CHAPTER 26 THE FOREST

ROAR! The loud cry of the monster spreads far and wide, and the three that were escaping heard the roar.

Both Diamond and Aranold freeze.

Leon is still fine, as his system defence makes him somewhat immune to this type of attack.

[Torment Roar]

ROAR!

He snaps them out with a roar of his own, the two quickly recover, Diamond's body shines brightly, she grabs the two boys and flies at incredible speed.

[Your pet, Cleo's Clone, has died.]

"Sh*t!" Leon's expression becomes ugly, he is in shock that his Trump card was easily destroyed, it did not even last ten seconds.

Fortunately, it seems that the monster is quite territorial, it does not chase after them after reaching a certain distance.

The three of them crash into the wall of the valley, all of their expressions are pale, they had barely escaped death, they were still in shock over what had happened.

"What was that!?" Asks Diamond in a state of shock.

Leon shakes his head and answers. "I do not know, there are some legends regarding the existence of such a forest, but there was no information regarding that monster."

Aranold smiles bitterly.

"I do not think that anyone other than our seniors is capable of escaping from those monster clutches, it comes as no surprise that there is no information regarding it, after all, it just appeared out of nowhere without any warning at all."

It is capable of hiding its aura, making it more terrifying.

Diamond looks at Leon and says. "Without Cleo warning us, none of us would have managed to escape, you are truly a reliable ally to travel with."

The latter smiles bitterly, knowing that it was mostly because of his powerful intuition, honed by both him and the system, that he managed to discover something wrong.

"You need to rest, Aranold, you stay here, protect Diamond with your life, the two of us are in this together, we only asked for her help, we need to assure her safety in order to at least repay her assistance." He solemnly orders.

Aranold slaps his chest, in fact, he wants to say that he would die first before the two of them, as the reason why they chose this location is because of his condition.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I need to scout the surrounding area, we must find a perfect base for us to stay inside this place, do not worry, I will not go far." Leon assures his friend.

He is still in his Malevolent Tiger form, he might be taxing his body, especially his muscles, but he does not care, he can still manage his condition as long as he does not engage in any battles.

After getting farther from the two, he heaves a sigh of relief.

"System, show me the requirement for the resurrection of Cleo's clone."

[Due to Cleo's Clone's current status, it requires one hundred souls to resurrect, the host also needs a location that contains pure energy.]

"The academy is a place filled with pure condition, I only need to kill a hundred living beings in order to resurrect it. Since it saved our lives, it is only proper for me to give it a name."

"Considering that I had taken his identity, I should name it after my former name, and I should fully accept my current name."

"Leon, no, it should be Cleo. Now that I fully accept his name, he will no longer call himself by his former name." He mumbles to himself.

[You have named your pet, Cleo's clone is now named Leon.]

[Soul Blessing: Cleo's Clone]

Name: Leon

Type: Pet

Grade: Normal

Speciality: Immortality: As long as the host is alive, it can be summoned again after dying.

[Current Status: Dead]

Cleo sighs sadly as he reads his partner's current status.

He knows that he had practically ordered him to die, but it still makes him uncomfortable.

After it died, he feels that something within him hurts badly.

Maybe it is because they still share some parts of their soul.

"System, do the zombies that I killed contain any hint of soul power at all?" He asks.

He is not expecting anything from this, he just wants to clarify.

[Affirmative, The zombies have soul fragments, the weaker ones only contain one fragment, if converted to a full soul power, it only contains zero point one soul power.]

He is shocked, he cannot believe that this is true, but since it was stated by the system itself, this must be true, and he becomes excited.

As long as he can hunt one thousand weak zombies, he can summon Leon once again.

[Due to the nature of the soul fragments, the host needs to collect at least two to three hundred fragments in order to resurrect Leon.]

The excitement that he just had was doomed, but he will not give up.

As long as he grows stronger, he can hunt stronger zombies, and maybe he can obtain more fragments with this.

He continues with his scouting mission, and with his current form, he has basically transformed into a yin creature, making the hostile monsters present around him think that he is similar to them.

This is a great advantage, as most yin creatures desire to absorb the yang energy that the living have.

He returns to the location of the two, and it seems that a couple of weak zombies have sensed their blazing yang energy.

The two heaves a sigh of relief seeing him return safely.

Diamond can already fight, but she decided to conserve as much energy as she could, leaving all of the battle to Aranold.

"Have you found any good hiding places?" Aranold hurriedly asks.

The number of zombies that are appearing only increases as time passes.

Cleo nodded.

He found the perfect spot for the three of them to hide.

He then brought them to the location, and the two were taken aback by the place.

A graveyard is basically a place that contains such dense yin energy that the zombies burst into pieces of flesh, scattering all around.

It gave birth to horrendous piles of flesh that are constantly wriggling as if they were alive.

