The Mysterious Black Magician

(Wreng wreng wreng…!)

(Woosh woosh woosh…!)

Rustle!

Rustle!

(Dugu Dugu Dugu…!)

The rustle and noisy flapping of their wings enveloped the whole place when hundreds of monsters arrived at the cave entrance.

Yman was pondering.

He could send his first version of enhanced fire doll ants to suck the enemy's magical power. But he doubted the idea because of the tough shells the enemies had.

They were watching as the monsters tried to push their way to the sealed entrance. After a few minutes of no results, one of the evolved walked to the front and lifted its pointed limb to pierce the web.

Yman narrowed his eyes, and from his left eye, a holographic monocle materialized. He used Sistela's appraisal ability towards the enemies.

Thanks to the improvement of Sistela's Appraisal ability, it could now appraise the target's data, though not the fundamental data, just the basics. It still could not read the exact strength of the target, but it could give him a fast evaluation, for example, its kind, name, and etcetera.

After activating the Appraisal ability, a list of information appeared in his vision, arranged by columns and inside the flat squares and rectangles with glowing blue-green color.

Based on their data, the flying worms have the name of [Flying Shelled-Worm], and the bigger ones have the name of [Young Mammoth].

The Young Mammoth summoned more strength and stabbed the black web that was sealing the cave entrance.

The black web stretched inwardly when the tip of the limb poked it.

"Bro, what are they doing? Is that an entrance over there?" Asked in puzzlement the raccoon man beside him. He had no idea what was behind the sealing black stretchable object as he didn't see it when the person beside him sealed the entrance using his spider summon.

He glanced at the raccoon man and saw his curious face. Yman shrugged his shoulders and said: "They must be looking for some foo--."

Brrrrrrt!

Before he could finish his words, the sound of a tearing cloth reached their ears.

"These ain't good; those monsters are more powerful than I thought," he mumbled.

<What do you plan to do now, partner?>

Yman narrowed his eyes. "Hmm, I think it's better to return to the Little Garden and report this matter; maybe the Professor can do something about it." For Yman, it wasn't his problem to solve alone. He just came to the mountain to gather magical herbs and plants. Then, these things happened suddenly.

He didn't wish to throw himself in that horde of monsters with his current situation. It would be a suicide if he did it.

He glanced at the raccoon man beside him. "Hey, where did you last see your friends?"

"Ah?" The raccoon man was startled from his sudden call. "In the western part of this mountain."

Just after saying it, they noticed the monsters already entering the entrance.

He transmitted a command to his two scout birds and let them searched the western part of the mountain.

The two birds flung their wings and rapidly flew over the area.

The blue and cloudy sky transmitted to his vision. Even the birds of different species were shown to him. They were flying away from the mountain.

Yman blinked his eyes as he wondered why a large number of birds flying away.

However, when the bird's vision darted below, he was greeted by a different view. An ominous aura of dark blue color was enveloping the western part of the mountain. A miasma? His thought upon seeing it.

He also noticed that the ominous aura was continuing to proliferate.

<Partner, I think this matter isn't just a simple one!> He heard his deity saying in his mind.

Upon seeing the ominous aura, he knitted his brows. It was clear that the situation wasn't an ordinary one. 

Something was happening in this mountain! His thoughts.

When the two birds arrived at the area, they started scanning the place by flying at a considerable height for their search. But the dark blue miasma was hindering the visibility that they transmitted into him. 

Somewhere around the mountain, two girls were running towards the northern part.

Just by looking at how deep their breaths were, anyone could tell that they were exhausted already. On top of it, they were running away from a dangerous entity.

These two girls were from the race of Raccoon Men, one of the Demihuman tribes.

No doubt that they were the friends that the young raccoon man mentioned to Yman.

They were being chased by two fierce-looking monsters.

They had squinty bloodshot eyes that most hungry predators had, and an ominous dark blue aura was oozing from their bodies.

Their sharp fangs were peeking out from their large mouths, where sticky salivas were gushing out from them. 

