After staying for one and a half hours in the portal, Michael finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
"I think I'm here" Seeing this, Michael's spirit rose.
"Remember to take shelter in the abandoned buildings at night" He heard Gaya's serious voice through the earpiece and agreed in his mind. According to Gaya, powerful Netherels such as Core Formation and even Core Strengthening stage Netherels would come out of their hiding place at night. Therefore, roaming outside at night in the Nether realm with their Body refining stage cultivation level was nothing but suicide.
" I'll take shelter at night," he said and reassured her. After a few seconds, the light at the end of the portal became brighter, and soon after, he finally arrived at the end of the tunnel.
Swoosh!
Michael felt a tremendous gust of force from behind and in a flash, he was falling from the sky. Fortunately, he didn't fall from too high as he landed on the ground comfortably breaking none of his bones.
After leaving the portal, he heard the excited cries of people. He was standing on a vast grassland and the sight slightly surprised him. When he first mentioned the Nether realm, he imagined it to be a desolate place with ashes in the air and streams of lava on the ground. Yet, the place before him seemed like a perfect place for a picnic with friends.
"Let's go towards the ends of this plain field, I'm sure we'll find some treasures there!" At the moment, someone said and ran past Michael.
Soon, more than a hundred warriors were scattered around in different locations, and all of them were rushing toward the end of this plain field at the same time.
"Lightning Dash"
A few minutes, Michael overtook them and reached the end of the plain field before anyone else could. A white fog suddenly emerged in front of him, and when people came closer to the fog, they discovered there were seven paths in front of them! Each path had appeared out of nowhere, and they looked illusionary, and none of them seemed to be real.
"How come there are so many paths? How are we going to choose which to take?"
"We must be extra careful! Although this place seems harmless, I'm sure it's filled with great dangers. Some paths must lead to real treasures, and some must lead to great dangers."
"Precisely. Let's wait and see. It's best not to be too impulsive. If we enter some dangerous situation, our lives would be thrown away in vain."
...
The crowds immediately stopped moving. Everyone stared at the fork in the road, the seven paths in front of them. They did not know which path they should choose. When there was a great opportunity, the great danger would usually lurk nearby. No one wanted to risk their lives for nothing. Therefore, they had to be really careful when picking which path they should take.
White fog hovered around all seven paths and made it even more difficult to choose the right path. Everything seemed quiet and calm, but the crowds felt an eerie feeling as they looked at the seven paths and the white fog.
"Hey, there are seven paths in front of me, which one should I choose?" He asked Gaya and he also directed the question to the system.
"Choose one randomly and go, that's what I did"
[The System level is too low to scan the paths]
Unfortunately, both Gaya and the System were unable to help Michael choose a better path, so he decided to choose a path randomly. While the others were hesitating to step forward, Michael chose the third path from his right and began to walk the path.
Tap… tap…
The path he chose was really quiet, and silence filled his journey. The only sound he could hear was the sound of his footsteps. He walked the path with a solemn expression trying to be as careful as possible. He was glad that he bought the Environmental scanning that's helping him be aware of the surroundings.
"What's happening?" Gaya asked him.
"There are cracks everywhere on this path, and it's emanating an ancient aura. I wonder how many years it has existed, it's really giving me a spooky feeling" He furrowed his brows.
"Just be careful and ready for a fight, you don't know when a Netherel would jump out of the fog and drink your blood, hehe" she tried to scare him with her spooky voice but it only made him chuckle. Yet his instincts told him that this path wouldn't be as peaceful as it seemed.
He walked forwards for nearly an hour at a consistent speed. Suddenly, he heard a miserable shriek sound out not far in front of them and his Environmental scanning alerted him that there were hostile enemies in front of him a few meters away from him.
The shriek sounded really spooky as if it came from an inhuman creature.
He sped up, and shortly after, he saw a man motionlessly lying in a pool of blood about 20 meters in front of them.
It was a shocking scene, the man's throat had completely ripped off and blood flowed out from the neck.
"It seems he entered this path before me," He said, and weirdly, instead of worrying, a grin appeared on his face and his eyes lit up.
"Finally some action and XP!" Michael suddenly shouted out. With extremely fast speed, he unsheathed his sword and swung the sword around.
EEEK!
A loud shrill was heard. Michael's sword had cut something.
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 8 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
After he heard the system, he found a dark goo splatter and soon found a Netherel human lying on the ground in his own pool of dark goo.
"What is it?" Gaya asked curiously.
"Just a Body Strengthening stage Netherel'' After reaching level 10 of the Body Refining Stage, killing this Netherel felt like stepping on an ant. The Netherel was too weak and didn't even have time to dodge Michael's sword slash.
"There are more of them here" an evil grin surfaced on his face before golden bolts of lightning cracks began to dance around his fingers.
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
Zzzzhhhhhhhh!
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 8 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 7 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 8 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 6 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
[Ding! Congrats to the host for killing a Body Strengthening stage, level 7 Netherel. The reward is 7,000 experience points as well as 200 Badass points]
…
Michael just kept walking the path while sending bots of lightning into the fog in all directions. With the help of his Environmental scanning, every lightning bolt he fired killed a Netherel or two. The people who were walking the same path as Michael saw golden flashes of light through the white fog and heard loud shrills.
"They are so weak"
"Why are you being so proud? If I was there, I could have killed them with a flick of my wrist" The proud and arrogant voice of Gaya sounded in his head.
"You better finish all your tasks when I return Gaya or I'll take away your breakfast, second breakfast, and night snacks"
"Are you blackmailing this princess, your damn bastard?"
"Yes I am,"
During the next two hours, he continued walking this path, and it was as if there was no end to it. Along his way, he continued to kill the Netherels, and with their weak strength and Environmental scanning, no matter how good a Nethrel hid itself, it would still die.
Along the way, he had killed more than a hundred Nethrels and earned enough Experience points to reach the Body Strengthening stage. But soon, the following situation made him lose the smile on his face because the Netherels that continuously attacked him didn't appear once more. The path had suddenly become extremely quiet. Then after a few minutes of walking, the path had finally ended. The white fog hovering around him also disappeared.
Michael continued moving forward with a sad face because of the disappearance of the Netherels. In the blink of an eye, he left the path and arrived at the mountain range.
This mountain range covered 60 kilometers in all directions, but there wasn't a single plant on sight.
"Have you left the path?"
Buzz…
Right after Gaya finished speaking, Michael's lips curved upwards as hundreds of stone Netherels suddenly appeared within the mountain range. They instantly started sprinting toward Michael
"So many Netherels!"
"Those Nethrels aren't that strong, just fly above them" Hearing Michel's voice, she suggested flying above the Netherels to avoid being annoyed by the weak Netherels.
However, in his eyes, these Netherels appeared to be Experience farms which could make him jump from Body Strengthening stage level 1 to level 3 and also increase his sword mastery to 85%.
"I love Nether realm!"