Chapter 48: A Trap?

Hiro hadn't expected that there existed a place in this dead realm where his divine sense couldn't penetrate.

This caused him to increase his vigilance level by a notch, already feeling tense.

"What type of creatures are we going to encounter?" Hiro asked when they pulled away from the other groups.

Theo answered succinctly, "Mostly insecticides, slimes, undead skeletons, and hellspawns; all of which are of very low intelligence, and their basic attack patterns are melee and swarm tactics."

Hiro nodded his head. Then, the group began to slowly increase their pace since three hours could be long or short depending on how they allocated their time.

Theo was a little more confident with Hiro on their team, hence he started cutting corners while exploring.

Hiro didn't mind because his divine sense was scattered around, and he would know if something or someone were to approach them.

Suddenly, Hiro's pupils constricted.

Spirit qi exploded from beneath his feet as he dashed through Theo and his companions, arriving at the forefront of the group with an energy-long sword in hand.

Shing!

Hiro cleaved down at a speed barely perceptible to Theo and his team. Sёarch* The Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

All they saw was a flash of cold light, followed by a thin wave of sword qi that blasted onto the surface of a speeding boulder.

The weak trees and thick miasma gave way to the heavy rock as it entered everyone's field of vision.

Then, the boulder was split in two from the middle, the two halves separating and rolling to either side of the group.

ROAR!

A powerful gust of wind blasted over from the deep, dark foliage. Hiro creased his brows and asked, "Who gave you these coordinates?"

Theo also noticed that something was wrong with this place, especially since there was a clear discrepancy in the intel gathered.

"I bought the coordinates from a secret gathering, and I wasn't the only one who got the information, hence why I was anxious to gather a team as soon as possible," Theo answered with an ugly expression.

Could it be that the sale was a setup? Hiro wondered as he sensed the overwhelming aura building up in the distance.

He shook his head and muttered inwardly, It can't be; then this could only be a trap set up by someone else who had access to this pocket dimension. However, the worst-case scenario is that this thing was something left behind by the demons before they left.

In any case, overthinking at the moment was fruitless.

"Just use your fire flare signal to gather everyone in one location," Hiro instructed calmly. "It hasn't been that long since the groups separated, just check who is willing to rendezvous and who isn't."

Theo had a bad premonition and asked, "What about you?"

Hiro clicked his tongue. However, he'd feel pretty disgusted with himself if he started spouting some cheesy lines, especially because he knew that he would be fine regardless.

Thus, he didn't even bother talking before rushing into the dense embrace of the black miasma.

Whatever trap by humans or backdoor set by demons was inside, Hiro wasn't at all worried.

Even if his Origin Soul realm cultivation wasn't enough, he could always fall back on his Arcana Lord character.

While my cultivation is already so high, my divine sense is still stuck at the third level. In terms of range, it's very far—but in terms of quality, it's very low.

Hiro checked his stats and as expected, he hadn't improved much on his divine sense, still stuck at {Divine Sense III}, while it should have caught up to his cultivation and reached a minimum of {Divine Sense IV} by now.

Although there were only two levels of difference, each upgrade brought about a qualitative change.

However, to get his hands on the higher-level cultivation manuals, Hiro needed to complete sect missions and exploration quests, which is boring since he could only watch his character from a detached perspective.

Anyway, Hiro wasn't in a hurry to get his hands on a new game, so he might as well spend a few days rounding up the magic spells, martial arts, and other qualities in his Daoist character.

As his thoughts reached this point, he activated the {Lunar Descent III}, the equivalent of a Tier-7 AOE attack.

From outside the miasma, one could see wisps of cold fog intertwined with the coiling darkness.

Viscous as they were, the two colors contrasted sharply with one another as corrupted snowflakes drifted about.

Hiro could feel the resistance of the miasma that shackled down his domain, but a crescent moon had descended from the cold mist nonetheless.

It couldn't be stopped.

Cold moonlight pierced the darkness from sporadic angles, allowing Hiro's divine sense to penetrate deeper and deeper.

