But just as the sword was about to touch Umi's body, an icy needle flew from Fennelis's silvery hand and directly flew towards that creature's hand where that artifact was. As Fennelis saw that bracelet earlier, she realized it was the real problem and thought of breaking it using her innate spell.
Creak!
The next instant, the ice collided with the bracelet artifact and broke it into multiple pieces. At the same time, Umi broke free from the invisible power and dodged the upcoming sword swiftly.
On the other hand, everyone felt that the crushing invisible power disappeared suddenly and started to recover their senses.
Upon realizing the artifact was destroyed, the shape-shifting creature turned invisible and backed away.
At that moment, Fennelis also arrived near Umi's side and stared vigilantly at the surroundings while checking Umi's body condition.
Once she noticed no wound on her body, she breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little.
Roysia and others also ran in their direction and got together.
"Can you guess where the enemy is, Nadine?" Hooper asked with a stiff tone.
To everyone's surprise, Umi, who had just now recovered from the shock, opened her eyes with an icy expression, turned her gaze towards her right side while raising her hand, and cast the zero-tier ice needle spell in that direction.
Bang!
The needle-like ice moved at an incredible speed before hitting something and then exploded. Soon, everyone saw a white snow-covered ghostly figure and widened their eyes in surprise.
"DON'T LET IT ESCAPE!" Fennelis screamed.
A second later, everyone dashed towards that half-invisible humanoid creature and attacked one after another from every direction.
As the shape-shifting creature noticed the seriousness, it started to back away and change its appearance again.
Slowly, the ghostly humanoid creature started to change and expand its whole body like a balloon.
Its creepy black face changed into a green lizard-like face, and its body began to appear like a dinosaur. Following that, two dark green wings popped out on its back, and emerald-like scales started to form on the skin. It stood there ten meters away from them with an oppressive expression and let out an angry roar.
"Wyvern!" Hooper heaved a deep breath and gripped his weapon tighter.
Meanwhile, the whole area shook by the sudden roar, making everyone sweat profusely. The four adventurers team and Roysia had heard about wyverns and their ferocity many times but never even saw them upfront.
Only Fennelis and Umi showed calm expressions and glanced at each other with a smile.
"It does bring back memories, Umi!" Fennelis couldn't help but chuckle as she recalled the moment they fought against two wyverns in the undead plane.
'Troublesome. It can even change into a wyvern. Hmm, but why didn't it transform into some mythical dragon? Maybe because of its current strength?' Fennelis furrowed her eyebrows and quickly dashed forwards, and it looked more real than the undead Wyverns she had battled in the undead plane.
But there was no fear in her eyes. Unlike before, Fennelis was a noble rank beast kin who could even cast a single First-Tier bloodline spell. After she brought the 'Spirit Awakening Manual' from the Pocket Dimension under Runeth's suggestion, she had been using that technique and strengthening her soul for the past six months. Because of that, her soul power had almost reached 25! If Abium had seen her growth, he would have gotten envious.
Moreover, Umi also entered the royal rank and could help in battle. Although her control over first and second-tier spells was low, she could change the course of the battle with mere brute force.
'Alas, she still lacks experience.'
"Umi, observe my every movement. It will help you when facing intelligent monsters and enemies alone." Fennelis said coldly and quickly arrived before that three-meter tall lizard, leaving blurry images behind. Even in the darkness, her every action became visibly clear to everyone. In a blink, she jumped up, avoiding the poison breath from the Wyvern's mouth and landing on the creature's backside.
Slash!
Without hesitation, she slashed her icy-coated sword at the Wyvern's right-wing and directly cut it.
Thud!
"RAAAWWWW!" The creature wailed in pain and turned its massive head towards the back to bite Fennelis. But Roysia and Hooper arrived before Wyvern's neck at that moment and directly thrust their sword inside. Two swords were filled with advanced sword aura shone in reddish color as they moved like lightning bolts and penetrated its tough skin in a blink.
Red blood splattered on the ground.
It let out another painful roar and turned its head towards both of them.
Bam!
But before it could open its mouth to attack them with poison breath, Smith leaped into the sky like a monkey, striking the creature with the war hammer and smashing its head onto the ground!
But that's not the end. Nadine and Selma flew from the sides and directly thrust their weapons towards its eyes and blinded it.
Before that creature could think what had happened, everyone pounced on to that large body and wholly made it immovable.
Thud!
After a constant attack from everyone, that large creature's body fell onto the ground, leaving a loud thud behind.
