Chapter 152: Elf

Seeing Elara’s enthusiastic demeanor, Ethan couldn’t bring himself to refuse and could only smile and agree.

Liora watched Elara expressionlessly, then tugged on Ethan’s hand. "Ethan, will you go too?"

"I probably will."

"Okay then."

"It’s a promise, Liora, just you look forward to it, I will prepare the most beautiful dresses, shoes, and jewelry for you." Elara said excitedly, nearly bouncing where she stood.

Seeing her like this, Leon knew they’d never leave if they stayed any longer. He stood up. "Mr. Ethan, it’s time for us to depart."

Ethan rose as well. "I’ll walk you to the forest exit."

"There’s no need, please stay, we can make our way back just fine."

"It’s only proper to see guests off, don’t be so polite with me, thanks to your help, my work is mostly finished, so I have plenty of time right now."

"Since you insist, we gratefully accept."

Once everyone was ready, Zharok gathered up a stack of dirty dishes. "Walter and I will stay behind to clean up."

"Then I’ll leave it to you."

Taking Liora and Pearl, Ethan walked Leon and Elara’s group away from the cabin, they passed through the cursed lands and arrived at the edge of the Stormlands, where Ethan stopped and distributed the Wind Blade Bananas to everyone.

Leon took a banana and spoke with a serious expression. "Mr. Ethan, please be careful, if you encounter any trouble, notify us immediately."

"Haha, that’s what I should be saying."

"We are well aware of your strength, but we still can’t help but worry."

"Don’t worry, everything will be fine." Leon bowed deeply to Ethan, then turned and walked forward into the storm.

Elara went up to Liora, hugged her tight, and said, "It’s a promise — we’ll see each other next time."

"Bye."

"Mr. Ethan, Miss Pearl, until next time, I wish you all the best!"

"Have a safe journey."

"Bye, meow~"

Elara kept turning her head back as she walked, reluctantly bidding them farewell, it wasn’t until she boarded the carriage that she finally left, her eyes filled with longing.

Watching them disappear into the Stormlands, Ethan stretched. "Let’s head back too."

He took Liora and Pearl and turned back into the forest.

They passed through the cursed lands and returned to the depths of the forest, Ethan suddenly spotted a group of towering Minotaurs ahead. "Huh? Isn’t that Draugor? What is he doing here?"

This wasn’t the Minotaurs’ territory, although they occasionally traveled to other areas, it was very rare for them to appear this deep in the forest.

Seeing Ethan, Draugor also revealed a look of surprise, then burst into a hearty laugh. "What a coincidence, my friend, we’re here to gather herbs."

"Gather herbs?"

"Yeah, we’re heading to the Purple Forest!"

The Purple Forest — a place where various poisonous plants and medicinal herbs grew side by side, teeming with venomous insects and fierce beasts, it was an incredibly dangerous place, moreover, it was the territory of a powerful magical beast, the Human-Faced Spider.

"Aren’t you afraid of getting poisoned? You Minotaurs might be immune to a hundred poisons, but we..."

"We come here every year around this time, so we’re used to it, want to come along? You probably need some backup medicines too."

"That’s not a bad idea." Ethan had only heard of the Purple Forest but had never actually been there, since there were people familiar with the area leading the way, it wouldn’t hurt to go take a look, Pearl didn’t seem opposed to the idea either.

Thus, Ethan followed Draugor and his group into the Purple Forest.

"Wow..." Sitting on Draugor’s shoulder, Liora couldn’t help but gasp in amazement as she looked at the scenery before her.

True to its name, all the trees in the Purple Forest were a vibrant purple, under the sunlight, the entire forest was bathed in a dreamlike purple hue — stunningly beautiful.

"So this is the Purple Forest."

"From here on out, don’t touch things carelessly, we might not be afraid of poison, but humans are a different story."

"Can you tell me which ones are poisonous?"

"Of course, follow me." Draugor led them to the forest’s edge.

The first thing to catch their eye was a plant with purple leaves. "This is Blood Recovery Grass, crush the roots and apply them to a wound — it speeds up healing."

"Oh?"

"You have to be careful when digging it up, don’t damage the roots." Draugor took a stone shovel, dug around a Blood Recovery Grass plant, and carefully unearthed it from the soil.

Ethan looked around and pointed at another plant. "Is this one also Blood Recovery Grass?"

"Yes, want to try?"

"Sure." It never hurt to prepare more of this commonly used healing herb, Ethan dug a small trench around the plant and carefully extracted it.

"Your hands are very skilled, in our tribe, there aren’t many who can dig up Blood Recovery Grass perfectly intact, so gathering herbs always takes up a lot of time."

"Well... you beastmen aren’t exactly known for your delicate skills, need my help?"

"That would be a huge help, but leave the searching to us."

Draugor and the other Minotaurs were in charge of locating the herbs, once they found them, they would inform Ethan, who would then harvest them.

Ethan had very nimble hands, and Liora was also quite skilled at picking herbs, thus, they quickly filled a whole basket.

"Looks like a bountiful harvest today, time to head back." Draugor glanced at the sky.

"Aren’t those herbs over there too?" Ethan asked, pointing at a patch of plants deeper in the forest, various plants grew there, many of which were precious medicinal herbs.

"That’s the Human-Faced Spider’s territory, we can’t go in, if we alert its subordinates, there’ll be trouble." Draugor shook his head.

"I see."

"Don’t be greedy, we’ve already gathered plenty."

"Alright then, let’s—" Just as Ethan was about to turn and leave, Liora suddenly grabbed his hand, pointed deep into the forest, and said, "What is that?"

Ethan looked in the direction Liora pointed, his brows furrowed slightly.

"Where did those spiders come from?" A swarm of spider-like magical beasts was pouring out from the forest’s depths.

Seeing this, Draugor’s expression changed, he gripped his stone hammer tight and said in a low voice, "Looks like someone beat us to the punch."

The moment his words fell, they saw a panicking elf running out from deep within the forest.

It was a red-haired female elf, she wore light leather armor stained with patches of blood — clearly just out of a fierce battle, she didn’t appear severely injured, but her face was pale and her eyes were filled with terror, she’d been badly frightened.

Upon seeing Ethan and the others, she revealed a look of surprise.

"Come here quickly, meow!!" Pearl shouted.

Hearing Pearl’s shout, the initially hesitant elf seemed to finally make up her mind, she closed her eyes and dashed toward them, however, she was clearly exhausted — her breathing ragged, her steps staggering.

A spider monster spat a glob of silk at her.

"Take this!!" Seeing this, Draugor casually scooped up a rock and hurled it at the incoming silk, the rock and the silk collided in mid-air with a soft hiss, the rock dissolved instantly.