Chapter 7：Starfall Forest

Very soon, the information about Pete appeared in Sean's eyes.

Just as Sean had guessed, Pete's profession was, indeed, not a rank-two [Warrior]. Instead, he was a rank-three [Veteran]. Even though his personal attributes were not as amazing as Drouin's, he bested him in the fact that he had no obvious weaknesses. At the moment, his strength, agility, and endurance attributes were all at 30 points. Even though his attribute of wisdom was not at 20 points, which was slightly lower compared to the attributes of others, his attribute of will had already reached 40 points. That meant that Pete had fought in many bloody battles in the past. If he hadn't encountered those sorts of situations, his will attribute wouldn't have been so high. In other words, he was extremely firm and steady.

Sean was quite satisfied, so he asked, "Do you know how to use a bow?"

Hearing this, a little bit of surprise flashed across Pete's eyes, but he still nodded, agreeing with Sean's question. "I do."

Sean did not ask what Pete's archery skills were like. In reality, if any soldier who had served in the army before said that they could do something, then it meant that they had experience with it. The skills may not be extremely proficient, but they would be much better than other fools. Either way, for that trip around, Sean didn't have very high requirements regarding the level of a person's archery skills. Of course, to say that Sean was not curious about the high personal attributes from Old Pete would be incorrect.

Although the class [Veteran] was a rank-three profession, in reality, for any classed soldier, their combat classes always all became that after they had retired from the army. In other words, even if a rank-five soldier retired from the army, they would still become a rank-three [Veteran]. However, after that change, there would be no other changes or improvements in the future. At the very least, all the skills and personal attributes that they had previously learned did not disappear because of the change.

Even if they were rank-three [Veteran], the personal attributes of some of them could be as high as rank-five or higher. Therefore, judging the strength of a veteran could only be done through their personal attributes.

For example, Peter in front of him. Sean was convinced that he was at least a rank-four soldier before he had retired from the army. He could even have been close to rank-five at one point.

However, all of that was in the past. Right now, Sean had no intention of learning about Pete's story.

He just turned around to look at Halle. "Mr. Halle, please take that man off our list and pick a guard or someone else instead," Sean said. "I only have one request, and that is that everyone has to obey my command." Sean had no time or patience for idiots that could jeopardize his commission due to not being able to listen.

"What are you talking about, brat?" The middle-aged man, who had not given Sean any reason to like him earlier, became extremely angry when he saw that Sean had pointed towards him to be excluded from the team for the trip. He thought that he deserved much more respect from the young man, who did not seem to be very powerful.

"You are just a hunter. Do you think that you are the god of archery?" Sean turned his head around and looked coldly at the middle-aged man. "My team does not need anyone who cannot obey commands from others."

As Sean spoke, an unparalleled ruthless aura was exuded from his body, permeating the space around him and making everyone wary about what he would do.

He may have only been a rank-one professional at the moment; however, back when he was inside the game "Miracle," he had been an all-powerful commander of a big guild. Once he brought out his full courage and aura, he was not inferior to the other generals in this real world. It was because of the aura that the middle-aged man became extremely stunned. It even made the color on his face change slightly. However, the expression that Pete had on his face was complete admiration. It made him remember the times back in the day when he had been in the army. The blood in his body started to boil.

"All of you have only five minutes. We will set off in five minutes," Sean said with a serious tone, locking eyes with every single member of the party.

"Are we not going to wait until dawn to set off?" Halle asked, confused. It seemed like it would be better to leave while it was light out.

"When we are inside the Starfall Forest, it will make no difference whether it is night or day," Sean explained. Both Halle and Drouin were the commissioners. He needed to be at least a little courteous to the two of them. "If we want to pass through the Starfall Forest to go to the Portoroa Kingdom, it will take at least half a month. However, there are only 16 days left until the full moon. Trust me, you two do not want to see the surge of the Magic Tide in there."

After they heard what Sean had said, Halle and Drouin seemed to realize something. Very quickly, they began to make all the preparations. As for the middle-aged man with a wooden bow, he was excluded from the trip. That made him extremely dissatisfied, as he had come to earn some extra money. In the end, he could only glare at Luther before leaving the temporary camp. After he left, his vacant position was replaced by another guard from Halle's team.

Five minutes later, nine people, including Halle, Cecilia, and Drouin, officially entered the Starfall Forest under the leadership of Sean.

Looking from the outside, the Starfall Forest was just very dense. However, because there was a thick fog that surrounded the Starfall Forest all year round, it was impossible to see what was really inside the forest by just looking at it.

