Chapter 43: New Moon Woodlands

Stepping out of the emerald mountain, the group of four teenagers strolled through the streets of the city in a hurry. Elliot and John followed Theo Rose and Lisa, who picked up a few important things they would need while venturing into the New Moon Woodlands from the markets by paying a few magic coins. They left the streets with a row of magic shops and then headed towards the northern exit of the Hunter’s Dystopian city.

“Why did you buy four bottles of perfumes?” John asked Lisa as they inched closer to the exit of the city.

“Perfumes?” Lisa rolled her eyes at him, unable to believe John’s ignorance.

“Have you been living under the rock?” Theo said in a light-hearted teasing voice. “These aren’t perfumes.”

“Come on. Do you have to be so mean? I only asked a question.” John said, shrugging his shoulders as dim sunlight peeked through the cloudy white sky and glistened on his face.

“The so-called perfumes are monsters repellent reagents. Sprinkle half a bottle worth of it on yourself and your clothes, and I guarantee it, you’ll be able to evade encounters with a lot of beasts. Even if they catch you in their visions, they won’t touch you, unless of course, they are intent on stepping on you.” Elliot said, knowing full-well about the tiniest details of the monster repellent potion, even ingredients the magicians well-versed in the art of alchemy needs to create them. All of which happened to be courtesy of his God’s Right Eye of Wisdom that gave him the power to know about the ingredients of a potion simply by looking at it with the intent of knowing everything about it. Something typical magicians gain knowledge of only after buying a recipe.

“Oh, I see. So it’s a reagent that repels monsters.” John’s eyes widened, amazed at the effects of the monster repellent potions. He has never heard about such a thing as he had never gone out of the city to hunt. This was the first time he came across such a product of alchemy. After all, only magicians, who roam the wilderness, use monster repellent reagents to avoid encounters with monsters.

Monster repellent is a reagent made out of a magic plant with a few unique properties. It is odorless for humans but works well to suppress their scents. For monsters, however, it has a disgusting smell that can make them repulsed upon smelling it.

The magic herbs, magic plants, and shrubs found in the wilderness of planet Xavier can be used as ingredients to make all sorts of reagents, and monster repellent is one of them.

“Use them on yourself before heading into the New Moon Woodlands,” Lisa said as she handed over one vial of monster repellent to each of them.

The rogue magicians are hiding who knows where in the outer parts of New Moon Woodlands. A place with a lot of monsters in the magical realm. They needed to find them. So, naturally, they will be walking around the outer parts of the woodlands. In this situation, an encounter with a monster wasn’t a possibility but something inevitable.

However, the monster-repelling reagent will help them avoid the monsters.

“Thanks for the reagent,” Elliot said to her with an amiable smile.

“No worries,” Lisa said, looking away from Elliot, redness painting her cheeks as she felt happy from being thanked by him. “It didn’t cost much. Besides helping you all is helping myself. We are in this together, after all.”

Once Theo, Elliot, John, and Lisa stepped out of the city and stepped on a reddish-yellow smoothened ground, which stretched far and wide, reaching towards the outer part of the New Moon Woodlands, they opened the lid of the vials and scattered the monster rippling reagent on top their head and all over their clothes.

<The Champion’s scent has gotten suppressed by the smell of the monster-repellent reagent, which is odorless to humans but nauseating to monsters. The scent will last until you change your clothes and take a bath>

A notification popped up in Elliot’s mind, telling him that the reagent has worked its wonders, changing him from a piece of delicious meat in the eyes of the monsters to a pile of dung.

The outer parts of the New Moon Woodlands were not peaceful as roars of monsters rose and fell one after another, letting Theo, Elliot, Lisa, and John know that danger is everywhere around them, and they can’t be careless. Trees dotted this part of the woodlands. And leaves that had fallen from the trees could be seen scattered all over the grassy ground strewn with overgrown bushes and rubbles.

Amidst the roars of monsters in the magical and demonic realm, they sneaked their way deeper into the woods, dashing from trees to trees and bushes to bushes in order to hide from the plain sight of the monsters they came across along the way while letting the monster-repelling reagent block and disgust the shit out of the monsters trying to smell their preys.

While hiding behind the thick trunk of one of the many trees in their surroundings, Elliot looked at John with a gaze containing deep meanings and said, “We are deep enough.”

John nodded in response to his gaze, understanding the underlying meaning behind it. He performed some hand signs, activating his magic matrix. A moment later, a few pairs of eyes made out of magic energy manifested around him.

“Go and search for the rogue magicians hiding in this place.” John vocally gave a command to his eyes, telling them to wander about the outer parts of the woodlands and search out the hiding place of the magicians that has gone rogue.

Following his instructions, the Magic Eyes floating above his head dashed past the rows of trees, spreading far and wide in search of the rogue magicians and any kind of traces they might have left behind on this place that would lead to their hiding spot!