Tracking

There were more than twenty crystal beasts behind Kaman, nearly half the number in the crystal beast nest.

Matthew had already cleared out the Crystal Beast's lair. Although he had expected some to slip through the net, he hadn't anticipated that there would be so many.

He felt that something was wrong.

At this moment, Kaman was running frantically toward Matthew in a sorry state. He had many wounds on his body, and his hard armor had been torn apart. If he hadn't turned tail and run away when he saw that things were going badly, he would probably have been smashed into a pulp.

However, the herd of beasts behind him was getting closer and closer. A crystal beast leaped high into the air, curled up into a circle, and swooped down towards him.

Although he didn't turn around, Kaman had already heard the commotion behind him. He could feel the crystal beast attacking him and about to smash into him.

Kaman's face turned pale instantly, filled with terror and despair.

Just as the crystal beast was half a body length away from him, he suddenly felt himself being enveloped by an invisible energy.

Then his feet left the ground, and he was suddenly pulled forward, narrowly escaping death.

"Boom!!!" The crystal beast crashed heavily onto the mine floor, creating a huge crater.

Kaman's face was deathly pale, his chest heaving violently, and he still looked shaken.

He tried to calm himself down, and just as he was about to thank Matthew next to him, he suddenly felt a terrifying heat coming from above his head.

He looked up sharply and saw many strange runes appearing in the air. A wave of scorching heat rushed towards him, causing him to instinctively take more than ten steps back.

Matthew channeled his magic into the spell model, and the next moment he reached out and gripped it tightly.

A giant, blazing hand of fire shattered the spell model and grabbed at several crystalline beasts that were slamming down on it.

"Bang—bang—bang—", the crystal beast's movements in mid-air came to an abrupt halt, its body plummeting straight down, the crystal on its back colliding with the ground with a heavy thud.

Matthew then continued to channel his magic, casting the [Burning Hand] spell repeatedly.

His control over the magic was quite precise; he deliberately left one alive, and the rest of the crystal beasts quickly turned into charred corpses.

Matthew cast a magical mark on the fleeing crystal beast and then followed it.

This time it ended even faster than last time; the entire battle took only a few breaths.

Kaman watched Matthew's departing figure with fear, then glanced at the crystal beast's corpse on the ground. If he had been hit by that fiery hand, he would probably have become a charred corpse on the ground as well.

……

After entering the cave, Matthew followed closely behind the crystal beast, quickly traversing the underground passage.

Soon, he burst out of an underground space.

This underground space is much larger than the crystal beast's lair he entered earlier.

"Clang—clang—", the deafening sound of clashing metal filled the air.

Matthew frowned when he saw the situation.

There were hundreds of crystal beasts entrenched in front of them, constantly gnawing on the ores they had dug up from various places.

"What's going on? Why is there another crystal nest here?"

"And it's even bigger than the last one..."

Just as Matthew was wondering what was going on, the crystal beasts, startled by his intrusion, stopped what they were doing and launched an attack on him.

Dozens of crystal beasts rained down on him, but it was all in vain for Matthew.

His figure weaved and shifted among the crystalline beasts, occasionally seizing the opportunity to unleash a [Burning Hand].

Every time he made a move, several more charred corpses would appear on the ground.

"Bang—bang—bang—", the crystal beast fell off the crystal on its back and smashed into the ground, creating huge, cratered craters.

In no time, he had cleared the crystal beast's nest clean, and the entire underground space was filled with a burnt smell.

Matthew stared at the hundreds of crystal beast corpses on the ground, lost in thought.

This seems to contradict the mission information from the school of thought...

Furthermore, the appearance of two nests near the same Moon Tear Crystal Mine is inconsistent with the habits of the Crystal Beast.

Seeing that he had no clue, Matthew gave up the idea of ​​continuing to investigate.

"Never mind, as long as we clean up their lair, there shouldn't be any problems."

He scanned the underground space inch by inch and began to search.

With the system's help, he found a lot of useful magic ores.

"This trip wasn't a waste. Selling all these magic ores will net me at least three hundred magic stone fragments," Matthew said with satisfaction, storing the items into his spatial bracelet.

He then slipped back into the cave entrance he had come from and retraced his steps...

……

Emerging from the tunnel, Matthew instructed Kaman to continue monitoring the situation within the cave.

He returned to the mine tunnel and found the rune node that had been partially repaired.

Matthew took out tools from the spatial bracelet and began working along the broken edges of the runes...

Time flies, and before we knew it, it was dark.

Matthew has repaired four rune nodes today.

He put away his tools, stretched, and slowly walked out of the mine tunnel.

……

Recently, due to Matthew's arrival, King Philip held a grand welcoming ceremony for him, and invited many nobles and marquises, including Draven, who was one of the earls invited.

He arrived at Draven's temporary residence in the capital without lifting a finger.

Matthew remained hidden in the shadows, observing his opponent's every move.

It wasn't until late at night that Draven left his residence alone and headed out of the capital.

Instead of going through the main gate, he climbed over the city wall and began to run at full speed.

Although Draven wasn't riding a horse, the legendary knight's full-speed running speed far exceeded that of a galloping warhorse.

Draven appeared quite cautious, meandering through the mountains on the outskirts of the city, stopping every now and then to look back and check what was behind him.

Matthew didn't place a magic mark on Draven because if he went to see Amon, the latter might notice and alert him.

However, given Matthew's abilities, he could easily follow closely without being detected.

Soon, Draven arrived at a dense forest.

He carefully looked around, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he found no one there, before darting inside.

"Huh, it's just an illusion?"

Matthew looked at the woods ahead and realized it was an illusion.

However, the illusion's level is not high, so it can only fool novice apprentices.

This level of illusion couldn't trap him at all, and besides, he had a system; under the system's scan, the illusion was like a decoration.

Without much hesitation, Matthew slipped into the dense forest.

Despite the constantly changing directions within the illusion, he remained firmly behind Draven.

Finally, Draven emerged from the dense forest and arrived at a valley.

The valley is surrounded by huge rock walls, with only a narrow gap in the middle that allows only one person to pass through.

Draven was noticeably more relaxed once he entered the dense forest. He didn't look back and entered without a second thought.