakes and wire snakes had their heads cut off, their thriving, powerful bodies twisting and twitching madly, stirring up the surrounding area.

But that's when Devin stopped abruptly, lifting his nose and sniffing gently.

The damp air in the forest with a strong stale and moldy smell is faintly mixed with a hint of a woman's body odor, and also the sound of strange water clattering.

Devin narrowed his eyes and slowly pursued the intake with bated breath.