Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 177 - 33 - Bizarre Creatures_1

Chapter 177: Chapter 33 - Bizarre Creatures_1

(263...084...458... Book discussion group for readers, feel free to join if you’re interested. PS: Friends passing by, please remember to collect and recommend, your support is my biggest motivation. Also, could everyone give more suggestions, thanks! PS2: The book’s title has been changed, please refer to the related works section for details.)

The group, consisting of ten people, was making rapid progress through the Misty Forest. Unlike before, they were no longer marching in a single file but were loosely dispersed. The scout, Elrad, led the group at a distance of five meters, in charge of reconnaissance and hazard detection. The most adept at jungle survival, Night Owl, patrolled the right flank while Pannis oversaw the left, each monitoring threats from their respective sides. Catherine, the strongest combatant, brought up the rear, guarding against attacks from behind. The remaining six members formed the bulk of the group, ensuring swift progress while being ready to provide support if any side came under attack.

Everyone moved cautiously. Once the formation was scattered, they could no longer follow in the footsteps of the person in front. There was a risk of stepping into a marshy pit trap hidden under dried leaves or disturbing various poisonous insects and magical beasts sleeping in the leaf litter. These arduous exploration conditions added to the stress of their urgent journey.

"Where do the magical beasts in the Misty Forest sleep?" Lina asked curiously. "Why haven’t we encountered a single one? Such a bore."

"Have you seen magical beasts sleeping on the streets?" Pannis rolled his eyes. "Of course they choose hidden places to nest. You wouldn’t see them unless you came close."

"How does such dense fog appear?" Lina picked up a fallen leaf, brushing her fingers over the moisture on it. "By this time in the afternoon, it is the least likely time for fog to form, but here, fog has been rising since then."

"I’m not sure, but I heard someone had researched it," replied Pannis. "Ask Vivian, she might know."

"I don’t know either." Vivian had not been absorbed in her thoughts throughout the journey, thanks to Catherine’s strict prohibition. She would occasionally get distracted but could quickly regain focus. Hearing Pannis’s comment, she replied, "A couple of scholars researched the origin of the Death Fog Sea a few years ago, which sparked a big debate in the natural sciences academia. However, they ultimately failed to reach a conclusion."

"No conclusion?" Lina was taken aback. "Because the topic was too difficult?"

"No, it’s because both of them died during the research process." Vivian spoke offhandedly, as if the deaths of researchers were a regular occurrence. "In the Shining Forest, though I’m not sure which part of the Death Fog Sea exactly. Of the two adventurer teams they hired plus themselves, only three people survived. I knew those two quite well. We had a few academic exchanges. Even though they were only Silver Rank mages, they had great academic potential. There were so many unknowns for them to explore and discover. It’s such a pity they died here."

"Hey, Illusion Fox, are all mages like you?" asked the mole, who had been eavesdropping nearby. "When someone they know dies in an accident, they just regret that there won’t be more discoveries?"

"Shut up; don’t speak if you don’t understand." The mature Illusion Fox glanced at Vivian with respect, noticed her lack of any dissatisfaction, and replied in a whisper, "For mages, knowledge is the most sacred thing in the world. Falling in pursuit of knowledge is something all mages respect. The only regret is the inability to pursue more knowledge. Only a mage who embraces this ideology is a truly competent mage."

"I can’t understand that." The mole shook his head in confusion.

"Stop." Elrad, who had been leading the way, suddenly raised his right hand, signalling the agreed-upon gesture for halt. The entire group stopped on the spot without any disorder; each of them entered a state of alert. Elrad stretched his neck, looking at something. In front of him were just two distant trees with a wide, clear space in-between. Pannis carefully moved towards Elrad, centering his focus in the same direction. The others, knowing they didn’t have the same level of experience, chose to remain alert in place, avoiding unnecessary excitement.

After looking for a while, Pannis frowned, made a waiting gesture to Elrad, hurried over to Vivian, and whispered something. Looking puzzled, Vivian took out a small box from her pocket, poured out a tiny amount of blue herb powder, bundled it in a piece of paper, and handed it to Pannis. After returning to his position, he signaled Elrad to back off. He cautiously opened the packet, took a deep breath, and strongly blew the blue powder forward. The powder transformed into a cloud of blue smoke. Suddenly, some thin blue lines of varying heights appeared between the two trees. Pannis grimaced, then reluctantly told Elrad, "There’s no choice; we have to go around."

"We have to go around then," sighed Elrad. "At least we’re making good time. We still have a buffer."

"What did you find?" All of them, except Night Owl, who had the responsibility of remaining vigilant, gathered behind Pannis and saw the visible changes. Unable to contain her curiosity, Lina asked, "What is this?"

"Look carefully," Pannis pointed towards the depth of the jungle. "Pay attention to the area about eight meters above the ground."

