A Spiritual Beast

A carriage drawn by a Flame winged horse moved out of the city gate and joined another luxurious carriage drawn by a tier 4 mana beast. It belonged to the guild masters of the two guilds.

Alex was a bit surprised about how eager the couple was just by the fact that they were the first even after being the highest level members of the guilds. The three of them greeted the two guild masters and got back into their carriage.

Soon, tens of carriages joined them and the adventurers began their journey after some formal introductions. Since all the preparations were made and all the adventurers gathered, the entire group set off without any further delays.

One could tell just by the looks of the people who had returned recently that this time, they were expecting results out of their expedition.The guild masters opened their carriage one last time before setting off, " Alright everyone, as discussed earlier, the rewards will be provided based upon your contributions in this expedition as discussed in the notice along with a compulsory reward of ten gold coins each to every person participating, but the treasures have to be handed over to us and people who make significant contributions can also get chances to choose one or two items from the treasury, provided that it is not some outrageous demand. You may already have known the basic details from the notice or from your acquaintances who have accompanied us on a previous expedition, so let's not waste any time and set off."

The carriage carrying the two guild masters set off immediately after the announcement followed by all the other carriages. All the adventurers were already aware of this arrangement and didn't voice out any objections.

Rumors had it that there were some parts of the treasury which could help in increasing the comprehension of spells and skills and also help in overcoming bottlenecks that the God had left for his believers and even staying in proximity to those treasures would be beneficial to people. Just staying in proximity of these treasures would prove to be beneficial to people struck at bottlenecks, so most of the people had taken part in this mission just to break through any previous bottlenecks, especially when the guild masters had promised the usage of such treasures on people who made special contributions.

This was also the reason why they were able to gather a good number of people with relatively higher levels despite the low rewards. People were ready to spare some time for trying out such treasures after being struck at bottlenecks for extended periods of time despite the costs.

Alex followed the carriages along with his friends, unaware of the fact that there was someone in the city who had been trying to find his location at all times.

After five hours of continuous traveling, the expedition group finally reached the serpent's valley. Alex looked around only to find that the entire place was crawling with snakes of various sizes and colors. The sizes also varied from a few inches long to dozens of meters long.

Alex cast a glance around in a large open space in the forest and his vision was completely filled by a vast number of serpents crawling on the ground as far as he could see.

'Screeechhh!'

A deep bellow was let out at the head of the group. Alex looked at the source of this sound, only to see a large door appear behind the two guild masters, and a strange humanoid creature with the lower body of a lion and a humanoid upper body with six arms and a bat like face stepped out of this door.

'Screeccchh!' The creature shrieked again and all the serpents started to turn around and move away in panic.

'A guardian beast! No wonder they dare to come to this place full of venomous snakes.' Alex said to himself.

[ Spiritual beast : Six tribulations Keritobion]

[Level : 280]

[Strength : 16,950 Agility : 16,950]

[Endurance : 16,950 Intelligence: 16,950]

[Spirituality : 1082]

[Skills : dimension distortion, spirit sealing, beast overlord, ...62 others]

[Abilities : Mana manipulation, spiritual confinement, spiritual world, spirit enslaving,...22 others.]

Alex hadn't expected that he would be able to see the stats of the spiritual beast. Spiritual beasts were different from mana beasts and only large families and clans with a myriad of resources could have one as their guardian.

These beasts were found in the spiritual realm and were very rare. They couldn't be found on the pet market and had intellectual ability comparable to and even higher than humans. They could make contracts with humans, wherein humans had to provide a part of their spiritual beliefs to them as their nourishment, and they would be obliged to help humans whenever they so demanded.

Spiritual beasts were on a completely different level when compared to humans or mana beasts on the same level, and a spiritual beast of a lower tier could easily defeat a human or mana beast at higher tiers.

'If my guess is correct, spirituality should be the number of people that worship it and looking at those awfully balanced stats, it must have been forcefully subdued.' Alex said in his heart.

