In the end, the reason why they had not heard anything or encountered anything was very simple. They had been teleported directly into the heart of the Cursed Forest, the worst possible outcome of teleporting to the next Floor in the first place.
He wanted to curse the Tower's System for teleporting them into this literal shithole, and if it hadn't been for Nefertari, who had warned him that they were in the Cursed Forest, he didn't think he would have noticed this fact for so long.
'Dammed E-Ranked Luck.'
Samiel cursed in his mind, he dammed luck, but at least for the better side of things, Yvraine was here too, so now he questioned if she was already unlucky or if his "luck" affected her.
In the Cosmos, the Cursed Forests were unique places that were considered to be rare since it took special conditions for the Cursed Forest to be born in the first place in order to from them to be created. Cursed Forests usually can only be found in areas where there is a high concentration of Negative Energy, and this Negative Energy is normally the thing that creates these places.
There was no doubt, though, that the Cursed Forests were rather dangerous places because they were, technically speaking, semi-sentient beings. At the same time, some of the Cursed Forests had developed a fully conscious state of being with their long history and other things.
This place with its effects would be dangerous as hell, even if it didn't have any intelligence at all and was just an average forest that was filled with poisonous plants and cursed by some Sorcerer, but the aspect of intelligence made this literal hellhole.
There were basically two things that made the Cursed Forests so dangerous. One of them was the fact that the entire place was filled with numerous curses, poisons, and other things that drastically weakened anyone who entered it. There was even the possibility that some people who were not strong enough in the beginning might even die from the weakening effects of the curses and poisons that filled the Cursed Forest.
Furthermore, as a semi-sentient entity, the Cursed Forest was preying on the people who entered its premises. Like any other predator out there, the Cursed Forest was no different from them, as it always hunted for the creatures to eat.
The trees that made up the Cursed Forest were alive, as well as all the plants within it. They were all carnivorous, which makes them extremely dangerous during single combat. Not only that, but they could also move and use their thorns or branches to bind and attack their targets.
There was one common reason for the Cursed Forests to be devoid of any life also aside from the flora, and that was because they fed on the blood and flesh of the creatures. It devoured anything that entered it, be it a Magical Beast, Monster, Sentinet Race, or even in some cases, Abominations and being from the depths of the Void.
There was even a case where the entire Supreme Stage Legendary Level Void Behemoth fell injured to an unknown High World, where it fell directly onto the Cursed Forest. And shockingly, before the hunting party could find the creature and hunt it down for resources, it was already being claimed by the Cursed Forest that subjugated the Void Behemoth. fre ewebn ovel
This was an occasion that got itself recorded in the history books.
"We are in the Cursed Forest."
He stated this to Yvarine, though she wasn't responding to him, which made him disturbed a little bit. He turned around to see Yvarine's blank expression on her face, which made him panic even more because it was evident that she fell onto the effect of the curses and poisons in the place.
"So even she couldn't get hold herself up in the place."
Because they were close to the very heart of the Cursed Forest, the effects of the Curses and other things that were penetrating this dammed place were clearly strongest here, and even Yvriane Nesser Silvermoon was not free from its effects. Even though she was a Silvermoon Elf, she too fell onto the effects, proving that the Cursed Forests are very dangerous things even to entertain the thought of entering.
Samiel, of course, was, but he was lucky in this aspect because he bore the Holy Blood of Azathoth, the Nuclear Chaos, one of the strongest Transcendetns in existence; thus, he wouldn't fall into the traps of this place.
Still, Samiel didn't know how to break the effect of the curses and poisons that were affecting Yvraine pretty seriously. He predicted that she would need to be at least Silver-Tier to resist the effects of the Cursed Forest fully, to resist them on her own without outside help.
What was interesting was the fact that the Cursed Forest itself waited until they got comfortable before it attacked them, and neither of them felt anything. Samiel didn't feel anything at all, probably, his immune system and resistances took the subtle attacks for him, but on the Yvraine, the effect was immediate.
Right now, she was around Level 30 Bronze-Tier, which was good progress she made, but it was not enough to completely resist the effects of the Cursed Forest. On top of all this, Samiel knew that this Cursed Forest was pretty weak, based on the knowledge he had of them.
Pondering on what to do, Samiel conjured a dagger through the Winter Ruler and cut his wrist, drawing out some blood, which he instantly froze into a blood-ice crystal. After he created the blood ice crystal out of his blood, he held it in his right hand as a small purple Magic Circle appeared below him.
During the time spent with the Menuhyutt Faulhaber, Samiel learned how to use the Magic Circles when casting spells, and he had to admit that they were convenient, even though they required a bit more time to prepare, but the effect of the spells was higher.
As the Magic Circle lit up, the ice blood crystal dispersed into countless crimson-red particles, which then circled around Yvraine several times all over and over until they started falling onto her whole body, until she regained her clear expression.
Evidently, the effect of the Curses was dispersed, and even the poisons were purged.
What Samiel did was use his own blood in combination with the Curse Displession Spell and Poison Purge because he knew that the ordinary variants of the Spells would be of no use, so he needed to use something as a catalyzator.
He knew that his blood would have an effect strong enough to disperse the effects of the Cursed Forest.
"Clarity already returned?"
Samiel questioned as Yvraine's pale face returned to its previous healthy color, and at the same time, she grew a bit embarrassed because, due to her recklessness and overconfidence, she got under the effects of the Cursed Forest.
Normally this wouldn't be the case because she had special measures against situations like this. Yet, for some unknown reasons to her, she didn't use it, nor did she realize that they were in the Cursed Forest, which only added only on the humiliation.
