Expedition

For the remaining 3, 2 were taught in handling short swords and daggers by Arthur and the last one was put in archery training.

A week passed.

The hoplites and Aries took turn in the forest to rack in some experience against forest bears, slimes and several wolf packs.

The newborn goblins were brought periodically in order to gain levels.

8 rare 'goblin mage' were born. 2 of them had affinities for water magic, other 2 for warth magic, 2 other for wind magic and 1 for healing magic and the other one debilitating magic. The other with the S rank Trait became a rare fire mage. They all received actives skills to create a magic shield and bolts of their respective elements, as well as a bonus in mana regeneration.

The one with the A rank Trait became a druid of plant magic, an epic class, gaining the ability to control plants, to create roots and the Passive to communicate with plants.

2 goblin scouts and 1 goblin hunter were born. The scouts were a class that could move stealthily, had some decent burst damages and were fast. The hunter moves fast, has great aim and high Stamina.

The Ents were particularly elated for the babies to have combat class and trained them more intensely.

During the evening, the larvae finally became golden bees.

12 magic golden bees protector were born, epic monsters. They had human like features, stood at 1.7 meters, and 3 A rank traits: Mana resistance A, Spear and Shield mastery A and Mana affinity A. Arthur started training them in spears and shields. Their training was however different from the hoplites'. While the hoplites use shield and spear together in order to bring down enemies, the set that he taught was one to use the spear and shield individually, more fit for a gladiator or a knight. They were also taught by Eve in handling Mana.

The small one was 1.5 meters tall but had more refined traits. His joints had a golden carapace like protection and the he had very small hairs, barely looking like a fur and more like patterned skin. His features were bee like, however his tail was enormous, with a stinger dangling. His golden eyes radiated power.

Name: Nebuch

Title: Prodigy

Race: Humanoid royal golden bee - rank 1 - legendary

Trait:

Magic physique S

Lightning affinity S

Magic resistance S

Monstrous physique S

Vevznir agreed to give him a magic martial art that will make him fast and strong like the Thunder. He was also given the Royal monkey savage arts, which made full use of his tail and limbs to fight. He was trained by Rea in hand to hand combat and by Arthur in Aries hand to hand arts.

Since no one among the Unshakables or Ents were proficient in lightning magic, some rank 4s Thunder gorillas trained him in handling it.

Like this, 2 more weeks passed by. 2 more goblins were pregnant and gave birth to 8 goblins. Only one of them had a Trait, a B mana affinity.

They trained and reached rank 1. There was a rank 1 goblin mage specialised in fire magic, 3 rank 1 goblin hunters and 4 rank 1 goblin scout.

The unshakable grew.

Aries had 20 rank 3 warriors, 4 rank 2, 1 rank 4 and a classless child.

The 20 rank 2 hoplites, 21 rank 1 newborn goblins, Rea and Zephyr at rank 2. The goblin fire mage was given Volznir's essence.

The golden bee were quite something else. Because they had epic and legendary rank as monsters, or race, they had a strong start and more stats when they reached higher levels. They became 12 rank 1 Magic flying knight, an epic class and a rank 1 mana fighter, a rank 1 epic class. Nebuch was particularly strong and could kill enemies stronger than him. The particularity of this race was that 25 percent of earned experience was transferred to the Queen. Of these 25 percent, 25 percent was transferred to Ezyze, the familiar contractor of the queen. Eve was a rank 2 unique Quadra Elemental mage.

They were joined by 10 rank 1 Ents and 5 rank 2 Ents. They all had magic related traits and races.

Led by Harma, 7 rank 4, 12 rank 3 and 10 rank 2 Thunder gorillas joined them.

Lampa a tier 4 monkey archwhizard was leading 3 rank 4 Langurs, 2 rank 3 and a rank 1 Langurs. Most of them had strong physique and magic classes.

The female Mandrill was a rank 2 Mandrill and a rank 3 leather artisan.

