novelraw Chapter 372: Uncertain Opportunities
Chapter 372: Uncertain Opportunities
Chapter 372: Uncertain Opportunities
"Howl, we have a crisis. I need you to form earthen barriers around the Fluxsoil Heart, the magic plants, and, if possible, even cover the Titanbreath Lotus by forming an earthen dome. Instruct Bigfoot to guard the plants using his powers. Tell him not to worry—I will be there to support him in case things go awry."
After giving the instructions, he telepathically called Sylrael to gather all the elves from patrol and bring them to the place where he would be building the cave shelter.
Leo looked back to see that the stormy clouds seemed to have covered more than a quarter of the distance between them and the territory.
"So fucking fast!" Leo exclaimed, then promptly turned back towards the plateau wall and focused on his Earth Manipulation Technique. He raised both his hands towards the wall and concentrated.
Crriiipp—grrrrrr!
The earthen and rocky terrain began to rumble as pieces of rock broke loose and rolled down from the heights.
Tavian returned just in time to see Leo literally split apart a chunk 5 meters in height into a 2-meter-wide entrance.
But Leo didn’t stop. Tavian felt a massive amount of mana concentrate inside Leo’s body as the plateau suddenly began to carve away and to be hollowed out from inside, much larger than the entrance. Dirt and rocks collapsed inward, compressing and shaping themselves into a large, spacious hall-like structure within the wall.
But Tavian was more baffled by the fact that he could sense a higher degree of activity above the plateau.
"Is he manipulating things at two places simultaneously? And at this intensity...? Damn," Tavian muttered under his breath.
As Leo started to fortify the interior, Tavian looked back again, only to see that the stormy clouds were already halfway across the remaining distance.
"Best of luck... my territory members," he murmured quietly.
By now, Tavian’s territory might already be within that storm’s range.
As he wrestled with the conflicting feeling of not being in his territory at such a crucial moment, he saw several figures approaching rapidly.
Tavian snapped out of his thoughts, forcing himself to accept that he had no control over what was happening. Even if he wanted to return, there was no ride that could take him through those clouds.
"Lord!"
As Tavian turned, he heard a call from behind.
He sharply twisted back to see an otherworldly beautiful green-haired elf appear out of nowhere as she reached out toward Leo.
"I swear, no one was—"
Swish!
Naelith appeared the next moment, walking into the newly built cave right after Sylrael.
"That same el—"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Tavian was left stupefied as three more elves like the previous one appeared, though they weren’t as beautiful as the other ones.
"What the hell...?" Tavian muttered. He could easily tell all of them were stronger than him—not just him, but all the top 10 students.
"Except these three..." Tavian added quietly, referring to Leo, Lily, and Kaelion.
"Fucking monsters... capturing more monsters."
The next moment, Leo walked out of the cave, dusting off his clothes and hands. Apparently, the elves had taken over the work of fortification using their wood abilities.
But Tavian wasn’t paying attention to Leo.
"7... 10... 15... 20!" He counted a total of twenty elves entering the cave. Sylrael seemed to have called the 1-star elves too.
It was then that he turned toward Leo.
"How the hell did you even manage to capture so many?" he asked.
Leo shrugged casually. "Just happened. But I suppose you can tell why I am so confident in surviving the bounty?"
"Yeah... with 7 individuals stronger than the top 10 students at your command? You might as well take on 2nd years," Tavian said with a chuckle, but at that moment—
Ooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu...
Both of their attention was diverted by a distant cry that came directly from the dark clouds steadily approaching.
"It’s a big bird... very big and bulky..." Kaelion said as he walked over after safely escorting the other territory members and beasts inside the cave. A light magic circle revolved around his eyes, making it clear he had used some magic to see what was happening inside the clouds.
Noticing Leo’s confusion, Kaelion simply placed a finger on Leo’s forehead and cast a short incantation.
Just as a person with weak eyesight feels after wearing glasses for the first time, Leo felt the same way after the same small revolving magic circle appeared over his eyes, magnifying his vision to great degrees.
His gaze naturally drifted toward the clouds—and he was left stunned.
Among the dark clouds, an unnatural figure could be seen. As Leo focused intently, he began to make out wings flapping at steady intervals. Not only that, but it felt like the clouds were the bird, and the bird was the cloud. A bird as big as the stormy clouds themselves.
As they continued to watch, they reached several conclusions.
And out of all that, only two were actually dangerous for the territory.
The first was if the bird—or whatever that monster was—flapped its wings over Leo’s territory. In that case, the vegetation and the land itself would be blown away.
The second was a certainty, but the territory could survive it if it were handled carefully.
Lightning strikes.
They could see monstrous lightning bolts continuously raging down beneath the storm clouds.
"Look! There are more beasts!" Tavian said. His Gridfall staff was already out, and he had used advanced optical magic to observe things more clearly.
And it was true. Leo spotted many other avian beasts flying alongside the monstrous creature, deliberately taking the lightning strikes over themselves as if baptising themselves in it. They were very small compared to the monstrous beast, almost making them disappear in the clouds
It felt wrong and dangerous, but Leo doubted those beasts were doing it for fun.
He then recalled a side note from the academy’s alert.
[The line between a brave and a fool is very thin; don’t risk your lives needlessly for uncertain opportunities.]
He immediately sought answers.
"Tavian, those beasts... is it something related to the uncertain opportunities that the academy warned about?"
"You got it right. It’s exactly that. The notice states that this beast is a King Tier being. At this stage, their attacks contain their essence, and if absorbed correctly, it can increase certain beasts’ bloodline ranks—that’s what they are trying to do. But as the academy said, the line between brave and fool is thin. See it for yourself," Tavian said as he turned back to observe the King Tier Entity—something many people don’t even get the chance to see in their entire lifetime.
Leo did as Tavian said, and soon he saw many of those same beasts crash violently into the forest after taking an attack that was too much for them. But there were also many who endured countless strikes and kept moving forward on a steady path.
But the weird thing was—
"Why isn’t this King beast attacking them actively?"