Chapter 175: Reaching the first checkpoint

Following Seraphina’s orders, the squad moved forward, where both sides were covered by towering plants while the path itself was suspiciously straight and clean.

The plants seemed like any other wild vegetation in a forest, completely at peace. It was as if they were baiting them to enter.

"These floral monsters possess enough intelligence to lure their prey directly to them," Vlad muttered, glancing at the plants on either side of him, his expression exasperated.

They were moving in a horizontal line, with Vlad and Hugo at the corners and Seraphina and Alisha in between.

"You sound rather impressed," Seraphina replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I’m," Vlad’s response came in an instant. "They didn’t attack us as soon as we entered their carefully laid path. They are waiting for us to move deeper so that we have no way to return."

Although his face carried an expression of curiosity and excitement, one hand was already resting on his sword’s hilt, prepared for any surprise attack.

"Let’s increase the pace," Seraphina ordered, her fingers tightening around the fur of Qilin.

The moment the squad increased their pace, the patience of the floral monsters shattered. In an instant, several vines shot at them from both directions. The path ahead and behind them was completely blocked by the thick branches of the trees that moved like writhing serpents.

"Haha, finally some action," Hugo laughed, unsheathing his blade.

"Hugo will block the attacks from the left side," Seraphina ordered in a firm tone. "You do it from the right," she told Vlad. "I will clear the path ahead."

"Ay-ay, captain," Hugo replied, his blade moving in a blur as he sliced off every vine that came from his side.

Vlad drew the Dark Heart, lacing it with a faint sheet of black Mana Blade. His sword moved with precision, cutting the vines like a pair of scissors running across a sheet of paper.

In the middle, Seraphina had already formed a massive magic circle behind her head. Its complex patterns glowed with a faint crimson light.

As they approached the path ahead, completely sealed by the thick branches of the trees, Seraphina whispered in a calm tone,

"Three Ring Spell: Volcano Blast!"

From her magic spell, a thick beam of lava shot forward, bathing the entire squad’s faces in golden light. The sizzling sound of burning wood echoed through the forest, followed by the scent of charred wood.

When the beam vanished, a large hole was left in its wake. The snow on the path had melted away, revealing the dirt ground below.

"Push forward!" Seraphina shouted, her lips curled in excitement as her Qilin bolted at full speed, kicking up the snow from beneath its paws.

Vlad followed close beside her, the dark unicorn moving gracefully, touching the ground for only a brief second before leaping through the air again, just a few inches above the land. A trail of darkness followed in its wake.

He could have moved even faster, but he needed to stay with the team and cover for them from the sides. Even though the branches and vines had been burned away, the main bodies of the floral monsters were still there. Injured and desperate, they lunged at the squad, their thorned petals trying to engulf them whole.

Even then, the squad didn’t slow down for a moment. Vlad and Hugo took care of the injured monsters with relative ease.

In only three hours, they passed through the trap, reaching closer to their destination.

The scenery didn’t have any noticeable change. The same snow covered the ground, the same uneven terrain stretched ahead, and the same dense trees surrounded them in every direction. What had changed was that there weren’t many floral monsters visible.

Raphael was already waiting for them at the end, standing beside his griffin, which was taking a rest after several hours of flight.

"Haha, that was fun," Hugo laughed as he dismounted his direwolf. "You must be tired. Take a rest," he said to his direwolf, patting its back.

The others also dismounted from their beasts and grouped together beneath a tree.

"Is everyone alright?" Raphael asked, his eyes scanning the squad for any visible injuries.

"Hah! As if those weeds could harm us," Hugo scoffed, waving a dismissive hand.

"Even if they did, I’m here to patch them up," Alisha said in a proud tone, both her hands resting on her waist.

Seraphina, as a Four Ring Mage, could have easily taken care of all the floral monsters with two or three more spells of the same level that she had unleashed. The reason she still divided the work among the team was to avoid wasting her mana in a useless battle.

But what shocked Vlad was the lethality of her spell. Were Three Ring Spells really that destructive, or was it something that only Seraphina could pull off? If he were against such a spell, he could have easily dodged it by using his Lightning Steps, but facing it head-on? He would have turned into a pile of burnt flesh.

’She is truly incredible,’ Vlad murmured inwardly, looking at Seraphina in admiration.

The girl, completely oblivious to his gaze, asked Raphael while moving back the furry cap of her coat, "Have you scouted the area?"

"Yes, I have," Raphael replied with a nod. "Two kilometres in the northeast direction, there is a horde of orcs."

"How many?" Seraphina’s next question came in an instant.

"I have spotted three. There might be more," Raphael revealed.

"Orcs are at the peak of Rank Two in the monster rankings," Seraphina murmured, tugging the strands of her crimson hair away from her face, her eyes narrowing in thought. "If they were just cleared out by the seniors three weeks ago, there shouldn’t be this many of them already. Not to mention, they are only spotted much deeper in the forest."

"So the academy’s suspicion was really true," Hugo added with a gasp.

"Of course it would be," Alisha scoffed. "They wouldn’t just send us here based on mere speculation."

Vlad turned to Seraphina and asked in a serious tone, "So what is our next course of action?"

"Simple." Seraphina turned, looking straight into his eyes. "We will wipe them out."

The others also nodded in response as if it were the most natural thing to do.

"Huh?" Vlad raised an eyebrow in confusion. "If we wipe them out, how will we find out the next trail?"

"There is no need to find them," Seraphina explained in an excited tone. "Orc blood attracts monsters. Once we have killed them, we will wait for the other monsters to follow us, and then we can backtrack them. However... before all that..."

She stretched her arms and declared, "We need to set up our camp."

Vlad carefully listened and noted down every word in his mind. It was just the second day since he had become a Sentinel Knight, and he had already learned so many things that he had been completely oblivious to.

The Dark Continent, the Genesis Artifact, the Forest of Death, floral monsters and their intelligence, and the application of orc blood. It was like a year’s worth of academic knowledge that he had just received in around twenty-four hours by joining this quest. He was really glad that he had decided to join in.

While he was processing all the new information, Seraphina drew a hand-sized capsule from her storage ring. Her eyes darted around, looking for a suitable place. A few metres ahead, she found it.

An open spot that didn’t have any trees within a radius of fifty metres, or more accurately, the trees there had been cut down by the seniors or professors who had arrived here during the last clear-out mission.

Spots like these could be found near the checkpoints, created for the very same reason as what Seraphina intended to do.

She pressed a button at the head of the capsule, which made it pulse with a faint red light as if it were about to explode. She threw the capsule forward, towards the middle of the open area.

Boom!

A mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke erupted. The explosion wasn’t loud, nor did the smoke rise high enough to reach the zenith of the towering tree, but it was enough to grab Vlad’s attention.

He immediately ran towards the source of the explosion. As he moved past the tree, the sight before him left him flabbergasted.

A mushroom-shaped building stood in the middle of an open area in the forest.

"Sera, what is this?" Vlad asked, reaching her side.

"This is the latest invention of the Magic Research Department," she revealed as she clicked a button on the surface of the building. A door opened, revealing a lift inside. "It’s called a Capsule Bomb, basically a portable building." Sera stepped inside the lift. "The entire structure is stored inside a small magical capsule in another dimension, just like storage rings. Once activated, the capsule releases the building in a matter of seconds."

Vlad followed her, moving inside the lift as he murmured, "What other surprises am I going to see today."