Chapter 207: Chapter 206 – Finding Teammates
While her teammates were fighting to break through, Jima was asleep, and her quality of sleep was particularly good, thanks in part to her showering in hot water before bed.
When she finally opened her eyes, the dull pain within her body had vanished without a trace. Checking her personal system, she noted that her magical energy had recovered to 82%. She lifted her head from the feather pillow, got out of bed, and stretched lazily.
“I slept so comfortably, and there wasn’t anyone to disturb me.”
Jima rubbed the corners of her eyes, wiped away the gunk, strapped a belt filled with potions around her waist, and picked up the branch axe spear leaning against the bedside.
This weapon, blessed by the Blood God, had already tasted too much blood yesterday. Holding it in her hand stirred up an impulse to rush out and slay a few more beastmen.
Her mind continued to savor the joy of slaying four cyclopes in a row the previous day.
Jima suppressed this urge for bloodshed; she knew it was the Blood God trying to influence her, wanting her to offer more blood.
“I don’t want to become a mindless brute.”
With this thought, she slung the branch axe spear over her shoulder, passed by the entrance to the Dream Palace near her bed, and stepped outside.
Above her was a false night sky, the dark before dawn; Jima had woken up too early.
Her golden eyes gazed into the night sky, peering through the illusory expanse in search of the black smoke emitted by the “Dream Seeds.”
The dream realm here was already shrouded in dense gray fog, blocking out the “Dream Seeds.” In other words, Jima could no longer quickly move through this place using the “Dream Seeds.” Of course, she could choose to fly away using her wings.
However, that would make it difficult to regroup with George and the others.
Jima was confident that she could find a way to disperse some of the gray fog, but it would take time, so she could only look around in hopes of spotting the “Dream Seeds.”
Perhaps because the Mother of All Beasts was injured, the gray fog was lighter than yesterday. However, Jima still saw no sign of the black smoke from the “Dream Seeds.”
Reluctantly, Jima descended, returned to the palace, and began writing a post-battle summary at the desk by the window.
“Now it seems that my divination results during aerial reconnaissance were interfered with by the Mother of All Beasts.”
“But was it a coincidence that my doppelgänger ran into the Mother of All Beasts? Or did I fall into her scheme? I feel it’s more likely that she has a superpower for fast movement, perhaps even teleportation.”
“Then why didn’t she teleport on the battlefield to directly block the retreating army? Maybe she didn’t meet the conditions, but in any case, we cannot negate this possibility.”
Recalling yesterday’s defeat, Jima felt a pang of heartbreak.
Duke Karsong was dead, the post-battle rewards gone, and who knows how many glittering trinkets and various treasures had vanished without a trace.
Pain.
She also thought of the thousands of knights who perished on the battlefield; their luxurious armor and treasures had all become trophies of the Mother of All Beasts.
Jima felt jealousy and hate, her teeth clenched tightly. After cursing a few times, she felt a bit relieved.
She didn’t even know if the Golden Beauty was dead; in any case, she hadn’t seen her during the escape yesterday. Most likely, she was gone.
Jima sighed. After all the trouble, they’d finally grown a beauty in this ugly world, and now she was gone—it was such a pity. In light of this, the Mother of All Beasts was doubly guilty.
After sighing, she continued to write her lessons learned.
“Yesterday, I let victory go to my head. It’s all thanks to the killing impulse brought on by the branch axe spear, which actually made me stray from the group and rush in to kill the cyclopes, giving the dark elves an opportunity.”
“I must always remember that I am vulnerable on the front lines; I can only run away. If I had been a warrior-type with frontal capabilities, I would’ve shaken off the effects of poison long ago; why was I so helpless?”
“Moreover, the team lacked ranged firepower, which put me in a dilemma. It’s time to lift the curse on Eve Frostleaf; thinking about changing the curse into some *mark is completely unrealistic.”
Indeed, Jima had secretly researched *marks and planned to harm Frostleaf, but unfortunately, she hadn’t found a clue; the will of extraordinary beings was almost impossible to influence.
Jima self-criticized:
“My lust has harmed me. If only Eve Frostleaf could shoot arrows yesterday, would I have been so helpless?”
“But that leading red-haired elven girl really caught my eye.”
“Right, I must consider the secret exposure risk that comes with un-cursing Eve Frostleaf.”
With Eve Frostleaf’s background, she was the illegitimate daughter of the Elven Queen, and high elves were known for their mastery of magic. It had been years, and even high elves couldn’t lift the curse placed by the demon king Jima before his death.
Yet a platinum-level succubus could break it. With a bit of knowledge in mysticism, one would undoubtedly suspect Jima’s relationship with the demon king Jima.
“I only inherited some of the memories of the demon king Jima, enough to understand the curse structure.”
Seeing this sentence, Jima felt a bit guilty.
She believed she was not the demon king Jima, but others would surely think: if she inherited even these memories, then… how many of the memories of the demon king Jima had Jima inherited? If she inherited everything, how was Jima different from Jima?
Jima made up her mind.
“I must dress it up with lies; unless absolutely necessary, I cannot speak the truth.”
After finishing her summary, Jima looked up to scan the night sky.
With her sharp eyes, Jima vaguely saw a wisp of black smoke emitted by a “Dream Seed.”
