Chapter 486: Strategic Repositioning

The deeper they went, the more he started to notice something wrong. The air became increasingly stale, but there was a strange disturbance in the air. It was as if the entire ravine was contaminated with some cloying substance. Perhaps, it might have been a Concept, he wasn’t sure.

However, this contamination made his aura and mana senses feel sluggish. There was this thick cloud that obstructed his awareness. He could tell that Lyra was feeling it as well. In fact, she was looking very sick.

Her face looked as if she was nauseous and about to throw up. It wasn’t fear either. Well, maybe a little bit of fear. But he had a feeling that it was this contamination that was responsible for most of it.

“You should leave,” he said to her seriously.

She tried to talk, but all that came out was a gag. She coughed a few times, and he waited for her to respond.

“I’m good. I can do it,” she said, full of stubbornness. He disagreed with her assessment, but then again, who was he to argue with her? Would he have taken his own advice if someone had told him the same thing? Probably not.

“Okay,” he said with a shrug. She could do what she wanted to do; if she died, then she would lose the opportunity to explore more of this realm. At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter to him. As long as he had his fun and found some interesting things, then he wasn’t about to complain.

They continued to navigate their way through the ravine, which was swiftly becoming much larger than either of them expected. Some sections were very narrow, while some were massive and resembled a large canyon.

After half an hour of searching, they finally came across something intriguing. Julius felt Lyra immediately charge mana into her body, preparing her body’s enforcement skill. At the same time, he used his perception skill to take a closer look at the disturbance ahead.

There was a large opening ahead of them, and in this opening was a massive group of goblins. There were probably a few dozen of the weird goblins all gathered together. However, that wasn’t what attracted his attention.

It was the big ass monster sitting on a makeshift throne of stone. It looked like a larger and meaner version of these weird gray goblins. It even had several small horns protruding from its head. There was a massive sword strapped across its back, looking just as jagged and beat up as the smaller goblins’ swords.

While a few dozen didn’t seem like that many in the grand scheme of things. Especially when compared to how goblins you would typically come across in the wild. It was important to note that these goblins were much stronger than normal goblins.

Hell, he didn’t even know if these were goblins. He was calling them this because it was the easiest way to describe them. For all he knew, they were some unique species that he didn’t recognize. Regardless, these creatures were very strong for Tier 3 monsters. They were elites that would be comparable to any elite fighter at the same tier.

Additionally, if these small goblins were around the strength of the five-point and ten-point monsters from the first round, then he had a feeling that this big one was around the strength of the hundred-point monster.

He didn’t know how to relate that to Seraphyne’s power, though. It was hard to compare since Seraphyne had been a stealthy fighter. But if he had to take a wild guess, he would say that this big monster was around the same level of strength, which was saying a lot for a Tier 3 monster.

Seraphyne had been able to avoid his detection for a very long time, and without his powerful aura-enhanced barriers, he would not have been able to defeat her as easily as he did. Her offensive power was almost as scary as her stealth skills, and that wasn’t mentioning her defensive skills as a turtle.

“Okay, I might be reconsidering my decision to stay,” he heard Lyra whisper very quietly.

He stifled a chuckle. “Oh yeah?”

She nodded softly. “Yeah.”

“Is it the number of monsters? Or is it the big fellow?”

“Both.”

“Understandable,” he said with a sagely nod.

She nodded as well and immediately turned to head back in the direction they had come from. However, something must have happened, or perhaps the big fellow must have just noticed them, because he suddenly felt the entire weight of the big monster’s gaze land on them.

“It might be too late for that,” he said to her with a wince.

“Huh?”

“I think they spotted us,” he noted with a pinch of his lips.

“Shit,” she cursed under her breath.

“Yeah, shit,” he said agreeingly, but unlike her, he had a smile on his face. “Do you want to run?” He asked her.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“A strategic repositioning,” she corrected him.

“My bad. A strategic repositioning,” he confirmed with a nod. “You go on ahead. I’ll be there in a little bit,” he said to her as he observed the large group of monsters heading in his direction.

“You’re not coming?”