“Not exactly. The dimensional flow here is really turbulent and chaotic, so it’s almost impossible to locate the Realm. The emergency return items can still be used, but the rate of failure is terrifyingly high!”

These were the words spoken by Zi. However, in the Orc camp around five or six kilometres away from Party Ace, someone was saying the exact same words, with the exact same tone as Zi.

The person’s name was Percival. He was already a famous lip reader before entering the Nightmare Realm. About four or five people were sitting beside him with grave looks on their faces.

Percival’s voice reverberated through the air, sounding rather weird and mysterious.

All of them were sitting around an incense burner. Contained inside the incense burner was a black object that looked like half a cigarette,except that the curly smoke it emitted was red in colour. A fierce looking three-headed hound was lying down beside the incense burner, sleeping with all three heads on its paws. The hound was monstrous, almost the size of a cow.

The red smoke was inhaled by the big, moist nose of the three-headed hound. It slept even more soundly after that.

As the three-headed hound’s breathing became steady and even, a large amount of saliva dripped down the corner of its mouth. The saliva flowed into a basin along the plastic cloth that had been deliberately placed there.

The basin was already half full with saliva. The gathered saliva showed a characteristic akin to oil or mercury, in that its surface was as smooth as a mirror. Currently, the image reflected on the smooth surface was of Party Ace and their surroundings.

“What a Beholder sees is totally invisible to humans. Only the saliva of a three-headed hound can receive the signal sent back by a Beholder and clearly reflect it.” This was the original text on the eighth paragraph of page 17 of “Black Magic Alchemy”. In order to help the readers better understand, the explanation also compared the relationship between them to the relationship between a television signal and a television.

忽然之间,镜像出来的景物出现了一阵强烈的波动,然后就见到姿头也不回,很是淡然的向着这边举起了右手.姿的右手纤细修长,看到她的手指,忍不住就会联想到在琴键上面飞舞弹跳的艺术优雅,但此时这只手却是被裹在了一只黑底金纹的织丝黑色手套里面,显得华丽而高贵.

All of a sudden, the reflected image rippled strongly. The image of Zi could be seen nonchalantly raising her right hand in this direction without even turning her head. Zi’s hand was slender and elegant. At the sight of her fingers, one could not help but be reminded of the artistic elegance of the fingers that danced on the piano keys. The hand was currently wrapped in a gorgeous and expensive-looking silk glove that had a black base and golden patterns.

“No!” Percival suddenly cried out.

As soon as he did, the image in the basin fluctuated chaotically. Then, there was a sharp cry, and everything turned to darkness.

“”My Beholder!” A man with a full beard and a snake tattoo on his arm immediately started cursing hatefully, “That bitch! We can’t just let her off for this! My Beholder is worth at least 100,000 utility points! It took me a lot of effort to earn enough contribution points to exchange for one!”

“Shut up, Royce. Take this silver storyline ring. It’s worth at least 50,000 utility points. Go claim the rest from Butterfly. She’ll give you a fair price,” said a man who was carrying a shield on his back. His shield was only a wooden shield, but the front of the shield was inlaid with three wrinkled up heads – the head of a human, the head of a giant ape, and the head of a shark. The man appeared to be an MT too.

As soon as the MT spoke, Royce stopped making a fuss. “Fine. Since Rak’shiri has spoken, I’ll let this matter go,” he mumbled bitterly.

“There’s no way your Beholder is worth more than 20,000 utility points, Royce. Greed is a sin,” Percival could not help remarking, “Lilith, have you found out how the Beholder was discovered?”

Lilith, a tall witch with red phoenix feathers on her head, nodded. “That woman should have entered the ranks of the Temperers. When you repeated her words with your lip reading skills, the Force in her had alerted her. She has very sharp senses, and has probably touched upon the mysteries of time and space. It’s not surprising for her to discover the Beholder if she’s on guard.”

Royce, who had just made a small profit, interjected, “But I think the most powerful person in this party is the MT called Reef. He showed no fear at all when he took that joint attack from nine contestants, and could even counterattack immediately afterwards! The enemy he caught and killed in seconds should be a core party member, or at least a member with high prestige. He also defended several fatal attacks on his teammates after that. He’s the MVP of this battle, no question.”

Rak’shiri, who was caressing the three-headed hound to wake it up, suddenly raised his head and remarked with disdain, “Hmph, those ambushers were just too stupid. I don’t think they’ve seen a real MT before. That Reef guy probably has an ability similar to my ‘Getaway’ innate ability – after the amount of cumulative damage he takes within a few seconds exceeds a certain limit, he can ignore the extra damage. As for his performance afterwards in protecting his teammates, isn’t that just the basic duty of an MT?”

Rak’shiri continued, “Moreover, he has the assistance of a second MT who specialises in support. If I have a second MT like that, I can do it 100 times better! But that assassin called Ronnie really caught my eye. What a crazy demon. Every move he made saw blood. He’s definitely one of the top figures in this war. I wonder how Reef managed to win him over.”

