Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Seeing Kayla's smile, Lyle's panic subsided. "Well, maybe you're right."

Where is our path?

"There."

Kayla pointed to several vines hanging between giant trees ten meters away. Through the gaps between them, Lyle could see the rooftops of the middle section of Lewesser, as well as some grass that could be observed, although the bushes were only the size of ants in Lyle's eyes.

Lyle stared back at Kayla stiffly, her gentle smile beginning to distort in his eyes.

"Tell me, how do we get there?"

"Jump over, grab those vines, swing in the air, and head towards our destination."

"This place is nearly 100 meters above the ground, and there are no safety measures at all."

"Lyle, life doesn't give you time to prepare. Sometimes you have to be flexible and adapt to it."

“What you said makes a lot of sense… my ass! This is murder, I’m not leaving this platform!” Lyle said, taking a few steps back, but was blocked by the burly Echel.

"Is this the only road you're going to take? Are you planning to spend your whole life in the Dawn Palace?"

"I'll climb down the same way I came up, it'll just take a little time... No, I'm not going down! I'll wait for Mr. Irian to open a portal and take me back, then teleport me directly to the ground. I'll never climb a tree again."

Lyle was pinned down, but Echel stopped him. "No way, you came all the way to Lewes and you haven't even learned how to climb a tree. You're a disgrace to me. No matter what, you have to come today."

Lyle ultimately compromised and agreed to be taken on the Lewessee experience.

"So, you're planning to swing your vines through the forest while also keeping an arm around to take me with you?"

Is this some kind of suicide attempt?

"Don't worry, when Kayla was little, I often carried her for walks. I could even swing you around on my feet without holding back."

We may have different understandings of taking a walk.

"Do I have no other choice?"

"If you want Lewes's Sword Dance Mandala, you must be familiar with everything about Lewes."

Lyle was held by the waist and wrist by Echel, who casually weighed him in her hand, seemingly unaffected.

Lyle clasped his hands together and mumbled a prayer.

Echer let out a triumphant roar and leaped off the terrace like a vulture spreading its wings, with Kayla following behind him.

But Lyle had no time to look at anyone else; his eyes were only on the vines they were rushing towards, getting ever closer. Echel stretched out her arm, looking into her palm... and missed the vines.

When the Gravity Demon extended his venomous claws toward Lyle, Lyle could no longer contain his excitement.

"Aaaaaaaahh ...

Today is an unusual day for the residents of Lewes.

Echer did not panic. During his descent, he braced his feet against the bow arm, pulled the bowstring, drew back the Silver Falcon Bow, and nocked the rope arrow he had already been holding onto the bow. He shot the arrow into a giant tree beside him, grabbed the end of the rope, and began moving through the forest as if nothing had happened.

As the swinging ropes alternated, Echel also pulled out her right hand and knocked on Lyle, who was still screaming.

Only then did things calm down, and Lyle got used to the ground constantly zooming in and out in his field of vision, as well as the feeling of being on a swing.

"I thought we were doomed."

“The Sword Dance Mandala has given Lewesser powerful physical coordination and reflexes. These are basic skills for us. You’re just making a fuss over nothing,” Echel changed direction. “We’re heading east. Kayla left her mark.”

"A mark? I don't see it."

“Just now, I was standing about 20 meters away from the tree at the three o'clock position. The moss layer on the trunk was broken off. That was man-made. Kayla left an arrow and an olive leaf on it.”

With his distorted vision, Lyle saw nothing but green all around him.

About ten minutes later, the two had moved quite a distance from Lewesser, and as Echer had said, Kayla was standing on a tree trunk waiting.

Upon seeing the two arrive, she leaped down, and both the marks she left and the waiting demonstrated her trust in Echel's abilities.

“We’ve arrived at our destination. Behind this tree, at the twelve o’clock position, you can see the prey I’ve chosen for Lyle. Lyle, once you kill it, your hunting ritual will be complete. You are permitted to use any weapon, any tactic, any ability. This is the will of nature.”

"May I ask what the prey is?"

"Of course you can. Anyway, you'll see it soon enough. It's a bear. Grandpa's story last night made me want to witness the birth of a hero who defeats a bear."

Is it a bear? Lyle poked his head out from behind the tree stump, hoping it wasn't too big.

Lyle saw it: a large bear, about five meters long, was sleeping soundly in front of the cave. It was a bit big, but he figured he could handle it if he tried. So Kayla was still looking out for me after all. This time it should be fine.

However, a question arose in Lyle's mind, because the hole was nearly ten meters high, which seemed too big compared to a bear. Was it occupied by a wild beast, or was the hole naturally formed?

This question was answered quickly.

A red light appeared in the cave, and with a deafening roar, a ten-meter-tall figure burst out of the cave like a heavy truck. With a sweeping slap, the sleeping bear let out a scream and shot dozens of meters away like a cannonball, disappearing from Lyle's sight.

The true form was revealed. Thick, brown fur, heavy limbs like a heavy tank, ten meters tall and nearly thirty meters long, a scar on its face, a single eye glowing with a bloodthirsty red light, and its originally short and cute ears now appearing terrifying due to its enormous size.

Lyle swallowed hard.

"A bear spirit?"

"To be precise, the Cardovian giant bear is solitary, extremely aggressive, and territorial. Three thousand people from the Lewesser tribe have targeted it for hunting, but only eight hundred and seventy-two have survived. Be careful, Lyle Buller."

