Chapter 741 - The Second Place
After killing the leader, all Dark Elves suddenly panicked as if they couldn't do anything more. Alex and the others seized this chance and defeated them.
A few minutes later, Alex killed the last Dark Elf and let out a long sigh. "We are finally done."
"Yeah. Although the battle was not that hard, the sudden appearance of this monster surprised us." Nelson nodded and glanced at the leader, trying to find anything inside her body. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single trace of belonging in her body, so Nelson thought it must be in her house. "Master. I need your permission to search her house. I believe that Martial Art is inside her house."
"Sure. We will recover our Spiritual Energy first." Alex nodded.
As soon as Nelson disappeared, Alex raised his two weapons, checking their Spiritual Energy. "You two have worked hard. Try to recover your energy first."
The weapons released their energy again to respond to Alex as they began absorbing the energy nearby. At the same time, all of them sat down and tried to recover their energy.
A few minutes later, Nelson returned with a scroll. "Master. I have found this inside her house."
Alex furrowed his eyebrows and took the red scroll from him before opening it.
"Lightning God Eyes… A Divine Technique that allows one to control Lightning with your eyes." Alex widened his eyes. "This is a Divine Technique! To think there is something like this inside this place."
"Yeah. I assume it came from the fallen God a few thousand years ago." Nelson nodded before adding. "The way she handles the technique might not reach that level yet, but it can be considered as one of the most powerful techniques in the current world. If not because of the limitation in this world, she might be able to unleash the real might of this technique."
"Now that you say it, no wonder she could blow me away. It really hurt despite our difference in strength." Leoz came to him and sighed.
"This must be someone's possession… Most likely one of the Gods and Goddesses outside. Should I give it back to them? Nah, we should keep it. They won't know anyway." Alex shrugged. They had taken the trouble in killing the Dark Elf, so why would he give it back?
"I agree. It's better to give Rose instead." Anna joined the conversation.
"Yeah. I plan to do that. Maybe one of the Jackpot for her Gacha." Alex thought for a moment and said.
"That's a good idea. She will have one rank 8 weapon and this Divine Technique. Although she could only unleash a portion of its power, it should be enough to protect her in this world." Anna nodded in agreement.
"We will rest for another two hours before we head to the second Spatial Gate. Unlike this time, we can't use our True Spirit Body anymore, so take your time and kill the enemies one by one." Alex ordered before closing his eyes, returning to his cultivation.
The others stared at him for a few seconds before going back to what they had been doing before. They didn't want to let Alex be the only one to recover all of his Spiritual Energy.
…
After that, they went toward the second Spatial Gate, finding a vast sand area. Alex furrowed his eyebrow, wondering what kind of monsters living here.
"Hmm… From my speculation, the Spatial Gate is adjusting to their living environment. Like how the Dark Elf will freely roam the grassland at night and stay in their house during the day, this place must also be connected to the next monsters. Still, it's already night, and I can't predict what kind of monsters will appear here." Alex thought for a moment and checked what below the sand.
"Are you going to check whether there are scorpions or not?" Anya walked toward him, asking the obvious question.
"Yes. That's the only one I can think of. Unfortunately, I don't find a single one in this area, so I think we should explore the area together, so I can keep watching the underground."
"Maybe something like a mummy or a minotaur? I don't know if they are living here, but I just can't put away the image."
Alex looked up and nodded. "Whatever it is, we shall check it first. Let's move out in a single direction. Artur! Choose!"
"Ye-yes!" Artur roared and pointed in a single direction. He pointed at where his instinct told him to go, so Alex knew that there must be something around there.
After flying for half an hour, Alex finally saw huge tents with an oasis, full of water, in the middle of them.
Alex halted his steps after finding this settlement because he was dumbstruck upon watching the Spiritual Energy around this place. "This… This is not a Dark Elf, but it is close to that monster."
"What monster?"
"From their energy shape and such, they are most likely minotaurs." Alex took a deep breath. "To think we will meet them in the second Spatial Gate, this will be a big fight." Alex narrowed his eyes.
The spirits didn't say anything, knowing fully well how hard to fight a minotaur. Alex alone fought a single of them with difficulty. Even if their cultivation gap was like this, it might be hard to bring them down like those Dark Elves.
"We need a strategy for this." Anya nodded, recalling the fight he had in the Potential Tower.
"Yeah. First of all, we don't have the True Spirit Body right now, so we are mainly fighting them with ranged attacks. I, Firia, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina will be the support, wearing them down with our fire. Nelson, Jeanne, Artur will be the assassins, killing them one by one without taking a risk. Leoz will be our vanguard, luring them from one place to another. You are the strongest here, so I don't think they will match your strength, but be careful.
