"What?"
"Is this it, how do we look for the jewels?"
"Dammit, that guy could have told us more!"
Shouts and arguments could be heard throughout the forest as many squads complained about the lack of knowledge they had for the challenge. Most of the alliances were almost useless now as everybody was teleported to a different place, and because the area where the challenge was happening was quite large it was going to be hard for them to meet up with their allies.
Of course not all squads were panicking like them, the stronger squads were all already on the move as they tried to find the jewels. Some of them climbed on trees, some tried sensing them with mana, others immediately attacked some low-level monsters that they had found nearby.
Reign and the others however were doing things a bit differently, they looked like they weren't in a hurry at all as they slowly walked through the forest. Beast was currently being carried by Tank as he had summoned his eagle in order to scout their surroundings, he had already spotted some jewels that Reign and Shadow picked up. The eagle's eyesight was many times sharper and better compared to a human, not to mention an eagle that was over level 30.
Other than looking for jewels, Beast was also trying to find some stronger monsters in the forest, since the dragon had told them that all jewels were not the same they immediately had the idea of killing some stronger monsters in hopes of them dropping some jewels that were more valuable compared to the normal ones.
They had so far managed to find only 2 different kinds of jewels, the one that was most common was a bright blue jewel that was easy to spot while the other one was green and was usually put in places where there were lots of leaves on taller trees. If not for the eagle's sharp eyesight, there was a good chance that they would have missed those jewels completely.
The forest they were currently in was truly massive as its size was about half of the IronBark Woods, and that was only the area inside the mana curtain. Finding the other squads would be almost impossible right now, perhaps after some time passed and most of them managed to get closer to the mountain they would come across some of them.
The closer to the mountain the eagle got, the stronger monsters was, Reign and the others had been teleported right next to the curtain, and they suspected the others were as well. They immediately concluded that the more valuable jewels could be found closer to the mountain, this and the monsters being relatively harmless in the outskirts was probably something the system did.
The weaker squads would be able to survive 3 days in the forest if they stuck to the outskirts, if they got greedy and didn't know their limits they would die. The stronger squads would probably think the same as Reign and the others and they would hurry to get closer to the mountain in order to get a head-start, of course, the danger level increases exponentially as well.
Reign and the others were currently one of the teams that were deeper in the forest, there were also 3 teams that were even further inside compared to them. Those teams decided to ignore all jewels that could be found in the outskirts and to simply get as many once they got deeper inside. The reason for that was simple, even though it wasn't told, the players could actually check their points and how many points each jewel gave.
[ Points given by jewels: ]
- Blue Jewel 1 point
- Green Jewel 3 points
- Black Jewel 5 points
- Red Jewel 10 points
- Purple Jewel 15 points
- Transparent Jewel 30 points
In total there were 6 different kinds of jewels that could be found in the challenge area. Reign and the others were also aware of the different values that the jewels had, of course, they still didn't know what exactly to do in order to get the jewels, but first, they were going to get deeper inside the forest before worrying about things like that.
The monsters inside the forest were level 25 at the minimum, every single squad amongst the 25 could easily take care of such monsters, and as such, the danger level was almost non-existent. Moving in further you could see stronger monsters that waited for anyone to come and disturb them.
Reign and the others were of course not even fazed by those monsters, in fact, if Reign decided to let out his mana then most of the monsters in the forest would frantically run away from him in fear of being killed. It was not a bad tactic as that would only leave the strongest ones to fight, but it was still too early and Reign was thinking that maybe he will do that on the final day of the challenge.
Trees, small monsters, small caves, and dwellings that the monsters had made, all of those were places where they were able to find jewels, so far Reign and the others had managed to successfully find about 30 jewels, the most valuable one was a black jewel that a monster had dropped.
The enormous size of the forest made it hard to find the other players, if they could then Reign and the others would have another way of earning jewels. The world had changed after all and using their strength to take jewels from other players didn't really bother them, after all, if they were weaker the same would happen to them as well. Plus they weren't planning on killing the players or anything.
For the first day of the challenge Reign and the others were simply focusing on getting as close to the mountain as possible whilst picking up jewels along the way. Even though they weren't the ones in the front they didn't really worry that much, after seeing the overall power level of the other squads they were quite certain that they were far above them when it came to fighting capabilities.
The only person that was powerful in their opinion was the Ice girl, her huge amount of mana plus the control she had previously shown after Wolf had come between her and the Berserkers leader was truly something difficult to achieve. The Berserkers' leader was also powerful but they were certain that they could at least have a draw against him, and that was at the least. As for the other squads and their leaders and members, they honestly had no idea how they would compare to them as they were quite low-key during the wait at the mountaintop.
…
Before anyone even noticed it was already nighttime. Some of the squads decided to create a small cabin on the tress from where they would be safe against monsters at night, some of the squads simply decided to continue walking towards the mountain, some were still locked in battle against some of the stronger monsters in the forest.
Reign and the others were still walking toward the mountain, they wanted to get a little bit closer before resting for the day. They were attacked multiple times during this time but the enemies they had faced were not a problem for them. About 1 hour later they decided to stop and rest.
Reign and the others quickly found a nice spot to rest, they got some wood and branches nearby and Wolf used his fire to light it aflame. Making a campfire in the forest was not a good idea right now as monsters would get drawn to it and even some other players might arrive, but that was not an issue.
Reign released his mana as growls, screams and the sound of animals running away could be heard. Every monster within a 1km radius from them had felt the mana that Reign released, compared to the monsters, his mana was much more violent and stronger.
Still, there was a possibility that some monsters might arrive later, for that Beast summoned all of his beasts and ordered them to guard them during the night, the monsters here were all about level 30 and his beasts were more than powerful enough to defeat them.
Since Reign and the others were much stronger than normal people that of course meant that they really didn't need as much sleep either, from the usual 8 hours of sleep that most people needed, they only needed about 4 and they were good to go. Even staying awake for a couple of days as possible for them, but they simply didn't have a need to do that for this challenge.
As they continued on their way in the morning they were surprised to hear a loud roar coming nearby. Immediately they ran towards the source of the roar while Beast commanded his eagle to look there before they arrived. The roars were getting louder while the sounds of battle could be heard, explosions were happening as trees fell down and the soil was getting blasted in the air.
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