Lian opened his level panel. The distance had become shorter, very close, but Level-Up had not occurred yet.
Seris also checked her panel for a moment. From her expression, it was clear she had progressed, but she had not yet reached Level 18.
’My progress speed is very good considering I only became an awakened one a month or two ago, and especially considering that I need a huge amount of EXP for each level up.’
’My current stats have passed 3000. I thought I had reached my limit, but it seems it’s a little higher. I can feel I’m getting close to the maximum.’
’At this rate, 4000 stats is probably the maximum I can have, twice the maximum of a five-star class... that’s really a lot.’ He thought to himself.
He knew his limits were very different from other awakened ones, but still, every time he thought about it, it was amazing.
His class was beyond an anomaly. It was an outlier that simply shouldn’t exist.
This made him curious about the level limit. Is it like awakened ones, where the maximum level one can reach is 100?
Or can he go beyond that?
There was no need to think about it right now. By waiting, sooner or later, he would find out one day.
Lian then looked at the corpses. The Prismfang bodies had high value even after death, especially their financial value.
Their transparent skin could be used for making stealth equipment or Mana-resistant armor.
Their prismatic teeth had the ability to penetrate Armor, and the crystalline veins inside their bodies might be useful in making weapons or Arrays.
Lian collected all the carcasses. He left no part behind. The Alpha’s body had the most value.
He gathered all the corpses. He could sell them for a very large sum!
Of course, he asked Seris if she wanted her share, and her answer was no. It didn’t matter, that meant more profit for him.
Then he looked at the stats he had obtained. Because of the monsters’ low levels, it wasn’t much, only 47 stats, of course, the reason was also the group kill, which had halved the amount obtained.
After a short rest and checking One’s wounds, they set off again.
They advanced for hours into the depth of Glassthorn Forest. The further they went, the stranger the forest became, while at first they thought this forest was not going to be as amazing as the other two forests, they realized how wrong they were.
Inside some transparent trunks, small creatures lived.
Their bodies resembled fish, but they swam in Mana and would hide in the tree’s depth when Lian and Seris got close.
Flowers with glass petals had grown along the path.
Every time One got close to them, the petals would close with a sharp sound, and the light inside them would go out.
They passed by a narrow river. It was neither water nor pure Mana. Every drop reflected the surrounding light and made a musical sound when hitting the rocks.
Lian did not allow One to drink from it. As long as the liquid’s nature was unknown, touching it was also dangerous.
In another part of the path, they found the skeleton of a massive monster, but its bones had not decayed.
They had gradually turned into crystal and merged with the tree roots. One of the creature’s horns was now part of a transparent trunk, and Mana was flowing through it.
"Apart from how annoying they are, they are also beautiful."
A few hours later, Seris saw marks on three trees. Deep and regular lines.
"Are these writings?"
Lian went closer. The writings did not belong to anywhere they recognized. It was another language.
"While they are familiar, I don’t recognize them. I guess they are significantly similar to one of the languages of the Ruined Realm, like the map."
They had understood from the marks and some of the writings on the map that it was made by a native of the Ruined Realm who had come here in some way.
And now the carvings here were exactly the same, as if they belonged to the Ruined Realm.
He could not understand their meaning, but the location of the signs exactly matched the path on the map. The signs were also carved with power.
"I think the map’s creator carved these."
This proved that the map’s creator had really passed through this path. The map was not an estimate or an old story. Someone had walked this path step by step and recorded the real signs of the environment.
"That means the destination was that important to him? Apart from the map, he also left signs along the way." Seris thought.
"It seems so, and this shows we are going the right way."
However, the main mark was still a few days away.
The forest’s sky could hardly be seen.
The canopy of crystal trees was so dense that only small gaps remained between them.
The light of this world passed through those gaps and spread on the ground like a permanent twilight.
The exact time could only be determined by the change in light intensity and the system’s internal clock.
After a day of travel, they stopped in a relatively open part of the forest. Three massive trees surrounded the area, and their roots had created a natural wall.
One sat on the ground.
Seris placed her sword beside her hand and looked at the map that Lian had opened.
"How far are we from the mark?"
"At our current speed, two more days." Lian compared their position with the map’s lines.
The silver-haired girl looked at her sword and then at the surrounding forest.
"So until then, we need to gain a few Levels. I need three levels, of course, I’m not far from Level 18, I’ll probably reach it tomorrow."
