After breakfast, Ciel and Rein made all kinds of preparations before heading to the edge of the village.
Rein had 16 Copper, but by the end of their preparations, they only had 4 Copper in total.
They made sure no one noticed or followed them going to the village walls.
Rein had entered Ciel's shadow so that even if someone saw Ciel, they wouldn't know Rein was with him.
It was quite a convenient ability for being stealthy.
They had to be careful so that no one would know where they got the materials.
[ How does it feel to be a shadow? ] Ciel asked
He didn't feel any different, but could feel her presence in his shadow.
[ It's weird. I can't feel or taste the air, but my other senses feel enhanced. I feel like I have some sort of night vision as well. ]
[ It also doesn't use any of our Spirit Essence when being a shadow, except when entering. ]
[ Also, even though I'm in your shadow right now, my vision is at the level of your eyes. I can look in any direction at the level of your eyes. ] She replied
Ciel nodded and jumped over the village wall, which was 5 metres high.
This was an effect of the physical boost at Soul Tier 2
In front of them was the vast Emerald Forest.
He slowly went deeper into the Emerald Forest while making sure that no one was trailing them.
The trees were massive, being over 50 metres tall and 5 metres wide. The canopy was vast, with leaves that were a lush green.
The occasional gap in the leaves let the sunlight flow through, lighting the surface below.
[ No one is there. ] Rein said from his shadow
She had enhanced senses in the shadow form, so she was way better for scouting.
[ Okay, let's try searching for some weak Forsakened. If you notice anything, tell me. ] Ciel said
There would be no Forsakened close to the Great Enforcer, the massive walls surrounding the Floren kingdom.
They would have to go deeper in the forest to find some.
After half an hour of traversing the forest, Rein mentally said from his shadow:
[ I hear something to the left. There's a lot of weird sounding footsteps. ]
Ciel started cautiously moving to his left. After a minute, he could hear it as well. It was the sound of multiple thin legs hitting the ground.
He climbed up a branch that was low to the ground and looked in the direction from where the sound was coming from.
What he saw was a massive anthill, with an innumerable amount of giant ants walking around.
They were a dark red colour, each one being a metre in length.
'What the hell… why are they so big?'
There weren't many books describing the Forsakened species, so Ciel didn't really know what to expect.
What he didn't expect to see were huge looking ants.
Rein exited his shadow and said:
"I don't think we can fight that."
"Yeah, I know. We should find a way to separate them and pick them off one by one."
"They're only at Soul Tier 1, so we can fight them one on one." Ciel replied
Regular humans were at the level of Soul Tier 1.
Forsakened were a different story, even though they were Soul Tier 1.
Forsakened at Soul Tier 1 were called Feral. They all had highly enhanced physical abilities.
Ciel and Rein were at Soul Tier 2, called Awakened Sorcerers.
"I have an idea. We have everything we need in the Soul World." Rein said
A few minutes later, the plan was already under execution.
'Maybe this wasn't a good idea…' Rein thought as she approached the anthill.
She drew her bow and arrow, aiming for the anthill. She was good at archery on Earth when going to theme parks, so she believed she could do it.
Of course, the bow and arrows were in the Soul World until a minute ago. They had bought various weapons when making preparations. Ciel used Soul Transfer to bring them back and forth.
The downside to this was that they were now nearly out of money.
She shot the arrow, and it landed in the center of the anthill.
'Time to run.' She thought
The Feral Ants went in a frenzy and noticed her in the distance. They started chasing her through the forest.
The bow and arrows had disappeared the moment she hit the anthill. Ciel could pick up marked objects with Soul Transfer from a distance.
She ran through the forest at full speed, avoiding everything in the way. Since she was an Awakened Sorcerer, she was faster than the Feral Ants but not by much.
She continued to run for a while, making sure that the horde of Feral Ants were still following her.
Then, she stopped in a small shadow, and waited for the ants to catch up.
The moment she saw them, she suddenly disappeared.
She entered Ciel's shadow. They only thing needed to enter the shadow was to be in contact with it.
Currently, Ciel was on a branch high on top of a tree. His shadow was on the ground, letting Rein enter through it.
As mindless beasts, the Feral Ants had no idea what had just happened.