Spiritual beasts were prideful creatures and preffered to detonate themselves rather than being subdued, and if the adversary was strong enough to prevent them from self detonating, they would rather burn away their consciousness and cultivation. The one in front of Alex was one such example and all it's stats should be what one expected from a newborn spiritual beast of level 280.

All the mana beasts in a large area surrounding the Keritobion felt a scary pressure directed at their spirits and even the beasts pulling the carriages were shivering.

The appearance of the spiritual beast awed all the humans present whereas all the mana beasts were shivering. Alex comforted his Flame winged horse and it settled down a bit, but couldn't stop shivering.

All the serpents immediately cleared the area around the spiritual beasts and stopped only when they were miles away from it. The spiritual beast also quited down and took an illusionary form while hovering around the guild leaders with a blank expression.

Alex was sure that a conscious spiritual beast would never do such a thing and he was a bit indignant on seeing it being treated like this, but there was nothing he could do.

Alex shook his head and stopped focusing on the hovering spiritual beast. The group continued their journey led by the two guild masters.

They didn't encounter any mana beasts on their way forward thanks to the Six tribulations Keritobion and this also increased their speed.

"The leader's spiritual beast is truly amazing. None of those disgusting snakes dare to appear in front of it. I also feel an urge to pray to it every time I look at it." someone said. Their intention to flatter the couple couldn't be any more obvious.

" That is to be expected of our guild masters. After all they are the strongest in our guilds and their ancestors were the priests and elders of the doctrine of Lord God who has ascended as a major god." Someone else said.

All the others also began to openly praise the two guild masters, who didn't seem to have any interest in stopping them.

" The two guild masters seem to be good people. All the adventurers here are praising them." Sheri whispered to Lucas who was sitting inside the carriage beside her.

Alex heard it and could only shake his head. Those people were obviously trying to flatter the guild masters who didn't show any expressions on the surface, but Alex could tell that they were enjoying the praises and had no intention of stopping the others.

The Serpent's Valley was shockingly large and it took the group nearly two days to cross through the outer layers and enter the inner region. Also, the number of reptiles inhabiting it was alarmingly large, but none of them dared to enter the area near the Spiritual beast whose figure hovered near the guild masters.

Alex was also a bit worried. His second part of the mission was still ongoing as he had yet to take a look at the half part of the map that was kept with the two guild masters. He knew that it wouldn't be as easy as looking at the half that was present with the village chief, but he was also sure that the two guild masters also had a copy of the other half, otherwise they wouldn't have been so dead set on searching the treasury.

He also found it strange that the village chief would post the mission to the guild which was led by a person of the faction that was responsible for their decline. The more he thought about it, the stranger things appeared to be. He wouldn't be too surprised if he was told that the entire village that he had visited earlier had long fallen into the hands of the priest's faction behind the scenes, just that most of the descendants of the oracle had yet to realize it, or they just feigning ignorance on the surface while knowing it deep down in their hearts.

The more he thought about it, the more his theory seemed to be near the truth if not the truth. If the system had not recognized the piece of map from the village chief's office to be authentic, Alex would have thought that it was a fake, but it was also the real deal.

The group continued moving while Alex was in deep thoughts. But in the end Alex could not reach any conclusions and had to drop that line of thought. He was already sitting inside the carriage while Lucas was driving it.

Alex entered mental simulations and began practicing his new spells. Even if he was traveling, he couldn't give up his practice. He was sure that they would be safe as long as the Spiritual Beast was still there and no mana beasts would dare to attack their group.

"Alex, Alex. Wake up. We have arrived at our destination." Sheri's voice snapped him out of his meditative state after a long time. Alex immediately woke up and looked around.

They had reached a relatively empty region in the Serpent's Valley and the Spiritual Beast was no longer hovering behind the guild leaders, but the serpents in this region were very scarce. Also, there was the aura emitted by undead creatures seeping out of the ground.