Suddenly, we hear the deafening sound of a wild roar from across the desert, and at the same time, something also starts to approach us at an alarming speed.

"T-That roar..is definitely from a king-tier beast.." Abby announces with her hand on her sword, ready to unsheath it from its scabbard at any moment.

"Abby, there's no way I am going to let you fight in this condition," I say as I hold her hand and remove it from the heel of her sword.

"B-But...I–"

"There's no but! Kurt is now the team leader, you shouldn't make rash decisions." I scold her while her fluffy ears drop like she is sad.

"Okay, honey," She replies with a pout and back away.

Her current behavior is very childish and naive, and I can even vouch that she is worse than Kim right now. However, I don't find her behavior annoying, rather, I find it cute.historical

Suddenly, the killing intent and bloodlust directed at us vanishes, and the heavy footsteps dashing towards us becomes silent.

"Listen up everyone, we have to stay on alert. That roar is from a king-tier beast, and guys, to be honest, I have never fought a king-tier beast."

"However, I want you all to know that a king-tier beast is three times stronger than an Intermediate beast. The beast is no longer approaching us for some reason, but I want you guys to watch out." Kurt announces.

"Fuck!... That damn beast should come out so that I can shove my fist into its face..hahaha," Russell grins and punches the air a few times.

"Pfft...You nearly ran out of breath when facing an intermediate beast, even though you had Laura's help.. I can see that you are really strong.." Kurt lets out a chuckle after hearing this.

"Tsk!...you bastard, don't get arrogant just because you are now the team leader. Only Abby can go toe to toe with me.

I dealt with that beast...but Laura stole my finishing kill!" Russell retorts with veins protruding from his forehead.

"Did I hear you say something?" Abby suddenly interrupts..

"Hahaha, I was just joking, team leader," Russell immediately replies the moment he realizes that he is disobeying Abby's verdict.

"What a pathetic brother~" Laura mutters and walks away.

"Okay everyone, we need to resume our trip, we have to walk two kilometers before we reach our destination.." Kurt announces.

The next moment, everyone starts moving. I glance around and realize that the other adventurers ran for their lives the moment they heard the deafening roar.

On our trip, we meet a few basic-tier sandworms that were effortlessly killed by us. Although, I also killed one that suddenly popped out from the ground to attack Abby. I threw a fist into its chest killing it in an instant.

I don't know how I was able to kill it effortlessly but I got a sudden boost in strength when it tried to attack my woman.

Sometime later, we arrive in a deserted area that looks like it hasn't seen a single drop of water for decades. The temperature is so hot here that I can feel my skin slowly burning.

But..the most surprising thing here is the green vegetation. There are different types of herbs, trees, and wild plants here that all have various uses.

However, I don't know how they fucking survive without water.

"This is quite strange, guys please be careful... This is one of the locations shown on the map where the sacred Lotus is located...we just have to search for the sacred Lotus, it should be around here, somewhere ...." Kurt informs us and walks to the front.

Soon after searching intensely and going deep into the green fortress, we finally arrive in front of what we are looking for.

In front of us is a small flower, emitting a cyan glow as it pulsates. The flower has several tiny vines attached to it which makes the Lotus look kind of dangerous.

[Inspect]

[Name: Sacred Lotus]

[Category: Herbs]

[Grade: error]

[Effect: error]

—

"Listen up everyone, I think this is the sacred Lotus. I'll go and get it now," Kurt announces.

I already knew what it is before the others, but I wonder why I can't check its grade and effect.

Does my inspection skill not work on high-tier items and strong entities?

I will have to check that out at home by using it on my mom and Versys.

In a flash, Kurt begins to walk towards the sacred Lotus.

Suddenly, a large vine shoots out of the ground and grabs Kurt's legs, slamming him hard on the ground and flinging him away.

*SWOOSH!* CHA-CHING!*

Abby suddenly deflects and slices off the vines that suddenly pop out from the ground, trying to trap us.

She stays beside me and starts to slice off tons of vines that are coming towards us. Her swings are so smooth that I can barely see her moving, it just looks like a blur.

The same goes for Kim, Russell, and Laura. They are having a hard time dealing with the vines because the more vines they destroy the more vines attack them.

Russell easily destroys the vines with brute force by empowering himself with magic. However, he is also having a hard time as there are several bruises on his arms and face.

Kim is already entrapped to a tree by the vines while Laura keeps destroying the vines with dark magic.

In the next moment, a vine suddenly grazes Laura on her cheek.

"Fuck!...my beautiful skin.." She bellows in rage.

In the next moment, she starts to levitate in the air. Her eyes turn pitch black and her hair colour begins to rhyme with the darkness flowing around her.

So this is the power of dark magic huh?

She also seems to cherish her skin so much..what a weird girl.

"Absolute Destruction!" Laura shouts in rage. Instantly, black tendrils start to come out of her body, destroying all the vines. However, the more vines the tendrils destroy, the more vines that end up attacking us.

Suddenly she drops to the ground and starts panting very hard.

"I-I am sorry guys, I have exhausted my mana.... I thought I could destroy the vines if I went all out, I didn't think it through.." Laura apologizes as she tries to catch her breath.

In a flash, the vines also entrap Laura. I glance around and realize that the others have also been trapped.

My eyes suddenly spot something, there are other humans trapped in the trees. The only difference is that their bodies seem to be rotting away.

Fuck!.... Is this what is going to happen to us?

Right now, Abby and I are the last ones standing. Abby is deflecting all the vines and slicing them off, however, her movement starts getting slow, but she keeps slicing.

Wooooosh!!!

A thick vine suddenly shoots past us, cutting off Abby's robe and slicing her abdomen in the process.

"Gah!!" Abby suddenly lets out a groan as blood trickles down her stomach. But she doesn't stop swinging and slicing off the vines even though her movements are getting slower.

"I..I will protect you husband!" Abby resolves herself and keeps swinging without caring about her health.

Right now, my hands are shaking, anger is swelling up within me.. my woman has been hurt..

In the next moment, my eyes flash with golden lights, and I start to see things that I have never seen before. I can see things that mere mortals can't and even things that the supernaturals cannot see, despite their heightened senses, nothing can hide from these eyes, the 'God's eyes'.