Away from the battlefield, Leo was slowly going into the forest. He heard the sounds of battle from time to time and knew that this was his cue to go into the forest as quickly as he could. However, he had to be careful since it would be his first time venturing into the Inner Forest and the Core Forest.
He made his way into the depths of the forest. On the way, he didn't see any Magical Beasts. The entire forest was completely deserted. He smiled at this. He was right in assuming that this was the best time to try and find the inheritance.
He took out his map and took a closer look at it. He saw that the mark was at the center of the entire forest. He put it back and entered the Inner Forest.
The minute he entered the Inner Forest, he realized the difference immediately. The amount of Magical Energy in the air was a lot more than in the Outer Forest. It was a much better environment for him to train and also a better environment for Magical Herbs to grow. This was why the stronger Magical Beasts occupied this area - they could monopolize these herbs for their own growth.
He saw a multitude of herbs that he was tempted to grab on the way but he resisted this urge. He had come for one thing and wanted to see it through. He quickly sped past the Inner Forest. Compared to the Outer Forest which took him two hours to cross, the Inner Forest only took him 10 minutes. This meant that the radius of the Outer Forest was almost 50 km while the Inner Forest's was only around 5 based on his speed.
With that enormous size for a forest, he was not surprised that there were those many 1st Circle Magical Beasts in the Outer Forest, but he was surprised that the 2nd Circle Magical Beasts co-existed in the smaller Inner Forest.
He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind as he finally entered the Core Forest of the Valkyr's Woods. As he entered, he was very careful. He knew that the Core part would be even smaller than the Inner Forest and he would have to consider the chance that a Magical Animal was still staying in the Core to guard any cubs or precious herbs.
The moment he entered, he saw that the Core Forest was essentially another waterfall that was right beside a cave. The cave was on a cliff that was beside the waterfall. It would be the perfect place for a home because the scenery was amazing. The cave overlooked the water falling onto the lake.
He Shadow Stepped to the cave and quickly sensed around to see if there were any Magical Beasts around him. He didn't find any in his initial search. He peeked into the cave and saw an interesting sight.
There was a lot of gold glimmering at the end of the cave. Along with the gold were several skeletons which were still dressed in lavish clothes. He sneaked into the cave and walked forward. The cave was very empty save for the loot at the end.
There was a small pile of jewelry and human skeletons. Other than that, there wasn't anything special. He moved closer and saw that the skeletons had rings on their fingers. He recognized the rings immediately. They were dimensional rings like the one he had.
He quickly grabbed the rings from all the skeletons and threw them into his own. He didn't have time to check what was in them. He could do that later. He found a total of three rings so that itself made the trip worth it.
Other than the dimensional rings, the only thing that stood out to him was a huge fruit that sat along with the gold and jewels. There weren't any other precious herbs other than the fruit, but the fruit itself contained a huge amount of Magical Energy that made him want to eat it on the spot. He decided to wait on that till he could get the fruit appraised and put it into his dimensional ring.
He took out the map from his dimensional ring and checked it again. He was supposedly in the cave that seemed like the center of the forest, so he was supposed to find the inheritance there. He looked closer and realized that some of the drawings were places he recognized. There was a waterfall right beside the marked spot, but the spot was to the left of the waterfall while the cave was to the right.
He smiled at his observation and exited the cave. He left the cave and looked at the waterfall again. Unfortunately, he didn't find any cave-like structure beside the waterfall. There were only rocks. He shook his head. He didn't know what to do.
Just as he was thinking, he heard a loud roar in the distance that startled him. He looked for the source of the roar and realized that it had come from the battlefield. He sighed with relief. He was happy he didn't have to fight against a Beast like that. He would definitely die if he was going up against a Magical Beast that made him feel fear even though it was dozens of kilometers away.
He got down from the cave and went to a tree that looked over the waterfall. He stared at the waterfall for an entire ten minutes, thinking about what his course of action was. The first thing he thought was that he could blast open the cliff to the left with his Flame Barrage. This would definitely yield results if there was truly an inheritance waiting for him.
However, he quickly discarded the idea because of how much energy it would consume and how much noise it would make. If a nearby 3rd Circle Magical Beast heard the noise and realized that the forest had an intruder, his weakened self that used all his Magical Energy to blast open a cliff would be killed easily.
After that idea was discarded, he kept thinking. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. He had already tried this idea before but had left it because it didn't work, but he realized that it might work again.
The first thing he had done once he got down from the cave was scan beyond the waterfall to see if there was anything hiding behind the water. He did it instinctively because that was where he found the tome. However, because he couldn't sense anything, he left that idea.
However, he realized that the tome had a magical barrier guarding it and the space it was in. If Valkyr also put up a magical barrier, he wouldn't be able to detect that space because he was far weaker than Valkyr. Even if the barrier weakened over the years, it wouldn't be able to bridge the gap. There was also a definite chance that Valkyr put up a barrier since no one found the inheritance in all those years.
He decided to test his idea and immediately jumped into the lake.
