Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 579 - 46 Unseen Creatures_1

Chapter 579: Chapter 46 Unseen Creatures_1

"In this Earth’s Scar, there are three crevices that lead to the lower level." The six of them hustled through the forest, with Ike and Catherine at the front. The three Caster Professionals walked second in line. Lina and Freya were protecting Vivian in the middle, one on the left and one on the right, respectively. Pannis was dawdling at the back of the group, sometimes taking a few rounds to the left, sometimes to the right, plucking a few bright red berries from a bush every so often. He would first hold the fruit to his nose for a sniff, then scratch a bit of the skin off to smell his fingernail, and finally dab a bit of the oozing juice onto his tongue for a taste test before he felt safe enough to pop the whole thing in his mouth. However, in most cases, he would immediately frown and spit it out. These wild berries were simply too bitter to eat. The three caster girls couldn’t help but giggle in a low hush at the sight of Pannis. Finally, unable to bear it, Freya turned her head and said, "Pannis, we just had a chat and agreed unanimously. Some creatures sniff unfamiliar things before eating, you are much more advanced than them."

"You mean our neighbor’s black dog, don’t you?" Pannis pouted and tossed over a few berries the size of fists, "Try these. Although I don’t know what they are, and they aren’t common outside either, they taste pretty good, sour and sweet. I haven’t seen many of these fruits along the way, probably the herbivorous magical beasts ate most of them. Catherine, you should try them too. You love sweets the most here."

"The lot of you, behave yourselves." Catherine accepted the tossed fruit and glared sideways at the teasing guys, "Mr. Ike is briefing, can you concentrate? It’s very impolite, um, actually quite delicious. No, besides being rude, you are being irresponsible with your safety. Stay close and listen carefully."

"Yes." The group instantly wore serious expressions, staying closely behind the two and pretending to listen attentively. Ike chuckled, "For the first time, I see teammates who can maintain such a relaxed attitude in this kind of environment. It’s good to be relaxed, being too tense could affect reaction time and judgement when needed, which can be fatal. Okay, let me continue. There are three crevices that lead to the lower level. They are..."

"Crevice No.1, Crevice No.2, and Crevice No.3?" Pannis had barely finished his sentence when eight angry glances were sent his way. He lowered his head, saying, "Okay, okay, I got it. I’ll shut up now."

"In the three crevices, two are large enough for various large magical beasts to pass, with excellent road conditions." Ike ignored Pannis’s interruption and continued, "And the other one is rather small and narrow. Though we humans wouldn’t have any difficulty traveling through it, the terrain inside is challenging, with many ups and downs. The advantage of choosing this path is its safety. It directly leads to the second level underground and is relatively close to the road leading to the third level. But even so, the two larger paths prove to be quicker if nothing unexpected happens, considering their smoother and better roads. Which path to take is ultimately your decision."

"I think we should take the small path." Catherine contemplated for a few seconds, then asked the others, "Taking the small path might be a bit more strenuous, but if we don’t encounter those large magical beasts we can avoid many problems. After all, when dealing with Legendary magical beasts, it’s easier to handle the small ones than the large ones. Plus, in places like this, we should aim to travel as little as possible. The more we move around, the higher the chances of running into trouble."

"Small ones don’t necessarily mean they’re easier to deal with than large ones." Pannis shook his head and said, "But I do approve of taking the small path. Your second point is spot on. In dangerous environments, we should aim for the path that allows for the least exposure to unfamiliar spaces."

The other three girls didn’t say anything but nodded in agreement, implying that they would follow Catherine’s decision. After some further consideration, Catherine finally said, "Alright, Mr. Ike, let’s choose the small path in hopes that we won’t run into any magical beasts on our journey and safely reach our destination."

"Actually, it wouldn’t be a problem even if we did encounter them." Ike chuckled, shaking his head, "Those are magical beasts, not magical creatures. They won’t aggressively attack living beings. All they’re doing is protecting their territory and hunting for food. With our body sizes, even if we intrude into their territories, we’re unlikely to provoke them since we don’t seem competitive. As long as we don’t run into any starving predators, we can avoid fighting."

"I think you’d make a fine Diviner." Pannis’s nostrils twitched, and he grimaced, "Get ready for battle. Who knows, we might just be unlucky enough to run into some starving predator. Let’s just hope it isn’t a powerful magical beast this time, and it’ll be really unfortunate if a Demigod magical beast shows up."