And their usually slick white furs had now turned as dark as the night.

Their long dexterous limbs with razor-sharp claws were kicking the ground with all their might, causing rattling noises.

Their claws were leaving scratch-marks on the ground as they advanced at a blurry speed that was hard to follow with the naked eyes.

The two girls were running as fast as they could. Sometimes they fired spells to hinder the enemies whenever they felt their breaths at their backs.

Growl! Rawr!

Their body hairs stood upright when the eerie low growl could be felt just behind them.

"Wind Vortex!" One of the girls produced a mass of wind that spun in round. Without looking, she fired it at the back.

Woosh!

Seeing the incoming pillar of wind with a power that could pull everything around it, the two monsters leaped to their sides, opposite to each other.

The Wind Vortex passed in the middle without hitting its goal target. But because of it, the distance between the girls and the monsters had increased.

RAAAAAARRRR!!!

The two fierce monsters roar in anger when the two prey can escape from their fangs and claws. 

But they didn't give up and continued running after them.

Those annoying prey, they will turn them into delicious meals! 

When the two ladies were able to lose their chasers, they decided to take a rest behind the gigantic rock near the forest.

"Are you okay, Lilia?" Asked one of the ladies. She had long hair that tied in a twin-tail, almond eyes with beautiful green pupils, a hearty face, and a pair of pointed ears. Lilia was an Encan lady.

(Hish—hush… Deep breath.)

"Somehow. H-How about you, Achan?" Lilia asked too. Achan was a raccoon lady with beautiful round eyes and golden pupils. She had a shoulder-length fringed hairstyle of brown color. No doubt that she was a cute lady.

(Hish—hush! Breathing heavily.)

"Yeah, I'm fine too, just tired. By the way, thanks to that Wind Vortex of yours, we managed to lose them," said Achan while letting her back rest onto the giant rock.

"It's nothing, how about your mana?"

"I think I can still cast a few more," Achan replied while staring at her palm. 

Achan glanced around and noticed the place was unfamiliar to her. It was the first time that she saw the place.

"Where are we?" She asked.

Just then, Lilia also glanced around. Then frowned a second later after she noticed the place was also unfamiliar to her. "I don't know…" she said while biting her lip.

A worried expression was visible on their faces. 

"Looks like we ran too far…" said Achan in dismay. But the ray of hope that everything would be fine was still visible in her eyes.

"I guess so," Lilian responded. Then she continued saying: "This is bad, this dark blue fog was hindering our vision."

Achan knitted her brows. "What are we going to do now?" She asked in a worried voice.

Lilian glanced at her and noticed something. "Hey, you have wounds!" She shouted.

A horizontal wound was visible on her left shoulder. Based on the wounds, it looks like it was caused by a sharp object like a claw.

"Ahn—! No, it is fine…" after saying it, she used a healing spell to herself.

A green hue magical energy enveloped her body after she recited the spell. The wound at the back of her shoulder deliberately healed.

However, after she healed her wound, from the top of the rock they were hiding, a figure jumped and growled.

Out of reflex, they glanced above and were stunned immediately. 

Before they could make a move, the figure leaped and used its sharp claw.

Woosh!

Thump!

It passed by in the middle of them and landed on the ground.

But, it was followed by spurting blood when an arm was flying over.

"AAAAAARRRGH!!!"

Achan turned pale when she heard the grieving cry coming from Lilia. One of her arms was missing, and blood was gushing from its cut.

"Go Achan, save yourself!" Lilia shouted.

 But Achan was still on her feet. She was too shocked to move.

GROWL!

The monster glanced at Lilia and without wasting time, it rushed to finish her.

She wanted to fire a spell, but her wound distracted her concentration.

"LILIAAAAAA!!!" Achan shouted. Though Lilia closed her eyes and waited for her fate.

However, several seconds later, no piercing sensation or bite was felt by her. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the a headless monster in front of her.

Beside it was a man standing with his hand dripping with blood.