The dense forest was eerily calm.
A black crow darted through the trees like a bolt of dark lightning. Behind it, apart from a black-robed Wizard keeping pace, there was a surging tide of vines.
Boom!
The black-robed Wizard casually flung a fireball, blasting away the vines closing in on him. The flames, hot enough to melt steel, rapidly spread along the vines, threatening to turn the sea of vines into a sea of fire.
But strangely, although the flames spread, they grew weaker as they advanced, as if an invisible mouth was devouring them.
Seeing this, the black-robed Wizard furrowed his brow. He thought to himself, "What kind of monster did the Pioneers create here?"
The black-robed Wizard was Richard. Ever since he entered this forest, untouched by the White Wizard Legion's Spells, he felt as though he had stepped into the belly of a colossal creature.
Everything around him seemed to be resisting him.
Smack! Richard casually swatted and crushed a bug trying to cling to him.
He had been in the forest for half a day now. During this time, apart from the relentless tide of vines chasing him, he had encountered countless bugs—various kinds of bugs.
From thumb-sized alien mosquitoes to fist-sized flying toxic beetles, and even flying centipedes as large as venomous snakes.
Each of these bugs was highly venomous and equipped with powerful mandibles.
When he first entered the forest, Richard had thought his scales would be enough to protect him from these bugs.
But after seeing the alien mosquito spew corrosive digestive acid from its mandibles and a palm-sized longhorn beetle bite through his scales, Richard decided it was better to take action.
After all, most of the things here were likely biological weapons left behind by the Pioneers. Underestimating them would only lead to his own downfall.
To the Pioneers, a Level 3 creature was nothing remarkable.
"Ulysses, how much further?" Richard shouted ahead.
"Caw, at this pace, we'll be there in another half a day."
Hearing this, Richard couldn't help but sigh. He glanced back at the vines, which had completely extinguished the flames and were preparing to surge forward again. With a light wave of his staff, an invisible current of air wrapped around him, and his speed instantly increased.
"Fine, let's find the place first."
...
Richard wasn't the only one who had entered the forest.
Boom!
A bolt of lightning as thick as a bucket struck down, shaking the branches and leaves of the forest.
"What a bizarre place. How much did The Lost Ones modify this?"
As the lightning faded, a figure with a hammer-like staff emerged, his iron-gray body still crackling with residual electricity. With the slightest movement, arcs of electricity danced in the air.
Not far in front of him, an old tree of modest size had streaks of lightning coursing through its branches.
Clearly, the lightning bolt had come from this old tree.
Seeing that the first strike hadn't killed its target, the old tree's branches crackled with electricity, as if preparing to unleash another bolt.
But Stio merely grinned ferociously. In the next moment, a massive black hand emerged from beneath the old tree, uprooting it entirely.
Upon closer inspection, the black hand was composed of countless grains of iron sand fused together.
Once it left the ground, the old tree was like a fish out of water, and it soon ceased to move.
Stio casually opened a Mystic Realm Rift and tossed the old tree inside, then pulled out a Communication Crystal Ball from his pocket.
Seeing the direction on the crystal ball still shifting, he frowned slightly: "It's still moving. Just how big is that thing?"
Meanwhile, almost all the Third Circle Wizards who had entered the dense forest encountered trouble.
Some came across patches of carnivorous plants, their massive mouths hidden beneath thick shrubs, each capable of secreting digestive fluids that could dissolve metal.
Others encountered aggressive plants covered in sharp thorns, which would shoot out upon sensing living creatures to hunt their prey.
These thorns were quite powerful, each with the force of a thousand energy units. Moreover, if the prey didn't die, the plants would even focus their attacks.
In addition, there were hanging trees capable of strangling Second Circle Wizards, poison mist trees that could spew deadly fog, and zombie mushrooms that released hallucinogenic spores... and this was not all.
Beyond the plants, some wizards encountered venomous centipedes as large as pythons, whose toxic mist could dissolve energy shields capable of withstanding spells of five thousand energy units. Others found giant spiders whose webs covered entire sections of the forest.
There were also swarms of venomous bees, each capable of killing a first-level creature; energy-draining mosquitoes that could suck the magic power from Magic Barriers; and unknown insects whose bite could instantly stun a third-level creature...
Almost all the Third Circle Wizards felt a sense of relief that it was they who had come.
If it had been First or Second Circle Wizards, no number would have been enough to fill the void.
This place was a veritable green hell, filled with deadly things everywhere, even the wild grass on the ground could bite you twice.
...
Deep in the forest, Richard followed Ulysses as they pressed forward.
"Once we cross the lake ahead, we'll be there."
"Lake?"
Richard was puzzled, but in the next moment, his spiritual energy pierced through the dense forest and arrived at an open area.
