Chapter 329: Forest of Chaotic Illusions! Part-4.
The Next Morning.
Lia and Selain started their journey to reach the 'core' of the forest's illusion and headed deeper into the cave after they both had enough rest.
"This cave seems quite normal, even though it's the core area of the whole forest of illusion..."
Selain also nodded her head at Lia's words and said,
"Yeah, it's weirder that this place is much normal when compared to the rest of the forest... Unlike the absurd feeling that everything gives out there, it gives a sense of mystery and hidden danger..."
Lia suddenly thought of something and asked Kai in her mind.
'Can you sense the presence of that SS-ranker even now?'
To that question, Kai replied in a calm voice.
[I can... Although I am using my mana detection in a much more concealed way so as to avoid the senses of the other party, I can for sure confirm that the other party is indeed an SS-ranker...]
[The only way to get out of this place is to deal with this person who is controlling the illusions; otherwise, there's no way to escape the grasp of this SS-ranker...]
Lia sighed at those words and stopped thinking about this matter.
Meeting a random SS-ranker can really be dangerous, but they have no choice right now.
'In the first place, if the other party wanted to do something bad, they wouldn't have needed to wait for so long...'
An SS-ranker can easily overpower A-rankers like them, so if the other party wanted, they could have already beaten Lia and Selain from kilometers away without even showing their faces.
'The fact that we both are okay until now means that the other party isn't interested in harming us... which means there is still a small chance to escape this place...'
While Lia was busy thinking about what to do next, Selain was keeping an eye on the surroundings as they both headed deeper into the dark cave.
All of a sudden, she noticed something and unsheathed her sword in an instant.
[Golden Petal Sword Art: Furious Petal Thrust!]
Selain swung her sword in a diagonal manner, and the golden sword energy from her sword hit the wall of the cave nearby.
*bbbbaaaaaaaaahhhhhhrrrrr!!*
When the sword energy hit the wall, the wall disappeared, and a small plant in the shape of a snake appeared in sight.
It turns out that the wall was actually an illusion, and the real wall was hidden behind that illusion created by that strange plant.
"Er, do plants also scream when sliced?"
A complicated look appeared on Lia's face as she frowned at the loud scream of that strange plant.
Selain's expression turned solemn as she said,
"That was perhaps a distress signal... Many monsters scream and send a distress signal to their group when they are on their last breath... We should leave this place fast..."
Lia also nodded her head, and the two of them immediately headed deeper, but before they could go too far, they arrived at an open area.
There were now dozens of paths in front of the two, but that wasn't the main problem.
"Not good! Get ready for battle!"
Selain suddenly sensed the presence of hundreds of hostile creatures from the dozens of paths in the open area, and her danger senses started to warn her like crazy.
Before she could tell Lia anything, a huge number of 'Giant Ants' with claws like mantises appeared and started to rush towards Lia and Selain like crazy.
Some of them even trampled on their own kin, and the scene became extremely chaotic.
how tough her armor is.
Not only does her armor provide amazing defense for her, but it also gives a boost to her basic stats, and the four wings behind her back increase her speed and agility even further. Even though it was inside a narrow cave, Lia was still able to dodge and rush forward any attack from the ants while still being able to do counterattacks.
By the time Lia finally escaped that endless siege of the ants by going deeper into the cave, she had already traveled a distance of nearly fifty kilometers while dodging and counterattacking at the same time.
She not only had to keep the ants in mind but also had to take many turns to avoid hitting the
walls of the cave.
After Lia passed by the path from where all the ants were coming out from, she finally left the
siege of the ants behind.
'Are they still chasing me?'
[No, it looks like they have stopped chasing... likely because you already got out of their territory...]
*Huff**Pant*
Lia deactivated her spirit armor, slumped down on a giant rock, and started to pant heavily.
Although the enemies were just weak ants, their number was too huge; they seemed endless.
Even an A-ranker will get exhausted if they have to fight hordes of enemies again and again while still using their power to the maximum.
The spirit armor costs a lot of mana, and she's been using it for two hours straight now, due to which she is now running low on mana and exhausted.
[Ah, I have finally figured it out.... I was feeling quite weird about why there were so many ants...]
[It turns out they are all partial illusions! Even I needed to analyze them for so long... which means this
is likely the handiwork of a peak SS ranker...]
The ants were so tough because they were made up of illusions engraved on stones that were enhanced with the mana of an SS-ranker.
Which means, what Lia was fighting just now were just a few thousand stones the SS-ranker used to create an army of illusionary ants.
'To think that even ordinary stones can be used to create such powerful illusions... SS-rankers
are really insane powerhouses...'
Lia fought and killed nearly two thousand ants just now, which means that she smashed two thousand stones to finally escape the siege.
'I see, this explains the ridiculous number of those monsters; they are illusions to begin with,
and obviously their number can be huge...'
'The SS-ranker behind all this is indeed a shrewd person...'
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day: What would your reaction be if you found out that the monster you worked so hard to defeat
was just a mere illusion made out of ordinary stone?
1. Shocked.
2. Disappointed.
3. Others.
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story.
Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.