Forest of Menos

Having found his target, Wien had a much easier journey afterward. Following the Gillian, he encountered almost no obstacles along the way. Whenever they ran into a stronger, hostile Gillian, Wien chose to wait until both sides had worn each other down to a certain extent before making his move.

For one thing, it was the least strenuous approach. For another, he could profit from it and consolidate his Spiritual Power. What Wien hadn't expected was that he would end up following the Gillian for several more months.

More awkwardly, Wien's single-minded goal of getting away from the Forest of Menos had been completely undone by this pursuit.

Fortunately, the gains he had made along the way also made Wien feel that the Spiritual Power in his body was approaching its limit. No matter how he compressed it, he couldn't squeeze out even the tiniest bit more space. Figuratively speaking, Wien was a bottle filled to the brim with water called Spiritual Power. One more drop and it would overflow.

After months of travel, Wien had no idea how far he had gone alongside the Gillian. There had also been two occasions when they ran into danger.

Along the way, Wien and the Gillian had encountered two conscious Gillians, but Wien had dealt with both of them without trouble. After all, from a tactical standpoint, Wien's intelligence was already among the best in the outer region. As long as the gap in strength wasn't too great, Wien could remain undefeated. Of course, if he couldn't win, he could still run.

Wien wasn't the only one who had replenished his strength along the way. The greater beneficiary was actually the unconscious Gillian he had been pursuing all this time.

After all, the Spiritual Power in Wien's body was already close to saturation, so the extra Reishi had all gone to the Gillian, that bottomless pit. Over their months of travel, the Gillian's Spiritual Pressure had felt increasingly strong to Wien. He believed that once they reached the Forest of Menos, the Gillian would have some ability to protect himself.

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye. Wien clearly noticed that they were encountering more and more Gillians along the way, and on this particular day, a strange sight appeared. After Wien found a place to rest for a while, he caught up to the Gillian he had marked with his Spiritual Pressure, only to find two other Gillians walking side by side with him nearby. None of the three showed any intention of attacking one another.

The sight startled Wien for a moment. But he quickly realized that he must be close to the Forest of Menos.

Sure enough, on the third day of their continued journey, Wien crossed a tall hill and saw an endless forest on the other side.

The Forest of Menos was right before him.

"What a sight," Wien couldn't help saying, overwhelmed with emotion as he looked at the vast forest before him. He had imagined what the Forest of Menos looked like more than once. But when it actually appeared before his eyes, he found it even grander than he had imagined.

Beyond the hill was a forest that stretched as far as the eye could see. Unlike the barren forests he had passed through, the trees here actually had branches and leaves, and the farther in he looked, the taller and thicker they grew.

A dense, yellowish yet pale mist drifted above the forest, as though it were the product of Reishi so concentrated that it had taken visible form. It also did a fine job of concealing the interior of the Forest of Menos, preventing Wien from glimpsing any part of it.

"I wanted to stay away from this place, but I never expected... Sigh." Wien sighed inwardly. In the end, he had chosen Nel over safely getting through his Gillian evolution, and the choice wasn't necessarily the right one.

"Forget it. Let's go. Even if it was a mistake, in this vast Forest of Menos, Yammy, an adjuchas who has to build up power to become strong, might not be able to kill me right after he evolves." Wien encouraged himself.

He then relied on his mark once again to locate the Gillian he had been following. Following in his footsteps, Wien stepped into the Forest of Menos.

The instant Wien entered the Forest of Menos, he felt the difference. Unlike other regions, the Reishi here was much denser. Almost every breath brought in an amount of Reishi equal to that of a Beast Hollow of the lowest level. And that was with Wien being a High-Level Hollow. What about a Gillian's Soul Suck? Wien's heart tightened.

"No wonder the Forest of Menos can summon Gillians. So this really is a sacred ground belonging only to their level." After that remark, Wien continued deeper inside.

Unlike the barren forest regions, this dense forest allowed Wien to make better use of his advantages.

The only regret was that he couldn't absorb too much Reishi at the moment. Simply breathing was fine, but if he devoured a few more Gillians, Wien would definitely enter the evolution stage, and that wasn't what he wanted to see right now.

At least until he figured out the true identity of the Gillian he was pursuing, Wien couldn't afford to lose his agility.

"Hey, big guy, who are you, anyway? Nel? Yammy? Or neither of them?" Wien muttered to himself as he followed the Gillian.

