After a while, I hunted more than 8 other High-rank Body Refinement monsters, but I still did not find anything so I decided to call it a day. I was getting pretty deep into the forest and it was pretty unsettling how dark and eerie everything was.

I assured myself that it was the most sensible decision since I had no idea about what was in there and returned. I'd come back to this forest another time, if I was still alive that is.

On my way back, I hunted two more High Body Refinement monsters, bringing the total to 11. Because I ate the bat earlier, I would not need to eat for a couple of days, and with the monsters, I just hunted I had enough food for a month.

~Ding!

[New Quest Available]

Another quest!

I quickly checked the description of the quest, it involved some kind of monster being stuck somewhere and dying an agonizingly slow death.

Do monsters even torture others now? If so that was disturbing!

The reward was also high 200 Karma Points, 20.000 Exp, 6 Stats, and 2 Skill points.

I opened my map and returned a couple of steps, at the edge of the map I could see a faint blue dot. Its size looked to be around Low-rank Foundation Establishment, but it was very faint as if on the verge of fading out.

I focused on the dot and the scene of what was happening immediately appeared in my mind.

I saw, a dark grey flower, it closely resembled a sunflower except its petals looked somewhat thorny, its stem had holes and seemed dead, but it was standing at two meters tall giving off an imposing feeling.

But, this was not the monster. In the ground underneath it, a monster was tied down unable to move, and was slowly dying.

Could this be the plant monster? I thought.

The nest was not far from here, so the possibility was very high.

I flew at an even higher altitude and hid between the leaves and branches, the problem with flying like this was that you needed to be very very careful not to bump into any branch, otherwise just that slight sound was enough to give you away.

The advantage was of course less exposure and more darkness to blend in with.

The closer I got to the monster the more flowers nearby I started noticing, there were also some flowers that had mist coming out from them. Seeing the mist, I was certain that this was indeed the monster that was responsible for killing my brother.

The strangest thing however was the fact that I was not able to detect any monster with my map, there was just the one who was buried alive.

There were hundreds of those ominous sunflowers spread out in this area, some were very small less than 30 cm whereas others were more than three meters tall.

There was no specific order nor pattern in the way they were positioned, it all seemed very random.

It was very bizarre, and I could not help but feel scared. Man's biggest fear was always the unknown.

I knew that this was anything but normal yet I could not tell what was a miss. If there was not so much at stake, I would have turned tail and ran away immediately.

I needed to help Ashe move on so that she could unleash her newfound potential and be a great aid in our next adventure. I also needed those Karma Points to finish my preparation before setting off.

In the blink of an eye, I was hidden on the top of a tree no more than 100 meters from the buried monster.

The goal of the quest was simply to save him, but I wanted to kill the one responsible thus hitting two birds with one stone.

*Whoosh*

I created one wind blade and aimed it at the stem of the big flower.

*Clang!*

A sound of a sword hitting a sturdy steel shield resounded, giving off a very bizarre visual contrast to what one might expect from seeing a terrifying magical blade made of compressed wind elements hitting a fragile plant.

Still, I managed to make a deep cut in its stem.

I did not target the lower part of the stem for fear of hurting the monster below, I immediately aimed another blade at the exact same place.

With a bang, the flower snapped in half, and its upper part dropped to the side while the other half was still rooted. After sensing the area using my spirit, I dove down and gripped the stem on the ground with my claws and pulled it using all of my strength. It was strangely heavy contrary to its appearance.

The monster below was also pulled with it.

It was a small leopard gecko with a dark body covered with white spots, it was small only compared to my size as a whole. However, relative to the geckos in my previous world this one was huge, it looked to be more than 30 centimeters long and looked tough and majestic.

Its eyes were closed and it was barely breathing, I noticed that its body was being drained through the roots of the flower, several of them were planted deep into its body. I pulled them off, only for a river of blood to gush out from several places only making it worse.

I hurriedly went to grab a red vitality pill and gave it to him.

Just as I was concentrating I heard a rustling sound.

I did not wait to turn around to look, I grabbed the gecko with my claws and jumped up to fly.

The moment I did so, dozens of thick roots sprouted from the ground underneath the nearby flowers and twisted around me.

Seeing that they were not that staunch I started using my beak and remaining claw to remove them because there were only a couple.

I did not want to use Fiery Charge because the reward of the quest was very generous, so I knew it would not be this easy.

Lo and behold! I was right, the flowers that were previously static and dead started to move.

Soon, dozens of monsters with dead eyes, and bodies filled with holes started raising from the ground.

At that point, I was surrounded from all directions even from the top! Monsters rushed towards me in droves.

Dozens of Peak Body Refinement and even more Foundation Establishment.

