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[LFTAW] Chapter 323: Things Are Getting Interesting
🕑 Added 2024-11-19 01:32:10 +0000 UTCE-Rantel, Northern Forest.
To the north of E-Rantel, there was a forest that covered a fairly large area.
It wasn't too far from E-Rantel, and it would only take about three hours of walking to reach this forest from the northern gate of E-Rantel.
Riezel, flying through the air with Fly, arrived above the forest after flying for a while.
'Did she run into this forest?'
Looking down at the seemingly endless expanse of trees, Riezel furrowed his brow.
According to the life signals he had received from Sense Life, he discovered that Clementine had entered this forest, which was why he had followed her all the way here.
Nonetheless, he had to admit that he had truly underestimated her.
'I thought I'd catch up quickly, but I ended up being outsmarted...'
One was flying in the sky, and the other was running on the ground—logically, it should have been obvious which one would be faster.
For this reason, Riezel hadn't expected to still be chasing Clementine after all this time.
He had thought that with the help of flight magic, he would catch up to her quickly and deal with her, but who would have thought that during her escape, she had set up plenty of tricks to throw him off, causing him to take a few wrong turns and nearly letting her get away.
'She seems pretty experienced at this... Must've been chased a lot before, huh?'
Clementine had clearly considered that someone might use surveillance magic to track her down and had prepared various methods to confuse her pursuers, making her counter-surveillance skills pretty strong.
Needless to say, the fact that she entered the forest was also a deliberate choice to shake off Riezel's pursuit.
Since there were many animals in the forest, which meant a lot of life signals, as long as she didn't run at a pace far beyond that of these animals, it would be difficult for him to distinguish her from the other life signals.
'Looks like just relying on Sense Life isn't going to help me find that crazy woman...'
Riezel relaxed his furrowed brow.
'If only I could use higher-tier surveillance magic, then I could track her another way... Too bad I don't know any...'
Out of the ninety-nine magic spells he had learned from Ainz, only a few were surveillance magic, and the one that fit the current situation best was Sense Life.
If he could use higher-tier surveillance magic, let alone 9th-Tier Magic, God's Eye, even 8th-Tier Magic, Remote Viewing, would have been more than enough to help him find Clementine more quickly.
"Next time, I'll definitely take the chance to get more Tier Magic from him..."
Muttering to himself, Riezel continued to fly above the forest, using Transparent World to search for Clementine's trail.
===
Inside the forest, within a dense patch of grass.
When Riezel flew over this area, a few minutes passed before a figure suddenly shifted, like a leopard hiding in the darkness, moving quietly.
It was none other than Clementine.
"Fucking bastard..."
Hiding in the grass, Clementine twisted her face after Riezel flew off and let out a curse that was incredibly unflattering to her image, muttering toward an unseen spot.
Her curse sounded almost like spitting—rude and giving off a dirty vibe.
Apparently, this was how she vented her anger and, surprisingly, her fear.
'What the hell is wrong with that monster?! How could a human possibly have that kind of power?!'
'He's not just someone in the Realm of Heroes; he's someone who transcends even them!'
'Why the hell would that kind of monster show up in this remote city anyway?! Where the hell did he come from?!'
'Dammit... Dammit... Dammit!'
As Clementine continued to curse Riezel inside her mind, she desperately tried to suppress her movements, forcing herself to remain hidden.
At this point, she no longer had the same wild vigor she had earlier—it was as if she had experienced the true horror of ignorance, trembling in this corner.
No, if she truly were ignorant, it might have been a bit better.
It was precisely because she wasn't ignorant that she understood how terrifying beings like Riezel, who transcended human comprehension, could be.
In the past, she had encountered such monsters in the Black Scripture she had been a part of—they were the descendants of the Six Great Gods, who had descended 600 years ago.
Among the descendants of the Six Great Gods, sometimes individuals were born with incredibly powerful supernatural abilities or strengths.
Such individuals were called 'God-kins', and once awakened, they naturally possessed powers far beyond those of a hero or superhuman, even monstrous.
In the Black Scripture, there were two such god-kins.
One of them was the leader of the Black Scripture, holding the position of captain, while the other was the Extra Seat, known as the 'Guardian of Mankind', someone whose power surpassed even the Captain of the Black Scripture.
