Chapter 90: Screeeh! Screeeh! Screeeeh!
Deeper in the forest, an unnatural clearing opened up.
Within it, many two-legged, short creatures could be seen walking with distinct purpose. These creatures had small, compact bodies, with most of them reaching a height of only about three feet.
They possessed blue skin and blue eyes.
Each of them carried a different type of weapon: some held a crude bow, some a small knife and others a sharp sword. Some didn’t carry anything in their hands at all, but their heavily muscular bodies clearly showed exactly what they used in a fight.
Scattered on the snowy ground, a large number of Ice Bear corpses could be seen. Some were being roasted over fires to be eaten as meat, while others were being meticulously processed to be used as raw materials.
Many of these short creatures had weapons adorned with ice crystals, most likely the spoils of war from their recent skirmishes.
This coordinated group looked far more like a disciplined albeit ragtag, army than a mindless horde of beasts. It looked like they had gathered together to rest and recharge themselves before continuing their... conquest...
Night stood silently on top of a tall tree, perfectly hidden by the thick branches and frosted leaves. From the outside, the only thing faintly visible were his bone-white sunglasses.
The dark shadow cast directly beneath his tree seemed slightly deeper than normal.
From within the shadows, Lucy spoke to him telepathically. "They are Goblins, and these ones look like a variant."
Hiding further behind the dense foliage, now even his sunglasses vanished from sight.
Even if someone somehow spotted him, they might overlook his presence. Even Lucy struggled to pinpoint his exact location, despite him standing so close to her.
What Night was doing right now was not just regulating his breath and heartbeat to enter [Meditative Stealth], but something fundamentally different. What he was consciously doing was trying to get his breath and heartbeat completely in sync with the natural world around him.
In his inherited memories, there were ancient yogic scriptures Levi Rose had thoroughly studied. There were passages describing that when a person’s breath became long and soft, while simultaneously completely unforced and natural, it became vastly easier to truly understand the mysteries of heaven and earth.
Right now, Night was doing something highly similar, making it look like he was a natural extension of the world itself rather than an individual being.
This was, in fact, the first step to becoming "one with the world" or, to use a much more accurate phrase, to become the world.
After silently observing for some time, he carefully returned.
He was incredibly meticulous not to forcefully move a single leaf or branch and make any sound. This mystical breathing method made it practically impossible to visually spot him, but he would still be exposed if he made a noise.
Meeting back up with the others, he quickly described exactly what he saw.
Blade crossed her arms. "They must have been the ones who cleared the dungeon outbreak."
Sara nodded slowly. "From your description, I can tell they are most likely Goblins. I just genuinely didn’t expect a Goblin tribe to actually be out here."
Night asked curiously, "Are they similar to Lucy’s tribe?"
Lucy shook her head. "I don’t know about them."
"What I know from the recorded history in my tribe that all the various wolf tribes previously were just mortal wolves. Then, the Nightmare Aspect influenced and evolved them. We are just as native to this world as you humans are."
"But throughout these past seven years, many dungeon outbreaks have happened, filling our planet with a variety of species."
"After a dungeon break, usually, a surviving monster is no longer hell-bent on just mindlessly killing everything it sees; they naturally evolve a proper intelligence upon surviving."
"So it’s actually incredibly hard to say exactly what they are until we engage them in combat," she finished.
Night frowned. "The reason why I asked is whether it is necessary to fight them... If they are not aggressive, is there really a pressing need to just kill them?"
He completely ignored the fact that they had just ruthlessly ambushed two Ice Bears who were merely minding their own business.
This was a coordinated group, and he really didn’t like the numbers ratio. If he actually had more friends, he might have given it a shot.
The Goblin gang had already made short work of numerous Ice Bears, beasts that Night’s group could only kill purely because of the specialty of the [Nightmare Domain].
Death immediately countered clueless about the realities of the world. "But the path of evolution is fundamentally based on killing, isn’t it? If we constantly leave everything in our way alone just by assuming they are not aggressive, we will likely never level up..."
Thankfully, Lucy still had some tactical sense in her, perhaps seeing the Goblin gang in person had something to do with it.
Lucy retorted, "That doesn’t mean we have to cut down every single blade of grass that stands out! If we do that, then what is the difference between us and the mindless monsters?"
