Chapter 26 : Demonic Jungle
[Village Chief]
Those were the two words that hovered over the man's head, surprising Axton as he stared at both the name and the man in front of him.
Axton had never thought to seek out the village chief of this place since he heard rumours that the village chief could not grant any quests.
Not bothering to confirm the authenticity of the rumours, Axton did his own thing.
But why did the village chief come to him?
That was what he did not understand.
The village chief raised his eyebrows at Axton, as if waiting for the young man's reply.
The player soon recollected his senses and answered. "Oh, forgive me. I'm good, sir."
"You seem to be lost in your thoughts," the chief added. "Mind sharing."
Axton was silent for a few seconds. "Well, I'm currently seeking out a location to find strong beasts to slay."
Hearing this, the village chief smiled. His smile was also a way to hide his surprise.
"That's new."
Axton looked at him with confusion in his eyes.
The village chief nodded his head.
"Yes. Usually others would seek out beasts that are weaker than them but here you are… you are searching for the strong ones. That is quite impressive of you, young man."
"Thank you, sir," Axton answered, scratching the back of his head and laughing.
'He is the one who was selling the common grade staff earlier,' the chief thought as he observed Axton. 'Seems like a modest guy.'
"Any idea where I can find any though?"
"Oh? Me?" the chief replied, pointing a finger to himself.
Axton's face went deadpan.
Obviously, he was talking to the chief since there were no third parties in their chat.
Regardless, he nodded in affirmation.
"If you go to the demonic jungle, I'm sure you will find what you're looking for there. It's home to different breeds of wild creatures."
'Demonic jungle?' Axton wondered.
If the village chief was the one talking about this place, then it was possibly the real deal.
Axton also considered from his real world experience that when the word "demonic" or "demon" was attached to something, it was certainly powerful.
Considering all of these pieces of information, Axton's heart swelled up with excitement.
Axton hurriedly got up and bowed to the village chief. "Thank you, sir! I really do appreciate your kind gesture."
Axton was on his best behaviour just in case his interaction with the village chief was a key to trigger a quest, regardless of the rumours he heard.
It wouldn't be far-fetched to think that some random player started the rumour to make others lose faith so they could do whatever quest it was by themselves.
But in truth, the village chief did not trigger any quests much to Axton's disappointment.
Seeing that nothing changed, he headed to the demonic jungle after getting directions from the village chief.
The village chief watched him as he ran out, not helping himself but smiling.
Meanwhile, it was not only the village chief who was watching Axton.
Other eyes were lurking on him as well.
******
"He's off."
"Then follow him! Quickly!"
*Step* *Step*
Some players followed Axton, tracking him as he journeyed to the demonic jungle.
These were members of the Grand Nexus guild, assigned by Silva to track and monitor all of Axton's moves.
"He's too fast," one said to another, already panting as they ran for a while.
Axton was too fast for them and they were losing him.
In fact, they would have lost track of Axton if not for the tracking skill that one of them possessed.
"Can you still see him?"
The one with the tracking ability did not answer, much to the annoyance of his colleague.
However, he did not do this on purpose or to intentionally anger his teammate.
His ability required that he used all of his attention to track a target.
Otherwise, he would fail.
Considering that Axton was also too fast for them, he couldn't afford to make a silly mistake.
Silva won't let him hear the last of it.
"Yes," he finally answered after a time. "I can still track him."
The rest were relieved and continued to follow his lead.
******
Crystal logged in and continued her in-game persona as the character of QueenBee.
Having received the contact of the military personnel from Trey as he promised, Crystal quickly sent the person a message.
[Add as friend]
[Yes]
[QUEENBEE : Send your men to find and watch the player, Khan. Monitor him at all times and protect him at all costs.]
Crystal acted on her elder brother's instruction, having heard his own side of the tale.
She saw reasons why they would want to protect a player like Axton even when they did not know him.
As Trey said, they couldn't risk him turning to the wrong side in the long run.
******
(Demonic Jungle)
"What the…?" Axton expressed in a very low tone to avoid drawing attention to himself.
As soon as he stepped foot into the jungle, he caught sight of a massive clowder of large black cats with fiercely burning golden eyes.
…
[Demon Cats]
Level : 6
Attack : 38
Defense : 35
HP : 85/85
Skills : [Cat Rush] [Dark Meow]
Note : Demon cats are already a strong species and are even stronger now that they have been corrupted by demonic mana.
…
'It really lives up to the name of the demonic jungle,' Axton pointed out in his mind.
Everything inside this place was soaked in demonic mana.
While he was still observing, he noted several approaching figures.
They had found him!
It was not surprising since these were wild beasts.
It was expected that they would be good hunters and that was what they proved now.
[Cat Rush]
Their numbers were overwhelming since they wanted to end their prey in a single charge.
*Ding*
[Enemies detected!]
[Your attack power has increased!]
*Shing*
Axton quickly summoned his Flash Sword, and as usual, he was prepared to fight.