Ciel didn't move a muscle, as the ants could sense vibrations through their antennas.
The ants started spreading out, looking for the intruder.
[ Alright, we separated them. Now we just have to pick them off without being noticed. ] Rein said from his shadow
[ Easier said than done. I'll jump down and finish them, you stay up here and support me with arrows and scouting. ] Ciel replied
Rein exited from the part of his shadow that was on the tree branch.
He passed her the bow again.
Ciel then entered her shadow and exited on the ground.
There were still two Feral Ants remaining over there.
He took out a katana from his Soul World and got ready for combat.
'Let's hope our weapons can damage these things. We probably should have prepared better.'
The Feral Ants noticed him and moved forward.
Their deadly mandibles opened, ready to bite his limbs off.
An arrow fell from above, piercing into one of the Feral Ants' abdomen.
'Looks like they are sharp enough. Or maybe we're just strong.' Ciel thought as he confirmed the damage
They were a full Soul Tier above the Feral Ants after all.
The ant that was undamaged continued moving forward as if nothing had happened and tried to bite Ciel's leg off.
He dodged with ease as he swung his katana, slashing through two of the three of the six legs on the ant.
The ant completely lost balance and a second later, its head was flying through the air
The second ant had a second arrow stuck in it, piercing its head. It was still alive, but Ciel moved quickly to finish it off.
'They're quite weak… I can fight 5 of them at once, but it would not be ideal.' Ciel thought
[ There are 10 ants coming from all directions, they'll be here in 30 seconds ] Rein warned him from the branch of the tree
Ciel quickly marked the corpses of the ants, taking them into his Soul World.
It took a lot more Spirit Essence to mark large objects, but they still had enough to fight.
By the time he was done, the second round of ants had arrived.
'I guess I'll test my Spirit Essence control.' He thought
Ciel poured a little Spirit Essence into his katana, boosting its strength.
He ran towards the closest ant, chopping its head off in a single slash.
A few arrows rained from above, slowing down some of the ants.
Ciel continued cutting the ants down, and with each kill, he adapted to their battle style, allowing him to kill them faster.
He also got slightly used to manipulating his Spirit Essence infusion on his katana.
After under a minute, all the Feral Ants around him were corpses.
Ciel had a few cuts, but nothing fatal.
He quickly marked and used Soul Transfer on them before entering the shadow of Rein.
There was a huge horde that would arrive soon.
[ Don't move for a while. We'll wait for them to disperse before leaving. ] Ciel instructed
Rein didn't argue. They both watched as a huge horde of Feral Ants swarmed the area.
The antennas swayed as the ants looked for any signs of movement nearby.
Luckily, Rein was as still as a rock, not moving at all.
'I shouldn't stare at them. Who knows, maybe they can sense a gaze.' She thought as she closed her eyes to be safe
Ciel noticed and did the same, even though he didn't have eyes as a shadow. Rein reading so many stories gave her many ideas of what to do in front of Forsakened.
After half an hour of waiting, the Feral Ants had fully dispersed again. But they waited an extra half hour just to be safe.
Their Spirit Essence was now low, and they had to go back before sunset.
'Our teamwork is quite good for our first fight.'
'She's not completely helpless. Still, I wonder how long we will have the choice of using a bow.'
[ I'm entering the Soul World for a few minutes. ] Ciel said
"I'll go as well, you're planning to feed your attribute, right? I wanna see what happens." Rein replied
They both entered the Soul World. The corpses of the Feral Ants could be seen, and everything else that Ciel put in the Soul World.
"Hey, the fog barely moved at all!" Rein said with slight frustration
Indeed, the Soul Layer had only increased a metre in diameter.
"I guess fighting those ants was too easy. We didn't even get 1% Spirit Charge." Ciel agreed
It looked like it was going to be way harder than they thought to increase their Soul Tier.
Ciel couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
'I can see why only 1 in 2,000 people can achieve Soul Tier 2. We didn't really know what it would be like since we had a headstart…'
Ciel moved on to the main reason why they came. He looked at the Stone of Eternity that was placed near the Door of Void.
'Let's see how much bigger it will get with these Forsaken Cores.'