I stared at the mist covering the forest floor in the dark of night for quite some time, I was going into the forest without a doubt, but the question was if Irene and Micah would come.

  Hm…maybe I should’ve just brought Nate here like he was intending to do in the first place.

  Well, can’t change the past. I’ll just ask them what they want to do.

  “Lirian, Micah and Irene. Do any of you want to leave? This forest seems a bit dangerous.”

  Lirian was the first to respond.

  “I will follow the Patriarch.”

  As expected, he wouldn’t back out, plus he’s stronger than me anyway. Though Irene and Micah were a bit different. They weren’t necessarily weak, but I hadn’t been told anything about the beasts in these forests being only a certain level.

  It wouldn’t be truly unexpected to run into something that was at the peak of Qi Refinement for example, maybe even more than that and pay the price for it. But that didn’t mean we would just turtle up behind the walls of the City. Risks had to be taken to grow in this world, risks that Irene and Micah seemed primed to take.

  Micah rested his hand on his sword before finally answering.

  “I’m coming. This is what I signed up to do and I’m committed. I would never make it, if I always ran away at the first sigh of danger, plus Lance would never let me hear the end of it.”

  Irene followed him up, only her bow was drawn and an arrow knocked.

  “I’ll be coming as well. I wanted adventure, this is it. Let’s do it.”

  “Understood. Then just to be safe Irene and Micah travel behind me, and Lirian you will travel behind them. Stay close and be careful where you step.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Got it.”

  “Understood Patriarch.”

  Everyone quickly responded, but the ‘Yes Sir’ from Micah was interesting. I guess he’s trying to fully commit to his role as a member of the City Guard huh. Well, I won’t be stopping him.

  Moving on, we entered the forest slowly. Carefully placing each step we took and doing our best to make sure we didn’t accidentally step somewhere we shouldn’t.

  I did my best to both see and hear the forest around me, as we continued to move forward. I heard nothing.

  Just the slight the wind that passed through the forest, the rustling of the few leaves scattered on the trees, the …wait. A few leaves scattered on the trees. Why didn’t I notice this initially? The trees…they were dying.

  It was then Lirian’s voice sounded from the rear. We all paused as he spoke.

  “Patriarch…something is coming.”

  “Can you tell what?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “No, but I feel the approaching Qi. It is coming from the left side.”

  “Understood, Micha, Irene, you heard him. Prepare to engage but don’t attack first.”

  “Yes Sir!”

  “Got it!”

  Irene raised her bow, and Micah drew his sword.

  I too readied my spear and strained my senses as much as possible to try feel the Qi as Lirian did. It makes sense he can noticed things far earlier than me but to actually experience the gap in skills is different as always. Maybe I should start sparring with them.

  Ah.

  I finally feel something.

  “It’s close.”

  I warned them. Of course, the warning was only for Irene and Micah as Lirian had better senses than I did.

  A moment later and the approaching threat was in sight.

  It looked like…a tree branch.

  Like a massive yet withered tree branch. It had two feet, and two arms that branched off the main tree branch body, and it had a face. Only its eyes were hollow. Actually, maybe hollow isn’t the right word. They were empty sockets that led to a void of darkness.

  It was the same for its mouth. Which appeared to be a thin line at first glance, but it opened up to be a mess of sharp splintered edges that I guess worked as its teeth, but the darkness was present there as well.

  It released a loud cackle as it ran towards us. A ravenous look placed on its face.

  “What the hell is that…Should we run?”

  It was Irene who asked that question, Micah didn’t leave her waiting for a reply though.

  “It’s a monster, a damn tree monster!”

  I understand why they would be a little spooked by it, but what happened to their vigor from before? Anyway, we won’t run…but those two can’t fight it. There’s a reason Lirian said he could sense it’s Qi as it approached. There’s a good chance Qi is infused all throughout its body, which meant they likely couldn’t do any meaningful damage to it.

  “We won’t be running. Be on alert there might be more of them. Leave this one to me, but don’t hesitate to shoot anything else approaching. Micah protect Irene, Lirian protect them both.”

  After I received acknowledgment from all three of them, I gripped my spear tightly and very quickly it was covered in ethereal black flames. Black flames that still seemed to shine brightly in the dark of night while still melding in the surroundings. They were truly beautiful. And the combination of them coating the breathtaking spear was seemingly a match made in heaven.

  I didn’t miss the look in Lirian’s eyes as he took in the sight of my flames. This should be the first time he is seeing them I believe.

  His eyes were practically sparkling.

  Heh.

  Anyway, I focused my gaze on the approaching branch monster and took off towards it.

  It cackled even louder as I began running towards it and the noise seemed to echo eerily in the night.

  As it neared me, I planted my feet straightened my back and prepared to do the one thing I have been doing for the last week.

  A simple thrust.

  The flames that were coating the spear rushed to the tip as I pulled my arm back, and as the branch monster lunged at me, I brought my arm forward in one controlled yet powerful motion as I aimed at a single point on the body of the monster.

  Woosh

  My arm ripped through the air and before the monster realized the tip of spear had reached its chest, and with it an explosion of flames at the point of contact.

  The body of the monster resisted for the most fleeting of seconds before it bent in a U shape was thrown back towards the direction it came running from, it’s black slamming into the trunk of a tree.

  A second or two of silence passed before it stood back up.

  Its body is truly flooding with Qi.

  Of course, unlike the situation with the Hobgoblin in the Tutorial, I too had Qi, and so did my flames.

  An entire chunk of the monster’s body was missing, yet as it shakily stood, there were no signs of pain, stress or any discomfort at all for that matter.

  It began to limp its now severely unbalanced body towards me once more, cackling all the same.

  I see.

  Not only is it that only Qi Refinement and up can fight this creature, but they would also need to be ready for the fact it doesn’t react to pain and would continue fighting all the same. That would be especially bad if it was a group.

  The monster only limped for a few moments longer before falling down being reduced to ashes.

  It didn’t have the power to extinguish or brush aside my flames, and they slowly burned the rest of the creature away.

  I stared at the ashes of the creature for a moment, as they were swallowed by the mist before turning back to my companions.

  Though before anyone got to speak, we all heard the same thing.

  Loud eerie cackling sounded throughout the forest.

  There were multiple voices coming from every direction.

  Hm.

  Probably not good.