The journey was a silent one as Ballock tried his best to contain his anger. He wouldn't let his friend be derided every time they meet the group.
He was also sure Blood have the strength to put the entire group in their place but wondered why he didn't.
It would have been much better.
They abruptly came to a stop by the sight in front of them. The vast clearing of the forest was covered by structures, and humans walking around. The establishment had changed the terrain greatly.
It was almost unrecognizable to Blood as this was his first time here since waking up. Ballock had come to the forest previously and he too was shocked by the lively and bustling atmosphere. He went around gathering information before he understood the situation which was linked to the phenomenon.
There were stalls, smaller and larger ones staged around the region. Many buildings were also under construction. Blood was sure it would overtake the marker nearby at this rate.
it was just a little more than a month.
It was obvious that if the mayor had kept the city opened the population would be ponderous.
"Should we bother renting a room?" Ballock broke the silence. His earlier feelings had subsidized greatly.
"There is no need. Since we suffered from the phenomenon first and we're still being tormented, shouldn't we gain the most out of it. A month is already a long time, and the gathering might disband any moment." Blood replied.
There was no time to dally.
They didn't waste any more time as they joined the crowd since they had to pass through to get to the forest.
Due to the denseness of people, some ordinary citizens summoned the courage to venture into the forest. It would be fine if they didn't go deep in the outer region.
"When we return, I'll take you to the place I exchanged the beast crystals I collected when you were unconscious. The owner is a gentleman." Ballock said with a light smirk.
Blood could only nod as they brushed past the people.
He didn't forget his other reasons for coming to the forest. He remembered the Blood Book stated he needed some amount of Exp to complete the Blood Book World's mutation. He checked the last notification again just to confirm.
[Current and further Exp will be converted to Mutation Exp]
[Mutation Exp: 60 of 1000]
This just confirmed he had a long way to go. When he killed the Earth-spill Cobra he only received 600 points. In exchange for Mutation Exp it would be 60 points. That is, it was rated 10 to 1 and a sixth stage beast of the Iron realm is equivalent to 60 points.
Without putting much thought into it, he neglected the other things and replaced this as his first priority—Beast hunting!
Blood and his company proceeded into the deeper section of the forest. However, just as his foe had previously stated, he remained within the boundaries of the outer region. It was said that at the Core region of the Sand-scale forest lies the king of the beast which was suspected to be of the fifth realm, or the very peak of the fourth realm.
Forests and similar domains are ranked by three or more grades. But the most used grades are the three-grading system. They are graded according to the denseness of Heaven and Earth energy in the entire region in respect to the beasts living in such places.
According to the grading system of the Sand-scale city, the first grade was the outer region, which includes beasts of the primitive (ordinary) grade and Iron realm beasts, but the primitive beasts populated the region and as one goes deeper, they would come across the next region, the inner region.
There was no physical boundary separating the outer region from the inner region. As one goes deeper into the forest, they would start encountering beasts of the Bronze realm, and when one noticed this, they had entered the inner region.
The inner region contains beasts of the Bronze and Silver realm. Also, as the energy improve, the beasts seen it those regions tend to be stronger and agile.
The last and final region was the Core region which contained the most powerful beasts the forest had to offer. Their strengths couldn't be looked down on, and they are the core of the forest.
Blood dusted his shirt as he collected his weapon from his spatial ring and passed Ballock his.
They were now in the jungle so they couldn't be careless. They didn't only have to look out for the beasts alone and also have to watch out for other cultivators who might be lurking around with evil intents.
Blood did not want to go too deep in the forest for now as he wanted to test his strength on the beasts of the Iron realm around here. Although, he didn't have a legitimate Skill or Cultivation Art yet, he continued to use the simple technique other cultivators would use, the gathering or infusion principle.
When cultivator don't have any Skill nor an Art to unleash, they gather their energy and strike the accumulated energy on their targets just as he had done with the dummy or simply infused it into a weapon and strike.
It was a crude way but a step to conserving one's life.
Finding beasts in the outer region was easy since they are mostly primitive.
Beasts usually go wherever there's dense Heaven and Earth energy. The Iron realm beasts could have gone to the Inner or possibly, the Core region of the forest but the moment they step past the outer realm boundary, their tests occur.
And what was this test?
They had to fight and compete with the beasts of the inner region which they are no match for. It was either they come running back to the outer region or fight stronger beasts to the death.
If they could win the struggle, then they could stay. As long as they could defend themselves, they could stay in the Core region as long as they like.
However, this was almost impossible and always ends in failure. Beasts of the inner region are much stronger than beasts of the outer region except some exceptions which are of the very minority.
It was either they were killed or sent back to the outer region!
Blood spread out his Spiritual sense after equipping his weapon. It passed through Ballock who jolted as he felt some strange energy washed over him, before he threw a confused expression to his buddy.
He had been very sensitive specially throughout the last month, so when he felt the energy, he instinctively wanted to cognize its origin.
Not until he saw the evil smirk on his dear friend's face and had this urge to repress that smirk. He was really baffled as he clearly knew what this meant.
He solemnly asked, "Hey, have you actually broken through the Bronze realm or was that a pure fluke." he raised his brows in alarm. This guy was really leaving him behind.
"Haha, you don't have to give me that tensed look. I'm still in the Iron realm as you can see." Blood said as he released his cultivation, radiating the energy of a peak Iron realm cultivator.