Alnea was not against taking a rest. Rather, he was the one who had asked his teammates to slow down in the beginning. But that was when they were confused, and prone to making mistakes. He had made sure that everyone was back to their best selves before beginning their exploration of the Final World. Besides, if they kept taking rests everyone now and then, how were they going to complete their Final Trial?
Exploring over thirty thousand square kilometres in just thirty days… The Final Trial was never supposed to be easy. Yet, it was not supposed to be impossibly difficult either. Then again, had he asked everyone to split up and explore in different directions, the Trial would have become much easier. But that would have put everyone’s lives at risk. He could not let that happen. In the end, the only way Alnea could think of completing the Trial on time was to change the way they explored the Final World.
Usually, in a team, only the scouts would keep their Spirits unfurled at all times, exploring their way forward while looking for any signs of danger from all sides. It was just that, by spreading their senses in all directions at the same time, scouts were forced to reduce the range of their exploration. Normally, that would not have been a problem. Rather, that was how they had explored their first base in the Final World.
However, such an arrangement was far too inefficient for their purpose. To complete their Trial in time, they had to change something. And since they could not split up to increase the rate with which they explored the Final World, they could only increase their range of exploration. Thus, their new arrangement, where Cecilia was responsible for exploring only in the direction they moved, while Alnea took care of one flank, and Yuri took care of the other.
Just to be safe, Alnea also asked Karl to keep exploring the way behind them from time to time, in case some beasts dared to attack them from their rear. They were moving so quickly through the forest though, that if a beast really tried to sneak up behind them, its movements would be too loud for it to succeed. Regardless, he could not be too cautious. Especially since their enemies were not just Oren Beasts.
Coincidentally, that was also one the reasons why could not let his team rest just yet. It was not only time was working against them. It did not matter if those Wanderers had challenged him willingly or unwillingly. Once the Final Trial was released, they had already been determined to be enemies. And dealing with those enemies was going to take time. Time, that the Star Seekers did not have.
With Alnea and Yuri exploring the world in just one direction each, they had practically increased their range by at least seven to eight times. And with their decision to avoid as many fights as possible, they also saved up at least half of the time they would have spent on fighting.
Still, even with all the advantages of his new arrangement, Alnea calculated that they would have to spend at least sixteen to seventeen hours a day exploring the Final World to reach their goal of over a thousand square kilometres a day. And that was not counting the time they would have to spend fighting the beasts and other Wanderers. If they began resting just after a couple of hours…
“We can rest when we have completed at least one-thirtieth part of our total goal, or when we need to recover Spirit Power,” Alnea said, as he wiped the blood off his sword, before sliding it back into its sheath. “Till then, just grit your teeth, and carry on.”
“…No one said anything about taking rest,” Cecilia grumbled, and glanced at the rest of the Star Seekers, making sure that everyone was ready, before rushing off into the depths of the forest.
“…At least give a signal before you take off,” Alnea said, as he rushed after Cecilia, signalling his teammates to resume their formation. At the same time, he did not forget to unfurl his Spirit once again, exploring, observing everything within a thousand metres towards their left. Like the small cretins, popping their heads out of random holes in the ground, or the den of snakes, hanging from the branches and the overhead roots, turning their heads towards his team, probably wondering what foolish creatures were making so much noise.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In an ecosystem like the foggy forest, where vision was greatly reduced by the fog, predators often used sounds to search for their prey. Though some liked to use the fog to deceive their prey. Like the Phantom Frog he had met earlier. Or the Gray Spotted Humming Gull. Unlike the Phantom Frogs, which used hallucinogens and their Innate Abilities to deceive their prey, Gray Spotted Humming Gulls preferred using their mesmerising voices, along with their Innate Ability of manipulating fog to accomplish their goals. Yet, both of these beasts were equally dangerous.
In comparison, the Swamp Water Crocodiles he found along the way seemed to be much more amiable. Sure, in a swamp, especially one covered by a fog, crocodiles would always be one of the most dangerous enemies to face. But as someone who had dabbled a bit in illusions himself, Alnea knew how dangerous and tricky enemies with mastery in illusions could be. Especially if he had to face them in their own natural habitat.
Fortunately, the Star Seekers did not have to face any of those beasts. At least not for the moment. The beasts that Alnea spotted were too far out from their path. Most of the times. Sometimes, Cecilia would also find such troublesome opponents on their path. In those cases, rather than fighting them head on, she would just lead the team around those beasts, helping them avoid a meaningless battle. As a scout should.
From always seeking a fight, constantly doubting herself, to slowly adapting to her responsibilities, leading the team forward without any hesitation, no matter the circumstances, Cecilia surely had grown up to become a splendid Wanderer. Then again, he could not expect others to keep standing still, while he himself kept moving forward. Besides, he did not have the leisure to worry about such superfluous things. Just as Cecilia was fulfilling her responsibilities, he also had his own responsibilities to fulfil.
Constantly scouring the forests towards their left with the senses of his Spirit, Alnea kept noting the subtle changes in the trees and the sea of fog that they lay in. Unlike the greenish fog hovering above the swamp, the greyish fog they that blanketed the forest did not have any noxious gases. A simple observation, that he had kept away at the back of the mind after noticing it for the first time.
As time passed though, Alnea finally began to notice some changes within the fog. Especially when they fought near a swamp, or other water bodies, disturbing fogs of different shades, causing them all to mix up with each other. That was when he remembered that fog, like air, could not stay still, unless there was something binding it to that place. And with how the fog had mixed with each other, it probably had nothing binding it to its origin.
Surely, his team was not the first to fight in the forest. Whether it was to find food, or to secure their territory, Oren Beasts could not be kept from fighting each other for long. Not to mention that the forest must have also faced the natural hazards mentioned in the information about the Final World. How then, had the forest dealt with the mixed fog that was created from time to time? More importantly, how had it kept the fog fixed in one place?
Once he got curious, Alnea could not help himself from observing the fog. And the more he observed, the more confused he became. The green fog was easy to understand. Depending on which swamp it was hovering over, and what Oren Beasts claimed the swamp as their home, the composition of the fog would change to give more advantage to those Oren Beasts. Still, in essence, the green fog was just a mix of all sorts of noxious gases and hallucinogenic agents.
The grey fog though… It was like a living beast. No, not exactly a living beast, but a part of it. The other part was the forest itself. The ground that it blanketed, the trees growing from that ground that it enshrouded, and the Oren Beasts that it nurtured, everything was part of a large, gigantic living beast, that together with the greyish fog, formed a complete system. And since it was system, it was only natural if a part of it was contaminated that its other part would help it heal…
The noxious green fog that mixed with the grey fog, it was all absorbed by the trees, and then released back into the swamp, as if it was just some waste that the forest was discarding. Similarly with the bluish fog of rivers, and the pristine white fog of the lakes, anything that was not part of the grey fog itself was discarded back to the place where they had come from.
On second thought, it was not just the forest and the grey fog that was expelling the foreign parts of the fog back to where they had come from. Those swamps, rivers, and lakes were also doing the same. Either through the roots sticking into their waters, or through the beasts that dared to cross them.
Regardless, when looked at from a larger picture, it was only when the trees, the land, the swamp, the lakes, the rivers, and the Oren Beasts, along with the fog enshrouding the forest all came together that they formed a complete system. The question then became, what role did the Star Seekers play in that system?
