Limitless Evolution: The Path To Immortality

The rest of the team looked on in moderate shock. The tendrils of nature had completely outclassed the sapphire core creature in less than a second. Sure, the creature might have forcefully broken into the sapphire core, yet that did not take away from its strength. 

'Its strength was a little higher than that of a pinnacle amethyst core, yet much lower than that of the weakest sapphire cores. How interesting. Maybe I underestimated the power of the staff that had been handed to my grandmother. To give such a powerful artifact to someone like Keira…' Silas frowned and recalled receiving a staff with an emerald crystal powering it from the chief to give to his grandmother.

'Now that I think about it, I can't help but wonder if there was something that Keira kept from us. Such an enormous prize for simply stopping a beast horde is simply incomprehensible. Maybe, just maybe, there was something more to that gift.' Silas narrowed his eyes, not paying any more attention to the display of nature magic before him.

However, the same could not be said for the rest of his group. All their eyes were glued onto the pillar of vines and roots. Of course, some knew how to hide their shock more than others, while some like Alcraz, seemed to be completely calm.

Siltheria, who was simply frowning at the display of power, looked to the side and stared at the open-mouthed Gigi. Both her eyes were widened, while the hand that she had placed on her blade tightened around it significantly. She shuddered constantly, her eyes darting between the caster and the casted.

"We need to keep moving. Deton, harvest the core." Alcraz ordered while peaking behind him to look at the two girls. However, his eyes quickly moved toward the stationary Silas who hadn't shown a single bit of interest in the situation. He was currently looking down in contemplation with his hand on his chin.

Alcraz's eye twitched when he saw this, but he didn't show any other reaction. He quickly turned around and began walking in the other direction, passed the pillar of vines and roots and deeper in the forest.

After Deton harvested the monster by manipulating a vine to rip through the creatures flesh and retrieve the core, everyone turned around and followed behind Alcraz quietly. The group was completely quiet, yet, with a single glance, Silas could tell that the entire group was in turmoil with emotions they were having trouble controlling.

Gigi's was awe and a tinge of excitement. Siltheria exuded a feeling of anger and even a tinge of wariness, while Deton, who had cast the spell in the first place, looked like he was about to burst with pride and gloating.

Seeing Deton so upbeat, Silas couldn't help but inwardly chuckle as he passed the pillar and the monster.

This continued for several hours. They moved around the forest and hunted for both beasts and monsters. Despite what Silas would have thought before this expedition, there were quite a lot of monsters in Uladia. The reason that was so surprising was due to the fact that, throughout his 6 years of living in Uladia, Silas had only met a handful of monsters.

Though, it seemed like the reason for that was simply due to the fact that he tended not to go much deeper than a mile or two due to a certain golden-eyed nun who stopped him from doing so. 

"We should start going back. It will take an hour to reach the camp from where we are, and the sun looks like it'll set in two hours or less." Gigi suggested.

"That's probably a good idea." Alcraz nodded.

"Good idea? We can spend another hour here and you want to go back already?" Siltheria sneered. "We can just run back at full speed when there's only an hour left." She shrugged.

"Not all of us can move that quickly. I'm a mage, remember?" Deton sneered back while throwing a glance at Alcraz and Gigi for them to back him up.

"Don't you have an item that helps you move quickly from place to place? You're an elf, right? Isn't agility one of the more important things to them when it comes to combat?" Siltheria asked in a mocking tone.

"No. Agility isn't important to us. Rather, it's simply one of our advantages due to our naturally slimmer bodies." Deton snorted in reply as if he couldn't believe he would have to explain such a well-known piece of information. However, while all non-elves digested that information, Silas had a different reaction.

'Does he not know, or is he simply not allowed to tell people from other races?' Silas narrowed his eyes and looked at Siltheria to see if she had a similar reaction to him, yet, after seeing her contemplate what Deton had told her, he could not help but frown.

The reason Silas was confused was simple. It was because the bodies of elves did not work the same way Deton had described. While they were naturally slimmer, that didn't help with their speed, or at least not in any significant way. That was because, while they were naturally slimmer than humans and most beastkin types, their muscles were 73% denser than most humans. Their grace and "lack of weight" was, if anything, an illusion.

