There were two people who were observing Rein. Still, they both didn't even notice each other's presence.
It was honestly quite ridiculous.
Unbeknownst to them, however, they themselves were the ones being observed by the one they were observing.
[ These guys are pretty dumb. How have they not noticed each other? ]
[ Still, the new guy isn't doing anything. There aren't many possible reasons he would be following me. ]
[ Yeah. Even if he tries something, we're already prepared to deal with him. ]
It was now dawn, and the sun was rising in the horizon. This time, the sun was not blocked by the Great Enforcer, though its tall walls could still be seen opposite to the direction of the sun in the far distance.
Rein was around 60 kilometres away from the Floren Kingdom. It went to show how "great" the walls of the Great Enforcer truly were for her to see them from so far away. At least before the dog came.
[ Let's look for some Forsakened. We don't really need to go any further. ] Rein said
[ Sure. There's nothing nearby though. ]
As the Tempest Plains name suggested, it was quite windy here. The few trees found around here were normal in height compared to the Emerald Forest, but had a sturdy trunk.
It was also pretty foggy during the morning. This heavy wind and fog combination made traversement an issue for most people. It was not recommended to venture across the Tempest Plains during the morning.
Still, Rein didn't have any troubles. She didn't even need Ciel's help with directions. Most of the time.
[ Move straight East for a bit. We may find something there. ] Ciel said, sensing something through the fog
Rein did as said, and eventually found herself close to a scattered arrangement of large rocks. There were around 8 of them, with some of the rocks being over 4 metres tall.
Behind the rocks were a few trees.
[ Anything here? ] Rein asked
[ I'm pretty sure that there are some Forsakened Lizards camouflaging on these rocks. Also, a few Forsakened Ants are near one of the trees… ]
[ I think there's a corpse of a Forsakened Lizard or something similar where they're gathered. Though everything nearby is at Soul Tier 1, so there's not much to worry about. ] Ciel replied informatively
[ Damn. Well, at least there's something to kill. ] Rein said unimpressively
She didn't like lizards. Not that she was scared, just slightly irked out.
Regardless, she picked up a pebble and threw it towards one of the nearby rocks with force.
Just like Ciel said, a grey Feral Lizard – a metre in length – came rushing onto the grass towards Rein.
Instead of using a bow and arrow, Rein unsheathed her katana.
It wasn't one made out of Eternal Stone, since Eternal Stone was a completely unknown material to the world.
Before it could attack her, Rein easily killed the Forsakened Lizard in a single strike by cutting off its neck.
[ There are three more of them coming. ] Ciel warned
[ They're just free money. ] Rein replied with confidence
With that confidence, she easily defeated all the Feral Lizards. There were now four corpses.
[ I just realized that I'm the one who is going to have to butcher these things for their Forsaken Cores… ]
[ Just think about the money while butchering them. You don't even need the corpse, so you can be messy. ] Ciel advised
Carrying the corpses back would be too troubling and not worth the effort without Soul Transfer.
[ Yeah… I guess I'll just leave the corpses here and use them as bait to lure something actually worth killing. ] Rein thought
[ You'll only attract the nearby Feral Ants. You should kill them before you do that. There aren't too many. ] Ciel suggested
[ Yup, I know. ]
Rein agreed and went to slay the tiny colony of Feral Ants feasting on a rotten corpse. There were only 10 of them. She could easily defeat them all without using Void element.
Soon enough, the task was done and Rein collected all the Forsaken Cores into a small bag. The Forsaken Cores were the size of marbles, so they were easy to carry.
She had made 4 Silver and 20 Copper with all of the Forsaken Cores she had.
As planned, she went a slight distance away from the scattered rocks, climbed a tree, and waited while sitting on a tree branch.
The fog was slowly clearing up while Rein waited patiently. Her observers didn't have anything to do, so they climbed a tree of their own a distance away while waiting.
In the afternoon, Ciel finally sensed something that took the bait.
[ A Twisted Lizard… and three Twisted Ants, with a small swarm of Feral Ants… this is more than enough money. ]
Both Rein and Ciel had killed plenty of Twisted Forsakened in the Special Gate, and weren't afraid of them.
Still, they weren't careless.
