Hai guys, Author here.
I wanted to apologize since I’ve made a mistake in publishing the chapters, the Black Maple Tree chapter is supposed to be chapt 381. So please refer back to the previous chapter since I already updated it, I made a mistake since I was planning a surprise mass release for you guys but that result in this 🙁
Once again I apologize for the inconvenience and this won’t happen again! Pinky swear!
Anyway, Happy reading!
~
After assigning the descendants to bring the hundreds of captured humans back to Eqosa City, and also escort the survivors in the other city to Eqosa City.
Rex was about to leave them to check out the secret route.
It’s not a part of his plan,
At first, he was just going to send the descendants back to Eqosa City while he himself will head to the Supernatural territory, he’s going to get the spirit for Adhara.
Since Adhara already brought the topic, it’ll make him feel bad to not bring the spirit.
This is why he will head there to finish the quest real quick and take the spirit, he also needs to check the shop to buy a spirit for Kyran who is also nearing the peak fifth rank.
It’s not a surprise if he is even already in the peak fifth rank realm,
‘My body is hurting all over, fighting two companies of Undead on the same day seems a little bit too much’, Rex thought with a wry smile.
He then takes a huge breath disregarding the soreness and pain around his body,
The scene where Adhara is lying on the bed waiting for him flashes in his mind, this makes him open his eyes slowly as he looks up at the night sky, ‘I just want to sleep after this…’
But right after thinking that, a flash of Rosie captured by Ana also comes to mind.
‘I can’t… I need to hurry rescue Rosie, I don’t even know what she’s been through all this while’, Rex thought as he sigh and intend to leave for the secret route.
Rex’s eyes then pulled to the side and saw Dray approaching him,
“Dray? What do you want?”, he asks impatiently as he just was about to leave.
Hearing this, Dray stutters for a moment before he shakes his head, “Be careful there, you might just immediately meet the Werewolf reinforcement”
“Don’t worry, I can handle it”, Rex said as Delta dashed away leaving the descendants.
While Delta is leaving the place as her body got smaller the further she dashes away, Dray kept his eyes on them before he finally sighs after they disappear from his vision.
Velten then suddenly approaches from the side, “Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing really…”, Dray mutters lightly.
But upon seeing the drained expression Dray is wearing, Velten then said, “Is it about the Rusalka before? I saw you’re troubled by what Rex was about to do”
“Does he needs to do that? He was about to really do it if not for that woman”, Dray asks.
This makes Velten smile lightly as he said, “You’re from a good family and since you’re the second in command here you must be from the higher rank of the Golden Crest Family, so you might still have some empathy for the Supernatural”
“In the SCO, we are taught to not feel the slightest bit for the Supernaturals”
“It might sound cruel for the first time, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. The things that the Supernatural does is inhumane, if you give them a chance then you will be surprised. I’m sure Rex knows that very well”
“Just trust me when I say this, the Supernatural can be really wicked too”
Hearing this, Dray frowns before Velten taps his shoulder and leaves.
A moment later,
“Is that the black maple tree?”, Rex asks pointing at a pure black tree in front of him.
The tree is literally black completely starting from its trunk all the way to the lush leaves on its branches, it looks bizarre but it blended well with the surrounding place.
Looking at the tree, Gistella then nodded her head, “Yes, that is the tree”
After Gistella confirms it, Rex jumped down from Delta’s body which takes about one full second since Delta’s body is towering right now and might even be bigger than Gerrard’s white lion.
They’re currently inside a swamp miles away from the city of Undead,
It’s very damp and dark in the swamp but it’s not a problem for the three of them, the swamp also has a murky river with the sounds of mutated animals that can be heard all around.
Rex approaches the black maple tree which is in the middle of the river,
Based on how the black maple tree’s trunk submerges inside the river, it should be not too deep since half of the black maple tree is out of the water.
Upon arriving at the edge of the river, Rex stopped as he looks at the murky water.
