"Achoo!" Lux rubbed his nose.
He and his party were currently traveling through the dense forest.
'A beautiful lady must be thinking about me, Eiko,' Lux said telepathically to the Baby Slime perched on top of his head. 'Do you think it's your Mama?
'Pa!'
'Mmm. I think you're right.'
After being blown away by the Elemental Tempest, none of them dared to use their flying mounts to travel in the sky.
Even Cethus, who prided himself on his flight speed, had no choice but to travel on the land, while mounted on one of Lux's Wargs.
An hour had passed since they entered the forest, and so far, none had barred their path—at least, not at the moment.
The explanation for this was simple. Lux had opened his Soul Book and was paying close attention to the map.
Several red blinking dots and yellow dots could be seen everywhere, but the most eye-catching indicator among them was the BIG red dots. The Half-Elf assumed that they were Deimos-Ranked Monsters and above, and he also noticed that they seemed to be moving in their direction.
Unfortunately for them, the Half-Elf could see their movements, so he guided his party into the forest with the intention of avoiding these powerful Monsters, who clearly disliked his party's intrusion into their domain.
Cethus and Gerhart were both on edge because they could feel the presence of these strong Monsters approaching their location.
Although weaker than the two Initiates, Randolph and Grandma Annie could sense them as well. The only ones that were oblivious to the true danger they were facing were Laura and Livia, who were riding on the Wargs and following behind the old lady, their Master.
Lux didn't say anything except for the words "Go left" and "Go right."
As they continued their journey, the Elemental Tempest, who was observing them somewhere within the Forest of the Beginnings narrowed its eyes.
It didn't know how Lux was effectively evading the dangers that were moving in their direction, but the fact that the Monsters were unable to corner them despite their ever-growing numbers remained.
Suddenly, a loud explosion erupted in the forest as countless number of trees were destroyed in a straight line.
White smoke escaped Lux's lips after unleashing a Dragon's Breath, which created a straight path in the dense forest.
"Let's go!" Lux shouted. "Increase the pace!"
After looking at the map in his Soul Book, the Half-Elf came to the conclusion that if they continued to evade the monsters by repeatedly veering off course, they would still be encircled in the long run.
Since that was the case, the only thing he could do was not follow the path that was laid out in front of him and create a new path to escape their current situation.
Loud roars suddenly erupted within the forest as the High-Ranked Monsters began to head straight to the location where the explosion had erupted.
"Laura, Livia, move to the center of our formation!" Lux ordered. "Cethus, Gerhart, protect our left side. Master, Grandma Annie, protect our right side.
Eiko, who was on top of Lux's head, opened up her mouth and unleashed a Dragon Breath of her own, destroying the trees in front of them, and creating a straight pathway through the dense layer of trees.
A moment later, Lux summoned Diablo, Ishtar, Asmodeus, Lazarus, and Zagan.
"Spread out and delay them," Lux declared as he, Eiko, and Asmodeus began to summon their Undead Army.
Hundreds of Skeletons emerged around them, which Lux had summoned to block the path of the monsters headed in their direction.
"Boomer!" Eiko shouted.
Immediately, the Crimson Monkey Kong Skeleton Bombardier appeared and jumped to one of the trees in order to help the Skeletons create a diversion, giving them time to escape.
Ishtar merged with the shadows of the forest and reappeared where the Deimos-Ranked monsters were coming from. She didn't hesitate and unleashed a barrage of frost arrows, slowing their movement speed by a little bit, which greatly annoyed the Deimo-Ranked Alpha Monsters that were trying to encircle Lux and his party.
Lazarus also appeared a short distance away and began to unleash a barrage of magical attacks. His main role was to act as a Magical Turret and deal as much damage as possible to their foes, pulling their attention onto him.
Fortunately, it worked, and these Monsters began to target the two slippery Undead Creatures, who could appear, and disappear, at their leisure.
"Ithaqua!" Asmodeus raised his hand and summoned the Creature of the Cold White Silence, who immediately conjured a blizzard when he made his appearance, decreasing the visibility in the surroundings.
Due to its mastery over Ice and Snow, the newest member of Asmodeus' Undead Army was able to manipulate the blizzard so that it wouldn't affect Lux and his party.
Undeads were never affected by the extreme changes in temperature. Since they were Undead, they could care less if their surroundings were hot or cold.
Unfortunately for their enemies, they cared, and after seeing that a blizzard had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, they lost track of the targets they were planning to attack.
In a tunnel made of ice and snow, Lux and the others made their speedy retreat.
As usual, Gerhart and Cethus were amazed by the Half-Elf's ingenuity, making them wonder if they would be able to act just as calm if they were faced with the same situation.
This game of Cat and Mouse went on for several hours until the monsters gave up and turned to hunt weaker foes that couldn't use such underhanded means in order to stop them from being eaten by them.
Also, they knew that Undead didn't taste good, so they thought that the effort was not worth their time.
When Lux finally deemed that they were now safe, he ordered everyone to stop and rest for an hour.
The Wargs had overexerted themselves, and the two little girls, Laura and Livia, were also exhausted from the thrilling chase that they experienced just a few minutes ago.
Randolph and Grandma Annie weren't faring any better. The two of them had stayed in Leaf Village and, aside from the occasional Beast Outbreaks, they never had the chance to leave the Village and come across near-death adventures like the one they had just now.
Seeing that everyone was resting properly, Lux also sat down to lean against the tree in order to rest. He had exhausted himself mentally after formulating the best method to evade the Monsters.
If he had been traveling alone, he would have had plenty of ways to escape such a predicament. Unfortunately for him, he was with other people, so he had no choice but to use every means at his disposal to ensure their safety.
'Eiko, do you sense any treasures nearby?' Lux asked the Baby Slime that was resting on top of his head.
'... Pa!'
'I see. They are being guarded by monsters. Let's just return to collect them when we're stronger.'
'Pa!'
Lux had already anticipated that the forest that was being guarded by a Powerful Elemental was a treasure trove of resources. If not for the fact that there were strong monsters guarding them, Lux might have attempted to collect them along the way.
However, since he didn't know how the Elemental Tempest would react once he took these treasures, he decided to play it safe and not touch them for the time being.
His priority was to get the Transcendent Flames for his Master Randolph and Grandma Annie. As for the rest of the treasures… he would just come back to get them when he became stronger.
'It will take us at least two to three days in order to break out of this forest,' Lux thought as he looked at the map in his Soul Book. 'After that, we will reach the open plains. From there, it will take another four-day trip to reach the mountains, where the first city of the Wanid Kingdom can be found.'
Lux sighed because there were very few teleportation gates in the Wanid Kingdom, and most of these were controlled by the Tribe Elders of each group. Meaning, no one could use the gates without their permission.
'I just hope that they let us use those teleportation gates when we arrive at the city,' Lux sighed internally.
He knew that if they were unable to use the Teleportation Gates, they would have to spend almost a month just to reach the location where one of the Transcendent Flames could be found, according to Keoza's memory.