Chapter 67: Run if you can't beat them
In the south-eastern part of the core area of the Elven Forest.
A group of weirdly dressed elves were exploring the area.
Most of them wore ordinary linen robes and wooden armor, and only the three in the front of the group wore gorgeous battle equipment.
And the group leader was the most heavily armed out of everyone. He had rare, afro-like red hair, wielded an exquisite scimitar, and wore this heavy armour that didn't quite seem to match the image one had of elves. This leader was currently sporting a look of triumph ... It was none other than Demacia.
As he moved forward, he said to the bright-eyed teammates behind him:
"Hey, newcomers, we are out of the safe zone now. From now on, you will gradually start encountering legendary magical beasts!"
"The combat mechanism in this world is incredibly realistic, and it is difficult to get accustomed to it in the beginning.
So if you don't want to die, when you get into a fight later, you must work together with several other people. Do not fight alone!"
"Oh, and although you will be resurrected when you die, if you don't have enough perfect resurrections, you will have to start over again from level 1."
"But don't worry! The three of us will protect and guide you!"
After days of grinding, Demacia was now level 14.
As the highest-ranked tank in Heart of Nature, he had taken on the task of training the newcomers, and had decided to bring along a few guild members who had levelled more quickly than the others. It was to make them more interested in combat in the wilderness and to have a bit of fun.
Originally, his plan was for the team to save up a few perfect resurrections before going on this hunt. Unfortunately, there were no quests that rewarded players with perfect resurrections these days.
Li Mu, who had recently been busy with learning magic circles, had caved in against the curiosity of some of the new guild members who were enthusiastic about fighting. So, he eventually decided to have Demacia guide and escort them in the relatively safe wilderness.
The players asked many questions after Demacia's proclamation.
"But ... Brother Demacia, we haven't seen any animals yet on our path ..."
"Yeah ... didn't they say the wilderness was a dangerous place?"
"We've been walking for over ten kilometres now, haven't we? It's getting dark ..."
Hearing his teammates' words, Demacia scratched his head and said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice:
"Don't worry, don't worry ... there are no monsters in the safe zone because, uh, we ate them all. But there are definitely some in the wilderness!"
His teammates nodded. They'd eaten them all.
These days, the safe zone around the World Tree hardly had any magical beasts anymore.
As the Chosen Ones, the players had taken full advantage of their racial characteristics. Almost every single critter that looked remotely edible had gone into their stomachs ... and those that managed to escape the Devouring had fled to other areas.
Without any wild game, some players were even thinking about getting into breeding livestock ... and without magical beasts to practice with, Demacia was forced to take the new people out of the safe zone and into the wilderness.
Fortunately, after early explorations, players had discovered that the area in the southeast of the Elven Forest seemed to be relatively barren, and the strength of the monsters there was weak.
So Demacia had some confidence in coming here that they could keep the new players safe.
"Keep going everyone, you will definitely get to encounter some beasts."
He said to the other players.
He gave a smile.
"But be careful. It's fine to encounter weak monsters if you're lucky, but if you're unlucky you may come across an intermediate or even an upper Iron rank beast."
"Ha ha, but this place we explored earlier was originally barren, so we probably won't encounter those."
"And if you really happen to encounter something you can't beat, you really don't want to die and start from scratch again. Just run!"
Listening to Demacia's words, several second-beta newbies looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
As they walked on, the first-round beta player at the front of the group with the Hunter profession suddenly stopped.
"I hear movement!"
With a serious look, he made a gesture for everyone to keep silent.
The expressions of Demacia and the others brightened up, and they immediately shut up.
The hunter player, on the other hand, took a deep breath. He observed the surrounding bushes and listened to the sounds as he cautiously moved forward, bent over.
Everyone held their breaths.
He broke away from the group and quietly made his way to a bush diagonally in front of him, and slowly pushed aside the leaves ... Soon, his look turned to surprise and then from surprise to excitement! He turned around and gestured to the other players.
GO-BLINS!
Go-blins ... Mimicking the mouth movements of the hunter player, Demacia and the others started to think. Wait ... goblins?! He suddenly thought of something.
It had been a while since they last saw those lovely creatures after wiping them out in the ruins of Florence.
And if he remembered correctly, these cute walking bags of experience and contribution points tended to live in caves and ruins.
And there were no caves in the Elven Forest ... Could it ... could it be that there were ruins nearby?! For a moment, Demacia's breathing got a little ragged.
Ruins! There may be ruins around! Although players had explored this area before them, they hadn't gone any deeper in this direction because of how barren the land was. So there might really be elven ruins! Could it be that ... he, Demacia, was going to trigger another hidden plot again this time?! Thinking of this, his spirits lifted. He hurriedly waved to his teammates behind him and he whispered:
"We might've hit the jackpot!"
"Don't make any noise and move forward quietly!"
The group of players got excited after listening to his words.
Demacia quietly approached the hunter player and looked into the distance.
In a clearing not far away, a few goblins had gathered together… it wasn't clear what they were doing.
Demacia's eyes lit up.
He whispered to the teammates who followed in his wake:
"On the count of three, I will rush at them first. You guys cover both flanks. Don't let them get away."
But when he finished speaking, he thought about it and then decided to change his strategy.
"No, wait ... you guys slow down enough to let one or two escape. We'll follow the fleeing goblins and find their base camp!"
He began to count down.
"One ... two ... three!"
He took a deep breath, grabbed his scimitar, and jumped out of the bush!
"Little cuties! I missed you guys so much!"
With a shout of excitement, he charged at some goblins! The goblins seemed stunned by the sudden attack.
They uttered strange cries, picked up their weapons, and began to fight.
However, Demacia's strength had improved by leaps and bounds from when he fought goblins last time. With a mere sweep, he cut two of the goblins down. The other ones saw what was happening and turned to flee.
By this point, the rest of the team had arrived.
Demacia shouted:
"Outflank them!"
After saying that, he chased after the fleeing goblins before anyone else could.
Strangely enough, as if they had planned this, the goblins did not scatter and run in all directions, but chose to flee in the same direction.
This lifted Demacia's spirits.
The ruins! They must be fleeing back to the ruins! Thinking of this, he ran even faster and became more excited.
As the chase continued, the surrounding forest gradually grew denser.
Goblins did not have the physical stamina that elves possessed. Demacia soon overtook them one by one and chopped them down, leaving them to be harvested by the new players who followed in his wake.
Eventually, he caught up with the last goblin. Demacia was planning to slow down and follow the goblin to discover the location of the ruins. But suddenly, all his senses screamed out in warning.
His whole body trembled. He reflexively used his scimitar to guard in front of him.
A black shadow flashed past and slammed against his scimitar. Shockingly, the sheer force of the impact broke the epic Iron-level scimitar! Even worse, the huge kinetic force had not been blocked but also hit him hard in the chest.
Even his epic, Iron-level heavy armour was ripped apart like paper in an instant.
Demacia felt the blow connect with his chest. For an instant, his consciousness drifted as he flew backwards under the impact.
He crashed into a giant tree behind him and spat out a mouthful of blood ... in the blink of an eye, his health had been reduced by half.
If it hadn't been for the 95% pain reduction, he likely would have passed out and died … He raised his head in horror, and saw a strong, hideous figure appear in front of him.
The half-orc Blackstone slowly retracted his fist.
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