“Reef may have Seaman as his assistant, but you also have Hyper. Moreover, you’re the one and only Beastmaster MT in the Realm. You’re definitely the most powerful MT in this war, Rak’shiri,” Percival seized the moment to butter Rak’shiri up.

A touch of pride crept into Rak’shiri’s expression. “I don’t know if I’m the most powerful, but I should be among the top three.”

Rak’shiri was a dual-innate contestant. His Beastmaster innate enabled him to have an animal companion and link his HP to his animal companion. His MT innate is a Rank S innate ability, ‘Getaway’. When the total damage he received in two seconds exceeded one fifth of his HP, not only would the extra damage be nulled, all damages he received in the next 10 seconds would be halved. The cooldown of ‘Getaway’ was 30 seconds.

Such a powerful guy, of course, would not easily succumb to others. Although the Blu-ray party had placed a lot of importance on him and regarded him as an important target to pull into their alliance, Rak’shiri had only agreed outwardly, but had secretly acted on the contrary. He had formed the Maritime Alliance behind their back, secretly competing against the Blu-ray party.

***

Party Ace’s battle just now was quite intense, but it started abruptly and ended quickly. Only the large holes remaining on the ground, the earth that looked like it had been ploughed, as well as the smell of blood and smoke in the air showed what had happened here a moment ago.

All of them were quite familiar with the post-battle procedures – stop the bleeding, spread some salve or medicinal powder on their injuries, bandage the wounds, take the medicine which recovered HP continuously but would be interrupted if they were attacked, then divvy up the spoils. Everything was performed in an orderly manner.

Unlike their calm attitude, the group of Orc labourers were really shocked to hear that they intended to keep going.

These Orcs were obviously quite cowardly. Otherwise, they would not have been sent to chop trees and gather stones. They were already scared out of their wits after witnessing the previous battle. They felt that they were lucky to remain breathing.

When they heard Sheyan’s order to continue moving, they instantly panicked and refused to go forward. However, they forgot one thing – they were only Orc labourers, the Orcs with the lowest status that had no right to say no. Ronnie gave them a few lashes, causing them to run around holding their heads, while the few cans of meat provided by Reef improved their work efficiency by more than 50%.

***

The scenery in Lossarnach Vale was truly beautiful. The brownish-red leaves of the ancient forest made it look like a sea of fire. A clear stream flowed through the vale, clean pebbles visible within it. The fragrance of eucalyptus permeated through the air. It was a waste not to have a picnic here.

Unfortunately, the endeavour of the hard working Orc labourers had destroyed the beautiful scenery. Various naked spots could be seen everywhere in the forest, like scabs that grew on the vale. Black smoke could also be seen rising everywhere from their stone gathering activities. The stone gathering method in this era was still very backward. The Orc labourers would burn the stones with fire, then doused the stones with water to make them shatter by themselves, hence the smoke.

The moment they reached the vale, they saw four or five Orc labourers running out of the vale, screaming. Several large blue wolves were chasing after them. They wolves looked very muscular and agile. They did not seem like they were chasing the Orcs using their full strength at all.

At the sight of these wolves, Sanzi immediately remarked, “These are summoned creatures! The summoner’s very powerful!”

While Sanzi was talking, a large blue wolf effortlessly jumped and knocked down one of the Orc labourers. It’s sharp white teeth easily tore apart the Orc’s throat. The wolf first sucked the Orc’s blood, then ate his limbs. It did not seem interested in the Orc’s dirty inner organs and head in the slightest.

“Save them!” Sheyan ordered.

These Orc labourers were valuable assets. When Party Ace accepted the mission as a party, they were only allocated four such Orc labourers as well as ten Orc slaves. To give an example, the Orc slaves were like the unskilled workforce that transported bricks on the construction site, while the Orc labourers were the bricklaying and concrete mixing workers, those who did slightly more technical jobs. If they could gain three extra Orc labourers, they would no doubt earn more contribution points on this trip.

What’s that you say? What if the three surviving Orc labourers were unwilling to help them? Unfortunately, that’s not up to them. Since they were rescued by Party Ace, their lives belonged to Party Ace. They could not say no to working a few hours for them.

A large blue wolf once again leaped forward. Its movement was effortless, its long fur and strong muscles smoothly unfolding in the wind. It did not even need to look to know that the prey under its claws would die for sure.

However, despite the space ahead of it being totally empty, the large blue wolf ‘s movement suddenly halted, as if it had bumped into a hard wall head on. Moreover, the wall seemed to have moved towards him at high speed. The large blue wolf ‘s nose was completely smashed. It let out a cry of agony, but the cry was immediately disrupted by the boiling blood that rushed out of its throat as a blood red dagger flashed past!!