In total, the Unshakable were 14 golden bees, 26 Aries, 43 goblins and one human, 84 in total. 15 Ents, 29 Thunder gorillas, 6 Lampus and 1 Mandrill.

They were departing towards the Eternal Mountain range and were a force of 135 individuals.

Cleopatra stayed in the Sanctuary. She was safe and could groom the Flower Ents, a branch of the Ent race that reached up to 30 meters and had different type of flowers growing on them instead of bark and leaves.

When they exited the forest, the colonists were all surprised. Having seen the forest for most of their time on Astros, seeing the wide blue sky was a welcome change. In the Northern part of the forest, near the Eternal Mountain range, the terrain was mainly uphill, made by rocks, bushes and some trees. The 6 goblin scouts and 4 goblin hunters scouted the path, making sure not to cross humanoids that could be adventurers or mercenaries.

Sabertooth tigers, rock and shadow cats, mountain wolves, mountain goats and Savage horses were frequently seen. .

During most of his time, as well as the 5 days trip, Ezyze kept the gravity field on him in order for his body to grow stronger by being acclimated to higher gravity.

Soon, thanks to the Ents' network, they got ahold of the their position and arrived at a valley.

----

Located at the feet of the Eternal mountain range and enclosed by mountains, the valley was quite wide, and several caves could be seen from a distance.

There, 10 Trees could be seen, ranging from 15 to 25 meters.

Ezyze and the others began to walk towards the caves. When they reached halfway point.

BOOM!

2 gorillas with strong and long hind legs made a crater.

Sunkong - rank 5 Golden Thunder Gorilla King

Moonkong - rank 5 Shadow Thunder Gorilla Champion.

Sunkong opened his mouth, while rough, his speech could be understood.

"Hello, friends. We wait for you. We battle neighbors. Trolls. They strong, they heal. Also, strong bears and troll ride bears. In forest near, big cats and goat people vicious. We never lose! But hard to win!

Hello Sunkong, it is a pleasure to see that you have grown so splendidly and to speak to you. I understand that the area is filled with different factions. Can we come to where you stay and establish ourselves?

Yes."

The group followed the big gorillas. Sunkong is now 4 meters and on his head lies a crown made of Thunder. His fur brims with golden Thunder. Different shades of gold and silver alternate in his fur. Moonkong is now only 3 meters tall. His belly is leaner, his shoulders broad and different shades of black and dark blue alternate on his fur. Two Thunder like tears rumble below his eyes. His fur is constantly filled with dark lightning. He seems to be condensed power and besides his longer arms he looks like a human, or a beast man gorilla.

The trees were actually rank 3 Ents that stayed idle. They were unassuming and watched the entrance to the cave network. There, a big cave was alight by glistening stones. Moss and various plants covered the roof and walls. After walking for over 10 minutes, they came in front of a 2 meter being.

He has a humanoid shape. His wooden skin looks like smooth skin, albeit slightly tanner, rippled with root like veins moving under and on the skin. His face has a slit opening for a mouth and otherwise no nose and 2 holes where 2 green eyes, were glistening, almost lit by mana. Instead of hair, various roots tangled and untangled, and leaves attached to these roots seemed to sway with the wind. His sculpted body had various carvings that sometimes glistened with green mana. He stood up and made a greeting gesture with his hand. Various tendrils attached themselves to the stones, Monster parts and other items that he was looking at, tidying up the place.

Algen- rank 4 wooden human watchman

Checking his status, Ezyze understood that he succeeded.

*Greetings, friends. I am delighted to see you. I can see that you came in numbers from the Emberwood forest. You may have noticed but I am still an Ent, yet, I have succeeded in having a human like shape. I gained the status of firstborn which allow me to have a second class, Wood magic fighter, a rank 1 epic Rank. We have been looking around these mountains and chose this spot to settle. There are no other inhabitants in these caves. Moreover, only one entrance to the valley can be found and is between these two mountains. We have quite some space and are still well hidden. West from us lie a tribe of jungle trolls. They are inhabitants of jungles in the mountains. They are strong warriors and can heal wounds. They are hard to kill. They have many different class and different ranks. They have various villages and 5 strongholds. Some of them ride Bears and other raptors. We did not manage to accurately estimate their forces. They are at least several thousands. We have seem more than 4 rank 5 beings among them. They may have more.

