Chapter 104: Teaming Up for an Expedition

“As for the Dagma Fruit, we really have no great hope in the southern depths of the Dark Forest,” Odyssey said after giving Han Shuo a careful explanation before asking him. “We only know that someone once saw this kind of fruit somewhere, but we can’t be certain it was truly the Dagma Fruit, or that no one else has already taken it. Are you really set on going with us on this unknown venture?”

Hearing him speak, Han understood that these adventurers were taking this with little confidence. He thought it over. Back in the Death Cemetery he could continue training and improve himself anyway, but if fortune favored him and he found the Sacred Brain Fruit, his Soul-Moulding art could rise by a great margin. That rise would also strengthen his mental power. After weighing it carefully, he decided the risk was worth taking.

He nodded. “Yes. I want to go with you all into the deep south of the Dark Forest. But if we truly find this Dagma Fruit, I hope to obtain one.”

Odyssey smiled. “Since you insist, we’re glad to have you with us. I came here for that fruit only on a whim, not with real expectations. Our main goal is exploration—the legends say there are things in that forest far more enticing. If we do get the Dagma Fruit, one specimen is enough to justify the trip. Any extra can be yours.”

The deeper they went, the greater the danger became, and the true perils only slowly revealed themselves: fiercer beasts, strange races, and plants that could cost a life. Yet alongside those dangers came tempting riches. Strange plants that grew only in the innermost woods fetched high prices, and first-, second-, and third-tier beasts also carried plenty of valuable goods to sell—provided you were willing to kill them.

With understanding reached, they did not linger. After Odyssey introduced the rest of the companions, the seven of them moved farther in.

Not far ahead stood a sanctuary guarded by forest trolls. Warriors of the troll clans watched the place. Though some treasure remained there, Han had already claimed it as his own private hold, and so, under his careful lead, the party skirted the area, made a wide circle around it, and continued onward.

They had walked for a day without major incident. At night they camped by a river. They cleared a patch of dense brush around them. Afra, wearing a space ring equal in quality to Han’s, pulled several tents from hers. They pitched them one by one, built a fire, and cooked.

In the clear water of the river swam plump fish. Afra, an advanced water mage, cast a small water spell and drew up a dozen or so gleaming trout-sized fish. Using homemade wooden skewers, everyone roasted the fattest pieces.

After the fish were fully cooked and eaten, they chatted around the fire for a short while, then each retreated to their tents. Nia the female elf archer and Afra shared one tent. The four men split into pairs and slept two to a tent. Han volunteered to stand watch. When the others had gone in, he went alone to a secluded spot to continue his cultivation.

He had three spirit familiars circling nearby and did not need to give them much thought, but the cultivation of his magic was the foundation of his future. He could not afford a single lapse. He bore down on the strange alternation of comfort and sharp pain in his mind and slipped into deep practice.

It was late in the night when a strange sound snapped him awake in the middle of training. He brushed the sweat from his brow. The three familiars’ lines of sight collapsed into his thoughts, and he sent one of them off into the darkness, racing toward the direction of the noise.

A two-headed dragon wavered in from far away, its body unsteady. Blood, bright and green, streamed from the neck of one of its heads. Badly wounded and disoriented, it came quickly this way. A two-headed dragon was not exactly a true dragon, yet it was still a formidable second-rank beast. Why it had been reduced to this—fleeing for its life—was a mystery.

One familiar tracked the beast’s movements, while another was split off to sweep in from a different angle, trying to identify what had brought it down. The creature seemed desperate enough that Han expected it might bolt hard and fast, but after that familiar flew some distance, Han saw nothing unusual.

As soon as Han saw the disoriented beast coming this way, he rose, crossed quickly to the tents, grabbed the poles, and shouted, “Everyone up. Something’s coming.”

The sleeping adventurers woke in confusion at his cry, pulled on their clothes, and staggered out in about half a minute. Winter was coming, and the night was biting cold, so all six wrapped themselves tightly, only faces visible.

Because Han’s scouting was through the familiars, the two-headed dragon, though closing in fast, still gave the six no sign. Odyssey looked around, confused, and asked, “It seems normal enough. What’s wrong?”

“One of them is five hundred meters to our north, flying toward us,” Han said bluntly. “I think it may become dangerous. We should prepare at once.”

Gordon seemed ready to challenge him, but Odyssey cut him off in a low, firm voice. “Then get ready. They have a bad temper. If it notices us, it’ll cause trouble.”

Nia pulled her bow and said with worry, “It’s a second-rank beast. It can spray venom, and both heads can bite with razor teeth. It won’t be easy to handle.”

Han climbed into a tall tree with his crossbow and spoke quickly. “Don’t worry. This one is injured. It can’t even fly high anymore. If we set up properly, it won’t be able to escape.”

The idea made them all visibly bright-eyed. Had the dragon not been hurt, this whole team would have had trouble with it. Wounded so badly it couldn’t stay aloft meant it was a gift of opportunity, not to be wasted.

With eager expressions, some climbed trees like Han, others hid in the shadows, all of them drawing their weapons and fixing their minds on the incoming, directionless two-headed dragon.

Scrubbing through the brush with a hushed rustle, the injured beast slowly entered their range of sight.

Gordon, who had doubted Han earlier, gave him an admiring look from afar and gripped his long sword, eager to strike fast and hard.

The disoriented dragon finally slammed its head into Afra’s Water Barrier. The impact was so strong that the barrier burst apart into droplets that sprayed through the air.

At almost the same instant, Han’s crossbow and Nia’s bow fired together. Han, unable to fire in continuous succession, loosed one bolt into the dragon’s rear neck. Nia loosed three arrows; the first was dodged, but the other two struck the beast squarely in the forehead.

The intermediate lightning mage in their company cast a circling bolt of electricity onto the dragon’s back. Three warriors who had waited for this very moment surged forward, leapt from behind, and descended into it, releasing battle energy in savage, relentless attacks.

Afra quickly shaped two water beings to draw the creature’s attention away, giving Han and Nia room for another opening.

Under the repeated crushing blows, the second-rank two-headed dragon had no chance to even spray its venom properly. Already wounded, it finally collapsed helplessly into a pool of blood.

The adventurers, seeing the beast dead, came out from their hiding places in wild excitement and began preparing to strip it for loot.

At that moment Han’s face changed suddenly. He shouted at the top of his lungs, “Move fast. Leave now. The ones who were chasing that two-headed dragon are here—if we stay, we have no chance of surviving.”