Abel was toying with the blackrock python. As enjoyable as it was for the elven ladies to watch him do it, they weren’t confident about the damage Abel was dealing.

The venom released by the dark flames did not harm him. Yet, the fire damage that they were doing was already taking a toll on his health. Take the armor on his right arm, for example. It was still intact, but it was already much hotter than what most regular people could take. If he wasn’t so strong against fire, he would’ve lost the ability to keep fighting a while ago.

He had to find another approach. So far, he’s only able to hit at the spots that the dire wolves did, but this was not as efficient as he wanted. Yes, even when the poison of his Jade Tan Do was draining the life out of this python.

The two were waiting for each other to fall first. Abel didn’t think he could outlast the blackrock python. If he kept fighting like this, he would probably lose his right arm soon.

With that in mind, the Jade Tan Do in his hand suddenly vanished back into the portal bracelet. He then took out his ice magic sword. He didn’t use it to attack the blackrock python right away, though. Instead, he just tapped his right arm with its tip.

An ice magic sword on a burning arm– -t was like dropping water on fire. The heat quickly went down. If Abel wasn’t so good with handling an ice magic sword, he would’ve never tried something this dangerous. He was in the middle of a fight, and if he used a little too much force, he would’ve frozen his own entire body.

Once his right arm cooled down, Abel put the ice magic sword back into his portal bracelet. His Jade Tan Do reappeared after that. That was precisely what was so good about the portal bracelet. Once the weapons were put in it, there would be no delay if he was to change into whatever weapon he pleased.

“Do you think he’s using his full strength, Carrie?” Lady Jenny asked as quietly as she could. To her, “Master Bennett” was simply too mysterious for her to fathom. It would be understandable if he was just a good alchemist, but he’s also an official summoner druid with the golden combat qi of a knight’s commander. Like, even his mount was extremely extraordinary. If all the mount wolves were like the one he had, then the orcs would’ve unified the Holy Continent a long time ago.

Carrie frowned as she shook her head, “I have to be honest with you, Jenny, even I have no idea.”

As far as Carrie knew, Abel’s weakest class and that was the wizard class, was also his main occupation. He was a level three wizard now, and level three wizards were supposed to have no chance against a level twenty-five knight’s commander or an official summoner druid. Abel could be fighting as a knight because he had no other choices, but to be honest, there was just no way for her to know for sure.

The fight dragged on for an entire hour. Obviously, Abel was the only one that was doing the fighting. The other elven ladies were just standing there to enjoy watching him. They were kind of worried at the start, but after seeing how Abel was able to keep attacking the blackrock python without taking any hits, they eventually realized that the victor was already decided.

After a while, the blackrock python died by the poison that was released by Abel’s Jade Tan Do. Since the blackrock python was a venomous spiritual beast, to begin with, it took a lot of time to kill it with his own poison.

More importantly, Abel used his “soul collecting” spell during this fight, which meant that the soul of the blackrock python was now collected in one of his crystal bottles. He was kind of worried about how long it could last inside the bottle, but after scanning with his power of the Will, he discovered that it could remain in his bottle for a very long time. Again, he became impressed with the items he’s found from the dark world. He didn’t expect a used crystal bottle to be this useful.

Because of how fast Abel was (and because of the fact that, well, souls were technically invisible), the elven ladies didn’t really notice him casting the soul collecting spell.

Lady Muriel laughed as she reached for her portal bag, “Oh my! I’m so glad that you’re here, Bennett! I was going to use my secret item to save our lives, but that would just be kind of wasteful!”

“Exactly!” Lady Morrie agreed, then looked at Black Wind in admiration, “That was an excellent fight, Bennett! I have to say, though. I think Black Wind did a much better job back there.”

“That’s, uh, a little too straightforward, Morrie,” Muriel interrupted despite agreeing with what Morrie said.

“Okay, now!” Lady Carried clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, “Now, how are we going to split the blackrock python’s crystal core?”

Lady Marriane immediately called out, “Just give it all to Bennett. I’m only here for the quest reward.”

“Same here!” Lady Morrie called out enthusiastically.

“Me three,” Lady Muriel smiled.

“And there you have it,” Carried spoke with a smile, “That crystal core is now yours, Bennett. Remember to give the girls their pay, though.”

When the crystal core was passed over to Abel, he took out his own gold to pay all of the elven ladies.

Lady Jenny wasn’t as happy as the other girls, “Carrie, that’s the second rock element intermediate spiritual beast. Rock element beats are among the strongest in their defensive capabilities, and they do not belong to the forest here. Honestly, if there weren’t some more powerful spiritual beasts up in the Rocky Mountain, I don’t think that they would’ve come here at all.”

Carrie quickly changed into a shocked expression, “Are you saying that these spiritual beasts were chased out of their own homes?”

Lady Jenny spoke as softly as she could as to not intrude the other elven ladies, “I’m saying that it is very likely, Carrie. If we see a third or a forth rock element spiritual beast, I think my hypothesis would be confirmed.”

“Well then,” Carrie said as she took out her map, “We are here for forest type spiritual beasts, but now we’ll have to deal with the rock types as well.”

Carrie pointed at a spot she’s located on the map, “Lila Valley is our destination. To be frank, I’ve never been there before. I’ve heard that there are a lot of rocks there and no trees. Maybe that’s where the rock element spiritual beasts came from.”

“If that really is the case,” Lady Jenny said with a concerned look, “There must be an absolute monster that’s living there right now, something that would force these intermediate spiritual beasts out of their own natural habitat! It’s probably a super-spiritual beast!”

“Wow, calm down, girl,” Carrie smiled to ease Jenny down, “Our goal is not to kill the spiritual beast! We just want those beauty grass, don’t we?”

“Yeah, for the beauty grass!” Jenny nodded as she clenched her fist in front of her chest.

And the team Lawland departed again. Abel noticed the serious looks on Carrie and Jenny’s face, but since they didn’t say anything about it, he didn’t think that it was appropriate to ask.

For the remainder of the day, the team was clearly becoming a lot smaller. The scouting range of the crows had increased by a lot. As one who could communicate with nature, Lady Jenny spent a lot of time talking with the trees they’ve found. They wanted to be as careful as possible.

Even without explicitly asking about it, the other elven ladies also noticed how careful Carrie and Jenny were being. They, too, began to take matters more seriously. The atmosphere became tense and suspenseful for a while.

“Water source!” Lady Jenny called out cheerfully. She just found a water source somewhere in front of them.

When the elven ladies saw Abel’s portal bracelet, they insisted that he gave them water to shower every day. Now that they’ve found a clean water source, they would be a lot better off at night. And since Jenny mentioned that it was a water source, it could probably lead them to their next location.