Chapter 192: The Forbidden Forest – Stop it with the Wolves Already!_Fantasy Realm

The group moves closer to the Forbidden Forest, spotting an opening where the open field gradually darkens, turning into a dense and shadowy forest.

 “I still don’t think this is needed at all, Alex. Going into the forest with five yers? It’ll be hard to find enough to do, and then we even have to share our loot?” Terezains in an annoyed tone.

 “Sorry, but if it’s really like that, we can reevaluate. Let’s just take a look first. Jumping in too quickly could be dangerous. Let’s use this as an opportunity to evaluate the danger—and keep your eyes and ears open for other yers,” Alex says.

 “Also, before I forget... take this as ast resort,” Alex adds, handing each of his teammates an Annihtion Grenade lvl 4 he conjured after waking up.

 As the group slowly enters the Forbidden Forest, the sunlight outside quickly diminishes. The dense canopy overhead blocks out most of the light, casting the forest into near darkness.

 Alex takes out his [Sword of Pluto] and begins cutting away tall grass and nts in his path, refusing to walk through them and risk unnecessary danger.

 “Peh, stay in formation. Don’t walk right next to me,” Rishi says, ncing at Peh, who had abandoned her position on the left side of the group.

 “Why am I supposed to be on the left side? Roja gets to be the rearguard, while you’re in the center of the group, that’s unfair,” Peh says.

 “Alex is the vanguard, and is heining? Shut up!” Tereza snaps.

 Alex stops and turns to the group, whispering, “Be silent, please. First of all, we’re so loud that anyone nearby could hear us and ambush us. Second, if we want to hunt anything, we’ll need to pay attention and be quiet. This is serious.”

 The group nods in acknowledgment and continues their march in silence.

 After a slow and careful ten-minute walk, Alex raises his hand, signaling the group to stop and pay attention. He points ahead at a small group of wolves. At first nce, they look like normal wolves, but Alex notices a faint dark fog surrounding their bodies, and their eyes glow with a sinister red light.

 “These wolves appear to be corrupted,” Alex whispers.

 “Then it’s time to kill them,” Rishi says decisively.

 “You guys split into pairs and attack from the sides,” Alex orders. “Once you’re in position, I’ll openly engage them and draw their attention to me. This isn’t just about killing them—it’s more about preventing them from running away. Stop them from fleeing, and if they don’t and attack me, then help me by nking them.”

 Tereza casts the Disillusionment Charm and vanishes from sight. Rishi follows shortly after, approaching from the same side she disappeared to. Roja acts quickly as well, heading toward the opposite side with Peh following close behind.

 Alex watches as Roja draws a rapier-like weapon, while Peh surprises him by pulling out a harp instead of a weapon.

 Activating Zetsu, Alex suppresses his presence and waits patiently for his team to get into position. As he observes the wolves, he counts over a dozen of them, with more possibly hiding behind various trees and rocks.

 This seems to be a smallir! All are corrupted, so we must cull them all!

 Once his teammates are in position, Alex makes his move. He swiftly approaches the wolves, keeping himself low and quiet. Before they can detect him, he casts Blizzard lvl 4 using its AoE variant to slow them down.

 Gotta love the good old reliable Blizzard. Costs merely 10 MP and does 20 base damage when cast as an AoE spell with a 20% boost, thanks to my skill level. Let’s try to hit as many as possible.

 You have dealt 38 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have slowed Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 35 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have slowed Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 40 damage to Corrupted Wolf@@novelbin@@

 You have dealt 33 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have frozen Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 31 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have slowed Corrupted Wolf

 Nimbus Cloak effect activates - Increasing Evasion by 5%, and Movement speed by 40%

 Alex smiles, knowing he hit five wolves—almost half of them—three of which are slowed, and one even frozen.

 That dealt more damage than it should have! They are weak against frost!

 He immediately draws his [Mr. 5’s .44 Caliber 6-Shot Revolver] and takes aim at the frozen wolf,nding two precise headshots.

 You have dealt 31 x 3 = 93 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have killed Corrupted Wolf

 Target Dead, no damage dealt

 Switching gear, Alex fires off thest four bullets into the still-gathered wolves.

 You have dealt 22 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 25 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 29 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 [Mr. 5’s .44 Caliber 6-Shot Revolver] effect activates: Explosive ammunition!

 You have dealt 21 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 18 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 11 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 7 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 When the [Mr. 5’s .44 Caliber 6-Shot Revolver] effect triggers, the explosion hits nearby wolves for additional damage.

 Alex looks at the wolves, who howl in pain and scatter in confusion. Some of the nastier-looking ones, however, charge directly at him, snarling and baring their teeth.

 Drawing his [Sword of Pluto] and [Shield of Pluto], Alex prepares for closebat. With his Alexandrian Royal Swordsmanship lvl 4, which increases his sword damage by a massive 60%, and Basic Close Combat Prowess lvl 4, which adds another 9%, along with his STR of 17, Alex is far beyond just dealing the base damage of his sword, which already has an impressive range of 30–40 damage.

 In addition to his passive skills boosting his damage, Alex activates Ren, increasing his base STR by another 45%. This pushes his strength well above 20 and also allows him to deal a fixed amount of Nen damage.

