NOVEL NEXT Chapter 166: Progress
After a round of training and another round of studying for tests and exams on the general knowledge the Academy also taught in addition to summoning, the students were ready for another expedition into the forest.
Hopefully, the monster population hadn't recovered from last time, which would make it easier this time.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the monsters had been inspired by the students' decision to take a step back and come back stronger. They had done the same. There weren't necessarily as many monsters as before.
But there also weren't as many contenders for the already abundant underworld energy in the forest. The monsters who remained had only grown stronger in the time Zach and the others were away.
However, their increased strength was limited to the basics. Their raw power was greater than before. That was it.
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The students and their familiars had trained their strength and stamina, but also their techniques, their cooperation, and their control. The summoning students and their familiars had grown more than the monsters. They were at an advantage.
And they showed that advantage to the fullest when they plowed through the monsters and trees on their way to the depths of the forest. The students and smaller familiars rode on Nessa's Millipede while Anerias' Blackfire Hound and Dukiel's Sentinel alternated spearheading the charge, taking on the brunt of the monsters.
Naturally, with Zach's barriers, their burden wasn't as great as it could have been, but it was a lot of pressure, and Zach's barriers weren't infallible. It happened more than once that the barriers collapsed under the weight of tens of monsters.
Fortunately, the familiars didn't suffer any serious injuries. Zach's barriers only broke on rare occasions when clumps of monsters gathered and charged them at once. When that happened, the other familiars were already swinging their weapons, claws, or whatever else they had in their arsenal, quickly clearing out the monsters on the spearhead.
Overall, it was an efficient but rushed tactic that quickly drained their stamina. But they would have fought just as many monsters if not more if they had taken it slow. Now, however, they could spend some time resting when they found an opportunity, and then some more time on the actual search.
Zach could see the fatigue building up in the Hound, but the other familiars were doing fine, though Violina had to hold the Frost Imp with both hands to stop it from flying out and attacking anything that moved. She tried her best to cover its eyes and ears, but there was a limit to how much she could hide from the S-rank familiar.
They rode Nessa's Millipede, only taking breaks for food and private matters. But they also ate simple snacks and slept on the Millipede when they could.
Although Zach had a tendency to over do it, now that they were all over level ten, it was obvious that they were stronger and more tenacious than ordinary people. Going without sleep for a day or two wouldn't pose any problems. And if they napped occasionally, it was more than fine.
The only one who suffered was Dukiel. Although Nessa, Anerias, and Violina also held some confidence in map-reading and keeping track of their whereabouts, they were not confident enough to do so when they were moving so quickly in territory that didn't align with a map from before the underworld energy contaminated and changed the forest.
Their respect for Dukiel only grew the deeper he brought them into the forest with the certainty that he would be able to bring them back out of it.
Eventually, things started to look familiar.
"Dukiel, are we getting close?" Violina was one of the first to recognize the location, and she asked while looking around.
"Yes. This is about how far we got last time," he answered without even checking the map. If the others recognized it, so did he. At his words, the others realized it was also the place where they had decided to chicken out and turn back last time, so they stayed silent.
Nessa slowed down the Millipede and they proceeded with slightly more caution. The monsters that attacked them would only get stronger from here on out.
Coincidentally enough, the first monster that attacked them after they beat their last record was another wolf with more legs than the norm. It was a six-legged wolf this time, and it was larger than both the last one and ordinary wolves. It was also stronger and faster.
In a one-on-one battle, it would have beaten the A-rank familiars. That was why all the familiars, excluding Alzara, jumped it as soon as it reared its scary face, pummeling it to death before it could even put a scratch on one of Zach's barriers.
It was a disappointing end for the strongest monster they had ever faced. There was no mistaking it. It was stronger than the tiger had been.
The tiger that could have defeated Yanael, the Sentinel, the Mannequin, and Zach and the other two would have lost against the tiger. It wasn't even a question about different skills and strengths. The wolf was all around stronger than the tiger, even when the tiger tapped into the underworld energy in its leg.
Zach exchanged looks with Dukiel and Julius.
The situation was slightly different since there were twice as many summoners now with four times as many familiars. But they were stronger than their past selves. They weren't as weak anymore. They had grown.
Finally, the tiger could stop haunting their dreams and nightmares.
Of course, that didn't mean they were invincible. They still had a long, long way ahead of them. But they could take some confidence in themselves and their efforts so far.
But before they could think of the distant future and the next step on their way forward, they still had the present in front of them. They had a dark forest to dive deeper into. Monsters lurked behind every tree, and at the end of the path, they would likely encounter a threat much greater than anything they had faced before.