Over fifty miles in the south from the eastern shores of the Epic Alive Plains, there was located a mountain range known as the Vile Witch Valley.
The Vile Witch Valley fell under the rule of the Alliance Region because this place was filled with powerful magic beasts and was also one of the biggest hunting grounds for battle-hungry alliance members.
There were five Medium Size Alive Cites in the Vile Witch Valley, No. 543 in the outskirts, No. 500 in the inner, and No. 492 in the core.
The Alliance member normally adventure in this place and took going from the Alive Alliance City NO. 543 to the No. 492 as a sort of challenge and practice.
The Zodiac Warrior Alliance Ranks were divided between Zodiac Combatant and Zodiac Sorcerer, and both have epic tiers to differentiate their ranks.
Normally around the medium size city, only those around the Epic-Tier-3 Zodiac Combatant or Zodiac Sorcerer venture on an adventure or complete their alliance-related missions.
In the Alliance Region, these Alive cities were built exactly for those who were capable of reaching them, and there were no shortcuts or any protection on the roads.
The Alliance followed a strict rule of strength above all, and that's why their members were far stronger and more daring than the other two regions.
Anyhow, the Vile Witch Valley was also flooded by these alliance members because not only was it rich with resources, but there was a legend that in the past, there lived a Vile Witch in this place, and her inheritance was buried somewhere.
People only took it as a legend before until a daring fellow found a strange key with a parchment, and after translating it, it turned out to be the key to the Vile Witch's layer.
The arrogant fellow instantly posted this news on the start network, and afterward, he vanished with the key and has been missing ever since with the key.
Nevertheless, it sparked a massive public interest in the Vile Witch Valley, and many came here to search for the Witch's layer, but to this day, no one has ever found any clues about it, and some even believed that the guy who found the key has already taken the treasures and fled the epic plains.
Still, this place was quite popular among the treasure hunters, and the alliance reeled in massive profits from these golden lands.
Today, a lone wanderer, wearing a cloak was making its way towards the No. 543 city by simply following the sign boards left behind by the Alliance members. Those signboards were more like simple clues to where the city was located, as there were no paved ways. Instead, tropical forests surrounded the entire Vile Witch Valley.
At this moment, a cloaked figure suddenly stopped before it looked above the tree, and the very next moment, a few wood spikes suddenly shot toward him with a terrible speed.
But the cloaked figure was able to detect them just in the nick of time and able to quickly lunge to the side before those wooden spikes could blast holes in its body.
However, the hidden attacker seemed quite unhappy about its prey successfully evading its sneak attack.
The very next moment, just after the cloaked person blocked the killing blow, the surrounding trees suddenly seemed to have come alive, and the next moment, their branches shot toward it, weaving a deadly web around it.
This time, two short swords appeared in the cloaked person's hands with strange rings on their hits, and all of a sudden, his speed suddenly increased by many folds, and like a meat grinder, it instantly sliced through those terrifying tree branches and jumped over the trees and headed in a certain direction swiftly while dodging those trees like an agile monkey.
At this moment, a strange movement suddenly occurred where that person was heading as small tree bark suddenly seemed to have come alive and started to flash past between trees agilely, and its speed was nowhere inferior to the person who was chasing it.
"Hmph!" A raspy grunt was heard from the cloaked figure before the swords in his hands vanished, and a black rifle appeared in his hand.
The next moment, a torrent of powerful bullets shot toward the fleeing tree bark, and anything that came in those bullets' way was blasted apart.
'Shee…'
An ear-piercing shrill suddenly rang before all those trees obstructing the cloaked person's way turned back to normal, and it then landed on the ground again while holding the black rifle over his shoulder.
A few meters away from him was a trail of dark green liquid, and following it closely, it found its bleeding assailant, who was on the verge of death. It was a 3'4 feet monkey which appeared like it was carved with tree barks, but the dark green blood seeping out of the bullet hole was evidence of it being alive.
It was an Epic-Tier-2 Impish Wood Monkey, belonged to the sorcerer species, and its wood magic was terrifying while its body was not so much.
"I guess I'm eating a monkey tonight…" A raspy voice rang from the cloaked person, which belonged to non-other than Jacob.
Jacob was traveling without using his Star Watch for over a week now, and he was finally able to make his way into the Vile Witch Valley. He didn't dare to use his star watch because he was still not sure if those bitches were tracking him somehow.
Furthermore, he wanted them to think he was dead and gone in that blast while slowly accumulating his strength, and when they forget about him, it would be the time when he would be truly free.
But freedom was something he had no luxury to have, not until he was still affiliated with the slave rune. He was still a puppet of Free Sword, and he needed to proceed accordingly as he ordered, or he would be in a world of pain.
Three more days passed after his encounter with the Impish Wood Monkey, and Jacob found himself staring at a massive iron wall that was over two-hundred meters in size.
He finally reached the Alive Alliance City NO. 543!