 As a wolf charges at him, Alex blocks with his shield, dealing minor damage and stunning the creature. He immediately follows up with a clean strike from his sword, effortlessly slicing through the wolf''s unprotected body.

 You have dealt 20 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 64 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have killed Corrupted Wolf

 Two more wolves rush at Alex, but he uses the strength boost from Ren to easily dodge one and repeat his previous tactic against the other.

 You have dealt 17 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have dealt 63 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have killed Corrupted Wolf

 The wolf whose attack was dodged hesitates and begins to back away, staring and howling at Alex. Alex decides to cast Blizzard Sword lvl 4 and uses his Aura to propel himself toward the wolf, striking it with his enhanced weapon. The attackbines the base sword damage with the effects of his Magic Sword lvl 4, which boosts physical damage and adds 30 base spell damage with an additional 40% enhancement.

 Nimbus Cloak effect activates - Increasing Evasion by 5%, and Movement speed by 40%

 You have dealt 81 + 61 = 142 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have killed Corrupted Wolf

 Despite dispatching these wolves with ease—thanks to his increasing skill levels and their growing synergy—Alex remains calm, maintaining control of his emotions.

 He surveys the scene of the battle. To his side, he sees Tereza slicing through two wolves with her dagger skills. Two wings sprout from her back, showing she’s no longer hesitant to use her devil fruit abilities. Alex also remembers hearing screams during the fight, clearly a result of Tereza’s powers, leaving the wolves bleeding from their ears.

 Looking toward Rishi, Alex notices him casting Mind y on a fleeing wolf, the creature already suffering from his Shadow Word: Pain. Momentster, the wolf copses, dead. Rishi wastes no time and casts Mind Strike on another wolf, causing it to howl in agony, buying him enough time to unleash a powerful Fire spell, the same one Alex uses as well.

 There are a few more wolves, but those two seem to handle things just fine. They better be, with all their skills! Let’s see how Roja and Peh are doing.

 Alex sprints toward the left side, where Roja and Peh are stationed, and notices a few wolves sessfully fleeing deeper into the forest. He sees Roja engaged in a duel with a wolf, using her rapier, while Peh ys her harp, confusing another wolf.

 Using Zetsu to suppress his presence, Alex sneaks behind the distracted wolf and carefully drives his [Sword of Pluto] directly into its head, killing it in one swift motion without the target ever realizing what happened.

 You have dealt 51 x 3 = 153 damage to Corrupted Wolf

 You have killed Corrupted Wolf

 Alex observes Roja finishing off her target as well, but he can’t help but reevaluate theirbat strength.

 While I fought against so many wolves on my own, and Tereza and Rishi also took care of 5 or 6 together, these two struggled with just 4, and even let 2 of them escape.

 He notices Roja staring at the scene of the battle with a mix of fear, jealousy, and doubt in her eyes.

 “You… are quite surprising,” Roja says, forcing a calm tone. “It looks like you’vee a long way… that was impressive. You two as well,” she adds, ncing at Rishi and Tereza.

 “Let’s collect the loot,” Alex says. “Peh, I won’t loot the wolf I stabbed; it’s yours. You can decide if you want to give the wolf corpses to Hagrid or maybe just hand over a few parts. You might want to save the meat for Menchi. Loot it for now!”

 The group begins collecting the wolves, which are small enough to fit into their inventories without needing to butcher them—likely thanks to their rising levels and the rtively small size of the wolves.

 As Alex scans the battlefield onest time, he notices a [Chest (White)] he missed earlier during the fight. Naturally, he grabs it along with six wolf corpses, four of which he finished entirely on his own and two that died but were wounded by himself during the beginning of the skirmish.

 You received Chest (White)

 “I got a chest! It’s a white one, but still,” Tereza says with a smile.

 “Got one as well,” Rishi adds.

 Roja’s expression darkens, and she mutters, “Just the corpses for us….”

 I’m getting tired of fighting fucking wolves over and over again, even in the World of Harry Potter! If there were titles, I’d get a fucking wolf yer title for sure about now! The Realm is so unoriginal!

 “Well, a decent haul,” Alex says, ncing at the gathered loot. “The corpses are only White quality… not worth much. Still, Menchi can create guaranteed White-ranked dishes with them. Maybe we can convince Hagrid to let us keep the meat, though I’m not sure Menchi can even use it since it’s corrupted. Honestly, maybe just sell the wolves for now—I’ll keep two of them. We’re bound to find a lot more, so it doesn’t matter in the long run. Anyway, let’s move on. That was a decent warm-up.”

 “More?? We’re not going back?” Peh asks, her face filled with shock.

 “Warm-up,” Roja repeats, her tone questioning.

 “These pathetic fights against these wolves don’t require five members. No, if we are going to act like a group, we are going for the actually challenging parts of the forest,” Rishi says, as if this was obvious from the beginning, with Alex and Tereza nodding along.

 “Of course,” Roja says, trying to sound confident, while looking a bit worried, while Peh’s face turns even paler.

21Novel

Chapter 192: The Forbidden Forest – Stop it with the Wolves Already!