Because, while their muscle density might have allowed them to create larger bursts of speed, the real reason for their "lightweight" and "quick speeds" was simply due to how mana moved through their bodies. 

That was because, just like some of the beasts that he had seen over the last couple of years, elves had two sets of mana channels. One that was connected to their core, and one that was connected to their heart…

Meaning, that not only did they have a way to channel mana to create spells in elemental forms, but pure mana seemed to course within their very blood as if their respiratory system itself was created to absorb both oxygen and mana in a controlled fashion…

Almost artificial…

Silas could tell that they had many other secrets connected to their mana channels, however, while those were interesting, the thing that Silas found most interesting was how they awakened mana in the first place.

'Now that I think about it, every race except humanity seems to have an advantage when it comes to how their mana moves through their body. Well, that's if you don't count me, of course. My mana channels were formed by my evolution blessing, as well as the life equation. My body had been literally morphed to make mana easy to manipulate… Yet, here I am, still struggling to control mana the same way toki users do.' Silas sighed while looking at his teammates. 

They seemed to have finally come to a decision on what to do and were beginning to walk back to the camp. He knew he was the reason for them going back since he felt them looking at him a couple of times during their conversation, but he didn't really care.

As Silas began to turn around and follow behind them, he suddenly felt the hairs at the back of his neck rise. Out of nowhere, Silas felt hundreds of feral eyes land on him before danger crept up his neck, sending cold shudders down his spine.

His eyes quickly narrowed into slits while a smile crept out of the corner of his lips.

'So this is how they're going to play it…' Silas' smile turned maniacal.

***

Closing her eyes, Gigi let out a heavy sigh. Ever since entering the forest, there had been a bad feeling lurking behind her ears. It almost felt like there was something breathing down her neck, yet, no matter how many times she looked back, the only person she saw was Game Evergreen, the mysterious student with unknown abilities.

She had chalked up her uneasiness to Game's presence. The fact that he refused to walk in front of any of them was suspect enough, especially since he was considered the weakest among them. Usually, in situations like this, people like him tended to stay near the middle where they could be protected from all sides, yet, not only did he stay at the back, but he also left the group at times to collect ingredients from the forest.

Most of these ingredients were plants. However, at times, he would come back with the organs of certain monsters that he insisted were for his potion making.

As those thoughts ran through her mind, Gigi could not hold back the incoming sigh. Ever since meeting Game Evergreen, it seemed like she had been sighing quite a lot. The boy was stressful to be around, so who could blame her? Plus, if that wasn't enough, the serpent with slit-like pupils was glaring into her soul, scrutinizing her every moment. 

Ironically enough, somehow, the loud green-haired elf and the racist shorter elf were the only ones that she felt calm around. They didn't make her nervous, so that was a plus…

Suddenly, she felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. Her eyes widened in terror before she allowed her toki to finally erupt out of her body and wreak havoc in every direction. Of course, with the little semblance of control that remained in her mind, she controlled the toki to move around her teammates.

Her toki swept past all of them and erased the trees around them from existence, turning them into splinters and sawdust in the blink of an eye. Everything around them for several dozen meters disappeared, and what she saw only cemented the horror in her heart.

Dozens, if not hundreds of monsters surrounded them… No… They had always been surrounding them. Some of them were far too close to not have been surrounding them for a significantly long time. Despite her outburst of toki that had seemingly erased a chunk of the forest, monsters within that range did not die. Some were injured, yet most of them weren't.

Most had been simply pushed back a few meters, yet, even then, it wasn't all of them.

'Pristine Amethyst or higher…' Gigi concluded with a hint of terror.

The rest, despite seeming just as strong as Gigi, only then realized that they were surrounded. Each of them got into their battle stances in an instant. Sure, they had been caught off guard, but that was no reason to die.

Grabbing the hilt of her blade, Gigi also got into her battle stand. Slowly, she retracted her toki before calmly coating her blade in it.

This was going to be a battle they wouldn't forget.