Chapter 1239: Forest of Truth
Chapter 1239: Forest of Truth
Seeing Draco's difficult expression, the entire squad was left speechless.
All that big talk the day before, proclaiming himself a God among mortals, and he didn't even have a mount? Either that or his mount was so bad that he didn't even dare to bring it out?
Jenna sneered derisively and folded her arms in mid-air. "Trash!"
"Hehe, some people should not talk so big when they have nothing to show for it~" Lia giggled while swinging her legs off the edge of her mount which was a giant white rabbit.
Byron frowned. "If you don't have a means of transportation, I can take you along with me."
He patted the side of his mount, which was a giant black bear with red eyes. Mirakil gestured for Draco to get on Bryon's mount cause he definitely wasn't going to share his own, squad captain or not.
"No need haha, I can follow on foot." Draco said with embarrassment, glancing at Jenna with a smile that wasn't a smile before nodding to Byron.
The warrior shrugged and didn't insist, while the rest of the squad casually moved out without caring about him. True to his word, Draco stretched his legs and began a light sprint, using each step to propel himself off the ground so hard he flew for a few hundred meters with each one.
Despite moving at thousands of kilometers per hour like this, his legs were not a blur but each movement was clearly defined. It was just as well since the mounts of the others moved at similar speeds, with those like Jenna or Lia's white rabbit moving slightly faster due to their special advantages.
This surprised the squad, and their evaluation of Draco rose sharply as they inhaled sharp breaths. One should know that the purpose of mounts was to travel faster and more efficiently, which was also the case here.
If they overclocked themsElves and activated many buff skills, they could move as fast as Draco - as well as their mounts - for different lengths of time per squad member, but it wouldn't pass ten minutes!
This shock soon morphed into horror when they arrived at their destination almost 2 hours later.
2 hours of running for thousands of kilometers…
Even their mounts were breathing heavily, frothing at the mouth and requiring them to feed them with special restoration potions, pills or juices to reward them for the hard work.
But Draco just looked like he had only broken a sweat, with a single bead of it condensed on his forehead.
"Oh? Damn, I must have gotten some morning dew on my head when we passed by that clearing." Draco muttered casually as he swept the drop off his forehead.
Squad: …
Makar, the tigerman with a saber, walked up to Mirakil and spoke in a hushed tone. "This guy is incredibly suspicious. We have to be cautious."
Mirakil's eyes narrowed as he noticed it too. "Stick to your role and we can make it back in one piece."
Makar nodded. After all, it wasn't like they were planning anything malicious, just that Draco was too weird for their liking. Anyway, the stronger he was, the better for the entire squad because it would mean a higher survival rate.
"Alright, here are our deployment details. We have been collectively assigned to the Forest of Truth, one of the three main regions of habitation for the Elves of this realm. We are here with squads 700 to 1500, and our area is specifically marked as the Hearth of Growth." Mirakil began as he faced the squad.
"This Hearth of Growth is the settlement around a kilometer away from us which houses a nursery and training school for infantile and young Elves, housing their next generation of fighters, thinkers and doers. Our job is to extinguish this future problem in the bud by any means necessary."
Mirakil's expression did not change as he continued. "Lia, you are to scout the area surrounding 500 meters of the Hearth of Growths boundaries in all directions. Find out their defenses, population, circumstances and any possible traps."
"Ohhh~ Can I assassinate any stragglers or guards that are not in the line of sight of others?~" Lia asked with a sparkle in her eyes.
Mirakil nodded. "Go ahead, but prioritize the mission and your safety first and foremost."
"Yaaay!~" Lia jumped in excitement and then disappeared on the spot, not teleporting but rather entering invisibility.
Only instead of outright leaving for her mission, she walked a circle around Draco as if wanting to drag out his secrets while being invisible. Her casual demeanor immediately became stiff when she noticed Draco's pupils following her every step, a slight smile on his lips.
Lia was deeply chilled, because up until now, no one had been able to see through her special invisibility. She had made it this far on this wretched battlefield because she could disappear at will, causing the wicked arrows of the Elves to even lose their surestrike ability.
Yet this guy could see her?
Impossible!
He must be bluffing! That's right, he was just acting weird like he had up until now!
Despite this, she did not continue to hover around Draco and left in a hurry, not even looking back. As for Draco, he felt amused at her reaction. The more time he spent around his squad the clearer the difference between these Realms out in the Void Nexus became to him.
If Eva or Cobra saw this level of invisibility, they would probably spit. If Draco were to grade Lia's invisibility skill, it would be Semi-Epic at best. Yet, she must regard it as Divine grade in her own eyes because she had used it among a group of weaklings with great success.
This lowered Draco's expectations of this expedition significantly. He still held wariness for the WMP, but it seemed that its members were truly not all that.