"What are these things?" Seeing the piles of flesh moving, even Diamond, who was trained in meditation, cannot help but feel nauseous.

"Ugh, I feel sick," Aranold complains as the smell of rotting flesh and some sort of strange fragrance assault his nose.

Cleo chuckles as he holds his nose in order to block the smell.

Aranold immediately realises that his friend has tricked him.

He glares at him, unfortunately, his look does nothing for his giggling friend.

"Hmm, I know that there is an important reason why you brought us all here other than making Aranold puke." Diamond asks.

"Yes, there is a rather smart pile of flesh deeper in this location, as long as we can finish it, we can obtain a perfect place to stay."

"As for the smell, you do not need to worry, as long as we deal with that giant pile of flesh, I can solve the problem regarding the disgusting smell." He confidently says.

"You are so sure that this place is safe. I think that there is something that is hidden in this place, it is definitely a terrifying object or entity if it keeps the other creatures at bay, even raising these abominations." Diamond hurriedly warns.

Cleo does not hide it from them.

"I sense a powerful entity, either as powerful or even greater than that monster from the forest, but it is in a state of hibernation, it seems that it has been hiding in this place for a very long time and has entered a rather unique state."

The two were at first shocked and horrified by his first words, but after listening to his explanation, they heaved a sigh of relief.

"Let us go then." Aranold bravely walks forward, and suddenly, their expression changes as they hurriedly leap backwards. Multiple arrows were shot at them.

Cleo went in front of Diamond, she is still recovering, and he needs to protect her.

Aranold, on the other hand, summoned his blessing, and his trusted spear appeared.

"Who the hell are you, and why had you trespassed in the territory of the dark elves!?"

Multiple humanoid figures appear, all of them have long pointy ears, but unlike Cleo's teacher, all of them have red tattoos and pitch black eyes, if not for the flashing red pupils, they might look like shadows standing upright.

"The cursed ones!" Screams both Aranold and Diamond, their expressions become ugly.

The dark elves are not a popular race, they are good at making curses, they engage in all forms of depravity, and they believe in a different deity compared to their other elven counterparts.

The reason for this is that they do not have a tree of life, according to their legend, they were born from the malice of their other elven counterparts, and they can only reproduce normally, unlike their other counterparts, who can rely on their own tree of life to multiply.

"Sandra?" Suddenly, Cleo asks after seeing one of them.

"Cleo?" Seeing him, the leader of the elves was stunned.

She raised her hand, causing the other elves to lower their weapons.

Cleo taps Aranold's shoulder, causing the latter to also return his blessing back to his slot.

"What are you doing here? This place is considered a death ground for your race, and why are you with Wild Monk and Punching Bag?" Asks Sandra.

Cleo nearly laughs but stops himself, but still a snort escapes from his mouth, causing his feyend to glare at him once again.

Diamond's nickname is the Wild Monk, not because of her race but because of how she fights.

She uses monk techniques, but as her fight grows longer, her other bloodline reacts violently, and she fights in a bit more barbaric way.

Sandra is a top ranker, she had fought Aranold before.

They call him a punching bag because every spar he had resulted in him being beaten up to a pitiful state.

"I asked Diamond to help us in our training, Aranold, whom you call Punching Bag, is my partner, the two of us decided to train in this place."

Hearing this, she frowns, she cannot help but ask.

"Shouldn't the Lost Jungle, Stone Ruin, and Poisonous Swamp be a better location for a training ground than here?"

*Sigh* "You are right, but we decided on this location for certain reasons. Enough about me, what about you? The last time I saw you was in our last massage session, shouldn't you be preparing for your so-called advancement?"

"Ah, that. I wish it would be easy, but there are steps for me to follow before I can advance, it is a unique custom for our race."

He nods his head.

If that is true, then he shall not continue asking, it might involve some sensitive topic, so he decided to change the topic.

"Is this location your race's territory?"

She nods her head, proudly raises her head, and explains.

"A powerful creature lies in this place; that creature was brought down by one of our ancestors, and its sole purpose right now is to train us."

Hearing this, he can only sigh in disappointment.

It seems that they need to search for a different place to stay.

"Wait!" Seeing the three of them, she quickly shouts and runs towards him.

She gives him something and winks.

"I know that you like pet-type blessings. Here, take this, it is one of the most common pet-type soul blessings in our stronghold. Take it as an advanced payment."

Seeing her leave, the three of them quietly return to their earlier resting place, only to be greeted by multiple zombies.

Fortunately, there were no bronze zombies, making it easy for the two boys to dispose of them.

The three continue to travel in search of a perfect base.

The next day, the three stop at a certain location, their eyes are shining brightly, and all three of them are exhausted after fighting throughout the entire journey.

Finally, they found a perfect spot to rest.

Cleo turns to his two teammates and says. "I will scout the area; the two of you stay here."