With his knowledge of his group members, there was no need to worry about them, they could all handle themselves and adapt to conditions.
It was even possible that they had already reached civilizations or found each other.
If they were in the other two forests, their situation would be much better, because at least those forests are of normal size and they are not like ants there.
In this Forest of Giants, it is the most dangerous area for awakened ones, even moving and traveling through this forest can take days and weeks.
He was lucky to have obtained One, otherwise even for him it could have taken days and weeks.
A few hours later, he closed the last scroll, arranged the documents neatly on the table, there was not much else to read.
He had obtained all the information he wanted, the only problem was that there was no precise way to travel between the three forests.
Not that there were no paths, on the contrary, several paths were mentioned, but each of them was deadly, and at least based on the descriptions in these reports, each had creatures at least as powerful as the Sky Giant Bird.
He now understood why contact between the three forests had been cut off for so long, with such monsters blocking the paths between them, who could travel to another forest?
However, there was one option that led to the Glassthorn Forest, a valley path known as the Giants’ Graveyard.
Its name was terrifying, and so was its path, but no creature at the level of the Sky Giant Bird lived there, and that at least opened a window of hope for Lian.
If he wanted to travel between the forests on the ground, the Giants’ Graveyard was the only option.
And then he left the hut.
He decided to see the training ground and find Ravian. The training ground was located in the space between several roots.
Dummies made of skin, bone, and moss were installed in the corners, stone pillars for testing strength existed.
Obstacle courses were built on the roots, several small fields for fighting existed.
Targets hung from ropes for archery and spear throwing moved. In a separate section, riding beasts were being trained.
Ravian was training in one of the fields, thrusting his spear forward.
Pulling it back, changing his step, striking again. His movements were powerful, but still raw.
He was putting too much pressure on his shoulder, and his back foot’s position during the attack was too open.
He repeated the same movement many times, even when his hands were trembling from exhaustion.
Lian watched his training from a distance. There were many mistakes in using the spear. His attacks were instinctive, meaning they had no skill or strategy.
His foot placement was terrible. He attacked recklessly and only went for the head. Maybe it was not bad, but it made his pattern predictable, exactly like monsters.
But even though his form was very raw and his attacks were instinctive, with just one look it was clear that he had high physical strength.
In every attack, his muscles would contract and a lot of power would be used, and he could maintain this level of power for a long time, which showed his high stamina.
For a fighter, these were very important innate traits, and Lian could see great talent in him.
He wanted to approach, but before he could say anything, the sound of a shout came from the direction of the gate.
Then the alarm sound, then chaos.
People started running, the sound of crying and orders echoed through the tribe.
"What happened?" Lian looked around with a frown, suddenly the entire atmosphere of the tribe changed.
Ravian stopped training and lowered his spear. "What happened?" He also realized something had happened, and his gaze fell on Lian.
The two moved toward the gate without saying anything. The crowd grew larger every moment, the sound of wounded beasts was heard.
The dispatched group had returned, but not in order. The riding beasts were wounded, blood was dry on their armor.
A few soldiers were being carried on stretchers, some had broken armor.
"Bring the healers!" one of the warriors shouted.
The crowd parted. In the center of the group, Averian was lying on the back of one of the riding beasts.
His face had no color, a large part of his body was covered in blood, and both his arms had been severed from above the elbows.
The ends of the wounds had been burned with fire or mana to stop the bleeding.
But blood was still passing through the wrapped cloth.
Ravian stood motionless, the spear fell from his hand, and the sound of it hitting the ground was lost among the screams.
Sera and Nemi arrived from the other side of the crowd.
Nemi completely froze upon seeing her father, as if she had even lost the ability to breathe.
Sera took a step forward.
Then stopped, her eyes fixed on the empty space where her father’s hands used to be.
Averian was still alive, but his breaths were very weak.
One of the wounded warriors was standing next to the beast, his face covered in blood and dirt.
"It was an ambush..." he said with a broken voice, his breath trembling, his eyes full of fear.
"The Varkesh weren’t alone."
The crowd fell silent. The man raised his gaze, his eyes moving among the people, then fixed on Lian.
Fear formed on his face. His trembling finger pointed at him.
"There was something else there." His voice almost turned into a whisper.
"It looked like him."
All eyes turned toward Lian.
He looked at Averian, at the cut wounds.
At the thin black marks that remained around the burns on the arms.
They had gone to fight over water, but what had returned Averian to the tribe with both hands severed did not belong to any of the three tribes.
And according to that soldier’s words, that thing was an Otherworldly, or more precisely, an awakened one...