Right at this moment, a group of youngsters was walking the path quietly. Although their journey was uneventful, their eyes were filled with terror because their path was painted with dark goo, Netherel limbs, and body parts.
"Who did this?" a girl in the group asked while tightly clenching her sword
"Shhhh" the boy who was leading the group shushed the girl as they began to hear loud shrieks in the air.
"Oh my god, Netherels" the boys in the group swallowed their saliva and the girls moved closer to each other in fear.
"Guys, I think the Netherels are fighting the group walked this path before us" the boy who was leading the group said and prepared himself for an intense fight with the Netherels.
"Come on guys, we have to help them"
"Denis wait!" The group behind him however didn't want to fight the Netherels and tried to stop him from moving forward.
"Guys, dont be stupid, we cannot turn back after coming all this way. The fight is inevitable, let's join the fight with that group and fight together" Despite their fear of fighting the flesh-eating Netherels, they could see the point of joining another group and fight the Netherels together rather than facing them alone.
"There's strength in numbers guys, come on" Denis urged them and advanced to join the fight. His group soon followed him behind through the mist and after a few minutes, the white mist around them disappeared. They continued to move forward in the battle's direction sound. The sounds of the shrieks sounded louder as the group halted their steps for a moment and took deep breaths.
"Are you guys ready?" Denis could see the battle is happening just around the corner and wanted to make sure his group is ready to face the Netherels.
"Yes," they knew it's too late to turn back and wanted to face the Netherels with courage and valor.
"Good" Denis nodded and turned back, "FOR GLORY!"
"FOR HONOR!"
"FOR WEST VIEW!"
The group dashed forward letting out high-pitched battle cries, however, their battle cries were cut short by the sight in front of them.
Though the terrain was covered with greyish pebbles and ashen soil, the ground wasn't clear grey but blackish crimson color. Their eyes were fixed on the Netherels before them yet they lowered their weapons subconsciously. In front of them, they saw a mound of Netherels. They stood still staring at the golden bolt of lightning moving around the Netherels. Everywhere the golden lightning bolt traveled, they could see a Netherel fall losing either its head or half of its body or both. Soon, the mound grew bigger by one or more inanimate Netherel.
This scene continued for another ten minutes and the mound of Netherels grew bigger and bigger. The group stood there with their mouths opened as they witnessed a mob of Netherels being reduced to zero in a short amount of time.
The very next moment after killing the last Netherel, they saw the golden bolt of lightning slowing down transform into a black-robed youngster.
Dennis and his group were stunned beyond words when they realized that all the Netherels were killed by not a group but a single person.
"My sword broke" Michael lifted one of his swords and shook the sword as a chunk of the blade fell off from the sword. He picked up the chunk of the blade and put it inside his space ring along with the broken sword. Since these were his first swords, they had sentimental value for him.
"Let's burn these suckers" Michael walked towards the mound of Netherels and on his way, he saw the terrified faces of Dennis and his group.
"Hey" he waved shortly at Dennis and his group and took out a can to burn all the Netherels.
"Oh...Hi," it took several seconds for Dennis to respond but Michael was busy pouring the green liquid on the Netherels.
"What...is..he doing?" A girl behind Dennis asked him.
"Ignitia" the girl's question was soon answered by Michael as a tiny bolt of lightning hit the mound of Netherels. Instantly, the mound was on fire and they all closed their noses due to the stench radiated from the burning Netherels.
Soon, the mound was reduced to nothing but ashes. They saw him gathering all the ashes into a large bottle and storing it in his space ring. They had no idea why he collected the Netherel ashes. Unlike the Netherels he killed in the River town, these Netherels had a special property in their body and it made their ashes one of the best fertilizers for his herbal garden.
Besides this ash, he earned enough Experience points to reach the Body Strengthening stage level 3 through killing the Netherels and absorbing their cores. He kept a bunch of cores for the Elders and Claire so they could also reach the higher stages. The stronger his base of operation, the more badass points he could earn.
After collecting the ashes, he turned around and disappeared from their sight in a flash leaving them dumbstruck.
*****************************
"Did you kill them all?" After leaving the battleground, Michael heard Gaya's voice.
"What do you think?"
"Move your ass faster human or you would lose the real treasures" she yelled at him as Michael said, "Did you forget about my wargod body? The more I kill, the stronger I would become"
"Freaky but I wish I could cultivate like you" Gaya sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll help you cultivate faster"
"You better" She didn't feel ashamed of asking for his assistance but on the contrary, she felt thrilled.
While chit-chatting with Gaya, he exited the mountain range, and right before he left the mountain range, a white fog suddenly appeared in front of him again. The white mist prevented him from looking further into the distance. At the same time, he felt a cooling sensation.
"I sense no Netherels within the white fog in front of me. Once I cross this white fog, I might enter another mountain range."
Michael said with an excited smile. Thinking about another Experience farm, he began to walk forward. Soon after, he passed through the white fog. Yet, unlike his expectation, what was in front of him after passing the white mist was a great plain with a bright sky. But, what attracted him wasn't this beautiful scene, it was the huge garden that was floating high above them in the sky.
"Is that a garden?" Wasting no time, he stepped on the flying sword and dashed towards the garden.
Right at this moment, figures of warriors could be seen lingering around the garden. All of them had the same excited expressions, and some of them had even started fighting each other. Furthermore, more people were dashing out from different directions. When these people saw the garden in the sky, they immediately flew toward it. Michael knew that these people were from the other paths, and there were more people on those paths than the one he chose.
But, none of this was important. The important thing was, the temptation caused by the garden in the sky was really powerful. Even from far, he could smell the refreshing air coming from it, as well as a strong smell of herbs. The smell of herbs caused all those who smelled it to feel relaxed and refreshed.
"Move! I found this Cavern Petal!"
"Fuck you, I found this!"
"What is that? An Oglio root? damn!"
"Look at that! That is the Diamond Leaf! An extremely rare herb in the outside world! Oh heavens, there are rare herbs everywhere! This entire garden is a gigantic treasure!"
...
Everyone arrived at the garden in the sky and were excitedly yelling and shouting. This was because they kept finding rare herbs, herbs so rare there was no way they could see them in the outside world.
"haha, precious treasures! There are indeed precious treasures here!"
"Fuck, this garden is at least 7 kilometers long in all directions! There are herbs everywhere, and many of them look really old! If this garden was in our world, all superpowers would fight to the death for it!"
Swoosh, swoosh...
More and more people arrived and dashed toward the garden. After the first batch of youngsters came to the Nether realm, more and more warriors came from all over. As long as they survived the Netherel attack, many youngsters had the chance to come here and seek an opportunity.
Michael had noticed all these warriors as well. Some of them were clearly injured, and it looked like they had experienced a dangerous situation back on the paths they had chosen. However, it seemed like the danger they faced was less devastating compared to Michael's. Also, there were some paths where no one emerged from. Clearly, those who stepped onto those paths had encountered great dangers, and perhaps they wouldn't even be able to leave that place.
As for those warriors who didn't encounter any dangers, they had long ago emerged from the path and were hanging around in the sky garden right now. Who knew how many benefits they had gotten so far? It took Michael several hours to reach this garden.
Regardless of which path the people emerged from; they were faced with the biggest opportunity in their lifetime. This garden in the sky by itself was a gigantic treasure. Each and every single herb here would provide significant benefits to those who obtain it. Looking at all these herbs, Michael couldn't hold his excitement as a wide grin appeared on his face.
"Let's begin"