Kaizen made a decision in his mind.
The first important point was to absorb the characteristics of the Kurta tribe.
The second was to obtain the spirit of the Kurta tribe.
In the next moment, Kaizen found himself in a completely unfamiliar place.
By all logic, crossing the entrance of the cave should lead into the cave itself.
But what Kaizen was facing now was far from expected.
Instead, he was standing in a dense forest.
The trees were towering, and an unsettling, gloomy aura filled the air.
"Whoosh!"
A black shadow shot toward Kaizen at incredible speed.
In an instant, Natsu stood protectively in front of him.
"Boom!"
Flames erupted as Natsu delivered a punch, knocking the shadow back.
Upon closer inspection, Kaizen realized that the shadow was just a dry branch.
"Live branches?"
"En... Round!"
Kaizen opened his aura circle.
The diameter stretched to twenty-five meters.
He could sense many more shadows closing in.
"They're all dry branches. There are so many of them."
"They move like snakes..."
"I wonder what happens if one of them bites me."
Just as the branches were about to strike, they suddenly froze.
It seemed they were afraid of something.
Kaizen instinctively looked at Natsu.
Natsu's fist was wreathed in flames.
"Afraid of fire?" Kaizen thought. "It's very likely."
"After all, they're just branches."
Kaizen gave Natsu a command.
"Extinguish the flames."
The next moment, the fire on Natsu's fist died down.
Immediately, the branches began to surge forward.
They attacked Kaizen with frightening speed.
"Light the flames again!"
The fire on Natsu's fist reignited.
The branches halted abruptly, retreating to a safe distance of three meters.
"Just as I thought, they're afraid of fire."
Kaizen pointed at one of the dry branches.
"Mind bomb!"
A small blast of aura shot out, striking the branch.
"Boom!"
The branch exploded with a sharp crack, and Kaizen saw a burst of star-like energy rush toward the crystal ball in front of him, increasing its progress.
Kaizen's eyes lit up.
He fired again.
"Mind bomb!"
"Mind bomb!"
"Mind bomb!"
The attacks kept coming, each one destroying more branches.
The crystal ball's progress steadily grew.
"This is still too slow."
Kaizen had an idea.
"Lantern Ghost!"
He ordered Natsu.
"Extinguish the flame!"
As soon as the flames vanished, the dry branches rushed forward once more.
This time, they gathered in such numbers that they formed a massive sphere, much like the scene when the monster girl attacked Dominica.
Just as they neared Kaizen...
"Boom!"
Natsu's flames erupted, expanding rapidly, engulfing an area of more than ten meters. The moment the dry branches touched the flames, they disintegrated in bursts.
Stars flew into the crystal ball, rapidly increasing its progress.
The Lantern Ghost hovered beside Kaizen, absorbing any lingering flames that came near.
"The Observer's Will is pleased with the progress. Three percent."
Natsu withdrew the flames but kept the fire burning on his fist.
"One of these monsters gives three progress points. Not bad."
"These monsters are stronger than they seem, especially in large numbers."
"But they're too vulnerable to flames."
"Without fire, even Nen would struggle against them."
Kaizen chose a direction and continued walking.
There was no need to keep killing the dry branches, as they no longer contributed to the crystal ball's progress.
"Blood scent?"
A sharp, metallic odor filled the air. Kaizen's nose twitched, and he turned his gaze toward the source.
Soon, a corpse came into view.
The body was barely recognizable, consumed by the branches. It had turned into a mummified corpse, covered in dry limbs.
But from the scent of blood, Kaizen knew it had just died. There was still a trace of aura on the body.
"A Nen user fell to the attack of these branches, only to be mummified," Kaizen mused.
He remained silent for a moment, then pressed on.
The dry branches took note of his presence, but with the flame still on Natsu's fist, they dared not approach.
"An extreme kind of monster."
"An ordinary person with a torch could walk through here safely."
"But a Nen user can be killed."
Gradually, the trees began to thin out.
Kaizen stepped out of the forest.
The dry branches did not follow.
Beyond the woods lay a meadow.
Kaizen felt a shift beneath his feet.
Something was moving quickly toward him from underground.
He instinctively dodged to the side.
"Boom!"
A massive figure shot up from the ground.
It was huge, pink, and resembled an earthworm magnified thousands of times. Its body exuded a disgusting sheen, and its head was a grotesque, tooth-filled maw.
No eyes, but somehow it was drawn to Kaizen.
The creature lunged toward him.
Natsu stood in front of Kaizen and threw a punch.
"Boom!"
The earthworm was sent flying.
But it wasn't fatally wounded. Instead, it burrowed back into the ground and prepared for another attack.
"Akutagawa Ryunosuke!"
Kaizen summoned a new mind beast.
As the earthworm re-emerged, Kaizen commanded.
A dark, sharp claw materialized from his aura, grabbing the earthworm and crushing it in his grip.
"Crack!"
The creature split into multiple segments.
However, it didn't die. Instead, it split into several new individuals, each of them burrowing into the ground.
Kaizen paused, reflecting on the recent battle.
"Move!"
"These earthworms track my position based on movement."
"Twice before, I moved, and they honed in on me."
"But I didn't move just now, and they couldn't locate me, so they stopped attacking."
Kaizen quickly devised a countermeasure.
"Altan!"
Altan's figure appeared.
As a purely support-type mind beast, Altan wasn't typically involved in combat. But now, Kaizen could use Altan for more than just intelligence.
Altan had the ability to levitate at low altitudes, which could prove useful in this situation.