The Starfall Forest was a little bit strange. Although there were a large number of ferocious magical beasts inside the Starfall Forest, the magical beasts had never rushed out of the thick fog before to attack the surrounding towns. It was because of that that the regions surrounding the Starfall Forest were able to develop.

However, after passing through the thick fog, the space inside the Starfall Forest was revealed to be a completely different world!

When looking up, the sky inside the Starfall Forest was not a canopy that had obscured the sun. Instead, it was a night sky filled with stars. Even the bright moon above the Miracle Continent could be seen. In addition to such beautiful scenery of the night sky, the environment inside the Starfall Forest was not particularly bad. The forest was filled with the fragrance of flowers. Tender grass had also grown on the ground inside the entire Starfall Forest. Stepping on the grass felt like stepping on a fluffy carpet. A light blue fluorescent light that looked like fireflies filled the entire forest and added a type of delicate beauty to it.

Among the people present, many of them were seeing such beautiful scenery for the first time. For a moment, they were a little stunned.

Sean could not help but remember the first time he had entered the forest. Just like everyone else, he had been deeply attracted to the beauty of this forest. However, he was very clear on the fact that the forest was not as simple as just beautiful scenery. The killing intent hidden under its beauty was extremely shocking to everyone, even to the magical beasts that were around level 40. If people were not careful, then even rank-three professionals would also fall here.

"All right, everyone, you need to come back to your senses." After waiting a little more than 10 seconds, Sean had to clap his hands to attract the attention of everyone who had not yet come back to their senses from the shock. "We did not come here for you to have a picnic or to enjoy the scenery. Do not forget that you still have work to do!" he berated, exasperated at the lack of tact from the group.

After they heard what Sean said, the group immediately came back to their senses. None of them had forgotten what their duty was. It was just the first time they had seen the scenery inside the Starfall Forest, so they were a bit stunned. However, after they remembered what their mission was, the people were no longer in the mood to appreciate the scenery. Instead, they formed a defensive formation that protected Halle, Cecilia, and Sean, who were in the middle.

Sean had no objection to the arrangement. He could protect himself inside the Starfall Forest, as long as he did not get caught up in a trap. However, in the eyes of the other people, Sean was only at rank-one strength. To them, Sean was no different from Halle, who was a businessman, and Cecilia, who was an apprentice magician. However, since the commander for the trip was Sean, his existence was the most important and crucial on the team. That was why they had to protect him.

Due to that, the leader of the team became Drouin, while Sean was in charge of pointing the way from inside of the protective circle.

The heavily armed knights wore light armor, not heavy armor. Wearing heavy armor could have caused many inconveniences while walking inside the Starfall Forest.

The four guards were scattered on the left and right sides of Sean and the others, making them the core of the circle. This time, instead of bringing heavy shields and long spears, they had followed Sean's suggestion and replaced them with thickened round shields and curved blades. However, the medium-sized armor on their body had not been replaced. Even though the weight load had not been reduced and it was still inconvenient for them to move around in the Starfall Forest, at least flexibility and defensive ability during combat were both guaranteed.

The veteran, Old Pete, was in charge of the rear end of the team. He had not worn any metal armor, just simple leather armor. However, the leather armor was extremely worn out. It seemed to be from back when he was in the army. In terms of weapons, Old Pete displayed the same professional characteristics as a mercenary. Apart from the long spear he had on him and the longbow he carried on his back, there was also a long sword attached to his waist and a sheath tied to his calf. Inside the sheath was a dagger.

The only other archer on the team had plans to develop into a rank-four [Ranger]. He had not followed the movements of the team but instead wandered around on both sides of the team. Now and then, he would run in front of Drouin. Although his movements looked a bit undeveloped, it was obvious that they were basic detection skills. However, the most important thing was the collection of weapons on his body. Apart from the short bow, he also had two swords, one long and one short. It was obvious that he had also prepared to fight under different circumstances.

After the team had traveled like this for around half a day, a black wolf with green stripes suddenly appeared within everyone's line of sight.

When they saw that the magical beast had appeared, everyone in the team was stunned for just a moment. They had the archer on their team who was in charge of detection, so why had this magical beast appeared before the archer had even issued a warning? Drouin and Cecilia, who had reacted a little faster, realized almost immediately that the reason was due to the tender grass that grew on the ground inside this Starfall Forest. The grass was able to block out all the sounds they made from walking!

The usual detection methods would be completely ineffective inside the Starfall Forest. They needed new strategies, or things could turn out very badly.

At the moment everyone lost focus, Sean, who was well aware of the dangers of the Starfall Forest, quickly shouted, "Wind Striped Black Wolf! Everyone, get ready to fight!"