[ Let's go for the Twisted Lizard first. It's much closer and easier to deal with. ]
[ Okay. ] Rein got off the tree branch and stood on the ground nearby
She was 50 metres away from the large rocks.
She slowly made her way closer, careful not to make any noise.
She soon silently stood behind one of the tall rocks with a bow, waiting for her ambush. All the corpses were in the center of the scattered rocks.
She waited for a minute before the Twisted Lizard had arrived and unhesitatingly started to devour the Feral Lizard corpses.
Without waiting, Rein shot an arrow infused with Void element straight into the Twisted Lizards head.
During her recent free time, she had learnt a correct way to use Void element.
Void itself was the concept of nothingness. There was no way she could control such a concept.
Still, she was able to use Void element to create weakened attacks of true Void.
Using Void element to create explosions was the completely wrong and inefficient way to use the Void collected in her Soul Core.
Like how she could lose her sanity when the Soul Core was filled with Void element, she could also make other creatures lose their sanity and crush their minds, killing them with madness.
For that to happen, she needed to infuse Void element into an object and make the Void element disperse into the target before the object would self-destruct.
If done correctly, the object of use would survive, and the Void element inside the object would enter the target instead, slowly killing them with madness like a poison.
She also didn't really need to put the Void element into an object, as her fists would work just fine, but with more risk.
This technique required a perfect timing, as messing up could create an explosion like she had been doing previously.
Once the arrow hit the Twisted Lizard's head, the Void element inside the arrow quickly dispersed into the Twisted Lizard's brain, killing it instantly.
It was an extremely potent and terrifying attack.
[ Is there time to take out the Forsaken Core? ] Rein asked
[ There is. The Twisted and Feral Ants are still 10 minutes away. Though they can probably sense the new blood spilled over here. ]
Still, that didn't matter much. Forsakened were mindless beasts after all, and wouldn't know why there was new blood until it would be too late.
Rein started to butcher the corpse of the Twisted Lizard for its Forsaken Core. Once done, she cleaned off her clothes to remove the smell of blood from herself with some spare water she had.
Then, just like before, she moved away from the tall rocks to keep some distance from the upcoming ants.
[ Do you think the Feral Ants will run away if we kill all the Twisted Ants? We know that they know when to run… ]
[ Maybe. Though they might just get angry with you. If that happens, you'll need to slowly kill them all, which shouldn't be too difficult. There's about 30 of them. ] Ciel informed
[ Seems like a chore. ] Rein sighed inwardly
Eventually, the Twisted Ants arrived at the pile of corpses, followed by the swarm of Feral Ants. It was quite eerie seeing massive ants breaking apart the corpses of massive lizards.
'What exactly is a Forsakened? ...Why are they Forsakened?' Rein couldn't help but think
Putting her thoughts aside, she aimed her bow from the distance, targeting one of the Twisted Ants.
She shot an arrow infused with Void element, which hit the Twisted Ant directly on its head, killing it instantly because of the dispersed Void element into its brain.
Before most of the other ants could react, another Void infused arrow flew straight towards one of the two remaining Twisted Ants.
Even with the sudden ambush, the Twisted Ant was barely able to react in time, taking the shot into its abdomen. The Twisted Ant shrieked in pain, as if its mind and body were collapsing and going insane.
[ I'll need another arrow to finish it off… ] Rein thought
Since it was too shocked to move properly, Rein took the easy shot and hit the damaged Twisted Ant in its abdomen once again, putting an end to its misery.
The unharmed and final Twisted Ant was already heading straight towards her though.
'I need to practice swordsmanship…' Rein thought, putting away the bow and arrow
The Twisted Ant was running straight towards her, and would be easy to kill with a Void infused arrow.
Still, she wanted to practice adding Void element to her katana.
She would need to infuse Void element into the blade the moment it pierced the target's flesh, and then let the Void element disperse into the target's body before the blade could shatter with an explosion.
Getting the timing right would be difficult to master.
She also had to show the observer from the Royal Guards her "Ability".
More like a lesser version of its true potential.
She would show them that she could make creatures go mad and lose themselves if hit by her attacks.
They wouldn't know anything about Void. It would just be a fake Ability she would show off to the Royal Guards to make them believe was her true Ability.