"What is she doing here?" Evan muttered in a surprised voice as he observed a tall woman clad in crimson-red armour. Her shoulder-length black hair frad her deep blue eyes, and a star-shaped gem adorned the center of her forehead.
The woman was none other than Blaze, the cheap sister he had forcefully acquired in the Tomb of the Ancient.
Currently, Blaze was surrounded by three vampires, and they appeared to be arguing about sothing.
Deep orange phoenix flas flickered around Blaze, radiating an intense heat as anger burned visibly on her face.
Not far from Blaze, Evan noticed a Peak Rank Four vampire locked in combat with a mid-level Rank Four phoenix. Despite the disparity in their ranks, the phoenix was holding its ground and coping surprisingly well against the vampire.
As Evan heard their conversation, he pieced together a fragnted picture of the situation.
The Peak Rank Four vampire was the leader of the group of vampires surrounding Blaze, while the mid-level Rank Four phoenix was her personal guard.
The details were murky, but it seed that the vampires were rcenaries who had ventured into the Dark Forest to search for treasures and earn so money.
Blaze, on the other hand, had co to the Dark Forest after receiving information about sothing of interest.
From what Evan could gather, Blaze had likely found the object she was searching for, but the vampires had also discovered it.
A conflict ensued, and Blaze, along with her guard, clashed with the vampires in the deeper area of the Dark Forest. Sohow, they managed to escape, but before they could fully retreat, the vampires tracked them down, forcing a renewed skirmish.
Among the three vampires surrounding Blaze, two were mid-level Rank Three, while the third one was at the peak of Rank Three.
Blaze, who had been at the peak of Rank Two during their ti in the Tomb of the Ancient, had since broken through to Rank Three and was now at the beginner level of Rank Three.
Under normal circumstances, Blaze could have defeated the three vampires despite the gap in their ranks as unlike the vampires, Blaze was supported by the Phoenix faction and had nurous hidden cards to play.
However, the problem lay in the vampires' tactics.
Rather than engaging her directly, the three vampires focused on stalling Blaze's escape until their leader—the Peak Rank Four vampire—returned after dealing with the phoenix guard.
Whenever Blaze attempted to attack, the vampires worked together to block her assault before retreating out of her range...And whenever she tried to escape, they would launch coordinated, full-power attacks to slow her down and re-establish their encirclent.
Blaze's face was red with fury, but she couldn't break free from the vampires' calculated strategy. Though she had powerful area-of-effect skills that could severely damage the vampires even if they retreated, using such techniques would cause a massive commotion.
The resulting chaos would inevitably attract other treasure hunters in the Dark Forest and if word spread that she had found sothing valuable, more opportunistic groups like the vampires would pursue her, even after she escape the forest.
"Now that I think about it, the Phoenix Clan is located in the Eastern Territory of Utopia, close to Winterclaw's Empire," Evan muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
After the events on Earth, Evan was eager to gather more information about Winterclaw as he had strong suspicions that, like Valery, Winterclaw might be connected to the enigmatic Primordial Loli. Otherwise, Valery wouldn't have received the task of absorbing the Source of the Ice Monarch to upgrade her core to a Monarch Core.
While Ashley has installed nurous teleportation formations to connect the Closed World of the Dryads to nearly every part of Utopia, the Dryads' information network is severely limited.
Their small population and constant need to hide from the elves restricted their ability to gather intelligence or reveal themselves to others.
Although Alaric has an extensive network, his influence in the Eastern Territory—where the Frozen Monarchy (Winterclaw's Empire) resides—is limited due to the Dark Forest's location in the Western Territory.
To gain reliable information about Winterclaw and monitor his every move, Evan realized he would need to ally himself with a faction in the Eastern Territory.
Unlike the Dragons, the current Phoenix Clan is no longer at the pinnacle of Utopia's power structure.
Thousands of years ago, much like the Dragons, the Phoenix Clan had been a dominant force. However, a catastrophic incident wiped out most of their mbers, causing their numbers to plumt.
Although Evan wasn't sure what had caused the Phoenix Clan's decline, he had confird with Anastasia that Azroth wasn't responsible for this incident. He needed to confirm this thing with Anastasia because, whenever he encountered stories of large-scale massacres, Azroth often turned out to be the culprit.
Fortunately, Anastasia assured him that Azroth had no involvent in the Phoenix Clan's downfall, though she was unaware of the specifics.
"Although the Phoenix Clan's situation isn't as dire as the Dryads', it's far from ideal, so it shouldn't be difficult to bring them to my side. If I can bring them to my side, they would be the perfect allies to help monitor Winterclaw's activities," Evan muttered, considering discussing this matter with Anastasia and others after going back.
His concern about Winterclaw stemd from the possibility that, aside from Eilistraea, Winterclaw might also co looking for him.
When Winterclaw opened portals on Earth, it was undoubtedly because he had sohow tracked down Valery. Now that he had brought her to Utopia, he feared Winterclaw might locate her again and co after them.
Although Evan could ask Anastasia to conceal Valery's presence—given her unparalleled skills in concealnt it wouldn't be difficult to hide her.
However, it wasn't a perfect solution. The best option, Evan decided, was to enlist people who could actively monitor Winterclaw and report on his movents.
Resolving himself to this course of action, Evan rubbed his face to make his expression brighten, and a smile spread across his face.
He carefully set down the ice cocoon and summoned several shadow undeads to guard it and Velgoth.
"Wait here," Evan instructed Velgoth before vanishing from sight.
Velgoth flinched at Evan's sudden departure, but upon seeing the shadow undeads standing guard, he relaxed and stayed put.
In just seconds, Evan reappeared so distance away from the ongoing battle and approached Blaze with an innocent smile on his face.
"Sister, long ti no see!"
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