Sara calmly supported Night. "It is up to you exactly who you wish to kill and whom you wish to spare."
Night guessed she might have followed them secretly to assess the situation.
Night nodded hurriedly. "Let’s just ignore them unless they provoke us."
He was worried they might track them down. In the clearing, he had felt that some of the Goblins looked like Hunters, meaning they were good at tracking prey.
The others agreed, and they immediately changed their travel direction.
Ignoring them didn’t mean they would be stupidly going the same way.
That would definitely provoke the tribe into attacking them; beasts were incredibly territorial, after all.
And these guys were visibly very strong. From the oppressive feeling he got, they were at least Level 40 on average, meaning their true levels were probably much higher.
Their small group would not even properly fit in the gaps between the tribe’s teeth.
After some time walking through the freezing forest, they suddenly encountered a small group of highly peaceful deer.
However, unlike the Ice Bears, these majestic deer had grey, wooden horns and their physical bodies were structurally similar to the bear covered in ice crystals.
As the creatures moved, the very ground beneath their hooves flash-froze, making him wonder how that was even possible when everything was already covered in thick snow.
In fact, the deer emanated an aura that felt significantly colder than the natural outside chill. They released dense, icy breaths with every single exhalation. Just looking closely at them made Night shiver violently.
Once again, it was only Night and Lucy who were scouting ahead in stealth, while the others waited patiently at the back preparing for a potential attack.
Upon safely returning, Night immediately said, "Let’s go the other way. It’s incredibly rude to disturb such peaceful creatures."
"We will surely incur some very bad karma for doing something so sinful," Night said righteously.
This time, Death looked at him in puzzle. It seemed she had finally caught onto something, but just wasn’t entirely sure yet. "So... they are also non-aggressive?"
Night chuckled incredibly awkwardly. "Yes, yes. Completely non-aggressive."
This specific group of deer gave him the chills and not just the physical cold chill, but a existential chill overall. He guessed they were at least Level 60.
He doubted their fragile group would even survive the remnant icy breath of those terrifying deer, let alone an actual attack.
Lucy swallowed hard. "Let’s change directions," she agreed in a hurry.
As they rapidly moved away, Lucy looked at Blade with a profound sense of injustice and thought,
How exactly is this place considered ’safe’?!
Did she bring us all out here just to get us casually killed?
No... she is more than strong enough to do it herself if she really wanted to.
Maybe the overall standard of the outside world has just improved a lot more than I initially expected...
As they cautiously moved ahead, Lucy suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Looking at her alarmed posture, the others immediately stopped as well.
All the fur on Lucy’s body stood completely on end and then they finally heard it.
Screeeehh!
A flash of white light moved directly toward them at blinding speeds. In mid-air, it changed its trajectory directly toward the tiny Sage.
It was far too quick, and the ambush was completely unexpected.
But just when it was about to reach her, a stone axe moved in an impossible angle. If the white light moved even an inch further, it would have no other choice but to clash with it.
But the white light was smarter. It instantly moved a little higher, flawlessly dodging the axe and defying all laws of physics and before swooping down once again.
However, just when it swooped down, instead of hitting the small Sage, it was brutally met with a stone staff with the purplish black Nightmare Mist glowing at its tip.
The sudden appearance of the staff was far too quick and far too perfectly timed.
It was exactly as if all the previous defensive attacks were just a coordinated, elaborate act, patiently waiting for the white light to arrogantly fall right into the bait.
The white light failed to dodge and clashed with the staff. The results were not surprising in the slightest.
The glowing light popped instantly like a fragile balloon and fell heavily onto the snow-covered ground with a thud.
When the kicked-up snow finally cleared, they could clearly see the mangled corpse of a white bird.
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl 43 Ice Light Eagle | +430 EXP]
Level: 20 (EXP: 1140/21,000)
Death glared directly at Blade as blue flames burned fiercely in her eye socket. "Are you sure this place is actually safe for us?"
The others were looking unsure as well.
Blade sighed softly. "This was genuinely the safest place I could find with the very little time I had to scout."
Just when they were about to discuss the definition of ’safe’ further...
Screeeh! Screeeh! Screeeeh!
They suddenly saw tens of similar, blinding white lights diving to attack them from the snowy canopy. It looked like they had managed to thoroughly piss off an entire flock of birds.
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