"Thump, thump, thump." After a while, the ground started shaking again, rumbling footsteps sounding from afar. Along with it came the noise of collisions and snapping tree trunks. Pannis laughed bitterly, "It seems that we’ve got another big guy coming, and judging by its running speed, it’s completely different from the giant beast we saw just now. This one’s really fast."

"Ding." Catherine had already taken out her shield and dug the pointy end into the soft soil, "Since it’s charging at us, it probably has our scent locked down. There’s no way out now. We’ll have to take it down head-on to make sure it never marks us as its target again. Pannis, can you gauge the enemy’s power level now?"

"We need to get closer." Pannis shook his head, "We are too far away right now, I can’t sense its energy."

"Everyone, prepare for battle," Catherine’s hoarse voice shouted, "Let’s get rid of it as soon as possible, we still have to continue our journey."

As the rampaging predator approached, it was met with six fully armed creatures, poised and ready for its arrival. Both sides found themselves in a predicament. The predator was frustrated, the six prey before it were too small, it could swallow two in a single gulp, but the energy expended in its run wouldn’t justify the effort. The question to eat or not, brought on an inherent dilemma. Moreover, it could faintly sense a dangerous aura from these individuals, its instinct warning it to tread carefully.

The six members of the adventurer squad also found themselves in a bind. The beast before them was not just a legendary magical beast, but a type of large scaled beast they’ve never encountered before. The creature had a length of about thirteen to fourteen meters when stretched out, stood six to eight meters tall, possessed a large elliptical skull, its mouth jutted forward taking up half of its head. Its body was covered in powerful muscles, sharp teeth that could easily tear prey apart, strong jaw muscles allowing it to hold on to its prey, a thick short neck that allows it to rip off the bitten part from its prey. Its bulky legs support its massive body enabling quick sprints, even its not so lengthy tail, could inflict fatal injury to smaller prey. But its front limbs were significantly shorter, hanging down its chest, their purpose unclear. It was apparent this creature boasted considerable physical strength, and due to its colossal stature, magic wouldn’t be as effective, making it quite troublesome to deal with.

After some hesitation, the predator opened its massive mouth and let out a deafening roar at the six individuals. However, it was taken aback when the fully armored one, after taking a deep breath, responded with an even louder roar. The deafening roar startled the predator, forcing it to eerily step backward, looking at its supposed prey with muddled, yellow eyes. After sizing them up once again, it started to cautiously circle around the group, a sign of caution against unfamiliar enemies. In such a stance, they would not give up easily and always looked for a moment of weakness to exploit in the enemies.

After a few seconds, the predator let out a low growl, swiftly chargs forward with its huge mouth wide open, breathing out putrid breath as it lunged at, Catherine, the one who had dared to challenge its roar. Catherine stood her ground and, at the last moment, triggered an Aggression Burst, she swung her Magicsteel Falcon Shield at the predator’s approaching face.

The potency of a strike from a Gold Rank knight after an Aggression Burst was immense. Despite the predator’s large and hard-skinned muscular structure, it couldn’t endure such a blow, whimpering and stumbling to the side with its face badly bruised from the powerful strike. Its eyes now filled with fury, it let out a cry of rage and charged towards the group, not caring about food anymore, readied to trample them into oblivion.

Catherine firmly held anew her shield and sword, seemingly in tune with the creature’s intent. Her unwavering focus remained on the predator, standing her ground against a pregnant armored bull wasn’t much of a concern, so why would she fear a predator of the equivalent level? The young knight-girl heavily struck her shield with her one-handed sword, issuing another battle cry.

Suddenly, the predator, ready to attack, froze and stood upright, glancing off into the distance. Without giving its prey another glance, it quickly turned tail, running into the depths of the jungle, as if fleeing, without even looking back.

"What’s going on?" Catherine felt as though she had thrown a punch into the open air, confusedly she pondered, "Could it be that a bigger predator is coming, and that’s why it ran off?"

"In a sense, you’re not wrong." Pannis raised an eyebrow, "I think we should also get going, we shouldn’t stay here any longer, or we may encounter a lot of trouble."

"What is it?" Catherine asked while putting away her weapons, "Did you hear something?"

"Shush," Pannis whispered, "Listen carefully, to the sound in the distance." (To be continued. If you like this novel, please visit qidian.com to cast your vote. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)