In the middle of a dense forest filled with gigantic trees, a giant walked out from a light portal before the portal behind him vanished with a flash.
Jacob was startled as he smelled the affluent air around him, which was somewhat intoxicating, and when he looked behind, the portal was gone entirely, making him frown.
Then he looked around him and saw hundreds of meters tall, towering brown trees giving the air of ancientness, and he was standing on a vein-covered ground without any trace of soil.
Furthermore, the crown of the trees covered the entire sky, and it was pretty dark. Jacob felt ill at ease despite no enemy in sight.
'Where did it send me? Another section of the trial plain? Is it even possible?' Thought Jacob with uncertainty, 'But if it's valid, then all I need to do is to search for another landmark like the Ice Mountain and the pyramid. Furthermore, now that I think about it, I have seen a tree in the mural...'
With such a thought, Jacob selected a tree to climb on because if he had been transferred to another section of the trial plain, this would have saved him a tremendous amount of time traveling here.
However, before he could touch the tree bark, a panicked voice bellowed from somewhere, "Don't touch it, you fool, unless you want to die!"
Jacob was alerted and stopped his action before turning toward the panicked voice. It was too sudden, and he didn't even hear any footsteps approaching.
Over fifty meters away, he saw a tall, handsome, pale white elf with messy blond hair panting heavily as he looked at him with bloodshot eyes with a hint of relief.
Jacob's eyes narrowed as he coldly said, "Who are you?"
The elf caught his breath before he berated with pursed lips, "You fool, this Elder Grandmaster here, just save your giant ass! You don't even know me?!"
'An Elder Grandmaster from the alchemy guild?' A sharp glint flashed past his eyes as he could feel the disdain and pride in the elf's voice, "Do I suppose to know you?"
The elf frowned in dissatisfaction as he retorted, "You bumpkin! You didn't even know the great Ephraim!"
Jacob coldly said one word, "No."
Contempt flashed past Ephraim's blue eyes as he walked toward Jacob, "Hmph, a bumpkin indeed. How do you enter this place? I didn't remember seeing such a gigantic idiot in the vanguard unit?"
Jacob suddenly felt annoyed by Ephraim's tone, and an urge to tear this guy with his bare hands enveloped his heart, but he controlled himself.
"Why did you stop me from touching this tree?" He asked. He could tell this guy was highly prideful, and saving someone whom he looked down upon was entirely against such a person's nature, so this could only mean he was saving himself, or there was something else that benefited him!
Ephraim sneered disdainfully, "Humph! From your tone and how you'd managed to get this deep without getting killed, it seemed you just entered these shit lands. Let me tell you, if you had touched that tree bark, all the trees in a 100-meter radius would've come alive, and they had made sure to strangle an ignorant muscle brain like you, if not melt you with their acid!"
Jacob was stunned as he looked at the surrounding trees with a hint of apprehension, and he finally understood why he was feeling so ill at ease after appearing here. Yet, another part of him wanted to try touching them, which was clearly his powerful instincts.
'This place is far more dangerous than the other two…' Jacob thought grimly, looking at the elf who was now smiling disdainfully, 'Since he could survive this place without even a scratch on him, this could only mean he's incredibly resourceful. Furthermore, he's claiming to be an Advanced Elder Grandmaster, so he ought to have many good things.
'Since he stopped me from touching the tree, this could only mean he's looking for a puppet and meat shield. So, by revealing his identity as an Advanced Elder Grandmaster, he clearly wanted to awe me… but do I even need an epic rank arrogant idiot anymore?'
A cold flashed past Jacob's eyes at this moment as he watched the eyesore of an elf walking towards him without any care of the world, as if he was highly confident that with all his insults and attitude, he wouldn't dare to do anything to him. Furthermore, he wasn't weak at all, not by a long shot!
If it were anything else, Ephraim was utterly right because having an Elder Grandmaster as a companion was like having an extra lifeline beside them, and no one would be foolish enough to get on their bad side.
That's why Ephraim keeps his shity attitude that he had on the outside and still thinks that Elder Grandmaster like him is not to be trifled with, especially when he was one of the top ten figures of the Alchemy Guild.
As for why someone like him agreed to enter this dangerous place, it was naturally because the Vice President promised him a huge boon!
But he never thought that he would end up in this dreadful forest of all places, and he couldn't even find anything while two of the shackles had already been broken, which was nothing but bad news for him because the person who broke them spell nothing but misfortune.
Now, he wanted to get out of there and not care about the promised reward as he was afraid the same person who cleared those shackles would come here next, and now he felt like luck was finally shining upon him when he saw the robust giant.
'I can finally use him to cut through this shity place!' He thought with glee as he approached the silent giant staring at him. He had seen too many stares like that anger, killing intent, rage, yet they all could do nothing but endure helplessly, for he was an Advanced Elder Grandmaster Ephraim.
Ephraim stood before Jacob, disdainfully looking him in the eyes, and coldly said, "Now you big oaf, if you follow me obediently, I might let your bumpkin tribe enjoy my alchemy…hikkk…"
Before he could finish his words, a giant iron claw suddenly gripped around his face, and next movement,
'crack…puchiii…'
The sound of skull-crushing rang in the silent vicinity before Jacob's sonorous voice sounded, "Bug!"
