Preview: Both hounds felt irritated as they knew they would be scolded and possibly be punished by their leader. Although they had already awakened their magic circuit, it does not exempt them from punishments as only those Mid-Rank demons have the right to decide things.
The Mid-Rank demon, Shadow Hound, arrived and looked at its two subordinates in reprimand.
“Useless! You imbeciles can’t even do your job properly! It’s just one Low-Rank demon, how could you even fail at this easy task?! What’s more, they’re just level 1!”
His voice reverberated in the ears of the two hounds as they felt annoyance coming.
“Boss, there were two. One of them was a centipede demon. As for the species, I can't be too sure, I didn’t see it clearly.”
The Fire Hound still wanted to talk back and argue with his boss as the Shadow Hound became speechless. Although these two are considered outstanding among Low-rank demons, Low-rank demons are after all, low-rank demons. They can't do anything right. Hmph.
The Shadow Hound, a Mid-Rank demon, is one of the best subordinates under Valdor. It leads one of the four hound squads made up of 30 hound-type demons. Their squad is specialized in tracking and scouting, mostly known as the Scouting Squad.
These two subordinates of his could be considered outstanding for activating their magic circuits despite their young age but their experience was still lacking, especially their intelligence.
Hmph. Who cares if there were two or three insects? If you did your job well, you wouldn’t have let a level 1 Low-Rank demon escape with your late stage Level 3 strength.
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He inwardly scoffed at the two idiots and couldn’t be bothered to argue with them. He took the lead and gave one order. “Continue chasing.”
At this moment, somewhere in the Lava Grounds, The Little Sunflower’s pace considerably slowed down because of the hot and fiery magma blocks below. Its tough roots could not carelessly try to dig through them or might just get burned to death.
It could only dig through the normal ground and some less hot magma blocks. The Low-Rank demons without much intelligence blocking the way are not helping either, it just further delayed their pace but also provided some nourishment to recover from the earlier consumption and injuries sustained.
“Are we almost there?” Asked the Sunflower, clearly growing impatient. The threat from the back constantly nagged its mind and consumed its newborn patience and will. It was the first time undergoing this kind of battle that also involved the psychological domain.
Being chased not only exhausts one’s physical strength as most of the consumption goes to the mental strength. Knowing somebody out there is out for your blood definitely makes one stay on edge for the rest of the time.
“No master, we are not even halfway-through yet.” replied Pendra in a sad tone. “ According to my knowledge, if we want to reach there in the shortest time possible, we have to go through at least 4 similar environments. The Muddy Swamp Region is located in the most North Western part of the First Level of Hell so the distance is quite far.”
Pendra was also distressed about the situation but could not do anything about it. The First Level of Hell was simply too wide. It was also well-known for its diversity. It was the closest to the Abstract Reality realm and is thus influenced by it. Most environments below this floor are filled with too harsh ingredients for weak creatures like them to survive. Thus, the diversity and complexity of the terrain added to its size posed quite the hurdle for the two of them.
The Little Sunflower thought of 4 similar environments it has to go through and could not help but mumble in frustration. It thought of stopping and going back to the Muddy Swamp Region to hide but knowing that the hounds were following behind, it discarded that thought. It would just delay its death by doing so. It hastily picked up its pace sensing the tremors on the ground while being cautious.
After fleeing for three days in this hot and dangerous environment, the duo finally had the chance to catch their breath as another place unfolded before their eyes. The magma and the lava spurts have gradually disappeared. The heat that could be felt in the atmosphere slowly faded and it became easier to breathe. Small and weak demons started to appear while fleeing after noticing their appearance. This peaceful and leisurely pace didn't last for long as the Hounds in the distance started to catch up.
A day unknowingly passed as they increased their pace up to shake off their pursuers. The scene gradually changed, the dark and reddish ground got replaced with blood red soil. The sky that was once filled with nothing but darkness gradually changed into one with big red leaves above. Hazy red fog slowly occupied one’s vision and sounds of leaves rustling echoed.They noticed this drastic change in the atmosphere and they were starting to see a jungle just up ahead! The Creeping Jungle!