There were all kinds of monsters birds, boars, warthogs, panthers, bears, two dark drakes, and so on... It was a very shocking scene, like that one a zombie apocalypse but with monsters.

Just as I started to freak out, I pulled myself from it immediately!

Even though there was no way out, I'd make one.

I moved in the direction with the less number of monsters, but it still had several Foundation Establishment of the Low rank with just one Mid.

I activated Sky Dash and charged toward them with lightning speed, just as I was less than 100 meters from them.

I activated my best area of effect spiritual attack.

[Predator's WarCry]

and continued my charge.

However, the moment I got close to them, all of the monsters attacked simultaneously!

Some used long-range attacks, some did not move but the flowers sent thick roots to entrap me while others jumped with their bodies.

Because, I was pretty sure they'd be stunned due to how weak they were compared to other monsters I could kill, I was completely caught off guard.

Several attacks landed on my body without any shield whatsoever, and two roots grabbed hold of my left-wing coiling around it.

I felt an unimaginable amount of pain that I almost blanked out, especially in my eye.

It was only thanks to my high spirit that I was able to hold on.

My stomach was pierced by an arrow made of stone, my right eye was blinded by some kind of acid from the Mid rank, my left leg had a nasty wound breaking the bone almost completely severing it, my tail feathers were completely plucked off, and a serious cut under my right wing.

Blood was gushing out of several places on my body at the same time.

I was barely able to power through the pain to think of a solution.

Fiery Charge, but I had the still barely alive black gecko. I'd have dropped him right then and there but he was quite lucky.

I advanced my Dark Shield to Mastery before coming here.

I quickly made a simple calculation, I had 344 mana and I needed 150 mana for Fiery Charge thus leaving me with 194.

I used 190 mana and created the liquid-like form of the shield and guided it to wrap around the gecko, because of its small stature the shield was more condensed and more durable thanks to it.

All of this happened in no less than a second. I was attacked which abruptly stopped my speed and pushed me down several steps, the moment I made sure the gecko was safe, I used Fiery charge and bolted towards them for a second time!

I had zero mana and spiritual attacks were useless. In retrospect, they were dead zombies I should have known!

My Sky Dash was still active.

Soon, a strange scene occurred of dozens of dead monsters encircling a giant eight-meter flying black ball of hell flames.

Expecting their counterattacks, I dodged the attacks that I deemed too dangerous, but I still had to bear the brunt of the others because the space was limited.

Thankfully, my fiery charge managed to burn most of them before they even managed to reach my body.

All the monsters that made contact with my fire or tried to stop my escape in any way were either completely disintegrated or completely incapacitated.

Yet, I did not manage to gain any sort of exp whatsoever. Naturally, because they were already dead once again.

I used the map's worldless information option, my mind was bombarded with everything about what was happening within a 700-meter radius.

Because I ran through the area with the least Foundation Establishment it was not the way out, I could see that I was getting deeper and deeper into the forest.

I hastily changed the filtering option and used the image option, I sent out a memory of how those flowers looked and I immediately gained a general idea about their position in a 700-meter radius.

I was completely surrounded by them!

Except for a gap between two flowers north that was more than 70 meters, so I changed my direction and moved north.

With every soundless flap of my wings, I could move dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, and with every meter, I passed I received tons of information as the limits of my map reached further and further.

It was a very mystical experience, the only problem was, that I did not have that much spiritual energy left nor did I have any mana, and my right wing was badly injured and acid or some sort of poison was eating away at my right eye.

My other injuries were also pretty severe but these were the ones that hurt the most.

Every second felt like I was tied up and thrown into a raging river filled with rocks, I could not hear anything but the sound of the turbulent stream, as I kept smashing into one rock after the other making me lose any sense of self.

I looked at the Gecko in my claw and I could feel that if I did not do anything he'd die in less than a minute. His body was riddled with perfectly shaped rounded wounds through which blood was pouring out.

Fortunately, as I passed by the middle of the two flowers, I was not attacked. However, this brought no joy to my heart.

If there was one thing I learned from my encounters so far, Foundation Establishment are as intelligent as grown humans.

I just pissed off and damaged a monster that was able to reduce me to the sorriest state of my life without it even showing itself although I had the strength equivalent to an upper Mid Foundation Establishment.

So, how strong was it?

High, Peak, or even worse the legendary Core Formation?

The more I thought about it, the more dreadful I felt. Especially, as I was noticing that the darkness was turning darner and quieter the further I moved north.

I remembered how Jia previously said, the deeper you go north the more terrifying this forest becomes.

Then, another question popped up.

What is up with this very clear gap in a seemingly tight and perfect formation?

It was already horrifying as it is!

I could not help but gulp.