133 The Dangerous Forest Part 2 (1/2)

The sky within the hell of the god’s punishment was always overcast. There were no days, no nights, and no seasons. Whenever a volcano erupted, the glow from the lava would light up the sky, and the plants would absorb the energy aggressively as they tried to grow as fast as they could. There was a forest at the edge of the volcanic region. This forest was able to absorb the most energy, and thus thrived the most. This place was extremely similar to the demonic realm, only there was no crimson sun.

Nailisi stretched her body lazily. Her white leather top had grown greyish, and had soon overlapped with the colors in the interdimensional space. Her silhouette became unclear, and from afar, one could not even tell that there was a demon hiding on the roof of the barracks.

Producing war puppets was not a difficult task, and a Grade 4 mage could already do it very well. What was more, Lex was at the pinnacle of Grade 5, so it was not a problem for her to produce thirteen war puppets at once. However, the room was tiny. Being the commander’s room, it could fit up to ten men, and these thirteen war puppets had already nearly filled up the whole room.

Sika had been waiting by the door for a long time before Saleen and Lex came out.

”Saleen, how was it?” Sika asked. She had grown anxious after waiting for so long.

”They’re done.”

Saleen had not even finished speaking when a column of war puppets walked out of Lex’s room. These puppets were shorter than two meters, and the upper halves of their bodies had human features with heavy metal armor whereas their lower halves had features belonging to wolves. They had four legs and razor sharp claws. As these puppets were perishable and their claws were long, their claws would go through a massive amount of friction while gripping onto the ground for an extended period of time.

The lower halves of these puppets had armor as well. Their helmets were sealed and they had metal gloves on both of their hands to cover their fingers. The puppets only had four fingers so that each finger could be stronger and wield more power.

They held metal shields on their left hands while their right hands held curved knives with wide blades and serrated ends. Each puppet also carried one javelin on its abnormally strong back. The javelins were less than one and a half meters long, and had been made solely from metal. If the javelins had been given to humans, only warriors like Sika who possessed inborn strength would have been able to throw them.

All thirteen war puppets walked in an orderly manner out to the perimeter of the camp. They would take up the task of being the security guards for the camp.

”Everyone, let’s take a break tonight. We shall set off tomorrow,” Lex announced. Then, she took the alchemy binoculars from Holzer and flew up into the air. Lex flew up into the air for more than four hundred meters before she was no longer able to control the air flow. A Grade 5 mage was able to use magic props to fly, and Lex was using the colorful mage robes she wore in order to do that.

In order to cross the forest, a path that was relatively close to them needed to be found. Lex raised the binoculars and started looking around in midair. In the Myers Mainland, it was common for forests to span over one hundred miles. Lex was not trying to find the end of the forest. Instead, she was trying to find a road that all of them could take.

The growth of plants in this hell were highly regulated, and even the arrangement of their leaves seemed to follow the principles of magic formulae. Since there was no sunlight here, the leaves on the plants were accustomed to absorbing elemental energy. Lex silently noted the arrangement of the trees from every angle before landing back on the ground. She then began her analysis using the Figaro formula.

The thirteen war puppets loyally stood guard around the camp. The camp was covered in darkness, and everyone could have a good rest tonight. Once they entered the forest, it was possible that nobody would be able to sleep peacefully, even if the war puppets stood guard.

When everyone had rested for ten hours, Lex dispersed the space of darkness and put away the two metal discs in her god’s ring. Saleen had slept well, and it was only now that he received command over three war puppets. Then, he worked together with Lex to tear down the camp. As he tore down the structure, Saleen familiarized himself with the controls of the puppets at the same time. He realized that it was fortunate that he had modestly said that he could only control four puppets. Because of that, Lex had only given him three war puppets after taking the witcher spider into account.

It was much more difficult trying to control war puppets compared to the witcher spider. The spider was small and the magic array inside of it was simple, and achieving victory with it was completely reliant on the attributes of the materials used in its creation. Even though the war puppets had four legs, it was extremely difficult trying to maintain their balance.

Saleen felt ashamed. The task that he had thought would be very simple to accomplish had now become a burden to him. All of a sudden, Saleen lost control of one of the puppets, and he grew frightened. He immediately felt Nailisi take control of that puppet.

Soul ability?

This technique was brilliant. Saleen was extremely relieved, as it was far easier controlling just two war puppets.

The war puppets would not become tired as they relied on magic nuclei for power. Very soon, the camp was broken down into various sizable spare parts, and Lex stored all of them into her god’s ring. Thereafter, Lex took out five cloaks and gave them to everyone.

”If anyone gets lost, just pull the hood over your head. It will open a magic array that transmits sound. However, in the forest, I can only detect sounds up to a distance of roughly five hundred meters away. That means that when two magic arrays are opened at the same time, sound will travel for one mile.”

Saleen took the cloak and put it on. The texture of the cloak was pleasant, but strictly speaking, this was not a piece of magic equipment, so its only function was that it would not affect spell casting. Saleen’s magic robe had three permanent spells on it: the Invisible Shield, the Fire Ring of Resistance, and the Potency spell. These three were not Water Magic, so they needed to be activated by Saleen’s belt which was fused with magic nuclei. If Saleen wanted to cast the Fire Ring of Resistance, this normal cloak that Lex had given him would be destroyed by the fire.

Lex demonstrated the usage of the magic array once. Then, she pulled her hood up and said, ”Let’s go.”