Second chapter of the week. Personally, 1800-1900 words seems too small. I like to sit back for several minutes and enjoy some music while I read a chapter instead of finishing a chapter in one minute. Doesn't mean I'll be making chapter more than 2400 words, though. This one is almost 2100. I wonder when I'll make another 4000 word chapter...Hahaha, anyway, enjoy.

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Kyte left behind a large flame to illuminate the surroundings for the other Gifted before moving away. He traveled about twenty meters until he stopped. He kept his Spirit energy spread out at all times just in case one of the creatures decided to come close enough. He began laying down formations around the group of Gifted. Unfortunately, Kyte doesn’t have enough energy to create single large formation that would be able to encompass the entire group and the surrounding perimeter. Otherwise, the amount of the time Kyte had to use would be a fourth of what it was.

The main formation he was using was the Frozen Blood formation. Since it creates a coldness that attacks an intruder, it was perfect against the creatures. He also put down alert formations around each Frozen Blood formation. Once he was finished with that, he laid down a Moonlight’s Eclipse formation around the small area that the Gifted were in. If any creature made it past the other formations, the Moonlight’s Eclipse would create a barrier that would hopefully stop them.

Kyte stored energy within each formation so they had the ability to activate themselves if anything moved over them. He also configured them to not trigger if any of the Gifted walked over them. He wouldn’t want any of them dying because of his carelessness.

Just as he was going to relax, he suddenly remembered that these creatures primarily maneuver underground. Kyte sighed as he once again moved toward the outside perimeter. He set down another layer of alert formations about twenty meters below the earth before reconfiguring them to add a single layer of a defensive membrane around them. This would act as a barrier against the creatures if they hit the formation or try to destroy the earth the formation was laid on.

Next, he copied the same configuration onto the other formations under the ground. Of course, he had to make a few adjustments because all formations were unique in their own way. However, the fortunate part of this uniqueness was that formations had the potential to designed with different properties. Kyte had only touched the tip of the gigantic mountain known as formations. There was still much more for him to learn.

After he was finished laying down the formations, he traveled back to the group. He noticed several new objects placed around the fireball that looked similar to beds. Each bed was quite large and there even pillows.

“Who made the beds?” Kyte asked.

Several of the Gifted screamed in surprise at Kyte’s sudden appearance. For him to silently appear out of nowhere startled them, excluding the A rankers who had noticed his presence before he spoke.

“Uh…sorry?” Kyte said in a confused tone.

They just looked at Kyte with faces full of relief as they breathed out a heavy sigh.

“So? Who was it?”

“It was me, sir.”

A C ranker walked forward with a bit of nervous covering his face. He was a bit scrawny and looked to be about fifteen.

“I see...well, thanks for doing that. I won’t inquire about your power. However, I would like to ask about the quality of these beds?”

“Yes, thank you, sir. I created them so that they will be soft while not leaving dirt or grime on your clothes.”

“Good job. Now, everyone, I just finished creating the traps. I’ve also created some underground, so those creatures shouldn’t be able to come within twenty meters of us. Well, it’s actually a bit more than that because my traps are quite large.”

An A ranker stepped forward at this moment and asked:

“Sir, I don’t see any traps. There’s nothing there.”

“Yes, that’s correct. Quite observant of you. My traps are traps because they can’t be seen. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be traps. Don’t worry, I set them up in a way that they won’t activate if any of you step on them.”

“Understood.” The man stepped back with a slightly reddened face.

“Now, everyone get some rest. It’s been a hectic day so I assume you’re all quite tired.”

“”Yes, sir.””

They began to moved their things around and picked a bed. It was pretty much all the A rankers together, B rankers together, and C rankers together. It’s not really discrimination since people tend to gather around others similar to them. Then again, lower ranked Gifted usually respect and sometimes fear higher ranking ones, so that’s part of it as well.

“Also, I have quite a bit of food stored with me so we don’t have to worry about that stuff. Unless we’re stuck here for more than four weeks.”

Kyte once again saw relief cover their faces. Since this was similar to an emergency situation, Kyte felt that it was necessary to use his food and water rations within the storage necklace. Since they’re practically non-perishable while inside the storage necklace, which Kyte tested of course, he filled a certain area within the necklace to store quite a lot of food and water. He took out a bunch of useless elixirs and medicines that belonged to the lower half stages and just used that space for other things. Besides, Kyte also managed to get some of the food and drinks from the front of the train as they passed by it. There wasn’t much there anyway so it added maybe a few days to the total limit.

As Kyte was busy thinking of his next plan, a single Gifted walked up to him. It was the only female C ranker within the group, and she was pretty scrawny.

“U-umm…”

“Hm? What do you want?” Kyte asked.

“I-I just wanted to..um...thank you, for..uh...helping us.”

“...Right. You should be pretty tired, right? Go get some rest.”

“Yes, thank you.”

...Being thanked feels weird. Even if it was from an ant.

