Chapter 426 - Killing 1

Cecil and his group continued moving through the second stage's ice field with great caution.

The blizzard didn't let up one bit and they had to protect their bodies by fully covering themselves with the furs that Cecil had handed out earlier.

They were able to keep their warmth, but if a battle broke out, they'd be quite vulnerable if they reacted too late.

Only Cecil wasn't wearing any kind of clothing. He had his aura around him and he didn't need the extra clothing at all. Also, thanks to his cultivation, he was able to easily regulate his body temperature and keep himself from freezing amidst the unrelenting blizzard.

He only had his cloak on and was leading the party at the front. Everyone had to strain their eyes to hold any kind of vision within the blizzard, but Cecil had his Mana Sense locked onto everyone and the area around them.

Whenever any sort of monster tried to break through the surface of the ice and attack them, he was able to quickly give everyone an alert and with Celestina's help, they were able to create a temporary shelter from the blizzard by building ice walls around them while they attacked the monsters.

Whether it was good news or not, the monsters that attacked them after their deaths would sometimes drop a small black fragment. If Cecil wasn't wrong, the black fragment was a fragment of a whole black crystal.

It was quite small, but if they were able to collect 15 or 20 more pieces, they'd be able to form 1 black crystal.

Now they didn't need to kill others to get the crystals, but then posed the problem of how they were going to hunt the monsters for the fragments.

Whatever Cecil did to attract the monsters from under the water, whether it was completely concealing his mana cultivation or blatantly spreading it out and antagonizing the monsters, none of it worked to attract their attention.

The monsters would only surface and randomly attack them from time to time. The other way was to dive into the icy waters and directly attack them, but no one was crazy enough to do that.

Even Cecil could tell that the depths of the water where all of the monsters were normally swimming around at had some sort of special attribute. Even if he did go down and dive into the water to hunt the monsters, he'd slowly freeze to death by the special attribute of the water.

Cecil had already tested this out and he immediately felt an unknown energy invade his body, slowly trying to freeze his organs.

Since they couldn't do anything about it, the group could only pray that more and more monsters were attracted to the surface and attack them.

They didn't halt their travels and continued onwards, following the obscure 'path' that Angelia and Kira had left behind for them.

They would occasionally come across another group of humans but they would immediately back away or just stay put and observe them for a moment before eventually moving away in a different direction.

Cecil and everyone continued to ignore the other humans and marched forward. Cecil didn't know this, but there were actually multiple transfer gates on this stage.

Each transfer gate was located at the far edges of this stage. If Angelia and Kira were able to keep track of time, they would know that it took them over 2 weeks to complete this stage.

They had lost their way in the blizzard plenty of times and if it wasn't for Kira's Mana Scanning, the two children would have spent even more time moving around in circles.

The perpetual blizzard messed up everyone's sense of direction, but thanks to Cecil's Mana Sense he was able to avoid getting lost. Even though his group did follow after Angelia and Kira's path, he didn't blindly follow it after knowing that the path had diverged in the wrong direction.

Cecil only followed after Angelia and Kira's path that was heading in the right direction, or at least, what Cecil assumed to be the right direction since their pathing no longer looped or moved irregularly.

*****

"That's them, right?"

"Yes, it's them. If we can take down all of them, we'll get enough crystals for both our groups!"

On a slope a few thousand meters away from Cecil's group, the Baphamet Clan and another clan were together.

The Baphamet Clan members were reduced to a measly 10 so they had to group up with another clan. Thankfully, an allied clan had passed the first stage of the trials with them so they were able to group up together.

They were the Belze Clan which was known for their farsight ability and their incredible demon-like physique. Rumors had it that the Belze Clan had demon-blood running through their veins but it wasn't known whether this was true or not.

Of course, because of this rumor, the Devil Slaying Sect was naturally enemies with the clan. They had been keeping a low-profile in the first stage because of the Devil Slaying Sect's second young master, Vicimo Evi.

"That bastard, Vicimo, already took note of us. We should tread carefully. Of course, he might refrain from attacking since you're with us, but this stage's kill requirement might not stop him..." The leader of the Belze Clan's group, Barthelo Belze, said.

