Rody had always wanted to enter the Silent Forest. Although he dared not go to the graveyard in the sacred mountain where dragons and angels, among other high-level beings, were buried, hunting more powerful beasts deep in the Silent Forest had always been part of his plan. Nicholas, Marcus, and Emma, the three servants of darkness, had reached their limits. If they were to become more powerful, relying solely on their original forms was unlikely, as their potential had already been maxed out.
Crazy battle energy infusion, poison soaking and fire refining, powerful enchantments, and brutal dual cultivation of magic and martial arts. These methods, impossible for human bodies to practice, had all been applied by Rody to Nicholas and the others.
Their initial progress was indeed rapid. But a person's potential is very limited, especially since it's closely related to their own intelligence, thoughts, and soul. The servants of darkness, lacking intelligence and thought, always remained at the original level of their souls. Even if their master forcibly stimulated them, the room for improvement was very limited.
Nicholas, now a five-star high-level undead magician, was a rank higher than his four-star status in life. Although he couldn't learn any kind of battle energy, he could powerfully enchant his bones and even refine them into terrifyingly poisonous skeletons, with each attack carrying corrosive corpse poison.
Marcus was a five-star battle energy swordsman who couldn't use magic. He could barely manage powerful enchantments, forging fire poison in his bones.
Emma had the worst aptitude. Although she could train in primary battle energy and primary magic, achieving dual cultivation, this primary level was already her peak. Without merging her with a suitable dark servant beast, she would likely become a useless burden. As a four-star battle energy swordsman, she was not even half as powerful as Marcus at the same rank, and her three-star primary earth magic was nothing compared to a tenth of Nicholas's undead magic.
The bone pet rabbit, which Rody had attempted to merge with a man-eating vine for several months. Although its appearance hadn't changed much, it couldn't burrow into the ground or extend tendrils to hunt. However, the man-eating vine granted it a very special ability: regeneration. As long as its body wasn't utterly destroyed into powder, it could slowly absorb the dark elements of the world and regenerate.
The terrifying combat power of the man-eating vine wasn't transferred to the bone pet rabbit, but its powerful regenerative ability was perfectly integrated.
In fact, Rody didn't really need a rabbit that could extend tendrils to attack. He needed a scout that wouldn't raise the enemy's guard, and a cute-looking little rabbit was the perfect choice. Initially, Rody's idea of merging it with the man-eating vine was to control its movements over a longer distance. However, he unexpectedly gained the regeneration ability, which delighted him immensely.
Two mantises – Rody caught two blood-sucking bats and fused them together. However, the mantises, which he named 'Big Knife' and 'Little Knife,' didn't gain any special abilities. They just became dozens of times larger than their original size, bigger than the bats and about the size of Rody's spread palm. Now, with their scythe-like arms, they could slash the throat of a strong twist-horned antelope and knock it to the ground in less than half a minute.
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The mysteries of undead magic and the use of psychic power were what Rody urgently wanted to explore. However, Nicholas's own level was limited and couldn't provide much more insight. If Rody wanted to progress and reach higher realms, apart from his slow self-exploration, another way was to venture out and secretly seek the unknown at magic academies or from certain powerful beings.
The Silent Forest.
Rody had been in the forest for eight days, hunting many magical beasts and obtaining five magic crystals of the third grade and above, with the rest being low-value first and second grades. He hadn't even seen the shadow of a snow leopard, let alone hunt one for its high-quality skin. He had seen a silver fox, but it was too vigilant and fast. Rody had given up chasing it after seeing its beautiful tail flicker away in a flash of silver light.
He had obtained many magical beast skeletons, but none were suitable for merging with Nicholas and the others.
Regrettably leaving the carcasses behind, Rody ventured deeper. He had heard from Granny An that deep in the Silent Forest lay a Rotting Swamp, home to various swamp monsters. The swamp crocodiles and swamp dragons were the lords of this mire, and they were Rody's targets for this journey.
Swamp crocodiles resembled ordinary crocodiles but were uglier and much larger.
Swamp dragons had no relation to dragons; they were giant carnivorous lizards, even larger than the swamp crocodiles, with thick skin and flesh. Rody encountered one and attacked it from a distance with magic for a long time, but it was hardly injured. It rolled in pain and then dove into the mire, disappearing for a long time. Rody could only watch helplessly as the swamp bubbled with a foul smell, unable to do anything about this enormous creature with skin like iron armor.
Just as Rody was wandering in the swamp for two days, gaining nothing but a body covered in mud and contemplating returning to Whitestone Town, he suddenly discovered a monster. At the junction of a large swamp and a river bend, the creature lazily crawled out of the water onto the shore to bask in the sun.
Its body was like a bull, with a not-so-large torso but a long neck several meters in length and an even longer tail. Its huge head resembled a bull, topped with four strange horns, and behind its gaping mouth were eerie green eyes. Its movements were slow and clumsy, yet its demeanor was arrogant and imperious. It seemed to consider this place its kingdom, utterly ignoring the swamp crocodiles floating like logs in the muddy waters nearby.
All creatures kept their distance from this seemingly clumsy monster, as if it exuded a terrifying aura that repelled everything.
"Kato, Katoblepas? This is a legendary beast, and I've actually encountered it!" Rody was both shocked and delighted. He was shocked because this beast had a significant reputation and was not easy to deal with; he was delighted because if he could hunt this creature, his journey to the Rotting Swamp wouldn't be in vain.
This bizarre beast, if encountered by ordinary humans, even powerful warriors and magicians, wouldn't be easily provoked. Although its body wasn't particularly strong, it possessed terrifying magic. Just by getting within a certain distance, it could kill weaker enemies with the magic emitted from its eyes. Although it wasn't as powerful as a Bronze Bull with the Eyes of Death, Katoblepas was undoubtedly one of the beasts that most creatures wouldn't dare provoke. Its body carried deadly poison, and its breath could easily suffocate living beings. Engaging in combat with it meant certain death unless one's rank and strength were far superior.
"Marcus, Emma, lead it to me; I can't let it have the chance to escape back into the swamp..." Rody thought of a tactic, using Marcus and Emma as bait while he controlled Nicholas to prepare for a sneak attack.
Rody's psychic control range had expanded from a dozen meters three years ago to fifty or sixty meters now. He could also multitask, controlling several servants of darkness to perform different actions simultaneously.
The bone pet rabbit stealthily circled around, its only role being to wait for the opportunity to spray acid in Katoblepas's eyes. The two mantises and a dark man-eating vine were controlled by Rody, positioned in the sky and underground, ready to ambush the enemy. Nicholas, holding a bone staff, stood in front of Rody, while Marcus and Emma, the two servants of darkness, were walking towards their target with steps almost like those of normal humans.
To make them walk normally, Rody had spent months training them. The next step was to make them talk like normal people, but he estimated that would take even more time.