Kyte watched the small girl quickly walk toward a bed. He dimmed the fire above the group and split it up into smaller fireballs, to which he spread out to the perimeter of the circle. The soft glow of orange light flickering around the area created a warm and cozy atmosphere that allowed the group to rest a bit more easily.

Kyte didn’t bother with sleep that night. He was busy high up in the air looking down at the many formations he laid down around the group. He wondered whether or not he could create a grand formation containing the alert, Frozen Blood, and Moonlight’s Eclipse formations. It just took way too long to lay down all those formations just to leave them in the morning. Then, he would have to do the same thing again and again.

Thinking of that, Kyte let out a heavy sigh. Doing that would just be completely unnecessary, especially when he could just create a grand formation containing all of them. It would save so much time and, if he’s every a in similar situation, he could always use the same grand formation again. Plus, it would be nice practice to create one.

So, Kyte began to create a grand formation containing those three individual formations. It was easier said than done, primarily because combining two or more formations requires one to reconfigure the formations being used.

There’s two ways to combine formations. The first way is to simply combine them by creating gateways on one side of the two formations and then connecting them via the gateways. The second way, which is the more difficult version, is to fuse the formations together which creates a new formation, or a grand formation. Now, by comparing these two ways one would think that the first way would be more efficient. However, that’s wrong.

What if a formation master wanted to combine several formations into one? They would have to create a significant amount of gateways on each formation just to connect them together. This would generate more work than creating a grand formation. Also, the more gateways there are, the more ways for the formation to be broken. This is even more troublesome the higher a formation master climbs the formation mountain as they get even more complex and numerous.

That’s not the only reason why grand formations are better. A grand formation’s existence is to be more powerful than other formations, naturally. Regardless of how many layers a formation master uses, a grand formation will always triumph. A grand formation fuses formations together into one formation. It can be as large as needed as well. However, the work needed to be proficient at creating grand formations is astonishing. The benefits by doing so far outweigh the cost, though.

Kyte himself is merely at the most basic proficiency with grand formations. Although Kyte is an advanced formation master, he’s still only at the basic level while looking at the whole scope of formations. His skill is quite powerful for the stage he’s at, though.

While Kyte had his full attention on creating a grand formation, he failed to notice something moving in the background. It stealthily moved through the trees like a serpent in water. A single high-pitched click resounded throughout the area. However, no one was capable of hearing such a noise because their ears weren’t powerful enough to register the sound.

The creature moved with a ghost-like agility as it moved closer to the light created by the fireballs. It unknowingly stepped directly on the outside ring of alert formations. The moment it made contact, a string of Spiritual energy that was connected to Kyte instantly broke. He woke up from his intense focus just to see a large, thin creature slowly creeping further into the ring of formations.

Kyte’s vigilant expression suddenly changed into one of curiosity. This creature was actually different than the one Kyte saw within his Spiritual energy earlier than night. Unlike the other creatures which were bulky and muscular, this one was long and thin. Not only that, but it had thirty legs, fifteen for both sides of its body. Its body itself was about twenty feet long. Kyte immediately thought of centipedes, but after confirming the rest of its body, Kyte shook that idea.

Instead of a defensive carapace, the creature was covered in fur. It legs were the only things that weren’t covered with fur. Its legs were completely bone and they came to a sharp point. Kyte observed it move with its legs and discovered that it could control the hardness of its legs. It would make them softer when creeping and surprisingly it didn’t hinder its movement.

Kyte carefully observed as it inevitable traveled directly onto a Frozen Blood formation. Only about half of the creature’s body was within the formation, however, even that was enough. A continuous bust of cold enveloped the entire formation as small droplets of water shot out onto the creature’s underside. The cold paired with the water increased the freezing capability significantly.

To Kyte’s surprise, the creature instantly reacted and suddenly shot backward. It was still injured by the formation as a half second had passed when it was inside. A thick layer of frost covered the front half of its body which made it lose balance. When it shot backward it didn’t give attention to its surroundings, causing it to smash directly through a tree and slamming into another which broke the frost off its body. It squirmed around for several seconds before Kyte flew down and manifested an energy sword.

He instantly slashed off what he believed to be its head. Its body spasmed for a few more seconds before it slowly calmed down. A strange blue blood gushed out of its decapitated corpse, creating a puddle next to it. Intrigued by the color, Kyte knelt down to observe it closer.

The smell was definitely different from normal blood, though it still wasn’t pleasant. It also wasn’t as thick as normal blood either. Kyte tried to absorb it, which he could, however, an abhorrent feeling washed over him the moment the first drop of blood entered him. Kyte quickly moved several steps away and puked onto the forest floor, emptying his entire stomach. Even after his stomach was empty his body still slightly convulsed as his stomach churned from the disgusting feeling.

After his body calmed, Kyte took out a water bottle and washed out his mouth. He slowly sipped the water over several minutes until half of it was gone before emptying the rest of it on his face. He leaned his back against a tree as he breathed out a sigh of relaxation.

“Last time this happened was when I slaughtered Asshole’s family…Haaah. I think I’ll stick to red blood.”