Early the next morning, just as dawn was breaking, the old priest Grisnak leaned on his bone staff and appeared on the riverbank.
Having been remade by dragon blood yesterday, his spine had indeed straightened considerably, and his steps were much more steady, though his decades-long habit of slouching could not be changed overnight.
"My Lord," the old priest bowed and greeted him.
"You're here?" Kael had already been waiting on the riverbank for a while.
Yesterday, after padding his stomach with basalt gravel from the cliffside, he had begun learning spells.
With the boost from his talents, the learning process went exceptionally smoothly. Now, he was itching to stretch his limbs and see how effective they were in actual combat.
"Grisnak, do you know the territories of the Third-Tier magical beasts around here? Come, lead me there to practice."
"Yes. Heading north from here, there is an oak forest that serves as the territory of a Third-Tier steel-backed bear. What does My Lord think?" After speaking, the old priest stood respectfully to the side once more.
"Good, that's the one."
The old priest turned around to lead the way ahead. A faint magical aura flickered across his body as he cast a speed-enhancing spell on himself.
One goblin and one dragon hurried along the river toward the oak forest to the north.
Kael did not spread his dragon wings, relying instead on his natural speed advantage to follow unhurriedly behind the old priest, striking up a casual conversation.
"Grisnak, how long have you lived in this forest?"
"Replying to My Lord, it has been fifty-three years."
"Oh? Then tell me about the situation in this forest. What other tribes are there besides your goblins?"
The old priest fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking:
"The Whispering Forest is vast, My Lord." He raised his bone staff and pointed toward the continuous mountain ridge in the distance.
"The place beneath our feet sits next to an extinct volcano. It looks quiet and free of conflict, but in truth, it is merely the southwest corner of the entire forest."
"As for us goblins..." He gave a bitter smile.
"In truth, we were pushed out by other tribes and driven here."
"Are there no powerful figures in your tribe?"
No matter the world, goblins were at the absolute bottom of the monster hierarchy, the ones getting bullied. Still, Kael wanted to get a feel for this species' situation.
"The strongest warrior in the tribe, which is our chieftain, reached the Fifth-Tier. However, his physical condition is already declining, so he has no hope of advancing any further."
"Additionally, there are three Fourth-Tier goblin warriors responsible for the tribe's daily hunting and patrol duties."
"Unable to compete with other powerful tribes, we migrated all the way to the edge of the forest. Only when we reached this unwanted corner did we manage to barely settle down."
"What about to the north?" Kael asked.
"Heading north, there are two powerful tribes." The old priest's voice dropped low.
"The one closest to us is the kobold tribe. They possess crude forging techniques, and they naturally enjoy searching for ores and digging mine shafts. The warriors of their tribe are generally equipped with iron armor and iron weapons."
"The strongest individual in their tribe is a Kobold Priest who has reached the Sixth-Tier."
"As for the other tribe..."
He paused, his expression turning unusually solemn:
"It is the gnoll tribe."
"Gnolls?" Hearing the fearful tone in the old priest's voice, Kael tilted his head.
"Yes. My Lord, you must never underestimate them."
"The chief of the gnoll tribe seems to have entered the High-Tier rank many years ago."
"High-Tier?" Kael stopped in his tracks.
He hadn't expected a High-Tier magical beast to truly exist in this forest. A year ago, in the materials he captured from that group of adventurers, there had been no description of this at all.
A sense of crisis stronger than that posed by humans welled up in Kael's heart.
"Tell me more about those gnolls."
"When this old one was young, the gnolls were merely a small tribe with a few dozen pups, huddled on the northern edge of the forest, not even daring to linger in the forest depths."
The old priest sighed.
"However, later on, for reasons unknown, the garrison troops and adventurers in Emberfire City grew fewer and fewer, never returning to the forest to purge monsters again."
"Taking advantage of this period, the major tribes in the Whispering Forest all began to grow. And the gnolls were the ones who developed the fastest among them."
"Their territory lies at the northernmost edge of the forest. There are no competing races over there, and it is close to human trade routes. Relying on vast hunting grounds and plundering occasional passing human merchant caravans, they live quite comfortably."
"Later on, apart from driving the nearby kobold tribe southward by a certain distance, they showed no intention of expanding into our corner."
"So in that sense, although our location is remote, it is actually a blessing in disguise."
...
Kael went over these words in his mind.
The kobolds were a bunch of fellows obsessed with digging holes and mining every day; as long as he didn't actively provoke them, they posed almost no threat.
The gnolls were a race that naturally worshipped wildness and blood, extremely greedy for wealth, fond of raiding caravans, and plundering goods and treasure. They were something he absolutely had to avoid right now.
Fortunately, they didn't seem to care for this remote corner near the extinct volcano.
As for the humans, the information the old priest had gathered matched Grok's: aside from an increase in the number of caravans on the roads, there were no other obvious movements.
...
Deep within the oak forest, a giant bear with hair on its shoulders and back gleaming with a dull metallic luster sat with its back against an old oak tree, tearing into a honeycomb with its front paws and happily eating the honey inside.
In the bushes beside a nearby low tree, two heads—one red and one green—poked out. The old priest's Concealment spell cloaked the red dragon and the goblin.
This time, Kael did not use that tiny spark. He chanted an incantation under his breath, mobilizing the fire elements within his magic core to condense into a watermelon-sized fireball before his claws. The scorching temperature caused the surrounding air to distort.
"Fireball", a Low-Tier spell capable of causing considerable explosive and burning damage to targets, was also the first ranked spell encountered by many mage practitioners.
"Away you go!"
Trailing a tail of flame, the fireball slammed toward the giant bear's belly, where its fur was sparser.
The steel-backed bear, which had been happily enjoying the snack in its paws, only felt the light before its eyes grow brighter and brighter.
"Boom!"
"Roar!"
The fire exploded, and the giant bear let out a scream of pain as the flesh on its belly was blasted charred black. The steel-backed bear immediately dropped the honeycomb from its paws, rolled away from its spot like any creature suddenly injured, and hid behind the trunk of the oak tree.
Realizing it had been ambushed, the giant bear let out a series of angry roars toward the direction it had been facing, its small eyes scanning everywhere for the enemy.
Before it could see clearly, three Wind Blades sliced through the air, precisely cutting into its exposed hind leg and carving out three new bloody gashes.
"Wind Blade", a Low-Tier spell. Extremely difficult to detect and swift, Wind Blades could rapidly deal damage to enemies and yielded great effects if striking critical areas.
The steel-backed bear had thick fur and fat on its legs, so even the Wind Blades enhanced by Kael's talent did not inflict severe damage on it.
However, Kael merely wanted to test the power of his magic; he didn't want it to croak that quickly.
The steel-backed bear was completely enraged. Having determined the approximate location of its attacker, it roared and lunged toward the bush where Kael was hiding.
Kael unhurriedly stepped out of the bush. He wanted to test how strong his physical body had become after breaking through to the Third-Tier.
Raising his foreclaw, he head-on caught the bear paw swiping down at him.
"Bang!"
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