She could sense the same terrifying power from Riezel's body that she had sensed from those two. It was precisely because of this that she didn't hesitate to flee, knowing full well that no matter what she did, she stood no chance against such a monster.
What puzzled her, however, was why someone comparable to a god-kin would suddenly appear in a remote city like E-Rantel.
Was he also a descendant of the Six Great Gods?
Unfortunately, this was not the time to think about such a thing.
'I need to figure out how to escape first...'
Clementine immediately switched her mindset, focusing solely on this problem.
Who Riezel was didn't matter, and it wasn't important—what mattered right now was escaping his grasp.
'Wish I could use something like Conceal Life or a similar magic...'
Clementine lost in though and bit her nails until they bled.
'When I was dodging those Windflower bastards, I used eleven different concealment methods. But they only worked against people like them, who specialized in espionage, and they only worked the first time.'
'As for that monster... He might be a lot stronger than those Windflower bastards, but he's clearly not an expert in espionage, like how my concealment methods worked on him.'
'Based on this, I think I could still use these concealment methods maybe two or three more times...'
Clementine wracked her brain, coming up with a solution that wasn't really a solution.
'If I use all my concealment methods, I might be able to hide from that monster all night. By the time daylight comes, the night creatures will be resting, and the daytime ones will start to be active, which should mess with his surveillance magic a bit.'
'At that point, I can sneak away and head back to E-Rantel.'
Returning to E-Rantel wasn't a sign that Clementine had gone out of her mind.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place was the safest place.
If Riezel couldn't find her, he would definitely use all kinds of methods to search outside E-Rantel. Once he ran out of options, she wasn't confident that she could still escape if she remained lurking outside.
In that case, it was better to return to E-Rantel.
She believed that he would never expect her to return to E-Rantel, and there was a high chance he wouldn't be searching the city either.
At that point, she could find an opportunity to leave E-Rantel leisurely after he abandoned the chase and returned to the city.
'I have no choice but to do this.'
Having made up her mind, Clementine took out several vials of potions from her cloak, drank some on the spot, and smeared others on her skin.
Evidently, these potions could mask scents or reduce life sign activity, making them incredibly useful for someone like her, who was always on the run.
She had prepared many such items and had already used some earlier to dodge Riezel's pursuit, and now, she was continuing to use them to maintain the effect.
'I can't stay in one place for too long, or I might catch that monster's attention.'
If Riezel noticed a life sign just sitting still in the grass, he would definitely come to check it out.
At this point, it wasn't about hiding anymore but about mimicking the movement patterns of forest animals so she didn't stand out among all the other life signs.
With a calm mind, Clementine slowly began to move, like a snake hunting at night, slithering forward.
What she didn't know was that, while she was making such careful movements to hide from him, Riezel had run into something unexpected, causing him to stop chasing her.
===
"Hmm?"
Riezel, flying in mid-air, suddenly stopped, letting out a confused sound.
Why?
Simple.
"What's going on with this response?"
Riezel muttered in wonder as his Sense Life suddenly sent back a response, telling him that many people were entering the forest.
They were split into two groups, one large and one small, and weren’t entering from the same direction.
In one direction, the larger group rushed into the forest first, but soon after, their numbers began to drop rapidly as if they had encountered a massacre—their life signs disappearing one after another, constantly snuffing out.
Meanwhile, in the other direction, the smaller group, which had about a dozen people, seemed to be more cautious as they entered the forest, moving slowly, as if they were conducting some kind of investigation.
Curious, Riezel used Sense Life again, radiating his magical energy toward the larger group.
Soon, however, something unexpected happened.
BOOM!
It was as if something had bounced Riezel back.
When the magical energy Riezel had radiated was suddenly disrupted, a powerful force flowed back toward him along the magical energy and exploded when it reached his body.
Riezel instantly felt as if an invisible shockwave had hit him, his body flying backward.
Feeling a slight pain running through his body, Riezel raised his eyebrows.
"I see..."
A faint smile formed on Riezel's face.
"Heh, things are getting interesting."
Riezel's eyes flickered, and with a swift turn of his body, he flew toward the source of the powerful force.
