Chapter 393
Chapter 393 Tracking Down
The Black Forest was still a wondrous place of magic, even at night.
The silver moonlight from the large, brilliant moon shined down through the leaves of the trees, forming mesmerizing pillars of light in the pitch-black forest. Plants shimmering with magical energy started to glow with iridescent colors under the moonlight.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, the Black Forest appeared to be submerged in eternal darkness. However, for adepts who had mastered elementium powers, this place was as bright as day. Strange glowing lights floated everywhere in the air.
Greem was amazed by the wonders of the World of Adepts as he walked past the ancient trees.
Every one of them was nearly a hundred meters tall, and so wide they needed three men to embrace them completely. Scattered on the ground beneath the massive trees were mushrooms of all kinds. Ther were matsutakes, black fungi, bright shrooms, whitehead shrooms, fluorescent moss. All the fungi and moss glowed in the dark. Red, green, purple, blue, gray- their lights came in a variety of colors.
Layers of vines coiled around the branches like stalking snakes. The ends of the vines disappeared into the canopy, preventing anyone from seeing where they led.
It was indeed a bright, fantastical world filled with life!
“Let’s go!” Gargamel seemed to have become restless from all the waiting. He took the lead and hurried even deeper into the forest.
That damned forest spirit. He had already crossed paths with it countless times. A sudden accident always cropped up at a crucial moment and allowed the monster to get away. He had wanted to invite a few adepts to help him take down this sly forest spirit. However, he was also worried that the greedy adepts would take advantage of him being alone.
That was why he had been so impatient to invite someone like Greem, an adept intent on exploring the Black Forest solo.
And the price he had to pay for this forest spirit was…
…………
Forest spirits weren’t powerful magical creatures at all. It was the unusualness of their powers that made them hard to deal with.
This lack of power meant that forest spirits often lacked the privilege of owning a territory of their own. Most of them wandered around the territories of other creatures in search of souls they could consume.
The forest spirit that Gargamel was tracking also possessed extreme intelligence. It had even managed to catch Gargamel in traps it had set up beforehand. Those had not been pleasant times.
Last time, the spirit had lured Gargamel into the hunting grounds of a large group of ankhegs. If it weren’t for a little fortune that had allowed him to fight his way through the horde of monsters, he would have been the one to die on that day. However, he had also been severely injured in that incident. It took him six months to completely recover.
Gargamel looked down and inspected the magical tool in his hand. The needle on the compass was wildly spinning.
“Dammit… ” Gargamel cursed under his breath, “That bastard is doing it again. It intentionally left its aura all over the woods to prevent us from detecting its location. Once we get impatient, it will lead us into the territory of magical creatures and leave us to die. Hmph! I won’t fall for it again.”
Gargamel angrily stashed the magical tool and stomped his feet. A mysterious black cat with shiny black fur suddenly emerged from his shadows.
A magical pet?
Greem was surprised for a moment.
Magical pets were creatures that had signed companionship contracts with adepts. Not only were they able to expand the arsenal of abilities that an adept possessed, they were also convenient and useful assistants. However, from Greem’s perspective, the slight benefit of owning a magical pet was offset by their flaws.
The death of a magical pet didn’t just mean the loss of a useful helper for the adept. The pet would also drag to their grave that portion of Spirit that the adept had given the pet to establish the contract. Greem only had seven points of Spirit right now. The instant evaporation of two to three points of his Spirit was more than enough to cripple his mental space.
That was why Greem was entirely unwilling to create another massive flaw in himself before he found a suitable target to turn into his pet. After all, not every adept could arm their magical pet to the teeth as they did for themselves!
However, for a wandering adept like Gargamel, a black cat pet made things much more convenient.
The black leaped onto his shoulders and started to talk with him.
“Speak, Gargamel. What do you intend to do this time in summoning this great and mighty one?” The lazy black cat stretched its body and yawned before asking in an unamused tone.
“Help me find that forest spirit, and I’ll give you two Spellfire Fish!”
“Chh! You haven’t even given me the mulberries you promised last time! Trying to trick this great one once again won’t… ”
“Just go, quickly, and I guarantee I’ll fulfill my promise this time! Be careful. Don’t tip that forest spirit off.”
“I understand, I understand, my stingy master. It’s this great one’s misfortune to have met a stingy guy like you!” The mysterious black cat with human-like expressions grumbled as it jumped off of Gargamel’s shoulders. It quickly flashed several times and disappeared from everyone’s vision.