I was wrong. This seemingly kind but actually ruthless queen is just like her grandfather.

"Go for it, Lyle, become a great hero like Echel!" Kayla said with a smile, her eyes sparkling.

That damned bear-like killer, Echer.

Chapter 85 Death Hunter

Kayla smiled, but the determination on her face was no joke; in fact, her eyes held an undeniable sense of inevitability.

Lyle glanced at the giant bear in front of the cave, realizing it was time for a fight to the death.

"The law of the jungle is to use any means necessary to achieve your goal. We will not give you any assistance, nor will we collect your body after you die. Fight for survival, Lyle."

Lyle pondered the meaning behind the words, when suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. "Then if I tricked that bear into coming to you and forced you to fight it, would that also meet the requirements?"

Kayla smiled happily, her once seemingly small and cute canine tooth now gleaming coldly. "Of course, following the rules is fine, any method is acceptable. However, Lyle, you'll find that some things are much more difficult than you think."

"As your friend, I would advise you that facing me is much harder than facing that bear."

Lyle shuddered; instinct told him to get to the mission and stop lingering around the two hunters.

The giant bear had returned to its den, and Lyle moved to the side, moving behind a tree that was relatively close by.

He pulled out everything he could think of that might be useful: Medusa, grapes, a ball, and some remaining talismans, and a five-petaled nightshade.

The wise Medusa became his strategist.

"I need to find a way to kill that monster. My damage output is limited, and traps are out of the question; I can't set up such a large trap."

“You only have one choice, Lyle baby.” Medusa straightened up in front of him, her dragon eyes narrowed, like a devil with a wicked plan.

"The dead and the plague."

Lyle's eyes fell on the Talent Orb, which had transformed into a water snake, its mouth opening wide with sharp, venomous fangs, the tips of which gleamed green.

The Talent Ball somehow contracted a human disease, which multiplied within its body like a petri dish. It's unknown whether it has any effect on human plagues or on those giant beasts.

As if in response to his conjecture, the blue surface of the Talent Orb glowed with a deep green light. Inside its transparent body, pale green, bleak blue, and deathly gray were mixed together. A black venom carrying an aura of decay dripped from its body onto the green grass sprouts.

Withering, like a contagious disease, spread among the plants, soon creating a gray area in Lyle, a gray patch in the green, like a disease of the earth.

That was a plague that could affect all living things.

"It seems there's finally something good happening, even though it looks extremely evil."

Medusa nodded. "Now we need to think about how to get the plague into that bear's body. As you saw, it can instantly lift a bear weighing nearly a ton out of Earth's gravity. Lyle is probably doomed."

"And we can't even break his bear skin, which means we can only eat through his mouth. When he opens his mouth, I'm afraid I'll be close to death."

“Lord Lyle,” Grape flew over with a small object in his mouth, “this might be of some help.”

It was an arrow, teardrop-shaped, with the barb removed to maintain its maximum penetrating power. Its base was covered with mud and moss, indicating that it had been in this dense forest for quite some time.

"Perhaps we can use it to pierce the giant bear's fur and make a bow and arrow. Hopefully, my skills are good enough, and I can give it a try."

"Don't risk your life, you idiot Lyle. Don't you ever think about where this arrow came from?"

Lyle looked at the grapes.

“I picked it up from the grassy area near the cave.”

Lyle looked at the beautiful field covered with small white flowers that Grape was pointing to in the distance.

Those strange flowers, resembling white dragon claws, quickly evoked Lyle's memories of herbalism.

It blooms first, then grows grass; it is pale white and prefers shade and dampness. These are Lycoris radiata flowers, which are poisonous. Ingesting them can cause vomiting and eventually lead to death. It has one name, Datura stramonium, and another common name.

Red spider lily.

It is like the nightshade, a flower of the dead.

"I discovered a cemetery."

"And you are still a necromancer."

"Those arrows were left by the wandering knights who died under the bear's paws. I suppose they wouldn't mind getting up and stuffing those arrows back into the giant bear's body."

Lyle slowed his pace and crept stealthily toward that place of hope, which may have once been the bear's food dump. There was no cover between here and that huge den.

Lyle slowed his breathing, and after three breaths, there was no response from the cave.

Lyle parted the datura flowers and lifted the shallow grass, revealing only mud; the unfortunate ones had been buried by time, slumbering underground.

Lyle was debating whether to continue digging when the Talent Orb began its ritual. It placed the flower in a depression and arranged its body in a circle around it. It was a magic circle from the Advent Textbook, representing the incantation for the resurrection of the corpse.

Lyle sensed the loss of magic, which traveled through an unseen channel to the other side of the Talent Orb.

The Death's Night's Citron was lit, burning in the air. A hand bone wearing a tattered glove emerged from the soil, holding the Night's Citron high. The petals were consumed by the flames, which spread to his body and finally ignited in the eye sockets of the broken skull.

Three—even with all his might, Lyle could only summon three undead. Their bodies were nothing but skeletons, their wooden bows covered in black spots, just as vulnerable as they appeared. Lyle couldn't unleash their full power, because even as skeletons, their strength far surpassed his own; they were the rangers of Lewesser, the vanguard on the branches.

The talent orb burrowed into the chest cavity of one of the skeletons, and the necromantic flames shone brighter. With the help of the talent orb, a powerful aura emanated from its body, making this skeleton considerably stronger than Lyle.

This is bad news.

Because that oppressive force, like a wave of air, also surged into the cave.