Chapter 146 - SS-grade Threat

Leonel's thoughts accelerated. A moment later, he understood where this feeling was coming from.

In the past several months, he had learned quite a lot about Force Crafting. In that time, how could he not look into his Quasi Bronze chain necklace? After suffering the barrage of several bombs, it had suffered a few minor cracks, but Leonel could tell that those 'minor' defects actually decreased the strength of the treasure by as much as 10%.

??

During his studies, Leonel had learned about the type of treasure his necklace was. As an energy based defensive treasure, it also came with several downsides.

One of those downsides was an inability to function in the presence of Force disrupting towers. This was something Leonel learned personally, much to the sadness of his shoulder. But, most importantly, it was incredibly fragile when meeting higher level Force types.

What did this mean? It meant that whatever was in the process of attacking him now had grasped a Force Strengthening Deviation.

Whether or not this Force Strengthening Deviation was powerful or not compared to other didn't matter. All that mattered was that it was at the very least a level beyond normal Force.

'Dammit. Aren't these deviations supposed to be rare? How the hell did I randomly come across one like this?'

As Leonel continued to fall to the ground, he couldn't help but lament his bad luck once again. At the same time, he caught the faint inkling that though this 'Project Hunt' provided good opportunities, it could very well create new enemies for Earth as well.

If there were other beasts this powerful... Let's just say Leonel didn't want to think about it.

Just as the black light was about to collide with his chest, Leonel's right sole lit up and he stamped down hard, sending him shooting off to the side.

As he did this, he couldn't help but shake his head. First it was the chariot, now it was this weird creature. When he chose these treasure shoes, he had never thought that instead of using it to glide through the air, he'd always be using it to escape a sorry state.

Luckily, he had already upgraded his treasure shoes. Now, the cool down on their activation was only 30 seconds and they also provided a boost to his leaping ability.

The moment he gained some distance, Leonel took out his two pistols, firing four rapid shots, two from each.

SHUU! SHUU! SHUU! SHUU!

Leonel clenched his jaw and continued to wait, not moving even after half an hour had passed. But, there was still no sign of the creature.

With sweat pouring down his forehead, he had no choice but to release his Internal Sight, allowing him to gasp deep breaths. He knew by now that the likelihood the creature was still stalking him was low.

'Was it scared away...?'

Leonel had always heard that animals were more afraid of humans than humans were of them. But, he didn't really know if this was true or not. At the very least, it seemed that this beast was gone.

Jumping down from the tree, Leonel soon landed on the ground. After taking a look around and realizing that the creature really wasn't going to attack him, he began to approach the center of the island with more caution.

Leonel flipped his palm over, causing a silver disk to appear.

"What Force Strengthening Deviation did that beast use?"

[ *Ping* Replying to Seed, there are fluctuations of Dark Elemental Force in the air ]

Leonel didn't react much to this, but this was only because he wasn't aware of just how unlucky he was. Dark Elemental Force was just as rare as Light Elemental Force. Yet, he had actually been marked by such an entity.

**

At that moment, on the other side of the island, another ship could be found anchored. A group of youths jumped from its side, swimming toward the shore with ambitious glints in their eyes.

However, neither those youths from the Eastern Lookout, nor the youths that came with Leonel from the Southern Lookout, was aware that there was a third gathering taking place as well.

Nearby a large lake on the island, a gathering of beasts was taking place. Though none of them exchanged words in a human sense, there eyes seemed to tell a different story.

From an outsider's perspective, all that could be heard was a series of grunts and growls. However, if one paid close attention and removed themselves from their preconceived notions...

These animals seemed to be having a meeting.