Going through the damped forest passing the mutated animals and cursed creatures that he met, Rex tries to find any indication of the Dark Elves that should've been here to keep a lookout for any anomalies and also threats that mind comes to the castle.
Silverstar Pack and the Dark Elves have already created an alliance.
King Jorik also agreed that this alliance favors his race more and decided that he would station some Dark Elves in the Humming Damned Forest, the Dark Elves are proficient in dealing with cursed creatures and this offer is perfect for them.
But after going around the Humming Damned Forest for the second time, Rex didn't find them.
Not one glimpse of the Dark Elves can be seen which is weird, the Dark Elves that came with Fylson yesterday should've been the ones stationed here. Rex can feel it clearly last night, he didn't mind them for a moment and suddenly they were all gone.
'Where did they go? I doubt they go back, they must be attacked by something'
Rex finds that using his senses is no use, the cursed energy inside the Humming Damned Forest is too thick even for his senses. Although he's quite sure a cursed creature is responsible for this, he can't single out the anomaly inside this forest.
'System, can you scan the surroundings? Search for high-epiphany curses'
<Scanning...>
Although the Dark Elves are not that strong, around the fourth-rank to the sixth-rank realm, the fact that their bodies were nowhere to be found shows that the perpetrator hides their bodies well to the point of bypassing a Werewolf's senses.
It's really troubling, Rex feels like he's being targeted.
<Four sections with concentrated high-epiphany cursed energy has been found!>
Just as Rex reads the notification from the system, a blue holographic map with four red dots in it appears in his vision, showing the location of each section that the system found. Without much thought, Rex immediately went to check each of them.
Out of the four sections, he visited three and finds them to be powerful cursed creatures.
Rex finds that one of the cursed creatures was something called the Duchess of Tears empowered by the curse of beauty, she was surrounded by many cursed creatures as well as mutated animals due to her curse. Even the effect of seeing the Duchess of Tears was so powerful that Rex is only able to resist due to the Eternal Curse inside of him.
Another cursed creature he met was the notorious Forsaken Man.
Back when he was still learning at Ochyra University, he remembered the teacher telling him about the Forsaken Man and that if he meets it he should run away. Now that he looked at it in person, the Forsaken man is even scarier.
Contrary to meeting with the Duchess of Tears, Rex was influenced by the Forsaken Man.
Empowered by the Curse of Loneliness, the Forsaken Man ignites the feeling of committing suicide inside of anyone that gets too close. Rex finds this thing hiding in a secluded cave, it wears a white robe that wraps and covers its entire body.
Its skin is light red, and its face looks eerie, especially its hollow eyes and wide mouth.
Just from seeing the Forsaken Man alone Rex knows that this Cursed of Loneliness is almost as strong as the Eternal Curse, and that is scary in its own right. The others would die if they get near here, and Rex knows that.
Due to that he stopped for a second to gauge the effective range and marked it.
Rex even tries to get very close to the Forsaken Man to test the water, but he finds that the Forsaken Man only glanced at him before turning its head away again. From that, he knows that if it's left alone, it will probably stay there until the end of time.
At the very least, despite having a very powerful curse, Forsaken Man seems to be dormant.
'Now for the last one...'
Looking at the holographic blue map, there was only one red spot left that he needed to clear.
Nodding to himself he disappeared from beside the Forsaken Man and headed to the last red spot, it was south of the castle. Upon reaching there, Rex landed in the midst of the forest and finds the same scenery as the other parts of the forest.
But it's darker here, the sunlight almost got completely blocked by the trees' canopies.
Rex followed the map before he finds himself standing in front of a gigantic tree that is way taller, thicker, and bigger than the other trees inside the Humming Damned Forest. This one in particular has a different air than the rest, the branches and trunk seem to hide a million stories.
Its trunk bends like a snake and mosses wander down mixing its lush green with the old tree.
From its appearance alone this tree should be way older than the other trees, and the red spot indicates that this old tree is the last spot. Rex frowned for a moment as he sensed nothing within the old tree.
With his cursed sense, he should be able to tell if there's a cursed creature living in this tree.
Despite his ability to sense cursed creatures, he doesn't feel anything from the tree. Rex doubted for a second, but he decided to check the old tree anyway lest there was a cursed creature that managed to bypass his senses.
A moment later, he stands once again in front of the old tree with a frown on his face.
'I can't find anything, but the system couldn't be wrong' Rex thought.
Rex has already circled the gigantic old tree and even climbed the tree to check the holes it has, he looked at every corner and hole thoroughly but finds nothing. It's just a tree with nothing living in or outside of it.
But he doesn't want to be hasty, there must be some places that he missed.
Just when he was about to circle the tree a couple of times to check if there was any spot that he missed, his eyes suddenly landed on a gap underneath the gigantic tree. There are two huge stones clamped together underneath the gigantic tree, and he saw a gap in the corner.
