Soon, everyone arrived at a small clearing on the outskirts of the wilderness with a small pond nestled quietly at its center. The water was unnaturally still, so still that it looked like a polished mirror rather than a natural body of water.

The pond was ringed by smooth stones. Strange flowers with bioluminescent veins bloomed at the edges, their petals drifting open as if responding to the group's presence. A soft mist curled along the surface of the water, weaving in lazy patterns that made it seem quite breathtaking.

"Wow… What a beautiful place… It's so romantic… Hubby, I am loving this adventure…" Aurora hopped over and whispered in Damon's ear.

Her tone was gentler than usual, clearly thanks to the audience of Damon's entire family, but the mischief in her eyes never left. She had no concept of danger. Wilderness or not, she looked like she was on a fairy-tale picnic.

The others, however, were far from relaxed.

Ellora scanned the treeline with a tense, predatory focus. Kaelthorn's ears twitched, his hand hovering near his weapon. Malia's eyes glowed faintly with detection magic. Even Erin, usually serene, looked on edge.

Despite the clearing's beauty, despite the tranquil pond and the soft shimmering mist… something was wrong. Something was unsettling about everything. It was as if they were being constantly watched.

"Here we go." Damon smiled. "This place is called the 'Forest of Doom' for nothing." The next second, the pond water exploded.

A dozen jet-black tentacles, slick, wet, and covered in faint glowing runes, lashed out of the mirror-still surface with a violent splash that shattered the illusion of calm. The water erupted upward like a geyser as the tendrils cracked against the air, whipping toward the group with terrifying speed.

Everyone immediately became alert and prepared to fight. Only Aurora pouted and looked extremely annoyed with the monster. "Ugly thing, why are you ruining my day?" At the same time, she was the first to react. She set multiple spears of darkness toward the monster, quickly putting it down.

The tentacles thrashed wildly, slamming against the ground and trees hard enough to splinter bark and send shockwaves through the clearing, but Aurora's spears pierced them effortlessly, slicing through the runic skin and severing limb after limb with brutal efficiency.

In the span of a heartbeat, the entire pond turned into a battlefield of flailing appendages. In the span of two heartbeats, it went silent.

One final spear slammed into the creature's core beneath the waterline, and the entire monster curled in on itself before floating lifelessly on the pond surface.

The level 200 monster was quite strong, but it was nothing in front of the fallen angel. In a matter of seconds, it was easily taken care of.

Aurora dusted her hands dramatically and sent one last glare in the direction of the ugly, mutated beast that looked like an amalgamation of an octopus with a bunch of other beasts.

"I guess that's that then. This area should be cleared now." Damon chuckled as he absorbed the blood essence from the beast.

Riven slumped against a tree, sweating. Kaelthorn stared at the pond as if it might explode again. Malia whispered in awe, "That was… incredibly fast."

"We can set up camp here. This place should be as good as any." With a flick of his finger, Damon stored the beast corpse in his spatial ring and then sat down comfortably next to the pond.

Before anyone could relax, he added. "This place still has many, many beasts all around. I am hoping you guys can divide yourself into smaller groups and clear them all. They are all pretty much level 200 abominations and monsters. So make sure you are careful and don't wander too far from the camp. Treat this as a warm-up. I have some things to do. You guys have fun in the meantime."

Level 200 abominations were warm-ups? Everyone opened and closed their mouths.

Aurora, of course, nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, yes! Warm-up! Hubby is right! After all, if we don't warm up, how will we survive the big scary things deeper inside?" She said this with the delighted tone of someone proposing ice cream after lunch.

"Most monsters in this area are mutated variants. Physical strength, magic resistance, and sometimes strange abilities. Nothing too crazy. You should be able to handle them." Damon then closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Even though he had upgraded pretty much everything now, using his entire mana reserves back-to-back had still drained him quite a bit. So he first tried to relax and recuperate.

His blood avatars inside his soul space had been continuously working until now. Damon used this chance to also connect with them and absorb their progress. Immediately a profound aura appeared around him which subconsciously made everyone want to take a step back in respect and fear.

Georgina's face twisted in jealously. "You bring everyone to this godforsaken place and dump us like some prisoners and now you are doing your own thing? John! Your brother is being very unreasonable. He needs to compensate for all the losses."

Aurora's face twitched. Lirae, Erin no one liked the women. Unexpectedly, it was Kate who spoke this time. "So what? You want him to babysit you all the time? Just because he gave two shits about whether you are alive or dead? Listen, Georgina. Learn to be grateful. You got your A rank class only thanks to him. Don't you even forget that."

"If you want to keep complaining despite that, I suggest you take it somewhere else. In fact, you don't even have to be here. I don't think any B rank expert is going to kidnap you and use you as a pawn to blackmail Damon. Who is going to pay the ransom for you? You can actually leave this place any time you want. Don't let the door hit your ass on your way out."

An unsightly look appeared on Georgina's face. "Shut up, Kate. Aren't you just a slut in his harem now? Some sort of a sex slave! Better watch how you are talking to your masters."

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