My bloodline is so eager to improve.

His fists gradually emanated a metallic luster, and the chilling aura almost materialized, dispelling much of the mist around Goren!

As for Otto, he didn't say much, but quietly activated Shadow Step, trying to conceal his footsteps and aura to facilitate his subsequent thrust.

Otto raised his oak shield in his left hand and rested his right hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to unleash a slash at any moment.

Seeing the three wisps of scarlet mist approaching at an alarming speed, Otto immediately reported their location.

"Twenty steps to go, and they're moving very fast!"

Upon hearing this, Goren immediately took a deep breath, slowly lowered his body, squatted into a horse stance, and withdrew his fist.

Immediately afterwards, Goren shouted and threw a punch at the fog in front of him with both fists!

The icy blue chill transformed into a fierce fist force, which, along with Goren's movements, broke through the thick fog in front of him and even knocked a target away!

At that moment, the three of them briefly regained their field of vision.

Tessa then clearly saw those three targets.

It appeared to be a wild boar that flew backwards.

As for the other two, one is a gray deer, and the other looks like a walking dead tree!

What is that?

Tessa had never seen such a monster before.

Otto, however, realized the truth.

"It should be a walking tree!"

After obtaining the monster encyclopedia, Otto studied it repeatedly and memorized most of the knowledge within it.

The Walking Tree is one of the most common monsters in the forest.

The origins of this monster are varied and unclear.

Some say that after the wood spirit died, its body was absorbed by the forest as nutrients, giving birth to the walking tree.

Some say that the souls of adventurers were trapped in the forest and, having nowhere else to go, were reincarnated as members of the forest.

"Like other monsters, the Walking Tree enjoys attacking intelligent life forms and using them as its sustenance."

These are monsters, beings destined to be enemies of humanity!

While Otto was explaining to Tessa, Goren was already ready.

"Make your move, I'll take care of that walking tree!"

With that, Goren shot off like an arrow, the ground beneath his feet even freezing over, carrying him towards the walking tree at the front.

Immediately afterwards, the cold air condensed again on Goren's fist.

The fist, encased in thick ice armor, slammed into the Walking Tree's chest.

The terrifyingly low temperature instantly froze its trunk.

A agonizing howl erupted from the monster's mouth.

But Goren didn't care about any of that. He threw a powerful punch, freezing the Walking Tree's head and core into a block of ice, and smashing it to pieces with a single blow!

At the very moment when the ice flowers were falling all over the sky, Otto moved.

The black sword was drawn, its eerie blue light piercing the darkness like a crescent moon.

The sharp, gleaming sword light was about to slay the gray deer before him.

But at that moment, Otto noticed something was wrong.

When the gray deer saw itself unleash that sword strike, tears welled up in its eyes!

The moment Otto severed the gray deer's head, black vines burst forth from the deer's body!

Clearly, this gray deer has been parasitized by carnivorous vines!

The vines were moving so fast that they were about to touch Goren and Otto.

Instead of dodging, the two abandoned their defenses and charged forward!

The shield of the law shattered instantly!

The Shield of Law can withstand one instance of damage, giving Otto and Goren time to react.

Goren once again gathered his cold energy and hurled it at the vines.

The frigid air swiftly engulfed the gray deer's still-intact body, completely imprisoning it.

At the same time, Otto raised his iron sword and unleashed a Moon Thrust, aiming straight for the core of the carnivorous vine!

Chapter Seventy: New Animal Friends

The deep blue moonlight completely merged Otto and the iron sword into one.

At this moment, the iron sword is an extension of Otto's body!

This also increased the power of the Azure Moon Thrust.

But at that moment, a vine that was not bound by the cold tried to struggle, but Otto neutralized the impact with his Black Horn Ram!

At this point, the Azure Moon Thrust pierced straight into the core of the Carnivorous Vine.

After the core was pierced, the struggling vines finally stopped moving.

"That's all for today!"

Goren grinned and waved his fist, signaling Tessa to come over and help the team collect the spoils, while he and Otto continued to keep watch on their surroundings.

With the carnivorous vines being dealt with, Otto also received some boosts, especially the Black Sheep.

The last-minute change of tactics has given the Black Sheep a deeper understanding of the power of the Black Horn Collision.