Now that they had reached the Forest of Menos, how could he help the big guy in front of him advance quickly? After thinking it over, Wien could only choose to use himself as bait, luring isolated Gillians close to the big guy he was tracking, killing them, and stuffing their masks into the big guy's mouth. Then he would continue luring him with the Reishi released by their corpses.

After all, besides the conscious Gillians, the most terrifying beings in the Forest of Menos were the adjuchas who had failed to reach the Inner Circle after advancing, or who had remained in the Forest of Menos for various reasons.

If circumstances hadn't forced his hand, Wien really wouldn't have wanted to go against those fellows. Fortunately, the Forest of Menos was vast. As long as he didn't venture deep into the core region, the chance of encountering an adjuchas wasn't too high.

Besides Gillians and adjuchas, the Forest of Menos also had lower-level Hollow Beasts. They were the best food in the forest and the main source of food for the Gillians that coexisted peacefully. However, a lower-level Hollow Beast in the Forest of Menos grew far faster than Hollow Beasts in other regions. That was also why most High-Level Hollows were willing to risk wandering the Forest of Menos.

After arriving in the forest, the Gillian Wien followed no longer walked in a single direction as he had before. Instead, he began to wander aimlessly. After all, this was his destination.

Now that he had arrived, all he had left to do was eat and prepare for his next evolution.

Ignoring the wandering giant, Wien quietly made his way to another area. Relying on his ability to sense Spiritual Pressure, he found another Gillian there.

Hunting Gillians in the Forest of Menos wasn't a right reserved solely for conscious Gillians and adjuchas. As long as they were strong enough, lower-level Hollows could overpower them too. For example, right now...

With his target in sight, Wien used his Blade Claws to climb a tall tree with ease, concealing his Spiritual Power so it wouldn't leak out.

Before the senses of a higher being, Wien's actions were nothing more than a petty trick, but against an unconscious Gillian, they worked quite well.

Crouching on a branch about thirty meters above the ground, Wien waited quietly for the unconscious Gillian to approach. Compared with Hollow Beasts of low Intelligence that knew only how to clash head-on, sneak attacks were undoubtedly Wien's specialty and a more efficient method.

Below, the Gillian continued trudging aimlessly along with a gurgling sound, while Wien had long since lain in wait nearby. When the Gillian passed beneath Wien's tree, the Spiritual Pressure Wien had been suppressing with all his might burst forth. A tremendous amount of Spiritual Power gathered in his Blade Claws, giving off strands of bright silver light.

He leaped down, a powerful Shatter Slash striking the Gillian squarely in the face. The sudden attack left the Gillian no chance to dodge, and his witchlike mask shattered with a bang.

After standing motionless for a few seconds, the huge body crashed to the ground, kicking up a sizable sandstorm. The enormous, lifeless corpse made no further movement; it couldn't have been more dead. And Wien? He had long since fled with the Gillian's mask in his grasp.

Using his Spiritual Pressure mark, Wien once again found the big guy he had been pursuing all along. The Reishi released by the mask in Wien's hand caught his attention. With a roar, the Gillian strode quickly toward Wien.

Wien tossed the mask to the ground and retreated. He found a nearby tree and sat in it, watching the Gillian pick up the mask and swallow it whole. The Gillian then let out a satisfied cry. Without looking for Wien again, he turned and continued his search for food.

"Tsk, tsk, I'm feeding someone again." Wien shook his head with a wry smile and prepared to follow. But before he could leap down from the tree, the big guy he had been following suddenly stopped. After letting out a roar, he raced off into the distance.

"What's going on?"

Wien froze, then felt a jolt in his heart. In the Forest of Menos, unconscious Gillians rarely attacked one another of their own accord. They were summoned by the same forest.

More often, they preferred to hunt the weak creatures surviving in the cracks of the Forest of Menos. That was also why Wien had been able to relax a little after arriving here and go hunting in other areas.

But when a Gillian moved with a purpose, there were only three possibilities. First, he had been stimulated by Reishi released by a dead Gillian or adjuchas nearby. Judging by the distance to the Gillian Wien had just killed, that clearly wasn't the case now.

Second, an adjuchas nearby had summoned him. This was common. In the Forest of Menos, adjuchas had a degree of control over Gillians, much like a superior enslaving an inferior.

Even Wien had no good solution for that situation.

Of course, there was a third explanation for this behavior. A war exclusive to the two factions in the Forest of Menos had broken out.