"What about you?"
Lian opened the Experience bar.
[Level: 18]
[98%]
"I’m also not far from nineteen." He could reach Level 19 tomorrow too, but the distance to 20 was significant and required a lot of hunting.
"That’s what makes something bad happen."
"Why?" Seris raised an eyebrow.
"Because usually when something is very close, we don’t reach it easily."
The young Pendragon looked at him for a few moments, probably wanting to say this logic wasn’t real.
But before she could say anything, One suddenly raised its head.
Its antennae straightened completely. A strong wave of warning reached Lian’s mind through Hive Link.
The danger was not close.
One had sensed something in the sky.
Lian and Seris looked up at the same time. At first, nothing could be seen except the dense glass branches.
Then a red light passed through them. At first, like a thin line.
But in a fraction of a second, a massive column of red energy was shot from a distant point in the forest toward the sky.
The light turned the branches red, broke inside the transparent trunks, and scattered in hundreds of directions.
For a moment, the entire Glassthorn Forest turned blood red.
The energy column passed through the treetops and exploded at a high altitude.
A large red circle formed in the sky. In its center, a familiar symbol appeared.
The symbol for a distress signal!
HELP
"This... is our language!" Seris whispered in surprise.
"Does that mean? It’s him?" Lian frowned, he realized what this was.
Emergency Beacon.
This was the item he had given to his group members before entering, to activate if they were in danger.
If the other group members were nearby, they could find each other and go to help.
The system panel immediately opened before Lian’s view.
[Emergency Beacon Detected.]
[Origin: Registered Party Member.]
[Distance: 37.4 Kilometers.]
[Status: Critical.]
[Beacon Integrity: 82%]
Lian stood up.
"What happened?" Seris also picked up her sword at that same moment. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew this boy did.
The number before Lian’s eyes changed.
[Beacon Integrity: 81%]
Then again.
[Beacon Integrity: 80%]
The Beacon was not a simple message.
The sender created an emergency column using equipment or their own Mana.
Integrity showed how much longer its structure could hold. The continuous decrease in the number meant the sender or the Beacon’s source was still under pressure.
Maybe the equipment was being destroyed, maybe the person who activated it didn’t have enough Mana to maintain it.
Or maybe the enemy was directly trying to turn off the Beacon.
Lian opened the map again. He had to find out where that point was located, and with one look, he realized it was coming from the northeastern part of Glassthorn Forest.
The signal was not on their main path.
To reach it, they would have to leave the marked route and deviate dozens of kilometers to the north.
But Lian did not even think for a moment about his choice.
[Beacon Integrity: 77%]
The red column pulsed in the sky again. This time, its light was slightly weaker.
He gave the command to get ready through Hive Link. The ant put aside its exhaustion and immediately lowered its body.
Seris looked at One’s back.
"Aren’t you going to tell me what’s going on?"
"That red signal means one of my friends is in danger." Lian answered in the simplest way he could and then closed the map and jumped on One’s back.
Seris also mounted behind him.
The Vorhelm fixed his gaze on the red column that was trembling through the crystal trees.
"I don’t know which one, but whoever it is, they are in danger."
The number dropped again.
[Beacon Integrity: 74%]
Then.
[Beacon Integrity: 71%]
Lian sent the command to move. One lunged forward with all its power.
Its six legs hit the ground at the same time. The dark soil and crystal roots cracked under the pressure of its feet.
The trees on both sides turned into stretched lines of blue and purple light.
Seris lowered her body and gripped her sword’s hilt firmly.
The red column in the distance split the sky again. This time with a weaker wave. Whatever it was, it was slowly fading.
Lian recognized only one feeling within that wave.
Fear... not a simple fear... the fear of someone who was no longer fighting to win... someone who was only trying to stay alive for a few more minutes.
The situation was truly urgent!
He placed his hand on One’s body.
"Faster."
The ant increased its speed. The cold wind hit their faces.
The glass branches around them trembled, and the sound of thousands of bells echoed throughout the forest.
The panel remained before his view.
[Beacon Integrity: 68%]
They still did not know which member of the group was trapped at that point.
They did not know what monster they had faced or why they had been forced to activate the Emergency Beacon.
But one thing was clear.
At the speed the Beacon was collapsing, not much time remained.