Death… And Me

Chapter 3614: Royer’s Experience

Hian’s group obviously didn’t hear Royer’s conversation with the twins. He just could tell they were exchanging messages, that was all. It didn’t matter, though. That’s because he was right in the end. Following the twins’ group saved him and his companions from this region’s hallucination pollen. ’See? Always trust my instincts.’

His companions nodded. They were quite different from the other groups, as they all were actually pretty close to each other. That’s how they knew and believed Hian’s words without question.

”Okay, we did what we could for you,” Rean spoke to Hian. ”The Light Element I left inside your bodies should last another minute or so. After that, it will not protect you against the pollen anymore.”

As one can imagine, Rean used his Purification Skill.

”You will have to rely on yourselves. As for this little trip together, it will stop here now,” Rean continued. ”As we mentioned, we have our own plans, so we will go our separate ways.”

Hian narrowed his eyes. ”And what if we follow you?”

Roan snorted on the side. ”Sure, give it a try. Just be aware we will increase our speed even more. I might as well warn you that protecting yourself against this pollen is quite hard. If you were already tired before, then... good luck.”

Hian’s companions felt a chill on their backs. On the ground, they already suffered to no end just to keep up. If the twins’ group moves even faster, then they are done for. Well, they were only allowed to follow earlier because Roan wanted to use them as bait if necessary. Since Royer knew where to go in this region, they didn’t have a use for the Bettas anymore.

”Alright, enough with the conversation. Let’s go!” Royer ordered, and everyone shot forward, selecting a direction in that world of yellow pollen.

The moment the twins’ group began to move was also the moment Hian and his companions felt the Light Element Rean left behind disappear. They were prepared, using their Divine Energies to protect themselves and prevent the pollen from touching their bodies. Unfortunately...

”Quick, increase the Divine Energy barrier around your bodies,” Ragon, one of Hian’s companions, warned in a hurry. His Light Element was the first one to disappear. As soon as that happened, the pollen in the surroundings seemed to penetrate his Divine Energy barrier, albeit slowly.

Sure enough, the same happened for everyone else. That small sheet of Divine Energy wasn’t very useful. The pollen penetrated it little by little, and if they didn’t increase the size of that barrier, they simply couldn’t stop the pollen. Actually, even a bigger barrier wasn’t enough.

”Constast Grow! Make the Divine Energy renew and grow outwards constantly!” Hian spoke.

Immediately, the Divine Energy barrier coming from the Bettas’ bodies began to grow and then disappear after expanding two or three centimeters. Simply put, the barrier was growing outwards while it was renewed close to the Bettas. That allowed them to push the pollen that kept trying to penetrate it out. As long as they continued doing that, their Divine Energy Barrier would always force the pollen out.

Finally, they managed to stabilize. However, by now, the twins’ group had already run pretty far. They could still see them, but they could also see how fast they were moving. Hian’s group could catch up to them if they spent a lot of Divine Energy, but then they would run out of it pretty fast, too.

”What now, Hian?”

Hian sighed in response, giving up there. ”We already gained a lot by being saved in this region. Let’s just select a direction to go and move out. We need to find the next region. Just make sure you don’t use too much Divine Energy. Try to keep a balance of expenditure and recover. Let’s go.”

Far ahead, Kentucky looked back, his body glowing slightly with his own Light Element. The Purification Skill was fully activated, making the pollen in this region meaningless against him. ”Seems like they gave up,” he observed.

Roan nodded slightly. ”That’s good. Royer, how long until we reach the next region.”

”This region is all about the hallucination caused by the pollen,” Royer spoke of what he knew. ”However, the main challenge is actually the time necessary you will spend here. Common sense says everyone would advance slowly, afraid of what could happen. Yet, that only gives more chances for the pollen to make its work. The pollen will get thicker and thicker, and that would make the experts go slower and slower to keep the pollen out.”

”So it is basically a test of endurance, is it?” Elsie asked.

”Pretty much,” Royer nodded. ”But the good thing is that if you are good at resisting this pollen, you can simply dash through this region. There are no traps, monsters, or such. At most, you might find other experts, but everyone would refrain from fighting in this place since that could create a gap for the pollen to enter their bodies.”

”And how do you know which direction to go?” Rean asked this time.

Then, Royer pointed below at some of the yellow flowers. If one took a closer look, they would see that all the flowers seemed slightly, very, very slightly tilted in a specific direction. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there. ”While the plants and flowers are responsible for the pollen, they also tell us where to go. I believe they are tilted in this direction because they receive the energy they use to grow from the same place, which is where the portal is located.”

He didn’t intend to use the portal, though. ”However, we will not be using the portal this time. Instead, we will cross this region normally and enter the next region by foot.”

”Why?” The twins’ group got confused.

”Because the hallucination pollen region has a trait. The next region’s portal will always be at the very start. We might take a longer time to cross this region, but regardless of which region is next, we will probably pass through it in a very short time. Of course, as you can imagine, I’m not the only one who knows all of this. We actually might find a few more experts on the way there. I’m pretty sure that the big powers have a lot more knowledge than I do.”

Everyone was happy to hear that. ”That’s not a problem. Let’s push forward!”