“The trees here are infused with death energy and they’re toxic upon touch, we must go through the water to reach the tree”, Gistella said lightly from the side.
Hearing this, Rex frown as he looks at the murky water which is even darker at night.
Although he’s not scared of water, the last time he found murky water it’s still engraved into his brain until now which is hard to forget.
It’s the time when he’s in a swamp beside Zrolis City,
There’s a cursed snake that manages to sneak on his back without him noticing even with his enhanced senses, it’s quite horrifying and he might die there if not for the Green Messenger.
‘Damn it, What am I doing?’, Rex thought as he jumped into the water.
Just like expected, the water is not that deep as it only reaches Rex’s chest.
The plants and vines in the river entangle Rex’s legs a couple of times as he made way to the black maple tree, he can’t jump over it since the tree branches are lush here.
If he jumped to the black maple tree then he will hit a dozen of branches on the way.
Gistella also said that the trees around here are toxic upon a touch thanks to the infused death energy, and with Rex’s condition, he was not going to test the branches just to avoid the water.
Swish! Swish!
The water makes wobbly sounds as Rex moves through the water,
He and the others slowly made their way to the black maple tree, it’s not that far but thanks to the Viney plants under the water it makes them very hard to move.
After a moment, they arrived under the black maple tree.
Rex glanced at Gistella as she nodded her head, he then looks back at the black maple tree and put a bit of strength in his legs, and jumped reaching for one of the glowing black leaves.
Pluck!
Right after he plucks one of the black leaves,
Rumble!
The murky water started to tremble slightly making Rex looks down at the water with a frown, he and Gistella then holds onto Delta before she jumps out of the murky water.
Splash!
Rex looks at the trembling water that is starting to glow with a weird energy,
It didn’t take long for the water to suddenly creates a vortex as it got drained downwards making Rex looks at the water in confusion, but he realized the water got drained from the entire river.
“What kind of magic is this?”, Rex mumbles in confusion.
Hearing this, Gistella then replied, “It’s a portal formation to the route the Undead made underground, the formation is made by Great Yolgos”
‘That Enchanter made this?’, Rex thought in surprise.
After a moment, the water got drained completely leaving not one ounce of water as the ground opened revealing an underground passageway that is quite big.
The underground passageway is wide enough for about twenty or thirty people side by side.
Rex looks at the secret route before he jumped down to check,
Thud!
He landed inside the underground passageway and finds that it’s completely dark, but Rex can see clearly and the passageway seems to be very deep.
Rex can’t see the end of it which shows that this passageway is miles deep.
Knowing that this secret route was made by the Supernatural, this secret passageway must go at least hundreds of miles as a safer route rather than traveling above the ground.
Gistella also jumped down and landed beside Rex,
After they both jumped down, the entrance to the secret route suddenly closed leaving them in total darkness making Rex frown in concern.
But Gistella then said, “It’s okay, if we wanted to get out the entrance will be opened again”
Rex nodded his head in confirmation before he asks, “Where does this secret route lead to? Where is its entry point?”, he asks curiously.
Hearing this, Gistella then replied without leaving any details behind, “The entry point is a cave about a hundred miles in that direction, our reinforcement needs to get through the Cessation Knight before entering this secret route”
“There’s also a secret route just before this one that leads to two miles behind the Vampire fort, the secret route is made right after the humans’ wall got breached by the help of Undead spells. This secret route is also possible thanks to that”
“It’s how we sent our reinforcement and also scout the area”
But right after she said that Gistella covers her mouth in confusion as she was explaining to Rex more in detail pouring everything she knows which is unintended.
Rex didn’t see this as he asks, “Vampire fort? Do you mean the stronghold in the Great Barricade?”
Gistella nodded her head in confirmation after a brief pause,
This realization makes Rex frown as he didn’t expect the Supernatural to move this fast.
Although the Great Barricade has been breached by the Supernatural not too long ago, the Supernatural made this route in that span of time to attack Eqosa City.
If that’s the case, there’s no telling if other secret routes have also been made.