That is a strong enemy, said Arthur. Are they the undisputed rulers of this region?

Yes and no. They are undoubtedly strong and have several armies. However, West from them are different Bandit and mountain clans. Most of them are humans but they have several other races. The bandits and jungle trolls seem to be against each others. Also, several strong mountain beast packs roam these lands. They cannot be killed easily and several of them even have tier 5 monster lords.

What about to our East?

East is another matter. There is a forest but Shadow and Mountain cats are the rulers. It seems that other monsters are present.

What about North of us, further in the mountain range?

There are no clans, there are family like beasts. Some dragons, birds and strong beasts roam the mountain. It is unsafe for everyone. These mountains are much worse than the Emberwood forest.

What about our forces. Who do you think that we can win against?

As of right now? No one. The question should be who can threaten us?

Then who can threaten us?

As I said, we are hidden. We make sure that no one ever follows us here. Also, the jungle trolls seem to be slowly expanding Westwardestqbloshing villages. While the bandits hunt, kill and estort each others, I estimate that the 2 factions will eventually face each others. We can either expand Westward or towards the North.

What did you do so far, asked Ezyze?

So far, we have fought all around here. With either the gorillas or me fighting with the Ents, we have fought the cats and several snakes. I have a rank 3 unique class called bonzai magic arborist and I can have evolving Ents reach the wooden human race. They would gain classes, would be less tough and strong, but quicker and able to gain a class, ensuring their survival. Our current goal is to have all rank 3 Ents here reach this rank 4 evolution.

What did you picture us doing?

You would come with us. We did not even reach the center of the forest, where the strongest beasts live. The gorillas and other rank 4 would fight North of us in order to increase our strenght.*

They decided that Sunkong, Moonkong, Harma and the other 6 rank 4 gorilla, the 2 rank for Lampus and Arthur would fight North of them to increase their levels.

22 Thunder gorillas of lower rank, 3 low ranks Langursand Lampa, the 25 Ents, 43 goblins, 14 Golden Bees, 23 Aries, Algen and Ezyze will fight Eastward and try to create a stronghold there.

In the Meantime, Gran and the Mandrill will create equipments for the forces. They discussed armors for bees, ents and goblins, what kind of resources they would need to survive and grow.

They were about to start the creation of what will be called in History, the Eternal Brotherhood.

---

They couldn't enter the forest as one group. They had to think about synergy to create the teams.

The weakness of tier 3 Ents is their low attack power. The 13 rank 1 Bees, led by Nebuch could complement well with their slow pace. The 4 goblins archers should be with them, atop.since these expeditions usually took a long time, when levels were not similar, members could rank up and evolve.

Many good things could be found during one expedition.

The 15 Magic Ents were magic oriented. The rank 2 were using pure mana when casting magic. It was processed mana that has for element pure magic. The rank 1 were more savagely using pure adulterated versions of attributeleds mana. They were accompanied by 23 Aries. 2 Aries each .

Olivier and Roland were with 3 rank 2 unique Ents. Arthur was with 2 other unique rank 2 Ents.

These two groups entered the forest not far from each others. While Arthur was the strongest presence at rank 4, only the Ents about to reach rank 4 came in this expedition. Similarly, tons of experience could flood the weaker Ents, who could evolve at any given time. Algen's role, while assisting the group, was to help these Ents during their evolution. He wanted to test this new class.

The 11 goblin mages had potential and could deal some damages. Their small build was attractive and they could deal tons of damages.

The goblins kept this army like formation and treated the goblins mages as ranged artillery. The hoplites were to intercept attackers. The hunters would either scout or fight in close range, helping the hoplites. They were all very mobile and intended to fight un a guerilla like manner. They were covering a large range.

