[Black Veil lvl1: 0.99>0.03]
It was a consequence he had anticipated, but he hadn't expected the regression to be so steep. His previous Black Veil was about to be promoted to level 2 and awaken passive properties, but now that he had greatly increased the standard of the spell he had to grind everything from scratch.
"You can now see why even prodigies steer clear of overly ambitious spells." Magnus sighed as the boy reported the changes in his status. "Such spells have a high demand on the caster's talent, but they also improve abysmally slowly. Look at you Ikaris.
Even a genius like you with uncommon Soul Strength only managed to condense the most basic Spark despite three near-perfect spells and the resort to self-torture to augnt its performance. Was it worth it?"
Ikaris remained silent, deadpan for a few seconds, then uttered, "I have no regrets. No poor person becos a billionaire overnight without taking risks. If I want to surpass the other Saints despite being behind, I must walk a path that has never been trodden before."
"Hehe, that's what I wanted to hear." Magnus cackled mirthfully.
The Augias that waited ahead of them neighed a second ti with impatience, which coincided with Ikaris' full recovery. Still euphoric from his blood consumption, the teen felt even more energized than before his fight with the Skeleton Officer.
"Until now I thought being a Vampire had more downsides than upsides, but it looks like it's not all doom and gloom in the end." He gloated aloud, which elicited a big smile on Malia's face.
"Not drinking blood is very detrintal, but as soon as you drink so you also recover much faster than with any herb or potion." She echoed spiritedly as if she wanted to convince him once and for all before he withdrew his complints.
"Hmm." Ikaris nodded absentmindedly, then motioned to his party, "Get on its back."
They weren't sure about what Ruvaen had said, but the huge beast had bent its front legs to make their task easier. The elf climbed on its back first to prove to the others that he wasn't lying, and then the rest followed. Unsurprisingly, the one who proved to be the most cowardly and uncooperative was Kailu.
"I, I'm not sure this is a good idea." The aristocrat protested with a shifty look on his face.
"What are you afraid of?" Noreen teased him with a sneering look.
He shot her an outraged glare. "Of course I'm not! My clan had Augias in its stables too. It's just that..."
"Just that?"
"They were smaller..." He mumbled in a low voice.
Malia giggled at his reaction. "He ans they were just docile horses. Other than eating at instead of hay, there's almost no difference. Their violent disposition and fondness for the sll of blood make them ideal warhorses, but if properly tad even a child can ride them. These wild Long-Necked Augias are nothing like the small ta Augias found in noble families' stables."
"I see." Ikaris nodded, stroking his chin. Turning to Kailu, he ordered dispassionately, "Get on or follow us on foot."
Kailu looked down and saw his boots squelching in the icy mud up to his knees and suddenly felt like crying.
"I-I'm going to hop on..."
"See? That wasn't so hard..." Noreed snickered.
The other Werewolves burst out laughing. Kailu gathered his courage and after a deep breath he climbed onto the creature's back. The Augias was already more than ready and with a snort it imdiately galloped off to catch up with the rest of its herd.
The sudden acceleration nearly knocked them off their feet, and they had to cling to the beast's coarse fur and mane with all their might to avoid being thrown off. A deafening wind blew in their ears, forcing them to squint as well.
At that mont, they realized how fast such a colossal mammal could be if given ti to mobilize all its muscle mass. With each stride, the beast would move dozens of ters and no matter how deep the mud was, compared to a creature of this size it was insignificant.
In a few tens of seconds the Augias caught up with its fellow creatures and the Alpha at the head of the herd roared at it for its lateness. After that, it adjusted its running speed to that of the herd and began to trot at a more sustainable pace. Even so, these giant equines were moving quite fast, exceeding 50 kiloters per hour.
Ikaris and his companions on the back of the third largest Augias finally had the opportunity to explore the interior of the forest, and what struck them was not the growing cold, nor the darkness, nor the silence, but the mountains of bones littering the ground.
These bones did not belong to Undeads. At least not most of them. They were in fact bones and fossils, in varying degrees of preservation, of ancient Demonic Beasts who had long since perished. However, there were also more recent carcasses.
It seed that the conflict between the Undeads and the island's native creatures had been going on for a long ti. One only had to look at the sheer volu of bones to surmise that millions of beasts had been sacrificed to fight these Undeads. For what purpose? He didn't know, but he doubted it was just to plunder so precious herbs growing in the Tartarus Gate Forest.
Considering the number of corpses, it wasn't worth it.
On the way, they heard the cries of agony and distant clashes between Demonic Beasts and Undeads several tis. They even witnessed several battles. Most of these skirmishes were already over or about to end.
A few lone Demonic Beasts, most of them formidable Magical Beasts that Ikaris and his friends would never ordinarily have dared to approach, were licking their wounds while mourning the death of their kin.
Their arrival would always trigger a warning roar from these creatures, but upon recognizing the titanic Augias at the head of their group, these majestic beasts would eventually calm down before joining their herd.
Crossing barely a kiloter and a half of dense forest and several battlefields, their group soon found itself reinforced by several hundred Rank 3 and 4 Demonic and Magical Beasts. A force of this caliber could wipe out Ikaris and his seven friends in no ti.
On the back of their mount, the eight humans didn't dare to speak for a long ti, and as for Kailu, he barely mustered the courage to breathe without making a sound. They had seen more magical herbs and fruits than they dared to dream of, so of them giving off such an aura that they couldn't help but swallow with envy as they thought of the fortune they could have made by picking them up.
In theory, they just had to stoop to pick them up, but none of them dared to get off the Augias for fear of becoming the target of all those bereft Demonic Beasts. The noteworthy thing was that these creatures also ignored all of these treasures, whereas in normal tis they would have slaughtered each other to claim each of them.
'I'm beginning to regret my decision.' Ikaris admitted telepathically to Magnus. If these beasts suddenly beca hostile towards them, their situation would instantly beco dire.
'I don't feel any hostility.' The old Vampire reassured him. 'On the contrary, I feel them anxious and driven, but you are not their target. Under normal circumstances, different types of Demonic Beasts don't mix. It's obvious that they've been forced to band together. At this point we might as well find out why.'
Five hundred ters further on and after slaughtering several thousand wandering Skeletons, they were finally stopped by a waterway. It was almost 800 ters wide and the current was strong.
"The Erald River." Liam spoke with emotion. "After crossing it, we will formally enter the innermost part of the Tartarus Gate Forest. No mber of my pack has ever ventured further, and that was in my grandfather's ti. If it weren't for today's strange situation, we would have been continually fighting or hiding from those Magical Beasts and their minions to advance a few hundred feet.
It would have been like facing a unified army. Getting spotted by one of them would have alerted all the others."
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