An elf not recognizing that she was in Cursed Forest, Silvermoon Elf at that... this would haunt her in her worst dream.
"Yes... and hopefully, you won't be talking about this to anyone alive."
Yvraine then stated silently, but with enough threat in her voice, that gave Samiel enough impression that she was really in this and was indeed pretty embarrassed about this.
"Right now, the thing we need to do is to get out of this dammed place as soon as possible."
Samiel said as he tugged on Nefertari's head, who was sleeping peacefully on his shoulder, not caring what was happening around her, having a lovely nap, and not paying attention to any of the things that were going on.
Unsurprisingly Nefertari was not even a bit affected by being in the Cursed Forest; due to her Divine Origin, she was also completely immune like Samiel.
"Nefertari, be a good flying cat and go to scout the area ahead of us."
Samiel ordered his Familiar, as much as one could order a cat to do something, but it worked because she knew that if she didn't behave herself, then she would lose all of the precious snacks that he had been preparing for her.
Nefertari was a gluttonous cat; she liked eating, not liked, but outright loved and she ate a ton of food. It was already a little miracle that she wasn't already rolling on the ground like a ball; probably her digestion system was pretty strong.
Or she was gaining power from the food she ate, as everything that Samiel prepared was from strong Magical Beasts, which was especially beneficial for someone like Nefertari. Magical Beasts and similar creatures often ate other Magical Creatures not just to quell their hunger but also to increase their Level.
It was then that Nefertari flapped her wings and shot into the air. Immediately, she felt several tens of thorny vines attack her as she flew out of the forest itself as if trying to bring her down, while at the same time, several tree branches were attacking her from the higher trees as she was flying out.
Evidently the Cursed Forest was trying a lot to keep her down or turn her into food.
She skillfully and effortlessly dodged all incoming thorny vines that attempted to attack in her hopes of becoming food for the Cursed Forest. Nonetheless, even the Cursed Forest itself was short on the might of the Elder Wampus Cat, the almighty cat heavenly celestial divine...
Long short story, everyone must bow before the might of the Almighty Cat.
She circled a few times above the Cursed Forest once she had flown out of it before returning to Samiel and sending him images of what she saw using the telepathic connection they had between them as she flew back into the Cursed Forest.
Seeing those images, Samiel frowned a little bit, because they confirmed his suspicion that they were deep within the Cursed Forest, that they had to struggle to escape this damned place, and that they would have to put in some effort to do so.
Unfortunately, Samiel couldn't even rank up into the Bronze-Tier even though he was essentially very close to reaching Level 26. It would be a pretty hazardous thing to do in the enviroment such as the Cursed Forest, where anything could attack them out of nowhere.
"Sadly, I can only bring you bad news, and that is that we are pretty deep inside the Cursed Forest, and we will probably need to fight our way to the out of here if we wish to escape."
It was immediately after that that Simeel summoned Ashimer because the Undead itself had already attained Level 55, which made it very powerful on its own. A Silver-Tier Higher Undead, particularly a combat-oriented Frost Death Knight, was certainly no laughing matter.
He would be of great use in escaping from the Cursed Forest because, soon enough, the semi-consciousness of the Cursed Forest would start attacking them with its full force. And he had some very weird feeling that it would be soon.
Fortunately for them, it wasn't full consciousness because he noticed that this forest was relatively young, only a few thousand years old. At least they were lucky in this aspect because if not, then he would be forced to use some more drastic means of getting out.
In spite of this, the whole thing was still a pain in the ass.
"It is attacking."
It was as soon as she said that as tens of thorny vines attacked three of them and one familiar, as everyone dodged to the side, but due to the fact that they were in the middle of a forest, it was actually quite difficult to do so. Instead, it was different from being on the defensive, as attacks could come out from everywhere.
There was a danger in places like this; even survival here was a challenge; this was the nature of the Cursed Forests. Samiel and Ashimer both were using their ice abilities to freeze the incoming tens of thorny vines that were lashing at them while Yvraine was shooting them down with some spells from the Elementia Magicae from behind.
Nefertari was relatively useless here because she couldn't use her Mirage Ability on the Cursed Forest. Yet, not wanting to be left out of the fray, she started using her Level 3 Ultimate Ability Shadow Rule to create various shadow-based attacks, which slashed through the thorny vines like a hot knight through butter.
"We should start moving towards the western direction!"
Samiel shouted at Yvraine as he and Ashimer flanked the Silvermoon Princess, creating a battle formation and marching through the Cursed Forest in the direction of the west. Samiel chose the western side because it was the place where the forest was not as extensive, and they could exit it way sooner compared to other ways.
Ironically the best way to deal with the Cursed Forest is to burn it down, but unfortunately for them, nobody here has any kind of fire abilities or knows some Magic and Spells related to that. They would just burn down the dammed place and it was done.
Regrettably, Samiel was basically an ice user when it came to elements, Ashimer who was fighting here too was in his very own nature incompatible with fire and Yvraine; while knew some flame and fire-related spells, it was not enough to burn down entire Cursed Forest.
For a few seconds, Samiel wanted Estrid to be here, but on the other side, she would certainly create more problems than she was worth. From what he heard, the dragon girl had already passed the 20th Floor, where she was stuck, after creating a conflict with worshippers of the Evil Gods, and now they were hunting her down.
After ten more minutes, they finally made great progress on their walk and were nearing the outskirts of the Cursed Forest until all of them heard weird roaring and sounds coming from the depths of the forest.
Samiel was obvious to it, but Yvraine's face went pale before she quickly shouted at him.
"It's treants! We need to run!"
That immediately woke him up as they broke their battle formation and started running the hell out of here.
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