"As for Jean, Fabio, Vera, and Anna, they will attack them from afar. I don't know if they have great control of their mind, so Anna will try to use her butterflies to control one of them. Having an army like this is good too, especially in a situation like this. We might even use it to fight the next Spatial Gate. Greg will be our buffer. Make sure that no one is hurt." Alex commanded, giving all of them a role.
"I will be supporting you guys from behind like usual and check if we need a change of strategy," Anya added with a smile.
"Yeah." Alex smiled back.
"Understood."
"Nelson. Check their number, and we will have Leoz grab their attention."
Nelson nodded and disappeared.
Alex thought about something ridiculous. "Say, their body is strong right… What if we level up Leoz to 10-Star Martial Saint?"
"It's not the time yet." Anya instantly rejected the idea. "After this, we need to start pressuring the Ancient Blue Family to stay away from the war. However, Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion, and Freedom Sect will also know our hand if we bring Leoz there."
"Why so? I am not planning to bring him anyway since he will be my trump card. I will only let him show his strength when we fight against the Fire God Clan." Alex shook his head.
"I know that, but there is another thing you need to consider."
"What?"
"The unknown." Anya narrowed her eyes. "We know that Leoz's strength will be restrained as soon as he reaches 10-Star Martial Saint, and he can only advance to God Rank only after you advance as well. This is the problem. Having Leoz too long in this world with that kind of strength where he is supposed to breakthrough but chooses not to, there is bound to be some problem, including the one coming from the world itself."
Alex widened his eyes and fell into deep thought. 'True enough. Once he reaches the pinnacle should know that they must carry on as soon as possible. If the world recognizes Leoz and forces him to advance to God Rank Expert, we don't know what kind of conclusion will it reach. Will Leoz be expelled from the world as a God Rank Expert? Will the world itself erase Leoz as a heresy? Or is there another kind of scenario? There is too much uncertainty.'
Seeing that Alex understood their problem, Anya smiled and added, "That's why it's fine to have him as a 7-Star or 8-Star only. Judging from his leveling speed and your cultivation speed, I assume we will be able to reach that stage together with you."
"No. He is currently a 6-Star Martial Saint, but it's far from being a 7-Star. I think I will stop this plan for the time being. Although I can remove Leoz from the party, so the EXP won't be shared, there are too many cons."
"Indeed." Anya nodded before suggesting, "How about you make us 3-Star Martial Saint right now? All of us have reached 2-Star Martial Saint not long ago, so the EXP Cards should be able to do the rest. From what I see on the first Spatial Gate, we might only feel half of our EXPs even after killing all of them. That's why I think it's good to raise our level now."
"No." Alex shook his head. "I will only use the EXP Cards when we need them the most. For the time being, we only need to be careful, and they will crumble. No matter how strong their body is, our strength is far stronger."
"If that's what you want…" Anya sighed, looking at Alex mysteriously. "I just want to remind you that convincing the Ancient Blue Family will require strength and wealth."
"I know. You have seen my memory, right? Do you have an objection to my strategy?"
Anya shook her head. "Nah. Sorry for this idle talk. I simply want to make sure of your intention first because we know your memory but don't know your heart. Now that I know how you think about each approach, I have formulated the plan after we finish our business here."
"That's good then." Alex nodded before noticing a sign of energy in front of him. "Nelson. How is it?"
Just like how the previous Alex said, Nelson appeared right in front of him, scaring the others away. On the other hand, the guy in question had no change of expression. "Unlike the Dark Elves, there are only fifty or so minotaurs. It took me a while because I found another one not far from here, and they also have fifty minotaurs. I believe this is the average number of their settlement."
Alex nodded and glanced at Leoz. "We don't need to play anymore. You have one task. Go bring them here."
Leoz smirked and flew toward the settlement. He looked at these many silk tents. It was sloppy craftsmanship, but Leoz had no time to care about this. He searched for a guy in the settlement and waved his sword toward him. "Thunder Spirit Slash!"
The lightning sword wave flew toward the guy, who didn't bring his weapon.
"Moo!" The Minotaur was a 3-Star Martial Monarch, so that sword wave sliced him into two, despite being able to notice it before it struck him. Because of the roar, the other minotaurs also came out of their tents or stood up from their positions. They took out their weapons, which seemed to be a war hammer.
Leoz took a glimpse of their conditions and frowned. There were many weapons scattered around the area, thinking it must be coming from the Gods and Goddesses era because they had been rusty. Yet, the minotaurs seemed to love this war hammer so much since everyone chose it despite having so many weapons.
"Roar Roar Roar!"
A series of roars echoed across the settlement, knowing that it was the sign of chase.
Leoz took a deep breath and sent another Thunder Spirit Slash again. This time, they could react, but their strength was still too low, so Leoz killed another of them. After that, he snorted and flew away with a smug on his face.