Chapter 280 (1/2)
Chapter 280
After leaving the Hala outpost, the expedition teauarded When they showed their entry pass to the guards, they were let in without any problems
“Be careful Another expedition team entered and returned with only some of their members, and the survivors were half-dead That happened only yesterday… Ah, I hope I didn’t offend anyone,” the guard said, noticing one of their nized Lakshasha as one of those who had coh the entrance, the door closed again Everyone raised their head and saw the natural landscape concealed by the castle walls It was a bright jade-colored pasture with greeneries like trees scattered all about It was surprising that the frightening events they heard fro place in such a beautiful forest, and without a word, the team started their march
Because they left the outpost base in the afternoon, the sun in the sky soon began to sink Aware of this, Lakshasha orously Their surroundings soon turned dark But it wasn’t because the sun had set Golden sun rays simply failed to penetrate the thick canopy, and the expedition teale The trees they saw froether, and as they ventured further inwards, the trees grew bigger and taller, blocking rass beneath their feet grew like heavily tangled vines and s denser
“This is basically the entrance of the forest,” Lakshasha stopped the march for a moment to explain “It’s the farthest outskirts of the Hala Forest Frouard” Lakshasha clenched his teeth and glared ahead “Consider everything you see from here on out as your enemy no matter what it is”
Chi-Woo quietly inhaled deeply at the severe warning It seeh not too et off this pasture by taking the path I took before What do you all think?” Lakshasha sounded anxious It seemed he wanted to quickly head to the place he had been forced to leave his comrade behind last time to save them There was no reason to refuse Even if they met the enemy Lakshaha’s team encountered before, that was preferable It was an eneht and beat to conquer the Hala Forest safer anyway It was better the earlier they dealt with theer
Chi-Woo gave his per a deep breath They resuly slower speed than before It was because they were taking each step cautiously and carefully And Lakshasha warily looked around his surroundings with the full intention of not repeating the same mistake as last time In comparison, Evelyn followed him from the middle of the team with a somewhat relaxed expression and suddenly turned her attention to Hawa
Hawa’s eyebroere heavily scrunched up But rather than struggling froht of her heavy load, she looked confused It was very unusual for Hawa to show her emotion so clearly on her face, so Evelyn kneasn’t a matter that could be easily dismissed
“What is it?” Evelyn asked in a whisper, and Hawa flinched
“No…it’s nothing” But even while saying this, Hawa constantly looked left and right She looked unsure and frazzled; there was clearly a problem, but Evelyn didn’t press They were truly in expedition territory now—a place where they could lose their lives with just a second of carelessness It was then they stopped ainst his lips, hiseven ot down on one knee, lowering his body The expedition teahtened their footsteps and took the same stance as him, and Lakshasha pointed to one area
“Look…nobody talk…quietly…” There was nothing there They only saw the green jungle they had been seeing the entire ti the that nowhen…
‘Bzz—’ A faint sound reached his ears It grew closer and closer until so appeared
‘A bee?’ Chi-Woo couldn’t believe what he was seeing It was a flying insect that had black stripes on a yellow body Although its size and thickness were twice of the hornets on Earth, they were nearly identical in appearance Nevertheless, the bee-like insect fleard them and circled around and around until it softly landed on a co white flower that could be spotted anywhere The floas at the exact spot where Lakshasha had pointed at before
The expedition team asked confusedly, ‘Is that insect the—'
The bee fuather nectar when the flower petals suddenly opened wide and enveloped it The flower shook froled wildly inside, but the petals didn’t look like they would open up again Instead, they closed tighter than before as if the floas intent on not letting its prey go Then, eventually, the shaking lessened, and the flower petals repeatedly pushed in and out like it was gobbling up their food Chi-Woo became speechless at the unbelievable scene before hih’ The flowersound, and one of its stems drew a tiny circle before it suddenly started to shudder—rip! Riiip! Its body split into pieces, and a pair of wings popped out But that wasn’t all As it flapped its wings ferociously, its roots were pulled out of the ground, and the ends of its roots curled and sharpened like a bee sting A purplish color spread through the stems and turned the flower’s white petals into a deep blue In an instant, the pure white flower had turned into a strange poisonous plant that could fly and had a poisonous sting
The expedition tea a rapid evolution such as this one They didn’t knohat Is constantly in the Hala Forest, but they kne Soon, the flower shot upwards and rotated its head in the direction where the expedition tea trajectory across the air as it penetrated into the center of the flower With its pistil pierced, the flower fell and slu sorrowful ‘Beep— beep—’ noises
“…You guysthat” Lakshasha pulled with his hand and interestingly, the arrow ca that had been shi+ning in the air was a thread
“This is the kind of place Hala Forest is”
Though it was just one sentence, everyone understood what Lakshashathey saw as an enee plants, quickly distanced herself fros like that the further in we go?” Apoline asked warily, and Lakshasha shook his head “Not those particularly,” he said while putting the arrow he retrieved back into his quiver “There are things far worse than the one you just saw This is just the beginning”
It can be hard to reat hen its stolen frorew heavier Though they were stunned by the evolution of the flower h to die from just one arrow shot Yet it was clear that not all monsters in the Hala Forest would be on the same level, or else the forest wouldn’t have received the attention it had They just happened to luckily witness a plant’s first evolution But what if that flower monster had eaten more and more monsters until it rapidly evolved and even ate a huue? Would they have been able to deal with it as easily as before? It wasn’t an absurd thought There were already loads of monsters like that in the inner parts of the forest
“Throay any preconceived notions you have about how things would work This is a place where coic doesn’t apply It’s like a coical rules and laws that we’ve never encountered before” Lakshasha got up and let out a long sigh “I went on for too long Let’s take care of that flower first and leave this area”
Hearing this, Yeriel asked curiously, “Hoould we ‘take care’ of it?”
“We can bury it deep into the ground or burn it up,” Lakshasha said nonchalantly “After the flower ate a bee and evolved, you can say that it has a piece of new genetic infor much yet, there’s no reason for us to leave it for our eneood food option that a monster could pick up and consume If they left the corpse of the flower monster be, they would’ve basically done the hard work for their eneh it's troublesome, we should rip its corpse into tiny pieces and bury the it would be an easy and fast h the entrance without catching anyone’s eye” Lakshasha picked up the flower monster with both hands He was about to rip it apart when he flinched He quickly looked to one side and placed his arrow on his bow
Sling, with a sharp sound, the arro like a streak of light
“Tch!” Soure dropped down from a tree All the expedition ure that came out this time looked just like a e as a koala with sharp fingernails and toenails popping out of its body Moreover, the mushroom monster talked
“Why don’t you put that down? Not the weapon, but that” The mushroom monster stepped back and jerked its jaw just like how a human would move Then it said in a more solemn voice, “Put that food down”
“No need to do what it tells us to do I will take care of this one,” Lakshasha said in a sain
But then he stopped when he heard the s to the queen I serve”
“Queen?”