Their journey continued through the forest, formation tight and disciplined. With Sylvia's skills guiding them, they avoided most of the powerful monsters and charted out a path… one that was relatively safe—well, it would be more accurate to say "relatively dangerous."
The beldam's map had been built around her routines. The hideous witch had marked out the areas with monsters she considered a threat… and those she didn't.
Which was helpful—except the beldam was a rank four monster. So what she considered "non-threatening" could very well be the death of them.
Damon had used his shadow to devour the corpses of fallen monsters, quietly stealing attribute points. He did so in secret, none the wiser.
They encountered a few monsters of the first rank, but made short work of them, collecting their mana cores. There were moments they had to hide—from lurking horrors that prowled through the thick mist—but those moments were rare.
