With the newly forged barbarian in the lead, Liam and the group of five elves were busily moving through the forests. They were making good time and in just under an hour they had covered a lot of ground.
"Hmmm… It looks like this decision was the right one after all." Liam sighed.
In front of him, there were two choices and he had chosen to go to the elven lands first. The barbarians and their special training had to wait.
Though it might make him more powerful, there were two other very important things he had to accomplish in the elven lands. Otherwise, the moment the apocalypse hit the real world, before he could do anything, a bunch of ravens might massacre him.
Liam shook his head at that disturbing thought. He had to finish that damn quest first.
He summoned the game's map and the entirety of the wilderness was highlighted on the map, along with the barbarian territories he had crossed until now.
Tall trees surrounded them on their path, the area so densely packed that there wasn't any sort of light in the forest. But it looked like they would really be able to cross this last stretch of their path with the help of this soul minion.
Of course, the elves following him were still as useless as ever. However, Liam simply allowed them to follow him as they had already traveled so much distance together. At this point, he might as well escort them all the way to the elven lands and cash in the reward.
While he was trying to figure out what exactly to do after crossing the wilderness, the minion moving robotically forward up until now suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"What happened?" Liam asked him.
The undead barbarian soul did not answer him and stood still in the same spot dazed and confused.
"I am guessing we are lost?" Liam chuckled, once again asking him the obvious.
The undead shook his head innocently. Though he had spoken big words before, now he had somehow gotten lost, but this was something Liam had already expected.
In fact, if he could, he would have consistently marked their tracks so that they could retrace their steps when needed but unfortunately, even that was not possible. They had to cover their tracks lest the barbarians sniff them out easily.
This wilderness was both a boon and a curse.
Liam turned to see if the elves would offer any assistance at least now as they should be close to their territory but once again there was only despair on their faces.
He sighed and ruffled his head as he tried to think of some way from here.
"Alright, we might as well camp here for some time and have some food before we continue." Liam signaled everyone to set up near the base of a huge tree and started distributing the food.
Though they didn't particularly light any fire, there was still a lot of commotion and the delicious aroma of the cooked meat wafted in the air.
Liam made no effort to hide it as he only took out more and more food from his inventory as if he had a voracious appetite. He continued doing this until there was a distinctive smell in the air around them.
The elves finally noticed this peculiar behavior and looked at Liam curiously. Lyana was about to open her mouth to warn him when she was abruptly interrupted by a low growl.
A huge white-colored beast with two huge horns on its head galloped towards them from a distance. It looked like it was a mix between a bear and a boar as the beast headed straight for the food pile.
"Oh! Our first visitor is already here."
Liam unsheathed his sword and the weapon was drenched in blood the next second. The huge beast also lay dead in front of them, Liam already tinkering with the big guy's soul.
Not long after the same beast once again materialized, this time in its soul form. All the elves stared at Liam in shock.
They had already seen him do this several times but still, they were unable to come to terms with it. But even more shocking were his words.
"Do you know the place where the elves live?" Liam asked. He did not stop there and repeated the same without showing any signs of tiredness.
The five elves had grown up next to this wilderness all their lives but they had never seen anyone find their way through this place using such a technique. It was simply too ruthless.
They watched this scene continue for a couple of hours when finally a useful visitor arrived. A huge condor circled them from above and Liam's eyes immediately lit up.
He had been searching for a flying-type undead for a while now! This was perfect!
He raised his hand, aimed at the bird, and sent a single thick lightning bolt. The condor immediately screeched in agony and fell down. A few more lightning bolts fell on the Level 45 bird and it was dead by the time it reached the ground.
In the next few minutes, its soul was also successfully harvested and forged. In front of the group, a brand new soul undead condor stood majestically.
"Welcome." Liam smiled at the bird. "Now tell me… where do the elves live?"
The condor blinked its eyes for a second and then started flying in a specific direction. "Heh. Would you look at that? It seems that our break time is now over."
He packed the huge lunch buffet back into his inventory space in a jiffy and the group was once again on the road. Not long after the barbarian as well seemed to become confident once more, followed by the elves.
"I guess we are finally reaching the elven territory." Liam could already feel the wilderness around them thinning down.
And a few minutes later, they ran into the first group of elves.