There, he found something… A broodmother?

Hiro was shocked by the scene. A massive earthworm-like creature occupied a large swamp of bubbling, acidic fluids.

Plumes of dense miasma and pungent liquid were expunged from its body with each breath, and countless small eggs fell over into the swamp beneath its body.

The moment Hiro saw it, the creature seemed to have sensed something as it raised its head and roared, revealing a wide cylindrical mouth housing rows and rows of rotating sharp teeth.

The teeth spun like a chainsaw both clockwise and counterclockwise, and despite the lack of sound, Hiro saw visible shockwaves rippling out from its mouth.

It felt like a silent shriek—a summoning… And, it was a summoning indeed.

From the trees, the ground, the decrepit foliage, the swamp, the sky, and from regions beyond the mortal sight—an army of insecticides crawled over.

Hiro inhaled sharply, and his aura slowly changed into something violent yet cold.

He invested even more of his spirit qi into the {Lunar Descent III} spell, hastening the descent of the crescent moon.

Then, notification after notification of experience points popped up in front of Hiro, but the value was too little.

+ 1 XP…

+ 1 XP…

+ 12 XP…

…

If Hiro wasn't mistaken, then the value of experience points was determined based on the gap in power.

If he wasn't in his {synchronization} mode at the moment, then the experience points would have been much greater.

Nonetheless, the numbers kinda made up for the quality, quickly filling up the experience bar of his real level.

Regardless, Hiro wasn't paying attention to this detail at the moment. A question arose in his mind as he adopted a close-quarter martial stance.

Is this the only broodmother in this pocket dimension? As the question rang in his mind, Hiro directed a slow-motion punch.

As his hand moved, and his center of gravity lowered, wisps of cold air gathered at the tips of his knuckles.

The cold air from the domain, gravitating around like a twisted cyclone, erupted forward while projecting a translucent fist image.

Whoosh! Boom!

The blast of cold air exploded on the surface of the broodmother, spreading onto the swamp both surface and depth.

As the freezing spirit qi spread, more and more insects died, while a clear frozen path was created on the potentially poisoned swamp water.

Without hesitation, Hiro controlled the cold air and fashioned a long sword crafted from black ice, spiriting his way toward the broodmother.

At the moment, this creature had yet to consume its offspring to grow stronger, leaving it immobile and vulnerable.

Hiro's eyes glinted sharply, determined not to provide it the opportunity for an evolution.

…

Following Hiro's instructions, Theo brought out the signal flare and fired it into the sky.

In the dim dark, a bright red streaking across the sky was very obvious. Following the next few minutes later, about sixteen people made it over, but there wasn't a sign of anyone else.

In total, about thirteen people were missing, which was a little off. Theo creased his brows, feeling a little perturbed.

"Where are the rest?" Theo asked, even though he had an answer in his heart.

The people around looked at one another, not knowing how to respond.

"No use in acting dumb at this point," a woman with a brown wolf mask said. "I already felt like something was wrong from the beginning, and I doubt your intuition is any worse than mine."

As she spoke, her eyes swept past everyone.

Since someone did take the initiative, the others also spoke up.

"While I was roaming around, some locations seemed simple to get through while others gave me the creeps—they felt like I was gazing into certain death."

"Exactly, I had a similar feeling. Actually, I get that feeling even now, just by standing here and looking into this dense miasma."

…

Theo listened to everyone quietly, and as he was about to speak, a shrill cry erupted from behind.

REEEEEE!!!!

Boom!

The swirling miasma seemed to lose its cohesiveness as it exploded out like a smoke bomb. However, silver rays of light completely demolished the miasma, slowly dissipating to reveal a massive broodmother writhing in pain, splashing in dirty waters.

A massive, thick ice blade pinned it down—piercing from its head and into the depths of the swamp.

On its back stood a figure obscured in misty white clouds, but compared to the massive sword, he seemed more like a midget.

+ 4,128 XP…