Putland city might just have another one of these routes since the Demons also attacked the city alongside Eqosa City, the target is clear and it is Ilgate City in between these two cities.
Rex sigh as he looks around the route one last time,
After taking a good look at the secret route and finding that there’s still no sign of the Werewolves, Rex then jumped out alongside Gistella as the entrance opened again.
“Let’s go back to the others”, Rex commanded.
With Gistella leaving the secret passage, the secret passage got closed again.
Even the murky water started to fill the river,
The river went back to the way it was which still surprise Rex, the three of them then went back after confirming that the secret passage Nethuq said is true.
It’s not good to stay too long here, the Werewolves might be near.
Rex and the others went the same path as they got to the black maple tree,
While Delta is dashing through the swamp while exposing her aura to the surroundings to make the mutated animals in the forest make way, Rex suddenly senses something.
“Gistella”, Rex mutters as Gistella nodded her head.
Without even Rex needing to explain, Gistella and even Delta already know what he means.
Delta kept dashing through the forest but Rex is already put his hand on his silver sword, and right after Delta took another step,
BLITZ!
Rex’s body turns into a streak of black lightning and disappears,
The same goes for Gistella whose hand is already glowing with white energy pointing to a figure on their right, the figure’s eyes are red as it stalks from the darkness.
But too bad for this figure, Rex’s senses are too sensitive and caught its gaze.
Out of nowhere, white energy trapped the red eyes figure halting its movement as it was about to leave when it saw Rex suddenly disappear.
ROAR!
The figure turns out to be a black panther with eyes as red as a ruby,
Rex appears on the black panther’s side with the silver sword blitzing with black lightning, he then swings the silver sword downwards powerfully intending to slash the black panther in two.
Before Rex’s silver sword makes contact, the white energy disappears right before,
SLASH!
The silver sword cuts through the black panther and splits its body into two, the ground got cracked as Rex’s silver sword slams to the ground.
<Killed a peak fifth rank Supernatural, Obtained 1,000,000 Exp>
Rex saw a notification from the system signing that the figure is dead,
But he suddenly frowns when he read the notification, ‘Supernatural? It’s not a mutated animal?’, Rex thought as he glanced at the black panther that is already got split into two.
Upon closer look, Rex realizes that the black panther turns out to be a Supernatural.
The black panther has red lines all over its body with blazing ruby eyes, strangely enough, this one doesn’t emit any aura like normal demons.
Rex confused it for a normal mutated animal thanks to that,
If not for the black panther having a hint of bloodlust in its gaze, Rex might’ve not caught its presence as he did right now.
‘Demons? What is this thing doing here?’, Rex thought in confusion.
Based on what he knows, the demons should be attacking the Putland city and camping there.
Putland city and Eqosa city are quite far from one another, the Supernatural only wanted to take both cities because they wanted to conquer the city in the middle, Ilgate City.
So it’s weird to find a demon here, especially near Eqosa City.
After inspecting the demon, Rex straightens his back as the clear confusion is still etched on his face before Delta and Gistella approach him.
Rex glance at Gistella and asks, “Do you know why a demon would be here?”
“I don’t know, the demons should be attacking the other city but they already got defeated”, Gistella replied as she is also confused as to why a demon is here.
Shaking his head, Rex then decided to just resume their journey back.
Unknown to them, there’s a weird-looking owl on top of a tree watching them with its red ruby eyes that looks exactly like the black panther Rex just killed.
The owl’s eyes are ruby red with the same red lines as the black panther across its body.
In the middle of the owl’s forehead opened a third eye that looks slightly different based on how its gaze than the owl’s own eyes, this third eye looks more fierce.
There’s no socket that can be seen on the owl’s forehead,
But the third eye suddenly opened out of nowhere, it’s almost as if the third eye didn’t belong to the demon owl but to other beings instead.
The third eye paid close attention to Rex and the others,
After seeing Rex and the others resume their journey back through the forest, the third eye then closes again before the owl flaps its wings away.