Chapter 13: Following The Trail

Nothing!

Selina saw nothing besides even more drops of blood splattered across the branch. Confusion took over as her expression froze from the realization that someone or something was most probably located on the said branch when her group passed through the bushes.

Her frozen expression was noticed by the other members of the group, causing a man who had short black hair and looked to be in his mid-twenties and seemed to be the youngest male of the group to ask.

"What's wrong, captain?!"

"Nothing, but it seems we'll have to investigate this before leaving this forest. Just to make sure it has nothing to do with that brat." She followed up immediately after hearing the man's concerned voice.

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SWOOSH!!

Blade jumped from branch to branch through the forest at an incredible speed. Even though he was moving at incredible speeds, his pale skin and the circles under his eyes made it obvious that he wasn't close to his peak shape at all.

"Hah...hah...hah...hah..." Blade's ragged breathing further added to this fact. Yet, he didn't slow his movements since he knew that there was a chance that the group of five soldiers from that city may be able to locate him.

Once that happens, in his current state, death was inevitable!

And death was something that he would never stand for. He'll do anything to not die, so with great difficulty and willpower only present in the face of death, Blade hurriedly fled from his location by hopping from tree branch to tree branch.

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(Sometime Later)

At full pace, Blade was able to move at an insane pace. With this in mind, Blade was able to soon reach the pond containing multiple dead bodies of crocodile-like monsters. His eyes shined when such a sight entered his view.

*SPLASH*

Blade jumped into the water while simultaneously grabbing one of the bodies of the creatures. He then dragged it into the cave as he headed to the depths of the darkness. Blade, who had left his cave only to satiate his hunger, was left no choice but to eat what he had first said no to.

The worst part was the fact that he did not have the means to create a fire. Even if he did, it wasn't as if he even knew how to in the first place... Blade was destined to eat the monster raw, or else even if he had an incredible healing factor, he would starve to death.

[30 Experience Points]

Suddenly, while he was struggling to walk deeper into the cave, a screen popped up in his view. Yet, Blade cared little for such a sight, instead, he continued walking deeper into the darkness of the cave.

THUD!

Blade dropped to his knees as the fingers that gripped the creature loosened their grip causing the monster to also drop to the ground. Blade slowly rolled over so as to lay on his back.

His consciousness that was forcefully remaining awake finally disappeared as he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

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(A Few Hours Later)

One can see the figure of Blade washing his body in the pond that was contaminated with the blood of the alligator-like creatures. Even if it wasn't the cleanest of waters, it was still better than not washing at all.

Besides the fact he still had a few broken ribs and a caved-in chest, Blade was somewhat fully healed. He had ripped the leg of the creature and satiated his hunger with it. He cared little for the taste since he had gotten numb to such a thing after a while, even if eating uncooked muscle wasn't the best, it was better than starving to death.

After cleaning himself, Blade exited the other side of the pond and returned to the track that led deeper into the forest. He had a goal. His goal was to kill as many creatures as needed so he could gain an immense amount of experience points. As of now, experience points were seemingly the fastest way to increase his strength.

Since he was somewhat fully healed, he did not worry about the humans who were present in the forest. If he ran into them, he knew that he'll be able to hear them before they reach his location, from there, it'll be incredibly easy to sneakily kill them a couple at a time.

After the fight with the ape-like beast, Blade's strength had somehow increased even more, and this wasn't thanks to raising his cultivation. With this fact, Blade realized that there were more ways to increase strength than by just raising cultivation.

Some time passed while walking on the trail. Before long, he had reached the same place where he had previously battled a certain ape! After parting the bushes he was left in a slight stupor when realizing that there seemed to be something different about the place.

He knew that the humans were previously here and they had seemed to be looking for him, so when he realized that the oppressive aura of the ape was nowhere to be felt, Blade grew confused. He grew even more confused when realizing that the body of the ape wasn't present!

'Weren't they looking for me? Why would they then take the body of the ape? If they were hungry, wouldn't it be easier to simply cook the body of the ape here since this place would prevent any curious beast to come thanks to the ape's residue aura?' Blade thought.

Observing the surroundings, he realized that there was a trail of blood that went deeper into the forest. Blade brought his face to the ground, and even though he was unaware of how it was possible, he realized that this drop of blood had the same scent as the blood of the ape he had previously fought.

He didn't know how he could differentiate between the blood of this and that of the ape beast, but he didn't think too deeply of it and instead followed the trail since this may lead to the group of humans. It was a trail that stretched across the 10-meter plot of land. Blade was interested in the other side but the ape monster had prevented him from previously going.

Since there weren't any beasts preventing him this time, Blade leisurely walked toward the bushes and parted them revealing to his eyes what lay on the other side. What he saw though was something he least expected as surprisingly enough what lay on the other side was an indefinite land that was covered by a mist which made it impossible for one to see even a few meters in front of them.

"Hmm, this was never mentioned in the books I read in the library?!" Blade mumbled in surprise. The many books in Latin's library mentioned the forest that surrounded the city, hence the reason Blade even knew where to escape in the first place. It even recorded the levels of the beasts that were present in the forest along with some other unimportant stuff, but it didn't mention anything about a mist as thick as the one in front of Blade.

He was left even more confused when thinking of the reason why the humans would even think about entering this place in the first place. But, since his interest was peaked, he'll investigate a little longer and head a little deeper into the mist.

'Isn't this how stupid people die in those movies I used to watch... Even though it might be risky, I wouldn't too deep into the mist.' Blade said in his mind when thinking of how stupid entering an unknown rea by himself might just be.

*Crack*

But, the sound of a twig being snapped caused him great alarm as he jumped back in surprise. He knew that he didn't do such a thing as to step on a twig since he was being extremely careful, so this meant only one thing. It meant that there was someone else there with him...!

"Huh?!"

Blade's confused voice then loudly resounded in his surroundings as his eyes bulged in shock, anger, and confusion all at the same time... He was left shocked because in front of him was a humanoid figure that was merely a  few meters away from him.

The anger he felt was mainly because of the identity of the humanoid figure in front of him as he recognized the human as the one responsible for slicing his arm off. Lastly, he was left flabbergasted by the fact that even though she seemed to be somewhat similar to the last time they met, which is the reason Blade distinguished who she was in the first place, Blade was able to perceive that there was something very different from before...!

Grrrrr!!...

A low animalistic growl escaped Selina's lips as a substance that seemed to be saliva also escaped her mouth. Even though he cared little about the disgusting sight his eyes were seeing, Blade was confused by her weird actions.

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