In fact, what Draco didn't know was that he had severely underestimated worlds like his Western Fantasy Realm. In the older age, the WMP was not a respected behemoth, but just another B-tier organization.
According to the test Draco did, an average Rank 5 of the Western Fantasy Realm could barely qualify for the Test of Body and become an Unranked Warrior, but for some Realms, the beings that could qualify for this were akin to Titled Gods or True Gods among them.
The same level of power, but with completely different statuses in different worlds. In one, a slightly bigger ant and in another, the peak of their world.
The gap was there.
Lia, for example, was the Saintess of her Rabbit Race in her original Realm, revered as one of the top figures of the world below their Ancestor Gods. Yet in the Main Plane, she would be wondering whether she could even qualify to become a Vita Kingdom Soldier or Guard.
Mirakil assigned the various squad members into a formation based on their roles. Makar and Byron took the lead as they were both tanky, with Byron as the main tank while Makar would help out as an off-tank.
After them were Jenna and Draco the two main DPS who were both melee type. The next row were Varon, Kalion and Gerrick who were the controlling row. Varon was the main controller, Kalion the squad comms and on field strategy leader while Gerrick was ranged DPS.
In the final row was their support, Sarkin, Clove and Darlia. Sarkin would handle on field logistics and repairs, Clove was the offensive support who granted team buffs while also acting as a rallying point since everyone could teleport to her side after she left a mark on them, and Darlia was simply the healer and status cleanser.
Mirakil handled this row's protection. He did not engage in any fights but solely guarded this group from perishing as they were the lifeblood of the squad.
With Lia scouting ahead and reporting to Kalion using special magitech equipment, the group advanced slowly through this thick forest before them towards the Hearth of Growth territory.
Along the way, Draco noticed with his VoP that there were almost twenty Elves stealthily observing them through various means. Some spoke through the trees and flowers, while others used the forest creatures and animals. Some were directly monitoring through the leaves, concealed in them while somewhere underground, passing through the roots of thick trees.
What left Draco speechless was that the squad was completely oblivious to all of that!
Lia, whose entire Job was to scout for them, had long since been detected by the Elves!
Even if she had no visual presence and did not make a sound as a result of her invisibility skill, she still had mass. When she stepped on the grass to leap across branches, the wildlife felt it. Not to mention she needed to breathe, and brother, we all knew who was the one that consumed CO2.
Draco immediately understood how the Elves had lasted this long against 'elites' like those from the WMP and had even been able to cause so much death and casualties to the point that even Headquarters took notice and invested big resources to fix them.
Draco glanced at the squad and felt a hint of respect for them. To think that under these kinds of circumstances, these fellows had managed to drag themsElves back in one piece - for the most part - showed that they definitely had some special traits.
As they moved along he idly read the mind of a nearby Elf that was hiding within the bark of a tree in similar manner to dryads, and his face stiffened.
It seemed like the Elves knew about this 'dumbass' squad in particular and had ranked them low on their 'hit-list' because the squad mostly performed badly and did not target any key areas previously.
Not to mention…
Draco's face darkened when he read up to there.
Apparently, many male Elves of the resistance army were fond of Jenna, who often would secretly capture one or two of them into the treetops to 'rape' while the squad was resting and then release them after stretching their backsides wide.
So Draco had inadvertently discovered a scarring truth. No, not Jenna's rapacious behavior, that was normal in this fucked up universe that Draco lived in. What was scarring was that the male Elves of this species were greatly effeminate - as Draco himself had noticed visually earlier - and were similar to Vano.
In fact, as Draco spread his psychic powers around, he found that the male Elves deployed around them were initially focused on Jenna, 'allocating' which of them would become 'careless' and then get 'captured' by her.
As it was a casual discussion, Draco felt the palpable silence when the male Elves sighted him and their collective breaths caught. Immediately, it became like a loud marketplace as they roared out their desire for him, threatening, begging and bargaining with each other furiously.
This did not excite Draco since he was not into femboys and he almost smashed the Elves into paste until the female ones among them had the same reaction and barged in on the conversation.
The discussion was fierce, with the female Elves claiming that it was their purview to claim males for reproductive purposes while the males argued that they could then take Jenna as she produced the 'milk' they needed despite her outward appearance.
Just as it was coming to a head as both sides refused to give up and rapid-fire released good points one after the other - enough so that Draco occasionally nodded his head in agreement unwillingly - the man himself decided to end it.
"Boy am I happy I am STRAIGHT. Man, do I like me some GIRLS and WOMEN. There's nothing in the world I enjoy more than PUSSIES and BOOBIES." Draco spoke aloud, making his entire squad look at him with varying expressions.
Male Elves: (╯'□')╯︵ ┻━┻
Male Elves: Fuck, why did you have to say that right at this moment!
Female Elves: (*´∀｀*)
Female Elves: Scram you dickless bastards, he's ours now!