Chapter 1486: Chapter 927: Sunrise Dawn (Part 5): Journey_2
There are also bloodthirsty crazed ants that move in swarms. They may look weak, but once provoked, you’ll quickly find yourself besieged by a merciless, endless tide.
There are also what look like withered dead vines, but once you get close, they’ll instantly coil up and wrap around you, draining their prey into a dried-up corpse—terrifying blood vines...
This world, already vast and chaotic, hides danger at every turn.
One careless step, and you could be doomed forever.
Fortunately, Ados and the others seemed to have quite a lot of experience traveling in the wild.
Especially the Mage Mire.
She seemed to have extremely rich experience in wilderness travel, and her sense for predicting danger was razor sharp.
Although the team was nominally led by Ados, in reality he only decided the time to set out and rest each day, while the actual route choices along the way were all made by Mire.
Under her lead, the group avoided, again and again, crises that could have wiped out the entire team, and not a single person died.
Of course, this was also closely tied to Tony’s joining.
With his once-per-day silver skill [Eagle Strike], the team’s combat strength shot up, and many times when they ran into monsters the group couldn’t handle, everyone would work together to stall for time and create an opening for Tony to deliver a killing blow and win.
And Tony, through battle after battle, gradually got used to the combat rhythm of the "Elf Kingdom." Only then did he suddenly realize just how lucky he’d been to win that first surprise attack when he’d fallen from the sky.
That time, it had been pure luck.
And with each cross-tier fight, Tony’s level also shot straight up.
Even though they didn’t run into another monster as strong as the one last time, after a week of traveling forward, Tony’s level had already risen to level 40.
That was already the peak of Black Iron Upper; one more step, and he’d be true silver.
At this moment, his strength had already surpassed the strongest in the team, Ados, making him the true number one.
The way Ados and the others looked at Tony grew more respectful, and more full of awe.
And that unprecedented promotion speed left them deeply shaken.
As time went on, the group’s marching speed clearly picked up; in these last few days, their daily progress was nearly twice what it had been at the start.
However, just when Tony excitedly thought this was all thanks to his newfound strength, Mire’s words poured a bucket of cold water over him and made him realize, a bit embarrassed, that he’d been overthinking it:
"There should be another gathering point in this area. I’ve spotted signs of human activity. Not only that, but the monsters seem to have been cleared out; otherwise... there’s no way our journey would be this smooth."
Sure enough, in the following days, they ran into other human gathering points.
Rather than calling them gathering points, it was more accurate to say they were filthy, chaotic strongholds built by groups of people around the ruins of cities.
The group didn’t stay in those strongholds long; they just replenished some supplies and hit the road again.
This made Tony a bit curious; he had thought Ados and the others would recruit more people at those strongholds.
But then the warrior Ramsis explained why they didn’t stay long or add to their numbers:
"The world after the Great Cataclysm is insanely chaotic. Even though the Goddess’s descent brought people hope, not every gathering point is worth trusting..."
"The Magic Energy Core has many uses, and the most important is to build city defense barriers. For every gathering point, that has a fatal kind of appeal..."
"We... don’t dare gamble on it."
Tony suddenly understood, finally realizing why the group actually seemed more on guard in those gathering points than out in the wild, even insisting that Tony cover up his face and, if possible, not casually expose his identity as an Elf Chosen One.
In this dark age, danger doesn’t only come from monsters—it can just as easily come from your own kind.
At the same time, watching the people in those dilapidated gathering points—faces sallow and thin, spirits drained—Tony understood even more why Ados and the others were so obsessed with completing this mission.
Only after seeing the darkness do you truly yearn for the light.
Meanwhile, as Tony’s group kept pushing forward, the Tianchao players coming to pick them up also used the shared coordinates Tony sent as a guiding beacon, rushing toward them at an even faster pace.
Tony compared both sides’ speeds and did a rough calculation.
At this rate, it would take at most half a month for the two sides to meet.
"Man... there are too many strong monsters over here. Even though the Goddess previously cleared out a wave of High-level Monsters, the pollution never went away, and plenty of monsters have evolved recently. Even for us, we’ve got to be careful..."
"Especially since the skies haven’t been peaceful lately either. Looks like there’s a Demon Crow Group and Blood Bats around. If they latch onto us, their numbers... tsk tsk, even we would be in for it."
"Otherwise, with this little distance, we could just fly over and find you in three days."
Ye Ye grumbled in the party chat.
"Fly? Mr. Ye Ye, you can fly?"
Tony was very curious.
"Heh, just Flying Magical Beasts, that’s all."
Ye Ye replied.
"Flying Magical Beasts? Can I see them? What kind of beasts are they?"
Tony grew even more curious.
But Ye Ye turned playful:
"Haha! No rush, no rush. Let me keep a little secret—you’ll know when the time comes!"
Tony: ...
As the days went by, sometimes he’d chat with the escort squad, and sometimes he’d talk with the two Tianchao players.
Gradually, he grew more and more familiar with everyone, and in the end, he was even calling the two Tianchao teammates "brothers."
At the same time, as their conversations went deeper, he also learned about the pasts of Ados and the others.
Every member of the escort squad had a story behind them.
According to Ados, before the Great Cataclysm he had been the Magic Pet Breeder and Mage Tower Servant of a Great Mage whose strength had reached Silver Upper.
Back then, as a servant to a Great Mage, he was somewhat well-known in his city. Although his wife had died young, he still had a lovely daughter and a son with quite the talent for Magic.
His daughter had married a local Knight, lived a blessed life, and given birth to an adorable pair of twin girls.
His son had broken through to the silver rank at the age of twenty, and was praised by the Great Mage as a once-in-a-decade Magic genius.
The Great Mage spoke highly of him, saying that as long as he followed the proper path of Magic study, becoming a Golden Rank Magic Master would be no problem, and in the end he might even enter the Royal Mage Group and become a court mage.
Not only that, the Great Mage had even written a recommendation letter, sending his son to further his studies at the Imperial Magic Academy.
Ados was very proud of his son.
Of course, Ados also adored his two lively, adorable granddaughters.
Aside from his usual work, his favorite thing was to go to his son-in-law’s manor after work or on days off to spend time with his granddaughters.
The two girls took after their mother’s looks—very cute and charming, sweet and innocent, well-behaved and obedient, always making him laugh out loud.
If not for the revolution and the Great Cataclysm, Ados might have gone on living such a happy life forever.
"Revolution?"
Tony was taken aback.
"A religious revolution, launched by the former Eternal Church. But... not long after the revolution succeeded, the Great Cataclysm happened, and every believer who took part in it turned into a monster overnight."
Ados sighed.
As he spoke, a trace of darkness flashed in his eyes:
"My daughter died then. She and my son-in-law both took part in the revolution, and in the end they both turned into monsters... In the end, I was the one who killed them with my own hands."
He gently closed his eyes at this point, and there seemed to be a glimmer of tears at the corners.
"Then... what about your granddaughters?"
Tony couldn’t help asking.
"They died too."
Ados let out a long sigh.
"They were killed by monsters while we were fleeing. I didn’t protect them... "
His voice choked up a little.
