At The Center of The Dark Forest

Seeing the bear's eyes, Wynter had a strange feeling, and quickly raised his head. He saw a huge boulder falling from the sky, heading towards his own head.

He glanced contemptuously at the bear's changing face and uttered a spell. With the twinkling of his essence crystal, a steel needle more than two meters long appeared behind the bear, penetrating the back of the bear's neck, all the way to the bottom. It pierced its belly and nailed the bear to the spot.

The huge boulder that was falling towards Wynter, suddenly lost its momentum due to the death of the bear, and gradually fell apart before disappearing into the thin air.

It was the first time of Oscar seeing the soulsmith having a showdown with a silver-level beast, and couldn't help himself from watching it. 

It wasn't until Guyon joined the rest of the group that Oscar woke up from his reverie, took a step forward, and asked. "Master Guyon, are you alright?"

"Yes, young master Oscar." Guyon turned around and saw that the bear had been finally killed by Wynter. He exhaled a heavy breath, and replied. "I was completely caught off guard. I didn't expect to see such a powerful dreadbeast in this so-called outer area of the forest."

"It's my fault." Oscar quickly said apologetically, "I should have listened to my uncle and be more cautious."

To be on the safer side, Wynter believed they should head back to the village. He quickly ordered the clansmen to quickly clean up the battlefield and bring all the carcasses of the wolves and bear, back to the village.

After the collection of the bodies of the beasts by the hunters, one of them suddenly discovered the carcass of a bear cub under the huge boulder where the wolves were. It had already been torn apart by the wolves.

Guyon sighed and nodded slowly. "Hmm, that's why this high-level bear appeared in the outer forest. It was looking for its cub."

"You're right, master Guyon. If we had come a little bit later, we would have seen the bear and wolves fight."

"Yes, and what a sight it could have been."

Since the number of animals that lived on the periphery of this forest had recently been hunted down by human tribes, it made it difficult for the predators who also live on prey to hunt for enough food.

That was why a bear cub somehow appeared on the outskirts of the forest, and was immediately attacked by the hungry wolf pack.

"Oscar, you arrange twenty hunters to be responsible for safety at the front and the back, so that the rest of the hunters can carry the animal bodies."

"Okay, uncle. Just a minute." Oscar drew a short knife from his waist and slashed the cub's skull open, and saw a magical crystal gleaming with light green fluorescence suddenly rolling out.

Bears were born as tin-level beasts, so every bear would produce a magic crystal.

[Silver crystal] The voice of the Remnant sounded in his mind. [That's really good for you to keep]

Oscar gazed at the magic crystal under the blazing spirit star, and nodded his head. The quality was really good. So, he smiled broadly.

Essence crystals could be used in crafting magical items, but they would be different according to the attributes, levels, and rarity of the crystals.

Oscar put the crystal into the bag of holding around his waist, and shook his head.

Soon after the hunters left, a dark shadow suddenly appeared at the edge of the forest on the other side of the valley.

The shadow looked at the direction where the hunters had passed, and then glanced at the messy battlefield in the valley. 

It let out an angry snort, walked into the forest and disappeared among the trees.

***

At the centre of the dark forest was a big lake surrounded by dozens of peaks. The lake was quite wide and the water was crystal clear.

Looking down at the lake from the sky was like seeing a piece of emerald in the forest.

There was a dense woods around the big lake, and in the mountain basin covered by forests, one could occasionally find archaic artifacts left by ancient civilization.

The broken giant buildings everywhere, which had either collapsed or tilted to their sides, and were covered with vines and moss, silently telling the glory of the past.

And on the highest peak around the Great Lake, was a massive building still intact standing there. It formed a sharp contrast with the surrounding bare peaks. 

This giant building portrayed an archaic castle style, with a square main body surrounded by many cylindrical towers. The tops were separated, pointing towards the expanse of the sky.

The uniquely shaped castle, and the vast expanse of blue water at the foot of the mountain, looked quite magnificent from a distance.

Inside the hall of the castle, were four people, seated. Although they looked human, they were Athons who had attained the level of full transformation. 

At the center of the hall was a young but strongly built and tough-looking man. He was no ordinary Athon but the second-born of the black dragon. The ruling clan among the dreadbeasts.