The level of Blackhorn Collision has been increased to LV2.

You have acquired the bloodline mark of the Carnivorous Ivy.

You have obtained the bloodline mark of the gray deer.

The gray deer expressed its gratitude to you; it was finally free.

Seeing this, Otto wasn't particularly surprised.

Clearly, the gray deer is being parasitized by the carnivorous vine, experiencing both physical and mental torment.

Otto did help it out in a way.

But just as Otto obtained these bloodline marks, the Grey Deer extended an invitation to him.

[The gray deer hopes to become one of your animal friends.]

In the past few days, Otto has been filling in many candidate options as he searches for a suitable target for the seventh bloodline mark.

Unfortunately, after each filling, these bloodline imprints are eaten by the other six animal friends.

As a result, Otto doesn't even have a single bloodline mark left.

Seeing that the newly acquired bloodline mark seemed to share this desire, Otto decided to give it another try.

The changes were immediately apparent after Otto installed the bloodline mark of the gray deer.

Grey Deer brings you great folds!

[Machine-controlled 3+2]

Otto wasn't particularly surprised by this.

After all, deer are often seen as auspicious creatures, no matter where they are.

This can be considered a good omen.

Otto thought that the machine only represented the number of hits and would affect effects such as critical hits.

My extraordinary Moonlight Echo and Azure Thrust just now must have been influenced by this attribute.

With the number of critical hits increasing, Otto might be able to land critical hits even more easily!

This kind of near-epiphany and burst of inspiration truly requires a lot of effort.

However, just as Otto was pondering his future plans, his animal friends had already made a new move.

The black cat curiously climbed onto the gray deer's antlers and made it its new home.

The eagle perched atop the gray deer's back, proudly declaring this its territory.

The brown bear wanted to fight the gray deer.

[The black sheep wants to make a bet with its animal friends: who will win?]

The Magic Ape adjusted its monocle, indicating that both possibilities were possible; that was the answer.

Otto breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his animal friends make a ruckus.

At least, the gray deer shouldn't have been killed by them.

But just as Otto was watching with some curiosity, an unexpected incident occurred.

The black sheep, watching the gray deer being beaten, recalled his own past experience of being beaten by a brown bear.

The black sheep and the gray deer stood together and used their antlers to push the brown bear back!

[Black Sheep excitedly exclaimed, "This is our bondage!"]

[The level of Blackhorn Collision has been increased to LV3!]

Watching the level of combat skills improve due to this group fight for justice, Otto's lips twitched involuntarily.

He hadn't expected that the black sheep had reached a consensus with the gray deer when challenging the brown bear.

This black sheep still has that shameless, scoundrel look.

It clearly saw an opportunity to beat up the brown bear and wanted to have some fun, yet it still insisted on calling it a bond.

It's as if the brown bear beat it up before!

Do you have a past where you were beaten up? Do you recall it?

For a moment, even Otto felt a little sorry for the brown bear.

The former leader seems to be in a sorry state now.

Seeing this, Otto decided to comfort his animal friend.

Not long after, Tessa had finished clearing the battlefield and immediately called him over to take a look.

"The harvest doesn't seem to be very much."

Tessa displayed her haul: a tree heart radiating a crystalline luster and a cluster of carnivorous vines.

Otto looked at the clump of vines in front of him with some confusion.

"The material dropped by this carnivorous vine seems to be much smaller than the ones we got before."

The carnivorous vine fragments that Otto obtained before were something to be cherished.

But the lump in front of us is no bigger than the palm of my hand.

"Is it a matter of individual differences?"

Tessa thought they must have encountered a young carnivorous vine, so its core wasn't fully developed.

As Tessa spoke, she put her haul into the cloth bag she carried with her.

Although both he and Goren had space pockets, they were filled with essentials for adventure.

Food, fresh water, camping tents, etc., as for the harvested materials, they had no choice but to carry them along.

Goren didn't seem to care much about this.

"There are differences even among monsters of the same kind, just like the kobolds and their variants that we encountered before."

Perhaps, the carnivorous vine is the same.

As he spoke, Goren urged the two to continue onward.

Now they must continue exploring before it gets dark.

After saying that, Goren only told the two to try to maintain their original formation and not to lose their composure.