28 The Thief

A dark cloaked man was moving swiftly through the Wesser forest. The forest was endless, dark, and thriving, its canopy was competed for by alder, linden, and felwood, enough light shimmered through their crowns for a mosaic of ferns to reign the rich grounds below.

Curling branches dangled from the occasional tree, and a range of fel herbs, which were unique to the region, grew sporadically in the otherwise jade scenery. A hodgepodge of beastly noises, belonging to various kinds of demon beasts and other forest natives added to the life of the forest.

While James was preparing mentally for his interaction with Mikael, Johnson was strolling through the forest looking for wood-based materials to assist the Devil Ancestor in forging.

He had to go to the unclaimed territory for the level of material Kogthoz needed. As long as he didn't head to the truly deep areas, the forest was like taking a stroll in his backyard.

The Wesser forest was a wild and unclaimed territory in this Abyss. Even he did not know what terrors lurked in the deepest areas. Only a negligible amount of it had been converted to campgrounds and deemed safe for ordinary travel. The rest was unclaimed wildlands.

"Jurrath!" yelled the dark-robed man as he got to the deeper part of the forest near a gigantic cave.

Outside of the cave was clear, you could see not even a mouse. The demonic aura emanating from the cave was stifling. It was easy to tell that this was a territory claimed by a powerful demon beast.

Out came a creature about the size of a large cat, with six legs and a long thick tail. It had a soft, but strong skin covered in thick hairs. The hairs were a combination of blue, yellow, light gold, and bronze. It had a rather small mouth with large canines and a long tongue.

It had thin eyes and large standing ears. The creature moved agilely outside of its cave. The demonic creature sat on a rock opposite of Johnson. His air was the air of a ruler. You could see not a bit of subservience from this creature's demeanor.

"How have you been my friend?" said the black-robed man with a smile as he greeted the demonic beast.

Jurrath was one of the strongest demon beasts living in the Wesser forest. A truly terrifying existence. He was even stronger than Johnson, the hand of the Devil Ancestor! Johnson was not even sure of his exact cultivation level because he would never dare fight him.

Jurrath cared more about creating mischief than creating wide massacres. He was always a good demon beast to trade with. He always somehow got his hands on rare materials.

The creature roared and faded its form to become more humanoid. Light green, sleek hair hanged over a handsome face with violet eyes.

"Meow. What brings a civilized person like you to my demonic wilds Johnson?" said the demon beast, Jurrath.

"Do you have any rare wood resources?" said Johnson.

"Meow. Luckily for you, I recently gained a few Soulwood branches from them," said Jurrath as he laughed.

He hated those unreasonable bird brains and was a mischievous demon beast who loved to cause chaos in the forest.

They quickly came to an agreement in the trade, Johnson received the branches and Jurrath got some new shiny things for his collection.

"Thank you, how is the forest? There aren't any new hostile beast lords trying to push their weight around?" said Johnson.

It was always good for him to have the best information available to [Mountain Shadow].

"Meow. Only newly ascended Viscount beast lords like to push their weight around corralling weak-minded beasts to attack locations so they can pillage the benefits," said Jurrath.

"Meow. That old jaguar has an iron grip on this part of the forest and doesn't like it getting too hectic."

The old jaguar was wise and had spent countless years as a beast sovereign, so his management of his territory was top notch. Anyone that violated his rules would die swiftly with a hint of murderous demonic aura around them from the forest, so no one dared disobey his rules!

"Meow! Newly ascended lords in this area have to think twice before causing trouble less they end up dead."

"Meow! Right now the forest has been peaceful. That stupid condor leader has been heading around bullying demon beasts taking their Soulwood claiming they stole it from his tribe!"

"Meow. What kind of heartless demon beast would steal Soulwood branches from those condors?"

"Meow. We should go help the condors seek justice!" said Jurrath. He had a righteous demeanor as he spoke.

Johnson rolled his eyes internally.

It's obvious it was you that has stolen the branches from the condors. You're even gloating to me about it! That condor just doesn't have the face to ask you for them back so he has to pretend he's looking for them elsewhere. It's a classic occurrence of someone bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

"I think they can handle that themselves," said Johnson while shaking his head, he couldn't be bothered with Jurrath's antics.

This mischievous demon beast was even making him an accessory to the crime by pawning off the branches to him. He had no choice but to accept them though as he urgently wanted to finish this task Kogthoz had given him.

The reason demon beasts even stayed politely in the forest and didn't overrun the territories claimed by the Hudson clan was their own chaotic nature.

Stronger demon beasts saw the constant stream of visitors from a nearby devil settlement as their very own food delivery service.

Many of the weaker demon beasts died with the settlement, but they repopulated fast. Stronger demon beasts however had a big uptick in merry meals coming their way. Demon beasts like the jaguar mentioned were simple-minded, only caring about their own benefits.

It was much easier to wait as foolish humanoids ventured unsuspectingly into the forest where they became his prey than to go pissing off a devil Empire. Most demon beasts around the Abyss in wildlands would group with their race or factions regardless of their strength.

It was easy for traveler deaths to occur when traversing them, you could easily run into a demon beast sovereign who just didn't like the way you looked. That's why devils usually liked to explore properly charted areas to ensure they would not casually walk into one of these death dens.

That's the role the camps in Wessex Forest held. They broke up the demon beasts by cultivation level, ensuring they created no death dens.

Places were powerful demon beasts with no decorum for law become death zones such as the deeper areas of Wesser Forest. Not even Johnson would dare tread there. You could tell by the demonic aura that there were powerful creatures living there.

Demons were chaotic by nature, preferring to live alone in dense fel areas to increase their strength. They differed greatly from the law-abiding nature of devils.

One particularly well-known death zone was known as \u003cDeath Canyon\u003e, although the fel quality was amazing, the aura of death was stifling there.

No one had ever exited \u003cDeath Canyon\u003e it was a true death zone.

Another well-known death zone was \u003cGhost Capital\u003e it was a city where a very ancient empire was situated.

A devil exterminated the entire ancient empire with one attack. The powerful devil who launched the attack's hatred was so great he wanted none of the inhabitants to even have peace in the afterlife creating the current \u003cGhost Capital\u003e.

Spirits populated the area and the only thing you could do by trespassing there was applying to join them. No one wants to walk along and randomly get flatted by a much stronger cultivator, so smarter people avoided death zones.