It was daytime now, the darker period within the forest. The visibility was severely affected, and the area Pannis pointed to was about thirty to forty meters away from everyone’s position. No matter how carefully everyone looked, it was difficult to see clearly what was far away. Only Dora and Catherine, who had the best vision, could vaguely see some anomalies.

"I saw...clumps of whitish things floating in the air," Catherine described hesitantly: "Round bunches, they might be hanging on trees. What is that? Ah, I understand." Catherine remembered the blue thread that had been revealed and had a sudden realization, "Is that a spider?"

"Fog spiders, dangerous predators." Elrad did not turn his head, but moved sideways, checking each tree until he had moved about thirty meters laterally, then started moving forward again in an arc.

"Let’s go. Keep up with him, walk on his outer side." Pannis waved to the others and spoke.

"What exactly is a fog spider?" Everyone was full of curiosity, but it was Lina who asked the question first, "I couldn’t find it in the Magical Beast Handbook."

"It’s a variant of the forest spider, and this is also the first time I’ve seen it," Pannis replied, "Because they live in the fog all year round, they are all white, and their eyes have completely degenerated. They rely entirely on sensing the vibration of their spider silk and the ground, and the movement of the air to hunt, they move extremely quickly and are highly poisonous. These spiders do not have a fixed nest and can appear anywhere in the Death Fog Sea, they are nomadic magical beasts. When they sleep, they behave as they do now, surrounding a circular territory with transparent spider silk. When the silk is broken by an animal, they will wake up, thinking that the intruder has invaded their territory and will attack."

"Isn’t that hard to prevent? If you hadn’t colored this spider silk with blue lotus powder, we wouldn’t be able to see it at all." Vivian said with wide eyes, "What if we encounter it again later?"

"Don’t worry, we absolutely won’t encounter that," Pannis assured, "There is only one group of fog spiders in each Death Fog Sea, led by the Spider Queen. They sense each other, and all newly born fog spiders will instinctively merge with the group, so there will never be a situation where two groups of fog spiders exist in one area."

"That’s a relief, it looks like there are at least forty or fifty spiders in that group, each one over a meter wide, I really don’t want to fight a group of those things." Vivian looked back at the spider habitat that had been knocked over, and then joked, "Lina, weren’t you just regretting not seeing any magical beasts? Now that you’ve seen them, aren’t you going to have a dance party to celebrate?"

"Thump." Lina lightly hit Vivian on the head with her Magical Beast Handbook, "Then you’ll be the appetizer for the party."

"Quiet, look to your left," Pannis pointed to his left, "See those trees?"

"Yes, they’re so ugly," Lina made a disgusted face, quickly rubbing her hands all over her body, "Why are there so many little holes in it, has it been eaten by bugs? Ah, you’re too much, having me look at this is so disgusting."

"It’s not bugs," Pannis said seriously, "If you see a tree like this in the forest, never stand for a long time in the direction where these holes are."

"Is this also a magical beast?" Although Lina found it disgusting, she couldn’t help but take another look, immediately regretting it and wanting to gouge out her own eyes. She felt a tingling sensation all over her skin and there was nothing she could do about it: "I really can’t bear to look at it again."

Pannis shrugged and saw that although Vivian was also full of disgust, she had seemingly inadvertently paused, standing between Lina and the tree full of holes, revealing a slight smile. He whispered: "This is the Arrow Worm, Silver Rank insect-type magical beast. It only grows to about thirty centimeters, usually coiled up in these small holes. As soon as they sense airflow from the entrance of the holes, representing that a creature is passing by, all the Arrow Worms will eject from their nest. Their heads are very hard, shaped like arrowheads. The speed of ejection is extremely fast, roughly equivalent to the normal attack of a Middle Silver Rank archer. Think about the amount of these holes, if such a rain of arrows comes flying close range without warning, could you open your shield in time? And even if you open it, could it withstand it?"

Hearing about the number of holes, Lina once again thought of the dense array, and the more she wanted to forget something, the clearer it appeared in front of her eyes. Unable to stand it, she angrily punched Pannis, causing him to laugh bitterly. In the midst of his bitter laughter, Pannis suddenly raised his voice, "Catherine, forward roll, Dora, side jump, now."

Hearing Pannis’s shout, Catherine did not hesitate at all, performed several forward rolls on the ground, and stood up leaning on a dried leaf, with the sword and shield already in her hand. However, Dora, not having their tacit understanding, paused after hearing the shout before jumping according to his words. As she jumped up, a shadow brushed against her thigh and smashed into the ground. If she had hesitated for another second, she would have been hit directly in the face by the shadow.

(Writing this Chapter really wore me out, I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. You are just reading it, but my mind is constantly alive with the image of that thing, I really do have a phobia, I really regret writing this.)