章 35: Chapter 35 : Separation

The sare shuttle sped through the air within the Astranian Forest, but it didn't fly above the canopy of trees. The reason for this was clear; the Astranian Forest was a very dangerous location filled with tons of deadly desolate beasts.

Standing out would turn one into a target for the countless bloodthirsty creatures around. Under the assault of tens or even hundreds of such monsters, even a tenth level Apertures Opening stage stellar practitioner would die. As such, even if the defence of the sare was staunch and unbreakable, most would still not want to test it against the vicious wave of monsters.

Inside the vehicle, the other vice captain of the squad and also vice guild leader, glanced at the screens displayed in, only taking a break away after he failed to spot any desolate beasts nearby.

He then glanced at Lucas and noticed how the latter was calmly sitting in silence. At that moment, the vice guild leader couldn't help but frown.

Truth be told, he was against Crimson Fang leading Lisa to hold back the pursuers. His justification was the unofficial rule as well as another important point; there was no reason to risk offending an unknown party all because of an 'expired' deal.

From his senses, the vice guild leader estimated that there were four pursuers with two of them being at the third level, one at the fourth and another at the fifth. One should know that individuals at the fifth level could be squad leaders or high-ranking members of a strong guild, just like himself. As for fourth level freelancers, they would be elites and still valued to some extent no matter where they were. This was because the average power level of a freelancer was between the first and third levels.

Someone who could afford to hire these figures would definitely not be an ordinary individual or faction. Intercepting the pursuers would no doubt offend the party behind them, and this might attract unnecessary trouble for guild in the future.

When the shuttle had reached a safe distance, they slowed down and Lucas exited the vehicle right away. The shuttle then zoomed off in a different direction. From here onwards, the deal with the Autumn's Gate guild had ended and Lucas was on his own.

Lucas didn't look worried, even after this reality had dawned on him. On the contrary, he made his move, heading towards a different direction that led to the Cicalien Mountains. As was mentioned before, the Astranian Forest could be considered a 'state'' within the 'country' called the Wastelands. As for the Cicalien Mountains, it was a 'city' within this 'state'.

Compared to the broad green area, the Cicalien Mountains was fraught with more danger. This was how the Astranian Forest was; every distinct region would be crawling with dangerous and powerful desolate beasts, making them more perilous than the shrub-filled zone.

Lucas opened up his communicator and located the mountainous region to be a couple kilometres away; less than ten kilometres to be precise. This distance wasn't much; Lucas could cover it in twenty five to thirty minutes. But with a group of pursuers right behind him, it was a risky journey. He may not even have up to thirty minutes.

'Looks like I'll have to use them.' Lucas thought as he kept on running.

Astranian Forest was a well known danger zone, and even a simple browsing action would reveal this. Since he was aiming for here from the start, Lucas had naturally done his research previously and made proper arrangements. The arrangements were specifically for desolate beasts, but there were also some preparations he made against hyumans.

It might come as a surprise that Lucas was looking out for any unfriendly hyuman, but if one were to recall that his first encounter upon transmigrating into this world was to almost get kidnapped, and that he was assaulted on his store within just two weeks of transmigration, then everything would make sense. So far, Lucas has been in this world for three weeks, but these three weeks have been filled with a handful of 'interesting' experiences, which in turn made him more cautious.

As Lucas was travelling through the air, he occasionally plastered a piece of paper marked with red ink, on the trunk of a tree. He did this for roughly every three hundred metres until he had plastered seven paper slips over a 2.1 kilometres distance. Each time he was nine hundred metres away from a paper slip, Lucas would change an incantation and form some hand seals. But the time he was nine hundred metres away from the seventh paper slip, he chanted the same incantations and former the same hand seals.

By this time, if one were to look at the area around the first paper from an aerial point of view, they would notice that a few desolate beasts of different shapes and sizes were conglomerating towards that direction. The same held true for the other five paper slips, with only the seventh one not showing any effects yet.

Beast attracting talisman.

This was a special talisman made by the witches in his past life. It was the direct opposite of the 'Beast warding talisman', a product of deserters who cultivated in True energy. The Beast attracting talisman was a weapon of war hated by many factions, and its manufacturing process was bizarre.

It required the caster or scribe, as they were called, to use their blood and draw a rune onto a special piece of paper known as a talisman paper. The blood would be infused with mana during the inscribing process, forcefully infusing a spell into the paper, to create a talisman. Once the talisman was activated, the scent of the blood on the paper would be reignited and strengthened, while being forced to diffuse around the area alongside an attractive aura produced by the mana.

However, the scent of blood as well as the attractive aura of the mana would be noticeable only to beasts and man-eating monsters.

In summary, the beast attracting talisman was a bait for monsters. However, if done well, it could be used to create a trap. In Lucas' case, he intended to have the beasts cover up his tracks and force the pursuers to slow down if they somehow found out the direction he moved in.

With that done, Lucas was confident that he would have enough time to make it to the Cicalien Mountains. As for when he would have to return, Lucas would naturally use a different route.