Kaizen made a decision in his mind.
The first important point was to absorb the characteristics of the Kurta tribe.
The second was to obtain the spirit of the Kurta tribe.
In the next mont, Kaizen found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.
By all logic, crossing the entrance of the cave should lead into the cave itself.
But what Kaizen was facing now was far from expected.
Instead, he was standing in a dense forest.
The trees were towering, and an unsettling, gloomy aura filled the air.
"Whoosh!"
A black shadow shot toward Kaizen at incredible speed.
In an instant, Natsu stood protectively in front of him.
"Boom!"
Flas erupted as Natsu delivered a punch, knocking the shadow back.
Upon closer inspection, Kaizen realized that the shadow was just a dry branch.
"Live branches?"
"En... Round!"
Kaizen opened his aura circle.
The diater stretched to twenty-five ters.
He could sense many more shadows closing in.
"They’re all dry branches. There are so many of them."
"They move like snakes..."
"I wonder what happens if one of them bites ."
Just as the branches were about to strike, they suddenly froze.
It seed they were afraid of sothing.
Kaizen instinctively looked at Natsu.
Natsu’s fist was wreathed in flas.
"Afraid of fire?" Kaizen thought. "It’s very likely."
"After all, they’re just branches."
Kaizen gave Natsu a command.
"Extinguish the flas."
The next mont, the fire on Natsu’s fist died down.
Imdiately, the branches began to surge forward.
They attacked Kaizen with frightening speed.
"Light the flas again!"
The fire on Natsu’s fist reignited.
The branches halted abruptly, retreating to a safe distance of three ters.
"Just as I thought, they’re afraid of fire."
Kaizen pointed at one of the dry branches.
"Mind bomb!"
A small blast of aura shot out, striking the branch.
"Boom!"
The branch exploded with a sharp crack, and Kaizen saw a burst of star-like energy rush toward the crystal ball in front of him, increasing its progress.
Kaizen’s eyes lit up.
He fired again.
"Mind bomb!"
"Mind bomb!"
"Mind bomb!"
The attacks kept coming, each one destroying more branches.
The crystal ball’s progress steadily grew.
"This is still too slow."
Kaizen had an idea.
"Lantern Ghost!"
He ordered Natsu.
"Extinguish the fla!"
As soon as the flas vanished, the dry branches rushed forward once more.
This ti, they gathered in such numbers that they ford a massive sphere, much like the scene when the monster girl attacked Dominica.
Just as they neared Kaizen...
"Boom!"
Natsu’s flas erupted, expanding rapidly, engulfing an area of more than ten ters. The mont the dry branches touched the flas, they disintegrated in bursts.
Stars flew into the crystal ball, rapidly increasing its progress.
The Lantern Ghost hovered beside Kaizen, absorbing any lingering flas that ca near.
"The Observer’s Will is pleased with the progress. Three percent."
Natsu withdrew the flas but kept the fire burning on his fist.
"One of these monsters gives three progress points. Not bad."
"These monsters are stronger than they seem, especially in large numbers."
"But they’re too vulnerable to flas."
"Without fire, even Nen would struggle against them."
Kaizen chose a direction and continued walking.
There was no need to keep killing the dry branches, as they no longer contributed to the crystal ball’s progress.
"Blood scent?"
A sharp, tallic odor filled the air. Kaizen’s nose twitched, and he turned his gaze toward the source.
Soon, a corpse ca into view.
The body was barely recognizable, consud by the branches. It had turned into a mummified corpse, covered in dry limbs.
But from the scent of blood, Kaizen knew it had just died. There was still a trace of aura on the body.
"A Nen user fell to the attack of these branches, only to be mummified," Kaizen mused.
He remained silent for a mont, then pressed on.
The dry branches took note of his presence, but with the fla still on Natsu’s fist, they dared not approach.
"An extre kind of monster."
"An ordinary person with a torch could walk through here safely."
"But a Nen user can be killed."
Gradually, the trees began to thin out.
Kaizen stepped out of the forest.
The dry branches did not follow.
Beyond the woods lay a adow.
Kaizen felt a shift beneath his feet.
Sothing was moving quickly toward him from underground.
He instinctively dodged to the side.
"Boom!"
A massive figure shot up from the ground.
It was huge, pink, and resembled an earthworm magnified thousands of tis. Its body exuded a disgusting sheen, and its head was a grotesque, tooth-filled maw.
No eyes, but sohow it was drawn to Kaizen.
The creature lunged toward him.
Natsu stood in front of Kaizen and threw a punch.
"Boom!"
The earthworm was sent flying.
But it wasn’t fatally wounded. Instead, it burrowed back into the ground and prepared for another attack.
"Akutagawa Ryunosuke!"
Kaizen summoned a new mind beast.
As the earthworm re-erged, Kaizen commanded.
A dark, sharp claw materialized from his aura, grabbing the earthworm and crushing it in his grip.
"Crack!"
The creature split into multiple segnts.
However, it didn’t die. Instead, it split into several new individuals, each of them burrowing into the ground.
Kaizen paused, reflecting on the recent battle.
"Move!"
"These earthworms track my position based on movent."
"Twice before, I moved, and they honed in on ."
"But I didn’t move just now, and they couldn’t locate , so they stopped attacking."
Kaizen quickly devised a counterasure.
"Altan!"
Altan’s figure appeared.
As a purely support-type mind beast, Altan wasn’t typically involved in combat. But now, Kaizen could use Altan for more than just intelligence.
Altan had the ability to levitate at low altitudes, which could prove useful in this situation.
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