Forbidden land (part-1)
Leo found himself in the middle of a massive forest. Wherever he looked he could only see trees and they were endless and gigantic. Leo suddenly felt like a tiny bug inside the forest. Since everyone was teleported to a different location in the forbidden land, Leo thought it was one such location with forests.
Although he was surprised, he knew he couldn't afford to be in a daze in a dangerous location like that. He quickly drank a potion of stealth and reduced his presence to a minimal level. Internally he felt a slight pinch as it cost him 10 crystals to make that one potion.
'Everything is worth it as long as I live.' Leo consoled himself.
Just as Leo started to organize his thoughts and make his next move, he heard a scream nearby. Startled by the sudden scream, the first thought that came to his mind was to run. Yes, run as far as possible.
Leo never considered himself a hero. In a place like the Underworld, filled with all sorts of villains, the first one to die was none other than a nosy hero who refuse to mind his own business. So without overthinking Leo started to go in the opposite direction of the scream.
But somehow he felt as if his Divine soul was urging him to go in the direction of the scream. It was a vague feeling of an opportunity nearby. As for what kind of opportunity, Leo didn't know. Leo immediately understood that it was one of the benefits of having a Divine soul.
'Is this one of the benefits of having a Divine soul?' Leo muttered to himself with a grin.
Since the matter now involved his Divine soul, Leo felt that he had no choice but to take a look.
'I may be able to avoid the danger now but can't avoid it always. Let me at least take a look before I make any further plans.'
After deciding his course of action, Leo quickly took action. He was always someone with a decisive mindset. Once he had a plan, it was time for action and there was no room for middle ground.
Leo used his late-stage soul foundation level to the max and bolted towards the direction of the scream. Within a few seconds, he was already around 100m from the direction of the scream. The first thing that came to his view was a beautiful woman wrapped in the branches of a massive tree, she was lifted upwards and slowly her screams came to halt as she was thoroughly absorbed by the tree.
Suddenly, a new branch appeared on the tree and everything returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
Looking at the countless branches on the tree, Leo felt chills run down his spine. He instantly recognized the tree monster as a common-grade monster in the forbidden land. It was very good at camouflaging itself as a real tree and trapping people who came in contact with that.
If a simple common grade monster was that scary, Leo could only imagine the terror of rare grade, legendary grade, and mythical grade monsters.
'Good thing is I read about all these monsters before coming to this place otherwise I wouldn't even know how I died.' Leo got goosebumps looking at the tree monster which blended nicely again with the surrounding environment to show its innocence to its next prey.
'If not for what I saw earlier, even I would be easily fooled by its tricks. Although with my cultivation level, I could easily break free, it would be difficult once I get stuck in the middle of those entangling branches.
Hmm, don't tell me that the opportunity I am supposed to seek is related to that tree monster?' Leo silently questioned his Divine soul. But there was no response.
Just as Leo was in a dilemma to leave or stay, he heard a rustling noise not far away from his location. Leo quickly hid behind a nearby rock and observed the newcomers.
Two guys in their mid-twenties were conversing happily with each other without a care in the world. Just by looking at them, Leo could tell that they were a pair of amateur people who didn't have the proper understanding of the dangers of the forbidden land.
Fortunately, they didn't go near the tree monster otherwise two new branches would be popping from the tree by now. One of the guys with a pointy nose said excitedly " Bro, I think rumors about the forbidden land are overly exaggerated. Look at the beautiful trees surrounding us and the smell of nature, everything is so beautiful and warm."
Another guy with small eyes nodded, "Probably you are right. It might be the conspiracy of the adventure alliance to gain reputation. There is also another possibility that we are lucky and got ourselves teleported to a safe location."
"Who cares! All we have to do is spend the required 7 days and get out of here. How about we set up a temporary treehouse here and settle down. We might not be able to find another safe location if we leave." Pointy nose guy looked around and pointed towards a tree for the temporary treehouse. The other guy also agreed readily after a quick thought and started walking towards the tree.
Leo's heart skipped a beat when the guy pointed the tree demon as the target of the new treehouse. It was not the fault of the guys as of all the trees around there, the tree demon stood out in its charm and freshness. It even had juicy fruits hanging on its leaves to entice its prey.
Just as Leo decided to stop them from their impending doom, a beautiful lady with a sword in her hand popped out of nowhere and slashed at the tree demon. The tree demon was also caught off guard and couldn't defend itself in time. It was cut in half mercilessly and countless branches on the tree tried to strangle the girl one last time to seek revenge but the girl seemed to have expected that and quickly dashed back to avoid the final attack from the monster.
No matter how stupid the guys were, they could see that they were saved by the girl from the tree monster. They looked at each other and could see fear in each other eyes. They shivered from head to toe at the thought of creating a treehouse on top of a tree demon.
"Shit, we were almost doomed!"
Both of their legs suddenly became weak and they sat on a nearby rock to catch their breath. Just as they wanted to express their gratitude for saving them, the girl looked at them with horror and screamed.
"NOOO!"
Leo was surprised, and so were the guys. They didn't understand why there was such a reaction from the girl. But all of a sudden, the rock on which they were sitting started trembling. The guy with the small eyes seemed to realize something and just when he was about to move away from the rock in haste, countless spikes popped out of the rock and drilled into their bodies. Just in a fraction of seconds both of them turned into porcupines with spikes all over them.
Leo and the girl stood where they were like statues and saw the horror in their eyes before their last breath. Blood was slowly trickling from their bodies. Rock- monster on the other hand started to absorb their bodies without any emotion.
'Fuck!' Leo couldn't help but curse their bad luck.
'Just when they avoided the tree monster, they come across a rock monster!' Leo couldn't help but feel sorry for the bad luck of the guys. The girl who saved them from the tree monster also shook her head and slowly went in a different direction without bothering about the rock monster. She seemed to be in a hurry for some reason.
Leo wanted to stop the girl and ask her some questions but suddenly realized that he was also hiding behind a rock! His back was immediately drenched with sweat. Without bothering about the girl, Leo slowly moved out of the rock not daring to take any chances on his life.
Just when he was at a safe distance from the rock, he heaved a sigh of relief.
'Forbidden land lives up to its reputation. But I wonder how that girl knew that they were monsters from just one look. Does the answer lie with her eyes? Probably some kind of magic eyes or she could be a mage.'
Leo was not surprised in the least to know that someone possesses a special eye as there were countless types of special bodies in the underworld. It was also possible to customize your eyes in the underworld market. But it was very costly, hence Leo didn't even look at them.
Besides, once someone reaches soul apprentice level, with the help of magic it was not difficult to see past some low-level illusions. But the problem was Leo was yet to reach the soul apprentice level and he was already in the forbidden land.
'If low-level illusions could be this realistic, I can't even imagine the nature of the high-level illusions from higher grade monsters. It appears like I have severely underestimated the forbidden land and overestimated my abilities.'
'If only there was a way to know what is real and what is an illusion…'
Leo smacked his head and laughed at his stupidity. He immediately dashed towards the dead tree monster.