Because Ronnie knew that Reef had an ability like ‘Divine Grasp’, he was now even bolder when he charged forward. After all, he had always been someone who liked to traverse the fine line between life and death as he brought the fear of death to his enemies. He found the feeling extremely addicting, like a drug. After slitting the previous wolf’s throat, he then severed the paw of another large blue wolf that pounced on him. The blue wolves were furious, but they could not harm Ronnie at all. Ronnie easily played them like a fiddle with his unbelievable speed.

When Zi finished off the the large blue wolf that had its throat slit, the rest of the wolves dispersed and fled without any hesitation. They were very resolute in their pursuit, but once they found the situation taking a turn for the worse, they were also very decisive in running away. However, the members of Party Ace were not merciful people; they would not just let the beasts escape. They gave chase and killed two more of the blue wolves.

The Orc labourers and slaves that they saved were all scared and eager to run back to the Orc camp immediately, but under Party Ace’s threats, they could only turn around and move forward obediently.

It was not easy to find a good gathering point in the beautiful but ravaged Lossarnach Vale. Fortunately, Sheyan had always prioritised stability, so he had no intention of gathering resources overnight. This trip would be the last round today. Therefore, in order to collect enough resources, they had to go deeper into the valley.

After moving for about four hundred meters, they made a turn in the forest and saw a messy battlefield. A large patch of trees had collapsed, and the rocks were blackened by gunpowder smoke. Spots of blood were left on the leaves, making it appear as if autumn had arrived ahead of time.

Ronnie was an expert in this field. He went around the battlefield once, tossing out several Mandrake seeds along the way. After they were heated with vinegar and pepper, these seeds would let out a harsh scream if they were stepped on. Therefore, they were the simplest solution if you needed some sentries in a hurry.

After Ronnie removed the alarm, Zi snorted. “Those guys sure ran away fast.”

Sheyan glanced at her, then walked over, took her hand and smiled. “You seem a little irritable recently.”

Zi glowered at him. Why else would she be so irritable recently if not for Sheyan’s promiscuity? But first of all, she had no evidence, and secondly, she knew it was impossible to keep a man as outstanding as Sheyan on a leash beside her all the time, like a pet dog. Therefore, she could only bear with it. Seeing Sheyan being gentle for once, she only snorted coldly and let him keep holding her hand. A complicated feeling rose in her heart, a mixture of shyness and sweetness.

“If those blue wolves are trained further to make them evolve, their powers will increase several folds because they can become wind-element or earth-element magical beasts that can cast ‘Wind Blade’ or ‘Earth Spike’,” explained Sanzi, “We’ve killed three of them, which must be really heartbreaking for their master. But even so, their master retreated without any hesitation. From this, we can tell that the leader of this group commands a lot of respect. His orders are obeyed without question.”

Perhaps because they came here fast, they were met with a pleasant surprise. The culprits had only murdered the contestants and did not have time to destroy the wood and stones gathered by them yet, so that was rather convenient for Party Ace. However, the amount of wood and stones that the previous party had collected were far from enough to satisfy Sheyan’s appetite, so he ordered the Orc slaves to continue pushing the wheelbarrows deeper into the valley. If worse comes to worst, he could just summon Ramtas to help out.

After about a kilometer or so, the mountains started to extend further to both sides, so the valley suddenly widened like the mouth of a bell. When flash floods broke out, the boulders they washed down would be piled up near the exit, so the place was a natural quarry.

Therefore, the place was a popular gathering spot. Many teams would come here to gather stones, so it was much safer here. They had just found a good mining spot when they saw a group of people rushing out of the mountain path to the side, led by a woman holding a silver bow in her hand. When she saw one of the crude giant wheelbarrows the Orc slaves were pushing, her face was instantly flushed with anger. She shot at one of the Orc labourers without any warning!

But Party Ace had long noticed the woman. With a point of Zi’s finger, the frightened Orc was pushed away.

The female archer screamed, “That’s our wheelbarrow! I recognise that piece of rock. My second brother joked that there must be gold in it! You must be the ones who ambushed us!!”

As soon as the woman spoke, everyone behind her immediately got into fighting stances. However, the person in charge was obviously someone else. A man wielding a mace stepped out of the group. His eyes rested momentarily on Reef’s shield before he said in a deep voice, “I don’t think you guys are from the other side. Please give us an explanation.”

“When we came here to do the mission, we met a bunch of dogs from the defending side. After we chased them away, we found two carts of wood and stones lying around. It’s that simple,” replied Ronnie in a sharp and sarcastic tone.

The woman with the bow laughed out loud, as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world. “We were ambushed by two parties, a total of fifteen powerful contestants! One of them is an Awakener summoner with unbelievably powerful summoned beasts! As if you can chase them away with the amount of people you have. You must be spies, spies colluding with the enemies!”

Even Sanzi could not stand the woman’s nonsense anymore. He sighed and said, “Seriously, I really wonder how you survive up to this point with your mouth that stinks worse than fart. Is this one of the unbelievably powerful summoned beasts you’re talking about? We’ve killed a few of them. We’re going to bring them back and make wolf stew tonight.”