Forest

When the monster bees were gone, I waited further before appearing outside with the zero puppet. Both of us continued to survey the place.

They had yet to reach the place which was marked as a dangerous area on the map.

[Ding! No threat detected.]

[Ding! The place is safe.]

I heard the system voice sound in my mind. My eyes flashed with relief.

Then I looked towards the zero puppet.

"Did you find anything?" I asked.

The zero puppet was in its dark red smoke form and said, "Master, I did not find any danger. But the plants and flowers could be monsters here."

Hearing that, I understood the threat of the monsters. Then I took the map outside. My gaze fell on the dangerous area marked on the map.

I tried to locate our exact current position. They were only a few miles away from the spot. Once they reached the spot, they could reach the opal magic forest from there.

"Take a look at the map. Calculate how far we are from that place," I ordered the Zack puppet.

The dark red smoke hovered above the map. The zero puppet analyzed the map and began to calculate the distance.

"Master, we are two and a half miles short. If we continue to travel at the same speed, we will reach the dangerous area soon," the Zero puppet replied.

"Alright, then let’s speed up our journey," I uttered.

Swoosh!

The next second, we started our journey. We continued to fly at a low altitude. I was wary of the tree-type monsters.

Since the zero puppet had said the same thing, I was sure there must be more tree-type monsters here.

As time passed, we continued to travel. We continued to cover a large distance. From time to time, the system reminded me of the monsters in the vicinity.

Since we were not crossing each other’s paths, there was no need to disturb them. If we engaged with them in a fight, it would only be a waste of time.

Time passed,

[Ding! A 12th Order Spider Cave detected ahead.]

I heard the system voice in my mind. I paused in mid-air. Then I told the zero puppet about it.

"Master, I will survey the place ahead," the zero puppet replied.

Swoosh!

The dark red smoke went ahead. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared from sight. Seeing that, I chose to follow. I told the system to hide my mana presence.

When I reached the place, I saw an open crevice on the ground leading to an underground cave passage. The open crevice appeared to be a giant hole in the ground.

The dark red smoke entered the crevice. My eyes flickered. There was no need to go inside. We could ignore it and move ahead.

"Zero puppet, come back!"

I said in a calm tone. I hoped the zero puppet heard me.

At this time, the dark red smoke came across a lot of skeletons inside. There were skeletons of monsters and some human remains.

They must have been people who wanted to explore the opal magic forest. Apart from the opal magic forest, there was no need for human wizards to come this far.

The zero puppet heard the voice of its master. The next second, it stopped exploring. The red smoke turned around and started coming back.

Not only did the zero puppet hear the voice, but the sleeping 12th-order monster awakened as well. The spider monster was over 30 meters, nearly 100 feet tall.

The massive eight-legged spider stood up and started moving towards the exit. The dark red smoke felt the changes in the cave passage.

Swoosh! 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

In the blink of an eye, it came toward the exit. When it exited, its Master was waiting outside.

I saw the zero puppet. I didn’t say anything. I touched the dark red smoke hand. The next second, we appeared inside the Gregor Mansion.

"Master, a 12th Order Monster has awakened," the Zero puppet replied.

"I know. We will wait here," I replied.

"Master, I have found numerous remains in the passage. There could be treasures lying there," the Zero puppet said.

My heart stirred. If the passage truly had something valuable, then I should check it. I should not miss the opportunity.

"Okay, we will search the passage tonight," I replied.

Outside,

The eight-legged 12th Order Monster was looking for the trespassers. The massive size of the monster rose above the tall trees. It could see across all directions.

Not a single thing would escape its eyes. The monster was puzzled. The next second, the monster went back to the cave passage.

This time the monster was going to stay awake. It knew many of them would want to go to the dangerous area. Its cave was the easiest route to reach that place.

That night, I appeared outside again. I frowned. The monster was really massive in size. But it was also easy for me.

If the monster tried to cause problems, then I could attack the cave passage. It would definitely trap the monster inside.

The dark red smoke was with me. My mana presence was already shielded. We entered the cave passage.

As we went inside, we came across the remains. I had underestimated the number of remains here. While moving, I used the system to scan the remains.

There were some broken artifacts, but they were not useful to me. I continued to move forward. The dark red smoke continued to search as well.

It didn’t take long for me to find pouches of mana stones. But they were all low-grade mana stones. If they had been mid-grade or high-grade mana stones, the monster would have taken them.

On the other hand, the dark red smoke moved far ahead.

It found a cloth map on one of the remains. Zero picked up the map and went back to the Master.

"I have found a map on one of the remains," the puppet said.

Hearing that, I picked up the cloth map and looked at it. The map was drawn with black ink on the cloth. The terrain seemed to be new.