Chapter 45: Making a move when he should make one (1/2)

Chapter 45: Making a move when he should make one

After emerging from the cemetery of death, Han Shuo returned along his original path, but the sky had completely brightened halfway on his journey back. When he returned back to the original camping grounds, according to the way in his memory, he found that the necromancy students had long since moved on.

Just as Han Shuo was about to curse loudly, he suddenly took in the appearance of his surroundings. He discovered that the ashes in the area with the bonfire didn’t look like they were from last night, but much more like they had been there for a few days.

Han Shuo’s tent area had been filled with many resources, but now nothing remained. Only a few rocks were piled up in a triangular formation.

His interest piqued, Han Shuo quickly walked to the tent area. He took out his dagger and carefully flipped through the center of the stones, retrieving a piece of yellow paper after a while.

“Bryan, on the second day of your departure, we found traces of the two man-eating monsters nearby. We were worried that the man-eating monsters would seek revenge and decided not to wait for you. When you see this note, return to the academy along the original way. Perhaps we will meet halfway. Hope you are safe and sound, Fanny.”

Fanny had left the note. Han Shuo whapped his head after reading it and silently said, “Oh no!”. After reading the note, Han Shuo understood that much time must have unknowingly passed by while he was practicing magic, and not merely just a day.

It looks like the two man-eating monsters had appeared and caused Fanny and the others to panic. Add to that she was already deep in the southern territory of the Dark Forest and without Clark’s protection, they had no choice but to resign themselves to return along their original path.

Currently, Han Shuo’s slave status still had not been resolved, and the woman he wanted was still within the Babylon Academy of School and Magic, along with some tomes of necromancy magic that he wanted still wanted to learn. He would be unable to leave the Academy in the near future.

With the six magical sticks, Han Shuo could come and go from the cemetery of death at his leisure. He could absolutely use the transportation matrix to make the cemetery his personal territory after he returned to the Academy. The entire southern portion of the Dark Forest would be his training fields in the future. Whether it was magical yuan or magic spell training, half the amount would lead to double the effectiveness in a place like this.

Musing for a while, Han Shuo followed the instructions left on Fanny’s note and followed the original road, swiftly moving towards the outskirts of the Dark Forest.

Although he traveled without rest for a day, Han Shuo actually didn’t feel tired at all. Moving through the winding and bumpy paths of the Dark Forest, Han Shuo’s speed was as fast as lightning, like a magical creature hunting down its prey.

He neared an area of randomly scattered rocks and shrubs around dusk. This was an area where they had camped before. The sounds of metallic clashes traveled to him from afar.

Han Shuo was startled, thinking ‘Could it be that Fanny and everyone else are under attack by the man-eating monsters?’ When he thought of this, his speed picked up and he abruptly flew towards the area of rocks and shrubs.

Along the way, many forest trolls with glistening green skin, towering bodies, grimacing faces, and wielded knives or studded clubs repeatedly attacked Han Shuo. He easily evaded all of them.

Forest trolls were a race within the Dark Forest that were mortal enemies with the elves. The elves treated them as marauders of the forest and continuously attacked them.

Within the Dark Forest, the forest trolls were even more frightening robbers than the man-eating monsters. Not only did they adhere to a strict code of conduct, but they also divided themselves according to methods employed by mankind into warriors, hunters, and even priests that could use some simple magics.

It was said that the forest trolls were evolved from plants and trees. They held high intelligence, similar to humans, and enjoyed some unique advantages within the Dark Forest. They leveraged these advantages to wantonly plunder the resources of other races, including the cargo of some traveling merchants. They were infamous bandits and robbers like the man-eating monsters.

Han Shuo listened closely to the sounds of fighting and quickly darted in the direction they came from. Along the way, some of the forest troll hunters threw out long spears, and they flew towards Han Shuo’s spine with a whooshing sound. Han Shuo’s fives senses were exceedingly sensitive as he ran. As his ears twitched, he changed the direction of his body a few times and easily evaded the long spears that had been thrown.

Several forest troll warriors holding large, sharp axes yelled loudly as they rushed towards Han Shuo, but before they had reached him, Han Shuo had already agilely dashed past them and continued towards the center of the action.

After ten or so seconds of extremely fast sprinting, Han Shuo had finally made it to the thick of combat. He saw ten or so people wielding longswords, defending themselves against the forest troll attacks. Their dress clearly signified them as part of a mercenary band. They all looked like they had suffered some sort of injury.

There were about ten or so forest trolls surrounding them. Troll warriors handled the close combat up in the front, while about ten troll hunters continuously threw out long spears. The final five troll priests cast simple healing magics and fire of the soul to enhance body durability, healing the warriors’ and hunters’ injuries while increasing their vitality.

Judging from this scene, the fight had been going on for a while. The battle strength of the band of roughly ten humans was also extraordinary, but it was a pity that the forest trolls held the strength in numbers, and they had missile fighters in the form of the troll hunters, as well as the healing-type troll priests. The combination of these three matched up against a mercenary band of only warriors. Add to that the forest trolls’ advantage in strength, it was obvious that they held the absolute advantage.

A short, stocky fatty, with a face full of blubber, was behind the mercenaries. His yellow bean-like little eyes moved swiftly as he cursed loudly. He seemed to be searching for a way out.