Chapter 44 Entering The Sandara Desert
After the Banyan Tree incident, Gideon and Ranier became cautious about their surroundings. Gideon even has his Nlethemar region guide open so that they will not stumble upon such monsters.
Leo was also careful and didn't display any signs of suspicion.
Actually, there was one more dangerous place in the forest.
It was native to Armored Apis Bee, which is only a peak-rank-3 but the bee nests have hundreds of them. Even a rank-5 like him can't escape unscathed. That's why the Order of Arcana put up a lot of warning signs so that the visitors would get careful.
If not for the fact that Gideon wanted a Galarian beast, Leo would have chosen the path that leads to those nests.
But it can't be helped now that Azzy dealt with the Nlethemar's Banyan Tree easily.
Leo understood that any other beast that they meet on the way is probably not a match for Azzy. The only thing that can easily deal with them lies exactly at their destination.
"Excuse me, Senior Leonard," Gideon calls him up as he was reading the guide. 𝑓re𝘦𝔀𝗲𝘣𝘯𝘰νℯ𝒍.c𝗼m
Everyone stops and he turned around. "What is it?"
Pointing the page in the guide book, Gideon asked, "It says the Galarian beasts are also available near this place. We already passed it a while ago.
And this path leads to the Sandara desert, right?"
Leo frowned, "didn't you say that you want to challenge a higher rank Galarian?"
Gideon nodded.
Leo then explained, "Sandara Desert is known to have a lot of lightning habitats with not only beasts like Erudines but also Galarians.
Turn the page to Sandara Desert. You can find the remaining list of beasts."
Leo then glanced at Azzy and found him once again in the blank state. Leo turned around with an annoyed look and started walking.
Gideon readout as he was following the team leader, "because the lightning crystals embedded everywhere, the lightning attribute Beasts often mutate and raise their grade."
'I see… That's how the overlord was born.' Gideon finally realized the reason why a Galarian beast mutated twice and became a platinum grade.
Meanwhile, Azzy was busy with his Aura sensing training.
While his body was currently controlled by the Reaper, Azzy, on the other hand once again appeared in his micro-universe with only one solar system and four planets.
He was trying to isolate the trees from his senses so that he can see the monsters easily.
His progress was slow and steady.
By the time, the group reached the end of the forest, Azzy had almost isolated the trees. He was only seeing half of the aura of the trees than it was supposed to be.
The Reaper smiled, satisfied with his progress.
Other take days, months, or perhaps even years to make such progress, yet, this host of his did it in a few hours.
"That's enough for today. You reached your destination, Azrael." The Reaper brought Azzy to reality.
He found the forest disappeared and replaced with a desert, large barren land with rocks everywhere. Yellow-colored crystals grew from the ground as if they are grass.
Leo then spoke, "these are lightning crystals. They are the ones that convert natural energy from the surroundings into lightning energy, thereby making this a lightning habitat.
By the way, since you are of the lightning attribute, you can take a few of them with you while we return."
Gideon nodded in agreement as he saw the same thing that was mentioned in the guide.
Azzy suddenly crouched and grabbed a crystal. First, he tried to pull it, but he found it hard.
Then, he redirected some of the soul energy into his hands and pulled it out.
A three feet crystal appeared in his view. Azzy was taken aback. He didn't think it would be that big. After all, it looked like only 5-6 inches from outside.
Another strange thing Azzy felt is that when he applied such strength to grab the crystal and pull it out, he wasn't able to chip off even a tiny part of the crystal.
'It is sturdy…' Azzy thought as he examined the lightning crystal.
"What are you doing?" Leo's annoyed voice disturbed his concentration and he looked at him.
"I said when we return, not now." He appeared genuinely annoyed right now. Since he was going to kill him anyway, he can't bother to completely mask his feelings. "Don't play around. We have no time to waste."
He turns around and continued walking.
Just as Azzy about to throw it away, he heard the Reaper's voice once again.
"Don't. Although the lightning energy is in its impure form, you can make use of it. Try to absorb it like you are absorbing the beast soul orb."
As soon as Azzy tried to absorb it, a surge of lightning energy suddenly enters his body while the crystal cracked and became dust.
Meanwhile, the lightning energy in his body refined quickly and he realized a small amount of increase in his soul power.
Azzy summons his soul card and checks the amount. "Oh! One lightning can give me around 124 soul power?"
Azzy wasn't that impressed. How many lightning crystals he has to dig out to receive 22000 soul power? He probably had to empty the desert. He would rather go and eliminate a few beasts for that.
Azzy continued to walk, losing his interest in the lighting crystals. He felt as if he was being pranked.
The Reaper also didn't bother to explain to him the reason after understanding his feelings. 'He will understand when he learns about the attribute purities.'
"Oh! What's that?" Azzy suddenly spots a rank-3 cute creature that was walking alone to somewhere. It's black and has the appearance of a cat except that it has two tails and a beautiful blue-colored gem on its forehead.
He wondered what kind of creature it is…
And within no time, the answer already came to his head from the Reaper. "It's Erudian, a dark/lightning beast. Don't be deceived by its appearance. They are very cunning. The one you saw isn't a rank-3 by the way. It is rank-4."
Azzy was surprised, "it can suppress its soul power?"
The Reaper replied, "Yes, to fool its enemies."
He no longer paid attention to that Erudian and continues to follow the rest of the team.
Suddenly, he sensed a few rank-3s and a couple of rank-4 from a mile away. He activated his aura sensing. Azzy then saw the outline of two beasts and five humans who have short height, presumably even younger than him.
The two beasts are of rank-4 while the rest of them are rank-3 and it looks like they are locked in a battle.
He became serious as he saw the death aura was also covering the three of them.
"Follow me…" Azzy suddenly shouted, making others flinch in surprise.
Previously he was in the illusionary realm with his soul. So, Azzy wasn't able to use his strength properly against the beast and had to use soul energy to jump high.
But, now that he's in real-world where he's 44 times faster, as soon as Azzy pushed his right leg against the ground and dashed forward, he was already out of their sight, leaving them in confusion. Leo's face turned sour as he watched him disappear from his sight.