"He just stepped foot into his grave".
Perhaps, he said it to console themselves of this humiliation but none of the worshippers of the Blackfire doubted the words of the Priest in Black.
They all dreaded the Great Forest of Elias and this fear was for a valid reason.
After the age of awakening, human civilization was hit hard as they had to relinquish control over most of their territories to the mystic beasts. Holed up in their shelters, the mystic beasts got to control every other part of the planet.
Some of these parts that now roamed with beasts were once great human nations, but they were now reduced to nothing more than beast settlements.
Most of the relics left by these nations were already reduced to nothing more than rubble over the years as outside the shelters of human civilization were mostly deserts, forests, and ice planes.
After the age of awakening, as humans learned to manipulate mystic energy, even as mystic warriors rose, so also did they mutate to awaken special bloodlines.
Like Rex's Vampire bloodline, history said that there was once a time where Elves roamed the land. These human variants awakened special bloodlines and mutated, differentiating themselves from normal humans in the process.
The Great Forest of Elias was once rumored to be the territory of the Great Elven Kingdom that rose after the age of awakening, but it fell.
Assaulted by an attack led by multiple Mythical mystic beasts, the Elves could not resist as they succumbed and were completely annihilated.
Their territory slowly degraded to become the Great Forest of Elias.
After their extinction, rumors said that the forest was cursed. Only mystic beasts could live and survive inside it, and though most claimed that these were mere rumors, the locals like those in the Mist Village believed that it was true.
The 3 Priests in Black that were assigned to this branch of the Temple of Blackfire were embarrassed by their inability to stop a single thief.
Though the thief left unfruitful in the end, the mere fact that he escaped tarnished their reputation. The only thing that made them feel some fulfillment was that the terrible thief ran to his grave inside the great forest.
They believed that he was already dead.
"What an anticlimactic way for such a strong young man to die".
…
Whoosh!
A pair of 8 legs rapidly shuttled through the forest at great speed as Grey kept on eating yards of space deeper into the thick forest.
Seated and riding on the spider's back, Rex watched his surroundings.
Despite hearing different theories and rumors about the Great Forest of Elias already, Rex was still amazed after getting inside. Even though this was day, the forest still had very little sunlight illuminating the ground.
The thick shade formed by the towering trees blocked the sun, this was by far the thickest and most ancient forest that Rex had ever been to.
Of course, he already heard of the legends of the forest but he believed none of them, he even doubted if Elves really once roamed the earth.
The worshippers of the Blackfire thought that they pursued him into the forest, whereas he was the one who escaped here of his own volition. He already decided to take this forest as his route to the Duncan Shelter.
Taking the route of the Great Forest would be unexpected to his enemies, Rex believed that taking this dangerous route was the safest to his destination.
Though Rex did not believe most of the rumors about the forest, he still accepted that it was ancient and had some of the most dangerous mystic beasts around. Rumors said of the forest's alpha being a mythical beast.
Just the mention of that term could send shudders through the spines of most mystic warriors, this was why Rex would only be traveling through the periphery of the forest. He still loved his life.
Rex spent an hour on Grey's back escaping deeper into the forest before he ordered it to stop. Once Grey stopped, Rex groaned and fell down.
Due to the suppression of the sun, Rex's fearsome vitality could no longer perform its usual magic as the injury to his neck was barely healing. Another factor that caused this was that the attack was powered by Blackfire.
"Keep watch over the surroundings".
After ordering his transformed beast, Rex opened up his storage ring and he brought out some bags of blood before downing their contents.
Once Rex drank enough blood, he noticed instant improvements in the injury. The pain was alleviated and this was when he finally smiled.
Despite all the trouble that he had to pass through, they were all worth it.
Rex accessed his system.
---------
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Fortified Soul!]
>This is a cultivation technique to fortify your soul against soul attacks and to increase your soul power. There are 40 cultivation opportunities inside it, and each opportunity increases your soul power randomly<
[Do you want to spend 1000 Skill points to learn soul cultivation technique?]
…
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Ethereal Slash!]
>When activated, deals 40% physical damage and 60% ethereal and soul damage<
[Do you want to spend 600 Skill points to learn Blackfire skill?]
…
[Compatible Skill book has been discovered: Zone!]
>When activated, you enter a state of absolute concentration devoid of distraction and the effects of every one of your skills are amplified by 10%<
[Do you want to spend 800 Skill points to learn Blackfire skill?]
…
[Compatible Advanced Skill book has been discovered: Self Combustion!]
>When activated, you burst into flames. In this state, you are immune to any type of flame and your Blackfire abilities are amplified 2×<
>You can also deal heat damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 1,900 Skill points to learn Advanced Blackfire skill?]
…
[Compatible Cultivation technique has been discovered: Soul Manifestation!]
>This is a cultivation technique to train your Blackfire and soul manipulation. When mastered, you can manipulate your soul to manifest outside of your body in an ethereal form where you can deal ethereal damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 5000 Skill points and 300 Constitution points to learn soul manifestation technique?]
…
[Compatible Master Skill book has been discovered: Oxygen Manipulation!]
>When activated, under perfect control, you can cause oxygen in the air to ignite and deal pure lethal physical damage to enemies<
[Do you want to spend 10,000 Skill points to learn Blackfire skill?]
----------
On seeing the expanded list that was just made by his system, Rex smiled. Even if he had lost a limb in the process, the fact that he got a master-level skill meant that it was all worth it in the end.
After all his planning for 3 days, the make-up sacrifice on Grey's part, and Berserker's cooperation, he finally reaped the rewards that he was due.
The only regret that Rex had was that among the hundreds of books in the library, he could only get his hands on so few of them that were useful.
Despite this though, he was still extremely satisfied. He felt even more satisfied knowing that the worshippers of Blackfire still thought that he left without getting any benefit from his attempted theft.
This ability of his system really came in handy. Raiding the temple was a great risk, but with great risks came great benefits as were evident.
Due to his lacking skill points, Rex could not learn any of the skills and cultivation techniques that he got immediately. He could not wait to amass more skill points so that he could finally increase his repertoire of abilities.
After going through all his gains, Rex finally fell asleep.
He would continue his journey at night when he was at his peak state.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by fre(e)webnov(l).com