After traveling for 5 hours straight, the elders decided to take a break. But they were in the middle of nowhere with trees all around and almost no space. Since they were all tired, no one complained and sat wherever they could find space.
Vaelorian sat on the ground and rested his back against the big tree, following the others, and Lan Liuyue sat next to him.
"Alright, listen carefully everyone," Elder Solon spoke. "We are going to be entering the territory of wolves as we continue our expedition. But do not fear, you all have at least one defensive spell and one offensive. Remember to attack the neck of the wolves; you will instantly kill them. Most wolves here are not evolved, so it won't be a problem to hunt them. I and Elder Osiris will teach you how to hunt and cook them, so pay close attention when we encounter them. Since everyone here might not see us when we hunt, we will demonstrate until everyone is sure that they can kill a wolf. We have the advantage in numbers, so you don't need to worry. Take rest for an hour and a half, and we will start our journey again."
Lan Liuyue snorted, "who are they kidding? We are 300 people here, advantage? It's a fucking crowd. I bet one or two are gonna get eaten up by the wolves."
Vaelorian stayed silent. He diverted his attention from Lan Liuyue and looked around and saw several people moving away from them in groups.
"Let's go and check out this area."
He heard a guy near him speaking to his friends. Vaelorian looked at the people he was speaking with and saw a familiar face.
"Hey, Alice," Vaelorian walked towards the blonde girl who was in the education and training team.
"Oh, Vaelorian, right? Hey, what are you doing here?" Alice smiled back.
"Well, I got the spells I needed from the King, so I decided to join the exploration team."
"Hehe, same."
"Who is this, Alice?" The guy who was talking earlier stepped forward.
"He's Vaelorian. I met him on the education and training team. Vaelorian, meet Henry, he's my good friend."
"Hello," Vaelorian spoke politely and moved his hand forward.
Henry shook his hand without saying much. "So let's go and explore, might as well practice some spells and prepare. What do you say?"
"Okay, do you want to come, Vaelorian?" Alice turned to him.
"I do, thank you for the invitation." Vaelorian smiled and glanced back towards Lan Liuyue, but there was no sign of him.
"You know Alexa, right? This is Lance."
Vaelorian looked at the brown-haired tall guy. He had no expression on his face and simply nodded at Vaelorian, who nodded back.
Without any further delay, they all started moving further from everyone.
"Where are we going?" Alice asked Henry.
"My system just told me that there's a place nearby where we can farm some XP and level up. The animals are not that dangerous."
"How did you see that?"
"I bought a map from the shop. But man, things are really expensive there."
"You unlocked the shop?"
"Yeah, just today," Henry spoke and increased his pace.
After 10 minutes, the forest thinned out, and a large grassland stood before them. They could see dozens of creatures.
"Alright, how do you want to do this? I can see deer, boars, and hares. Pretty easy to kill."
"Can I kill them all? I am only level 3, after all." Alexa spoke with a sly smile.
"Go on." Henry sighed and opened his system, looking for more spots.
Alexa mumbled something and a large magic circle engulfed the entire grassland, and after two seconds, it emitted a huge flame, killing all the creatures.
"It's really hard to level up!" Alexa was shocked by the minimum amount of experience she received.
"You will need to kill beasts which are strong, not common fodder." Henry laughed and started collecting the burnt animals.
Vaelorian was really shocked by the intensity of the spell. He could die easily!
For the next hour, they looked around and took turns to kill whatever creature they could find, and of course, when it was Vaelorian's turn, they all heard the elder's voice floating in the air, telling everyone to regroup.
The rest of the journey went smoothly, and the elders taught them how to handle the wolves, which looked very easy, even to Vaelorian, after spending the night in the tents, they continued their journey and soon reached the west side of the Empyrean City. Vaelorian looked at the large amount of rubble which was supposed to be the wall of the city. He could already see several buildings that were intact between all the rubble.
"Listen to me carefully everyone. You all can go explore the city now, but remember to regroup here after 5 hours. If you encounter anything unexpected, remember to break the crystals I gave you; it will alert us, and we will find you."
Everyone nodded at Elder Osiris and started their exploration.
Vaelorian immediately separated himself from everyone and increased his pace. He could see countless ruined houses, many of them were plain rubble, while others had some walls and ceilings standing straight.
He turned around to check whether anyone was following him or not and then made his way further into the city. Vaelorian found a perfect house and rushed inside. He developed a sense of urgency when he saw how easily Alexa conjured such a large-scale spell.
Vaelorian took a deep breath and sat in the corner inside the house. He closed his eyes; he was completely depleted now, and as soon as he started his mana circulation, his blood would be corrupted again, and his clock of death would start ticking again.
He cleared all his thoughts and started inhaling mana, blowing out smoke. He channeled his mana through his meridians to the point his mom told him about. He could immediately feel a cool feeling building up above his stomach. He continued channeling as his mother had instructed earlier and soon he could feel something about to burst open above his stomach, followed by intense pain.
Vaelorian stopped immediately and felt full.
"I guess it's time for a break now?" Vaelorian asked aloud and rested his back against the wall. He closed his eyes and started concentrating. Vaelorian could feel the tiny dantian throbbing like his heart. After taking enough of a break, Vaelorian started channeling mana through his meridians again.
This time, however, unlike the first time, Vaelorian started feeling fatigued as soon as he poured the mana into the dantian. He decided to take another break and tried to stop, but he couldn't stop himself. He felt as if his body was not listening to him. And soon after, his vision turned dark.
'Visit my temple.'
A voice too ancient spoke out.
Vaelorian couldn't see anyone in the darkness. "Who are you?"
'Empyrean Palace.'
The voice spoke, and Vaelorian's vision came back to normal. He saw a boy standing in front of him.