Among the Bartow army, she had only implanted Dream Seeds in three individuals: George, Lianci, and Duke Karsong. Frostleaf had disagreed, so she hadn’t given one to her.
Jima hastily leaped into the air and flew toward the false night sky, but just then, the Dream Palace suddenly shook, and the entire world swayed.
Damn it, someone has discovered the entrance of the Dream Palace.
Jima quickly gripped her branch axe spear, noted the direction of the Dream Seed, and turned back toward the entrance of the Dream Palace.
Outside, by a tree with a hole in it, stood a search party composed of a dozen lesser horned beasts, one horned beast, and several magically altered war hounds.
“There’s something strange in the tree hole,” one clever lesser horned beast poked the peculiar “Dream Palace entrance” inside the tree hole and turned to speak to its companions.
The leading horned beast asked, “Are there two-legged sheep hiding in the tree hole?”
“No, it looks strange, like a cloud, or maybe some whirlpool.”
The leading horned beast approached, axe in hand, saying, “Let me take a look.”
He swung his axe several times to enlarge the hole, brought over a torch, and upon inspecting it, punched the clever lesser horned beast hard.
“There’s nothing here.”
“What? It was just here a moment ago.”
“Your eyes are playing tricks on you; stop checking the tree hole.”
“Those monkeys love to hide in tree holes; let’s look for a larger hole. Didn’t we find a two-legged sheep kid last night? The meat was so tender.”
The already invisible Jima crouched on a tree branch, watching the beastmen below as she gripped the branch axe spear tightly.
I hate clever little beasts the most.
As the two beastmen chatted, they left to rejoin their group.
Jima’s gaze remained fixed on the furry back of the lesser horned beast, muttering a vicious curse.
The clever lesser horned beast suddenly felt sluggish all over; he thought it was due to last night’s chase. His eyes felt heavy, so heavy that he even had the illusion that his eyeballs were falling out of their sockets.
Suddenly the world went dark; had the torch gone out?
The clever lesser horned beast looked toward the torch, which was pitch black, with no hint of light around.
He instinctively leaned closer to the torch but felt the flames scorch his cheeks, singeing the hair on his face.
Then he heard a shocked voice by his ear: “Your eyes! Where are your eyes?”
“Gone?” The clever lesser horned beast raised his hand. “Where are you? I can’t see you.”
“Why have you aged so much?”
More calls erupted around him.
“My eyeball! My eye has fallen out!”
“He’s getting older, aging!”
“He transmitted the curse to us.”
The clever lesser horned beast’s heart sank; he touched his eye with his hand and poked his finger into the eye socket, but it was empty inside.
“Ahh!”
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
“Where? Where did it go?”
Amidst the cries of the war hounds, chaos erupted around them.
The clever lesser horned beast hurriedly dropped the torch and ran along the path his memory recalled. He stumbled and fell, but fortunately, his hands touched a dense thicket, and based on experience, he burrowed into the thicket, hiding himself well.
The sounds around gradually decreased and faded away until they finally vanished.
The entire process lasted nearly twenty minutes, and the clever lesser horned beast’s wildly beating heart had finally calmed down.
It seemed like quite a while; perhaps the killer was enjoying the thrill of slaughter.
He felt uneasy, sensing he had encountered a malevolent spirit that delighted in torturing people.
“One, two, three, four… fifteen; one is still missing.” A melodious female voice grew closer. “Who else? I see you; stop hiding.”
The sound of feet crushing grass approached from behind, sending shivers down the lesser horned beast’s back as he didn’t dare to move.
The footsteps grew closer. “Come out, quickly; don’t waste my time.”
So close now that the chilling weapon that killed his companion brushed past his scalp, the clever lesser horned beast nearly jumped up in fright. Thankfully, the footsteps receded farther away until they finally vanished.
The clever lesser horned beast sighed in relief; fortunately, the other party was just bluffing.
The sky echoed with the sound of bats flapping their wings; it should be dawn, and the bats were returning to their roosts.
Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his back as a cold spearhead thrust deep into it.
“I see you now.”
The clever lesser horned beast was startled, wanting to jump up, but one foot pressed against his back, and a cold axe blade ran across his neck.
“Stretch your neck. Here we go, one, two, three.”
When the axe blade buried itself in his neck, the clever lesser horned beast, overwhelmed with fear, surprisingly felt at peace.
Finally dead; no more fear.
“Ahh, that feels good.”
Jima stepped on the corpse of the lesser horned beast and forcefully pulled the blade out.
The sky was already dimly bright; around her lay sixteen corpses.
Jima wiped the sweat from her forehead:
“The killing efficiency is just too low.”
Contrary to what the lesser horned beast thought, Jima’s slow killings were not due to a desire to torture; it was simply all she could manage.
She only tormented this clever little beast to extract the pleasurable power of suffering.
Jima missed the joy of finishing off kills; she spread her wings and soared into the air, flying toward the direction of the “Dream Seeds.”
The sky was just beginning to brighten.
Jima contemplated whether or not to make noise while flying to attract attention, lest she pass by George, which would not be good; however, she had many escape methods.
As Jima opened her mouth to sing in a soprano voice, “♪ Two old—”
A shard of ice flew directly at her, precisely grazing past her face.
A silver figure leapt onto the treetops; it was Eve Frostleaf, one hand still covering her long ears.
