Chapter 653 Immune to Shock

Deep within the forest.

Towering trees of the same species were everywhere.

These trees are not redwoods, but they stood over a hundred meters tall and have diameters of up to ten meters.

The dense canopies of these giant trees intertwined, blocking out even a sliver of sunlight.

If viewed from a distant mountain, the expanse of the forest's canopy would give the illusion of a flat, walkable surface.

As a result, the interior of the forest remained perpetually shrouded in darkness, with a chilling cold permeating the air. The ground, which is littered with fallen leaves and branches, is damp and foul-smelling.

Walking through such a dark and eerie environment, it felt as if something lurked in every darkness, waiting to stir.

Even the ever-present air...

seemed to exert a subtle pressure on everyone.

Whether the path ahead was right or wrong remained unknown.

But traversing this forest was clearly no easy task.

Every member of the team was on high alert, constantly vigilant for any movement in their surroundings.

After all, this was still part of the Dark Continent. Even in an inconspicuous corner, something utterly bizarre and unreasonable could emerge.

In comparison, the colossal creatures Netero had described seemed easier to deal with.

After all, those existences are visible to the naked eye...

Unlike the black shadow insects they had encountered earlier. Although they are fragile enough to be taken down with a single Nen Bullet, they were nearly impossible to detect and possessed strange attack capabilities.

Moses even suspected that those black shadow insects had the ability to kill the colossal creatures.

An ant killing an elephant.

Such a thing sounded absurd just thinking about it.

But in a place like the Dark Continent, it didn't seem strange at all.

The team moved through the damp, cold forest, maintaining their previous formation, with 3D Hisoka taking on the role of clearing the path, scouting ahead and eliminating potential threats.

However, due to the forest's terrain and the various threats they might encounter along the way, the team's progress was slow.

Compared to their initial speed crossing the white land and black hills, it is a world of difference.

'At this rate, who knows how long it will take to get through this forest.'

Moses was paying close attention to the visual images transmitted back from 3D Hisoka in real time, his brows were furrowed, with a trace of worry floating in his mind.

The white land, the black hills, the giant grasslands...

Crossing those areas, covering thousands of kilometers in a day was nothing.

But in this forest, covering five hundred kilometers in a day would be an achievement.

Not to mention the visibility issues, they had already encountered many very aggressive creatures along the way.

Most of these creatures were dealt with by the team, while a few fled upon sensing Moses's All Extinct, retreating without a fight.

This was the primary reason for the team's slow progress.

If not for the fact that the creatures they encountered could mostly be classified as 'normal', their progress would have been even slower.

Moses thought that by traveling above the tree canopy, they might be able to avoid the various creatures in the forest and thus greatly increase their travel speed.

However, this plan was stillborn.

3D Hisoka, who was sent by him to the canopy, was torn to shreds by a swarm of arrow-like flying creatures before he could even steady himself.

Judging from the visual footage before 3D Hisoka's disintegration, the attackers were about the size of a cell phone, and their flying pattern was quite similar to that of a dragonfly. However, their heads have arrow-like sharp protrusions, and their numbers were vast.

They usually seem to live in the dense tree canopy, and will come out in droves at the slightest disturbance.

It was under such circumstances that 3D Hisoka was torn into pieces in an instant.

Logically speaking, the Aura wrapped around 3D Hisoka's body should have allowed him to hold out for a while.

But the reality was that the swarm of flying creatures destroyed 3D Hisoka in a single encounter.

When they attacked, it was as if they were driven by some programmed instinct. Despite their numbers, they coordinated flawlessly, attacking every part of 3D Hisoka's body in sequence.

It was this seamless group attack that allowed them to tear 3D Hisoka into countless pieces within a second or two.

At first, Moses thought they had simply been unlucky and had stumbled into the territory of these flying creatures, so he tried again in a different location.

As a result, 3D Hisoka still encountered the same dragonfly-like flying creatures.

After several more attempts in different locations, the outcome remained unchanged.

No matter where he tried to ascend to the canopy, he will be swiftly attacked by these flying creatures.

This result forced Moses to abandon the idea of traveling above the canopy and he could only walk through the forest honestly.

After all, compared to the ant-like swarms of flying creatures, the other creatures in the forest were easier to handle.

In this way, Moses's team pressed forward cautiously, ensuring their safety as they explored.

Along the way, they inevitably had to kill any creatures that attacked them.

Fortunately, during this period of time, they have not encountered any creatures as troublesome as the black shadow insects.

Sometimes, they even encountered creatures that showed signs of goodwill.

These creatures are not very aggressive and do not have the kind of hostility that comes from being surrounded by the smell of blood.

Perhaps because of this, Moses's [Affinity +2] attribute attracted the goodwill of these creatures.

It is a pity that these creatures lacked the potential for communication.

Otherwise, they could have had Pyon build a bridge of communication, thereby gathering information to speed up their progress and reduce threats.

In the end-

It took the team twenty days to finally get out of the forest.

The entire journey was fraught with tension but ultimately uneventful.

However, Shizuku contracted an unknown virus, suffering a high fever for a full day and night, nearly losing her life.

Fortunately, Sanbica was there and she was able to snatch Shizuku back from the brink of death at the last moment.

According to Sanbica's judgment, the source of the virus that infected Shizuku likely originated from the creatures attracted by Moses's affinity.

So after this incident, the team no longer rashly approached these creatures that came with good intentions, and drive disperse them as soon as possible every time.

After emerging from the forest, which could be called a paradise for Botanical Hunters, the scenery ahead shifted dramatically.

An uneven expanse of white rocky terrain stretched out from beneath their feet, sloping upward into a vast area filled with hollowed-out giant rock formations of various shapes. From a distance, it looked like an enormous coral reef that had somehow appeared on land.

And at the boundary between the end of the slope and the coral-like rock formations lay a light brown, root-like object over three meters in diameter, stretching across the ground.

Its length was impossible to gauge at a glance, as if it were a boundary line drawn by the Creator himself...

"It looks like a tree root..."

Moses glanced to both sides.

Then, following the usual routine, he sent a shadow clone high into the air to survey the area. From above, it was clear that this root-like, light-brown object indeed stretched across the land like a boundary line, separating the slope from the coral-like rock formations.

The group examined the root-like object lying across the slope.

Even after hearing Moses say that the object was so long it seemed endless, they didn't react much.

It has been more than two months since they came to the Dark Continent, and they had already encountered too many unimaginable things.

Now, faced with just an astonishingly long root-like object, there was no need to make a fuss.