35: Chapter 35 A Whisper of Wind and Cranes
Lin Fan did not hesitate for a second, immediately quickening his pace and galloping toward the forest.
Unleashing the full speed of a Tier 2 Mage, he transformed into a dark shadow, swiftly weaving through the open ground between the border and the forest.
Last time, it had taken him several minutes to cross this clearing.
But now, traveling at his maximum speed, he reached the edge of the forest in just over a minute!
Quite satisfied with his speed, Lin Fan did not stop at the forest entrance.
He pushed off hard with his feet.
His body shot forward like an arrow from a bow, leaping into the air.
Bang!
With a slight muffled explosion, Lin Fan's body rose from the ground and landed steadily on a thick tree branch.
Immediately after, he lightly tapped the branch with his toes and lunged toward another branch.
Using the cover of the trees, he moved rapidly toward the depths of the forest.
Despite his staggering speed,
the undying robe on Lin Fan's body remained perfectly still.
That undying robe blocked all wind resistance, remaining smooth and flat at all times.
Not long after entering the forest,
Lin Fan spotted a group of people wearing black uniforms.
There were about seven people in this group, and it looked as though they were waiting for something.
Lin Fan reacted instantly.
They were likely the Alliance adventure team the border guard had mentioned earlier.
He had seen similar uniforms before in the Alliance Building.
After observing them carefully,
Lin Fan discovered that
within this group,
most were First-Order Mages,
and only a few had reached the realm of a Tier 2 Mage.
"Their strength isn't much."
Lin Fan muttered to himself.
He had completely forgotten how difficult it had been for his past self to increase even a single level.
One had to understand that many people spend their entire lives without necessarily breaking through from a First-Order Mage to a Tier 2 Mage.
To say nothing of promoting to a Tier 3 Mage.
Once someone broke through to Tier 3, it meant that person possessed extraordinary talent.
After all, countless people are trapped in realms below Tier 3 for their whole lives; some cannot even touch the threshold of Tier 3.
To break through to Tier 3,
one needed not only top-tier talent but also a massive pile of resources.
In the mage hierarchy, only the first two realms were relatively easy to break through.
After observing for a moment,
Lin Fan ignored them and continued moving toward the forest depths.
He remained hidden among the high branches, and with the undying robe masking all his movements,
unless he revealed himself voluntarily or the opponent possessed extremely keen perception,
it was impossible for them to discover his tracks.
As Lin Fan went deeper into the forest, he encountered more and more Alliance adventure teams.
The strength of these people was all similar.
Most were concentrated in the range between First-Order Mage and Tier 2 Mage.
This caused Lin Fan to frown involuntarily.
What on earth had happened to make the Alliance send so many mages to investigate?
He only had a few short hours to grind experience.
The presence of these people would undoubtedly cause him quite a bit of trouble.
Even worse,
since entering the forest, he hadn't seen a single sign of a magical beast.
The reason was obvious... they had all been scared away by these adventure teams.
Lin Fan felt a bit irritable.
He could only continue to increase his speed, heading toward the deeper parts of the forest.
After traveling at high speed for several more minutes,
the figures of Alliance adventure teams finally stopped appearing behind him.
Lin Fan breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed these people had not ventured this far in.
He had even been slightly worried just now about whether he was going too deep.
If he encountered a powerful magical beast, it would be troublesome.
Finally.
After walking a bit further, Lin Fan's eyes lit up as he found a target!
He stopped his pace.
Standing on a somewhat slender branch, he looked down at the ground.
It was a deer-shaped magical beast.
A massive single horn grew right from the center of its head.
"It's a Spirit-Horned Deer!"
Lin Fan couldn't help but exclaim in a low voice.
There was a good reason for his surprise.
Although the Spirit-Horned Deer was only a common grade magical beast and its strength wasn't formidable,
it was fundamentally different from other magical beasts.
Its special quality lay in the fact that
even at the common grade, it could use special abilities.
This also made them one of the prey that gave adventurers the biggest headaches.
One must know that
other magical beasts must evolve to at least the mutant grade before they can mobilize the mana in their core to use special abilities.
Some magical beasts even need to break through to the Divine Beast Grade to awaken talent skills!
But the Spirit-Horned Deer was different; they could use special abilities starting from the common grade.
The single horn on their head was the key to using their abilities.
True to its name, the Spirit-Horned Deer could capture sound waves within a certain range around it.
This gave them extremely strong alertness.
Trying to ambush them was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
The other function of the single horn was to release sound wave attacks.
The target being attacked would feel intense tinnitus and pain.
Those with weaker strength might even have their seven orifices bleed from the vibration, suffering heavy injuries.
"Furthermore, as the Spirit-Horned Deer's level increases, its abilities become stronger, and the range of its sound wave detection and attack also increases significantly."
"Fortunately, this is only a common grade Spirit-Horned Deer with a small detection range, otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to get close before being discovered."
Lin Fan murmured to himself.
The next second.
The eyes behind his mask flashed with a purple light, and specks of purple starlight emerged behind him.
They quickly condensed into two complete Star Patterns.
"Thunder Strike!"
Zzzzt!
Accompanied by a low sound of electricity,
a slender bolt of purple lightning shot out from the Star Patterns.
It traced a jagged arc in the air, striking down toward the Spirit-Horned Deer on the ground.
At this moment, the Spirit-Horned Deer was still leisurely bowing its head to graze on the green grass.
Suddenly, the horn on its head emitted a hum, as if it sensed danger.
It jerked its head up, looking around alertly, but found nothing.
Despite this, its animal instinct made it turn, wanting to flee.
But it was all too late.
In an instant, that extremely fast purple lightning accurately struck its body.
The Spirit-Horned Deer let out a shrill scream, and the part hit by the lightning instantly exploded into a bloody mess.
Residual electricity surged wildly into its body, wantonly destroying its internal organs.
It scorched its flesh and evaporated its blood.
After twitching violently for a few seconds,
the Spirit-Horned Deer crashed to the ground, completely devoid of breath.
Thick smoke rose from its corpse.
The air was filled with the burnt smell of roasted meat.
[Ding! Mission completed. Gained 10 Experience Points!]
Seeing the notification pop up before him, Lin Fan leaped down from the branch.
He walked to the Spirit-Horned Deer's corpse and casually cast a Spatial Storage Spell, putting the corpse inside.
Then he immediately turned and left, continuing to search for his next target.
Time was pressing.
He had to hunt as many magical beasts as possible before dark.