Upon seeing this Rex frowned before he went closer to the gap between the two stones.
Since the inside of the gap is very dark and his eyes can't see through it, Rex decided to scan with the system to find if there are any stats that would appear which indicate something inside this weird gap that he finds.
After waiting for a moment, the system doesn't find anything inside the gap.
Rex decided to get inside but his body stopped when he finds a mark etched on the stone near the gap, he looks at the mark before he touch the mark and asked the system, 'Can you scan what this mark is? I want to know'
<Scanning...>
<Scanning complete, it's a Cursed Sign>
Without much thought, he decide to stretch his arm inside the gap to test if there was any trap.
Swish!
Even though he was expecting some kind of barrier to protect something from entering this gap, Rex finds only a light brush of wind smoothing his skin. It's true that there's a barrier, but it doesn't put any resistance to Rex's stretched arm at all.
It's like this barrier is made to protect this gap from something other than physical attributes.
Finding that there was nothing hurting him Rex stepped into the gap, he then realized that the room inside the gap was big. Rex tries to straighten his back and finds that he can stand up completely without his head hitting the ceiling.
Aside from that, his nose instantly caught the scent of something very similar.
Rex then quickly raises his hand and generates light using his Lunar Element, he wanted to see if what he was smelling right now is true or not. It's a familiar scent that he can't sense from the outside.
But as soon as he did that, he gasped when he saw the place he was in right now.
'What in the world happened here, is this what I think it is...?' Rex thought in surprise, his expression then turned serious. Now that the place is bright, his eyes bear witness to the piles of equipment such as bows, weapons, and crimson-hooded robes scattered everywhere.
Kneeling on the ground, he grabbed one of the crimson robes with a clear frown.
Inspecting the crimson robe back to front, he now becomes quite sure whose these belong to, "No doubt about it, these weapons and robes are the ones used by the Dark Elves that came here with Fylson. What happened to them?" he mutters to himself.
Most people become arrogant when they are as strong as Rex, but Rex is not that kind of person.
Some of the things that happened to him require him to be very perceptive and calculative in his actions, everything he does can leads to his world-shattering if he doesn't be perceptive and calculative.
When Fylson visited, Rex already scanned the Dark Elves that came alongside him.
Not only that but he also at least memorized most of the Dark Elves' faces, but the most important thing was the fact that his nose automatically memorized their scents. Rex instantly recognize their scent when he came here.
But this is a weird situation even for Rex, "If their equipment is here, where are they right now?"
Under no circumstances that the Dark Elves would stripped themselves from their weapons, especially with many cursed creatures around, doing that would be equivalent to committing suicide as their weapons can fend off cursed creatures.
Rex then looks back at the entrance to this place with a frown.
'Somebody is hiding this, the cursed sign should be the thing that prevents me from being able to sense this' Rex thought, he was quite certain that the same cursed creature that wanted to kill him was the one responsible for this.
On top of that, the bows scattered on the ground are equipped with an Orb of Life.
Dark Elves wouldn't dare to leave their own Orb of Life, and moreover, the Orb of Lives here is dimmed from any kind of energy which indicates only one answer, the Dark Elves are dead. "But if they are dead, where are their bodies? No blood and no bodies, did they got disintegrated?"
"This cursed creature is very strong, and also very clever. I need to be careful" he added.
Pointing his hand forward, Rex puts the equipment of the fallen Dark Elves into the inventory before he decided to leave the place. Now he knows that there's a lurking cursed creature here that wanted him dead, and possibly also a threat to the others.
But he feels relieved with his decision, 'Thankfully I chose the Fragment of Curse Sentinel'
With the Circling Sentinel got upgraded by the Fragment of Curse Sentinel, he now doesn't need to be wary of this rogue cursed creature as long as this rogue cursed creature is not above the ninth epiphany.
If that were the case then the castle wouldn't be safe.
Rex doubted that though since that cursed creature definitely tries to get inside the castle, but the barrier blocked it which means it was at most in the ninth epiphany realm. Very strong, but as long as the others remain inside the castle then they would be fine.
After inspecting the Humming Damned Forest, Rex headed back to the castle.
Many things are occupying his mind right now due to the sudden malicious intent of the rogue cursed creature, but this is not a new thing for Rex as he already knows that with his current power, trouble will not stop looking for him.
Upon emerging back into the open space, he raises his eyes when he sensed something.
Standing in front of the castle were a group of short people with long beards that makes them look very old and experienced. It didn't take long for Rex to realize that they were the Dwarves, Flunra should already be done with the task he gave without any hiccups.
If these Dwarves are here, then the Tigerman should already fall.
About a dozen Dwarves can be seen standing in front of the castle with Evelyn standing at the top of the castle, but their attention was pulled when they sensed Rex's arrival. 'Another potential ally? Let's see what they have to offer me, I hope they have more elemental stones'
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