"Damn, this is the most dangerous monster I have ever faced in my entire life," Selma said with a trembling tone and soon noticed that her legs were shaking non-stop. Selma soon looked around cautiously and walked towards Umi.
On the other hand, Roysia pocked the creature's bloody nose with her sword and muttered while tilting her head.
"It's still breathing. But why didn't it revert to normal?"
"It may be afraid of us. Kill it quickly, My Lady." Fennelis shouted while cutting the remaining wing.
Roysia gripped her sword tighter with a nod and slashed her sword towards the fake Wyvern's neck.
A second later, the Wyvern's head was cleaved in half and soon fell to the ground with a loud thud while spraying scarlet blood everywhere.
"Why didn't it restore to its original appearance?" Nadine walked near to the head and muttered out loud in confusion.
"I never heard of any shape-shifter creature in my life." Smith also arrived near the creature and said with a frown.
As they were about to investigate more about the creature, the Wyvern head, its wings, and its body began to turn into ashes. A second later, they saw a dark, creepy smiling humanoid creature with white eyes appear at the center of those ashes. Its black hand was dismembered, and its head was also decapitated. They also saw its two white eyes had turned entirely into broken glass-like things and became more puzzled.
"Where the hell did this monster come from?" Hooper asked with a stiff face.
"It may be from another plane," Fennelis responded. At first, she thought they were the first to travel across to another plane and felt proud. But after seeing this creature, she understood there seemed to be more people who were exploring other planes.
"Another plane? Like Abyss?" Nadine asked with a surprised tone.
Everyone had heard of those demons and devils from the folk tales and got baffled.
"Maybe. But I'm not sure. For now, let's burn this creature and go to Silverland City." Fennelis said gloomily and took out a matchbox and a bottle of tree oil from her ring. Without minding others' questionable gazes, she poured all of the oil onto the creature's body and lit it.
"Let's go." She turned around, moved towards Umi, and patted her head.
After that, the group packed their belongings and continued their journey without taking any rest.
…
At the same time, in Roguedale town,
Piers Foster, who stayed inside a two-storied mansion's study room, suddenly stood up with a painful expression and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
'Did they manage to kill my pet?' He muttered to himself in shock and walked out of his room.
"Future is changing for some odd reasons. I need to notify 'His Excellency' and ask my disciples to speed up our mission. As for these beasts, I will kill them myself." He said with a cold expression and started to write a letter.
…
On 4th May, around 3 A.M, Silverland city.
Fennelis's group arrived at Silverland's eastern gate and entered after paying a few coins to the gatekeeper.
The group then hid their identities and entered the city vigilantly.
Once they walked in, Fennelis and Roysia saw the neatly constructed roads and buildings and got astounded.
'I feel like I'm in Beast Empire's capital.' Fennelis glanced around the nearby buildings and got awed.
They even saw a few magical carriages running on their own without horses and became more curious about this city.
"Everyone says that mage is a generous guy. They say that he is an alchemist and is doing this for the sake of improving the lifestyle of commoners and warriors. But I don't think so. Simply buying one of those magical vehicles will cost around 500 white gold coins." Selma grumbled and then continued with a sigh.
"Even if we work harder for years by taking missions, we wouldn't be able to save that much money. Even if we did that, I wouldn't waste my money on these metal carriages. Mage Sean uses these artifacts to earn more money from the nobles and simply robs the wealthy commoners. He must be planning to move somewhere in a few years."
"So what are we going to do from now on? I don't think we have enough money to stay here forever, right?" Without minding Selma's grumble, Smith looked at everyone and asked with a serious tone.
"Yes, in this large city, even a single meal would cost around five copper to 1 or two silver coins. And adding the Inn rent, it will be impossible for us to stay here for more than two months," Fennelis responded solemnly.
"First, we will look for the cheapest Inn and think about what to do next," Roysia suggested.
"Lady Elianor gave me this letter to deliver it to Silverland's adventurer's guild, My Lady." At that moment, Fennelis turned her head towards Roysia and took out a sealed letter from her spatial ring.
"Hmm, I heard my elder sister has a friend working in this city's guild office. We should go and deliver this letter first." Roysia nodded as she reached out her right hand and grabbed the thin sealed letter.
"Then, we will go and wait in some cheapest Inn. Once you reach the Commoners' Borough, use this ring to contact me." Hooper took out a communication ring and threw it to Fennelis. A few seconds later, the group split up into two. Fennelis, Roysia, and Umi moved towards the Merchants' Borough, while the adventurers' team moved towards the Commoners' Borough.