"Don't worry about it, Barth. That bastard Vicimo won't want to take on all of us. It's not like our cultivations are too far apart! He won't take the risk of attacking us!" Lewis Baphamet replied.

This Lewis Baphamet was the leader of the Baphamet Clan's group. During their initial clash with the Machina Reggio Empire, he had been expertly leading their group to harass them and take whatever good fortune they could take from the Empire's hands.

It was only because of the mishap of running into the cloaked Cecil that resulted in his once large group to take a hit and be reduced to their current 10-man party.

If it wasn't because Barthelo's clan was allied with theirs and the fact that the Devil Slaying Sect's young master was here which threatened him and his group, the Baphamet Clan would have most likely finished their trials on the first stage.

The environment on the second stage was very disadvantageous for Lewis and his clan members. They were an extreme fire element clan. Fighting in the tundra of the second stage wasn't going to end well for them.

Lewis wanted to take revenge against the Empire and Cecil, the Empire first and foremost because of the little artificer whose actions had nearly doomed him and his entire group. Then there was the cloaked bastard that had prevented them from running away from the Crimson Blaze Foxes.

Of course, if Lewis and his gang of fools actually took a better look and instead of forcing their way past Cecil's barrier and went around it instead, they wouldn't have landed themselves in such dire straits and risk themselves being nearly wiped out.

The only saving grace of that near-death experience was that they were able to kill a few of the a.d.u.l.t Crimson Foxes and take their cores and other materials. Their group's alchemist had been able to concoct some medicinal pills for everyone and the group's collective cultivation increased to some degree.

The most visible change was from Lewis Baphamet. He was already close to the Late Stages of the Mana Core stage so after ingesting the Crimson Blaze Pills that his family's young alchemists had been able to concoct during the first trial, he was able to push his cultivation and break through to the Late Stage of Mana Core.

He still needed to stabilize his cultivation, but that needed time. However, even though his cultivation was on par with the 3 individuals who Cecil had sensed were in the same cultivation stage as him, Lewis wasn't on par with them whatsoever.

The difference between a person that had just stepped into the late stages and a person who was already been on that stage and was close to the Mana Perfection stage was still worlds apart.

Unfortunately for Lewis, he didn't know that Cecil's cultivation was on par with the 3 strongest individuals in the trials. Cecil was stronger than the other 3 by virtue of his ether and impenetrable body which came from his Ki cultivation.

If Lewis knew that the opponent he was trying to pester was much stronger than the 3 known strongest individuals, he might have decided against attacking the unknown group of people that were thousands of meters away from their present location.

He couldn't see them, but his compatriot, Barthelo, could. Barthelo was currently observing Cecil's group from afar by using his clan's unique far-sight cultivation skill, Omniscient Demon's Eyes.

"They are handling those monsters well... that group doesn't seem to be so simple..." Barthelo said.

"It's better than trying to attack any other group. Besides, I was taking a look at their group before they left the starting area, but there are some non-combatants among them. They're easy pickings, Barth. We shouldn't let this chance slip by!" Lewis said.

"...We should just remain cautious. No faction that had passed this trial even knows where this group of people came from, but they had the guts to take the first step out of the cave and still survive up until now. We shouldn't underestimate them!"

"Mhm, we won't underestimate them. That's why when we attack we'll attack them in full force!"

Lewis turned towards his remaining clan members and they nodded back at him solemnly. They didn't forget about the powerful barrier the cloaked figure had erected which nearly caused them all to die.

Even though they were out for revenge, it didn't mean that they would brainlessly try to attack someone who was able to conjure such a powerful barrier. Not to mention that he had suddenly disappeared while they weren't looking.

"We'll wait for an opportune moment before we strike. Barth, keep one of your men on them. We shouldn't just affix ourselves to them, there are many other groups out there lost in this blizzard that we can hunt."

"Mhm, my thoughts exactly...Anyway, we should get moving now. We've rested enough."

"Yes."

Behind the group, a large hole had been opened up in the thick ice, and water around this hole was tainted red with blood. There were numerous piles of monster carcasses surrounding this hole.

The monsters weren't weak either. They ranged from those in the B-rank to the S-rank. Without a doubt, all of the weaker groups had been weeded out during the previous stage. Only the strong groups and individuals remained.