Ezyze was positioned in the front with scouts. He wanted to have a positive impact on the soldiers' morale. Since entering the forest, he turned off the increased gravity. He was keen to test his newfound powers and finally fight closer to the enemies. On his shoulder was a rank 1 epic Infant all white francois Langurs

Left of him was Rea. She was to come by quickly fighting stronger monsters in the frontlines.

Zephyr was positioned near the hoplites and was supposed to help those endangered. Eve was flying around.

The Langurs were a race that boasted very strong interest in magique. Still as monsters, when they evolved, they gained abilities and a stronger physique. While they all showed high intelligence stats, they also had good physical stats. Lampa was very strong. Others were very fast.

At rank 4 many were similar to humans with longer limbs. Lampa was using a wooden mace, with a hammerhead like head made out of pink crystal. Inside of the Crystal like mace, an pink orb of light like energy was hovering around, speaking in her mind. She was capable of close combat thanks to her monstrous strenght. This ego hammer was created with a rank 5 Ent agreeing for his essence to be processed by Mandrill legendary blacksmith specialized in hammers. She could also cast devastating spells and boost her own power.

The other rank 4 langurs were:

A rank 3 shaman warrior holding a short hammer that was as well an ego weapon, made with the rare core of a Thunder golem and specialized crystals. It was used for quick yet heavy attacks and could send emeral lightning and such spells. Her long white hair were dancing around, sometimes letting through a current. She is 2 meters tall.

A rank 3 ferocious Lava magic lancer legendary class wielding a molten spear. She has outstanding reflexes and a leaner physique. She is 1.9 meters tall and had fiery red hairs.

A black rank 3 mana wielding monkey gladiator. He was leaner and was wearing talons like gauntlets, made out of a Thunder Garu bird, and then could create a sort of Thunder magic armor. He was 2.3 meters tall.

The 2 Rank 3 Langurs were also black. Both were females. One was wearing wooden like paldrons that burnt with a mana sun like sphere floating. Both of them had a single ego controlling them. They could burn hotter, send fire supernovae and other fire spells, for a rank 3 unique monkey rune seer. Her magic was extremely strong, yet strange.

The large rank 2 unique magic paladin was wielding a two handed sword. It was made of a cross like shapes, where the handle is burning from an intense light and could send slashes made of holy fire and could cast an healing holy fire to regain their health. She was 2.0 meters, and taller than the 1.8 monkey rune seer. She had a buff physique.

All of then were also wearing equipment specially tailored: a magic robe and armored plate for the rank 2s. Lampa was wearing armored plates, the rank 3 gladiator was wearing light armor while the other were wearing leather armors. All of these were crafted by Mandrill craftsmen. These ego weapons are legendary equipments that grow optimally got one user.

They were roaming the backline, protecting the mages and waiting to be called to reinforce the frontlines.

The 22 Thunder gorillas were acting on their own, South of them.

These groups entered the forest together and were to created an advanced camp, so as to scout far away the forest and gain experience and grow stronger. They would spend initially a week or 2 in the forest.

They would try to transform this advanced camp later into a stronghold.

So far, Ezyze and the goblins mainly battled Dark cats, beings of rank 2 to 4s. The goblins could attack from far away, injure these beasts before the hoplites create a barrage.

The rank 3 Ents battled earth Golems and mana saturated faes. The forces led by Nebuch were fast, flying around and strong of their high ranked traits. They killed many faes and even golems.

The magic Ents battled mountain cats that were stuck with fighting Aries. Pure mana was sizzling them.

The gorillas were stuck with ranks 2 to 4 Poisonous pythons, as well as boas.

---

They entered the forest the morning, yet they were entering shadows.

This part of the forest had tall black fir trees. The atmosphere was saturated with dark mama.

Ezyze entered the forest, the goblin scouts and Rea were separated, yet slowly advanced deep in the forest. The langurs and hoplites followed making small groups.

The forest was filled with growling noises..