A lake, like an emerald, appeared in his spiritual perception.
"Wait, how can there be a lake here?"
There were no mountains or rivers in this area, so how could a lake have formed?
In the next moment, Richard felt a sharp pain in his head, and his extended spiritual energy involuntarily retracted.
Someone had attacked him with their spiritual energy.
Before he could react, a crisp sound of breaking branches came from the forest, and a bizarre black creature, with a body like a spider but three scorpion-like tails, darted out from the trees. Its strength had already reached the peak of a third-level creature.
"Ulysses!" Richard called out sharply.
Although he believed he could handle this insect, this was not a place to linger.
The sooner they completed their mission, the sooner they could leave this cursed place.
The most suitable way to deal with this forest was the concentrated spell barrage of the White Wizard Legion.
No matter if it was carnivorous plants or venomous insects, everything would be reduced to ashes.
But Ulysses' response startled him.
"Handle it yourself first. If you can't, escape into the Mystic Realm. I'm also in trouble here."
Hearing Ulysses' reply, Richard immediately thought of the earlier situation.
If nothing unexpected happened, Ulysses should be battling the creature that launched a soul attack on him.
"Forget it, let's consider this a test of my training results," Richard murmured.
As soon as he finished speaking, Magic Power surged within Richard's body, and his aura suddenly became as towering as a mountain.
The strange creature, noticing the change in Richard, instantly locked onto his figure with its compound eyes.
In the eyes of the creature, Richard's movements slowed down continuously, and every detail could be clearly captured. The instinct deep within its bloodline allowed it to instantly find the flaws in Richard's movements.
In the next moment, the creature's scorpion tail lashed out fiercely, and the stinger glowing with purple venomous light shot towards Richard's left rib.
If this strike had landed, regardless of the injury, the potent venom alone would have been enough to cause Richard significant trouble.
But Richard remained calm. Although the strike was aimed directly at his flaw, his ten years of training were not in vain.
With a slight shift of his body, he gently tapped the scorpion tail with his left hand, evading the lightning-fast attack.
Immediately after, Magic Power surged within Richard's body, and his figure vanished abruptly.
The creature's compound eyes darted around, quickly locking onto the disappeared Richard.
Richard had already appeared behind the creature, ready to deliver a fatal punch. But before he could act, the three scorpion tails stabbed towards him like lightning.
Clang! Clang! Clang! A layer of golden light, inscribed with runes, appeared around Richard, effortlessly deflecting the incoming scorpion tails.
This layer of light was the Adamantine Arm of Evermountain Temple. Once activated, it made the arms as hard as Adamantine. After learning it, Richard had reconstructed the technique using Wizard knowledge, turning it into the Diamond Body he now used.
Seeing that its scorpion tails had failed, the creature's body began to shake violently, seemingly trying to throw Richard off its back.
The intense high-frequency vibrations traveled through the carapace into Richard's body. To his horror, he discovered that his energy circulation was becoming disordered under the vibrations.
"This won't do, I need to end this quickly!"
With a loud shout, he swung his right fist fiercely at the carapace beneath him.
"Ha!"
In the next instant, a mental shockwave instantly stopped the creature's trembling.
Immediately after, a force as overwhelming as Mount Tai tore through its carapace. The violent power instantly crushed the organs inside the carapace into pulp.
Thud! The creature's body hit the ground, and its internal energy circulation began to rapidly weaken.
Richard let out a long breath: "Phew, it's over."
With that, he prepared to store the creature's body in the Secret Realm as a specimen.
But before he could act, a deafening sonic boom erupted behind him.
Bang! Richard's body was sent flying like a cannonball. Behind him, the three scorpion tails seemed to enter a frenzied state, wildly attacking the surrounding environment.
"Cough, cough."
A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of Richard's mouth. Although he had activated the Diamond Body at the last moment, it was done hastily, and the immense force of the scorpion tails still caused him some internal injuries.
However, there was no anger or fear on his face. On the contrary, he looked extremely excited.
Richard licked his lips, gazing greedily at the creature's corpse.
"A symbiotic organism.".. what a treasure."
The symbiote is a technique from the Synthetic Beast branch of the alchemy school. This technique allows multiple Synthetic Beasts to merge together, forming a more powerful and comprehensive Synthetic Beast.
The bizarre creature before them was in a peculiar state. While the spider body was nearly dead, the scorpion tail continued to attack relentlessly, with no decrease in its offensive power.
This went beyond the scope of tail detachment or neural reflexes.
Most importantly, Richard's energy vision detected a complete energy cycle withi
n the scorpion tail.
"Such a complex energy cycle, the technical sophistication of this thing is no joke," Richard murmured as he observed the scorpion tail. "And this energy cycle... why does it seem so deliberately designed?"
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