When Clovis was finished with the wooden structure construction, he presented his work. Gisle smiled, and Wain nodded satisfactorily.
"How big of a structure can you build?" Wain inquired.
"About two or three times as big as this one. I lack the skill and experience to build more massive structures." Clovis replied.
"Not bad." Said Wain and turned to Gisle, "We're lucky to have someone like Clovis among the students. Soon many buildings will be destroyed or useless. Then people will have to create new ones."
"I agree, but we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. It will happen in a few months at best. Right now, we're going to use Clovis' abilities to create barricades and walls, as well as to clear the area."
"What's the plan? Do you know anything about this terrain?" Asked Wain.
"We plan to move forward and gradually take over the forest area. Of course, we won't be able to take over everything, and there's no need for that. Then we will kill the monsters that will be close to our territory. After that, we'll take over other places in the city." Gisle replied.
"I see, Gisle, you don't plan to cross the canyons that divided Overion into four parts?"
Gisle hesitated. He had no plans to extend his influence to other parts of Overion. First, he had to control the eastern part completely. Besides them, many people were left in the east part of the city, and some of them had unique abilities.
"Not yet." Gisle shook his head and said, "After this forest, we will take over the coast and then the western part of this region. There's nothing of interest in the north except the park. According to Teresa's stories, most people there have been killed. I'm not wrong, am I?"
Teresa nodded, "That's right if there are other people left in the eastern part of Overion, they're all in the west or trying to take over the coast."
"I see," Wain replied briefly. He had no intention of joining Gisle's group on any further travels. But, he decided to stay and clear the forest with them.
At this point, the most crucial goal for Wain was to get souls and plenty of Soul Essence.
"Which way do we go?" Wain asked.
Gisle pointed the way with his head and said, "Straight ahead."
After a minute, everyone was ready to go, and, led by Gisle, they headed deep into the woods.
"What animals lived here before the apocalypse?" Agnes asked. She, like Wain, knew rather little about this place. She needed more information.
"Nothing unusual, various birds, rodents and raptors, as well as a fairly large number of insects. I think it's the insects that are going to be our main adversaries." Said Gisle.
"It will be problematic if we encounter a poisonous spider or something like that," Teresa said with a frown. She understood that at this point, they were defenseless against the venom.
"You don't have to worry about that. Rita will have no problem curing us of most poisons." Gisle said confidently.
Everyone looked at Rita at the exact moment. She was embarrassed and said embarrassedly, "When we were clearing the main base of monsters, I got a skill book and one beneficial skill... I can't heal your wounds, but I can dispel poison."
Wain looked around and looked at the dozen people walking behind them. They had all awakened their Soul Altar and were ready to follow Gisle and fight with him.
'It's too crowded in here. I wish some monster would show up soon,' thought Wain.
Nevertheless, ten minutes into the journey, nothing happened. They had already entered the woods quite deep, and Gisle decided to stop here.
"All right, Clovis, you must clear this area and create barricades. This will be one of our main points in this forest. The rest of us have to defend it and help." Gisle gave the commands.
Clovis nodded and headed for the nearest tree, but suddenly everyone felt the ground shake. It wasn't an earthquake. This shaking was artificially created.
Wain smiled. After a while, they finally met their opponent, and it looked like a pretty strong one.
Then everyone saw the ground in front of Clovis split apart.
"Clovis, get out of there!" Gisle said loudly, and the guy instantly ran backward.
Moments later, a massive creature crawled out of the ground, resembling a golem, but significantly different. The monster was over seven meters tall, its entire body was covered in thick moss, and it had two long horns on its head.
This monster looked powerful, but Gisle and his team were not going to back down.
"Kill it! Lea, Clovis, stand aside, the rest of you to fight!" Gisle shouted and, armed with a katana, attacked the earthen golem.
Some people were afraid of this monster, but when they saw Gisle running toward him, they decided to support him and attacked the earthen golem in the same way.
'Hmm, I didn't pay much attention to it before, but there are so many people here. A little over twenty people here have already activated their Soul Altar if I'm not mistaken. This monster is huge, but it can't do anything against that many people.' Wain thought.
He did not take part in this battle. He preferred to keep an eye on Clovis and Lea. At the moment, these two were the most important people in the entire university, except Gisle.
Gisle couldn't leave Lea at the university, as it was much more dangerous there than in the woods at the moment. Only a few people left at the university who had awakened their Soul Altars.
Being surrounded by strong people was much better for Lea, even if there were monsters around.
The earth golem crawled out from under the ground as Clovis invaded his territory. The monster didn't expect to be attacked by several people at once, but that didn't mean it couldn't respond.
The monster thrust its stone hand deep into the ground, and the next moment everyone could feel the surface shaking again. Then many roots emerged from beneath the ground, which like sharp bayonets, instantly pierced the three humans.
This attack was too quick and unexpected for them to react in time. The roots pierced their hearts, so they could not survive. They slowly died surrounded by their comrades.
"No!" Shouted one man and began furiously attacking the roots, but there was hardly any damage to them.
Suddenly, one of the roots split in two and pierced the man. The four men's blood dripped onto the ground, and their life slowly left them. Just a minute ago, they were alive and unaware of anything.
This scene struck fear into the hearts of the other men. They thought that since there were so many of them, they would have no problem dealing with any monster. Someone was about to start running, but suddenly a wind blade flew toward the earth golem.
This blade was powerful enough to chop off one arm of the earth golem. It fell to the ground with a rumble and shattered into large pieces.
"Don't you dare retreat! We must kill it right here and now, or those roots will sink into your backs, and you will be nothing more than pieces of meat for this monster!" Gisle said loudly.
He also didn't expect the monster to be so strong, and they would lose several men at once. Gisle decided to use one of his abilities to inflict a severe wound on the golem at once and show that this monster could be defeated.
The group members then came to their senses and attacked again, but Teresa and Agnes defined them. They attacked the earth golem from two sides. The monster thrust its second hand into the ground, and many roots emerged from beneath it.
The roots were directed toward Agnes, as her attacks were mighty and problematic for the earth golem.
Agnes tried to dodge, but the roots gradually approached her, but Grut appeared in front of Agnes at the last moment. He put his shield forward, and the roots couldn't do anything to him. Moreover, they couldn't even penetrate his body, let alone his shield.
'I knew it before, but Grut has a powerful soul. It's not normal that such a strong monster can't even penetrate his skin. Those roots were able to be seriously wounded, even me. However, defense is Grut's only outstanding parameter.' Thought Wain.
When the earth golem killed three people, Wain wanted to intervene, for this monster could hurt Clovis and Lea. Wain could not let that happen. But when Teresa, Gisle, Grut, and Agnes attacked the monster, he decided that their strength was enough.
The earth golem tried to counterattack somehow, but it failed. Teresa pierced him with her rapier making sharp lunges. Agnes furiously attacked him with powerful blows to one spot.
Gisle cut the monster's flesh apart, not giving it a chance to wound him. Grut could not damage the golem, but he could protect his allies, which was very important during such a battle.
The situation for the golem was getting worse by the second. The monster decided to take its last chance to win this battle.
Suddenly its branches swelled, and the people they pierced began to shrivel up like mummies. The earth golem took its life force for itself and gradually grew stronger.
However, this did not last long as a plasma sword abruptly appeared in the sky and shattered those roots.
Earthbound looked fiercely at the smirking Wain. Then Agnes appeared before him, shattering the golem's head into small pieces with one mighty fist.
'This monster didn't even have a chance to win, yet it still managed to kill four people. This world has truly become a cruel place..' Thought Wain as he watched the blue soul fly into Agnes' body.