CHAPTER 237: CHAPTER 237: DOUGLAS, THE POWERFUL BLACK BEAR DEMON

Johnnie looked at Jack and asked, "Is this Mountain Hunter a Divine powerhouse?"

Jack nodded. "Only a Divine powerhouse would dare live so boldly in this dense forest."

Grayden hadn’t warned him—was it on purpose, or did he also not know the Mountain Hunter was Domain-level?

"Let’s go take a look." Johnnie and the others sped up, no longer stopping to hunt the monsters darting through the woods. They rushed straight toward the sounds of battle.

Boom! Boom!

Powerful divine energy surged, and the sounds of a fierce fight echoed through the forest, mixed with bursts of dragon roars.

Johnnie glanced at his Induction Compass—the needle pointed exactly toward the fight.

Soon, he saw the two sides locked in battle.

A man was fighting a huge black bear.

Stage 10 solo Ancestor, Douglas!

Johnnie recognized the man—it was the solo Ancestor, Douglas.

Boom! Boom!

A giant stone platform flew out, slamming into the black bear again and again, forcing it to retreat.

The dragon roars were coming from the stone platform itself, where a faint Celestial Dragon phantom flickered.

This stone platform had to be a powerful artifact.

And the black bear was actually a Half-God.

A Divine powerhouse—could this black bear be the Mountain Hunter?

"Stage 10!" Johnnie called out in surprise. He noticed Douglas had reached stage 10.

Even though he wasn’t a Domain-level yet, with that powerful stone platform, Douglas was easily suppressing the black bear.

Stage 10 was really something else.

A thought struck Johnnie, and he opened the level rankings. First place was Macbeth at stage 8, level 3, but Douglas wasn’t on the list.

Was it because he was in the Land of Confusion? Or maybe Douglas had some kind of treasure hiding his status so he didn’t show up on the rankings.

"Master, the stone platform Douglas is using is the ancient artifact, the Kantorin Seal!" Nalorin·Sylvia recognized it and spoke in surprise.

Another ancient artifact!

Johnnie realized the Induction Compass wasn’t reacting to a Map of Heaven and Earth fragment, but to the Kantorin Seal.

The Induction Compass could sense not just Map fragments, but other ancient artifacts too.

Douglas really had a lot of treasures: the broken Celestial Mirror, the complete Demon-Refining Pot, and now, it seemed, a complete Kantorin Seal as well.

"Johnnie!" Douglas spotted Johnnie and Nalorin·Sylvia.

His face changed slightly, and he quickly called out, "Johnnie, this guy is a Half-God level Black Bear Demon. Let’s join forces and split the rewards!"

Johnnie frowned and didn’t move, his cold gaze fixed on Douglas. Compared to the Black Bear Demon, he was much more interested in that Kantorin Seal in Douglas’s hands.

"Master."Jack quickly said, "This Black Bear Demon is the Mountain Hunter. If he dies, we won’t be able to exchange for Spirit Stones."

Johnnie nodded and ordered, "Nalorin·Sylvia, go!"

Buzz!

The Sword Intent rang out. Nalorin·Sylvia attacked without hesitation, summoning a flurry of snowflakes that rushed toward Douglas.

"Snow Falls Upon the Mortal World? You’re the Saintly Lady of the Nalorin Family!"

Douglas cried out in shock, recognizing Nalorin·Sylvia.

He had reached Stage 10 and was strong, and with the Kantorin Seal, he could barely deal with a Half-God opponent. But if he had to face Nalorin·Sylvia too, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

"Damn it. Black Bear Demon, you’re lucky this time!" As he spoke, he pulled out the Celestial Mirror.

"Trying to run?" Nalorin·Sylvia’s eyes were icy cold, and her attacks grew even fiercer. Snowflakes filled the air, surrounding both Douglas and the Black Bear Demon.

Buzz!

At that moment, a space fluctuation appeared. Douglas tore open space and disappeared.

"Johnnie, we’ll meet again!" his voice echoed.

The Celestial Mirror was powerful—no divine power could seal the space, so Johnnie had no way to stop Douglas from escaping.

What a pity!

Johnnie couldn’t help feeling disappointed. If Douglas was here, the Doe Family was probably searching for the Dragon Pulse too.

Johnnie didn’t dwell on it. He looked at the Black Bear Demon and asked curiously, "You’re not from the Demon race?"

He had thought the Mountain Hunter was a member of the Demon race, but it turned out he was just a Black Bear Demon.

The Mountain Hunter kept a wary eye on Nalorin·Sylvia, his face cold as he said, "Humans, you’re not welcome here."

Johnnie didn’t care and said, "Come on. I just saved your life. Don’t you think you should reward me?"

"Hmph, even without your help, that guy wasn’t my match." the Black Bear Demon scoffed, but he didn’t dare relax at all.

He could tell Nalorin·Sylvia was even stronger than Douglas.

Johnnie just sneered at his words. If he didn’t need to exchange for Spirit Stones, he would have killed the guy right there.

"I’ll handle it." Jack stepped forward respectfully and said, "Lord Mountain, these people are helping me. Could you please exchange some Spirit Stones for us?"

He didn’t call Johnnie ’Master.’

The Mountain Hunter wasn’t part of the Demon race, but he hated humans even more. If he knew Jack had pledged himself to Johnnie, he would never agree to the exchange.

"I know you. You’re Jack, son of Weyldon." the Mountain Hunter recognized him and said, "Fine, for your father’s sake, I’ll help you exchange once."

Then he looked at Johnnie and said coldly, "Hand it over, boy."

Johnnie didn’t waste words. He took out all the Slime gel he had stored in the Mountains and Rivers Realm.

Whoosh...

A huge pile of sticky slime stacked up, all different colors and looking pretty disgusting.

"So...so much!" The Mountain Hunter and Jack were both shocked.

They thought Johnnie had maybe a few thousand portions of Slime gel, but here there were over seventy thousand!

The Mountain Hunter gulped, a flicker of murderous intent in his eyes. He wanted to just take it all, but when he saw Nalorin·Sylvia’s cold stare, he held back.

He could sense that he wasn’t her match.

"Kid, since you brought so much Slime gel, I’ll make an exception and exchange Spirit Stones for you this time." Mountain Hunter said as he quickly counted the gel. He took out over seven hundred elemental Spirit Stones and handed them to Johnnie.

Most of them were Water, Fire, and Earth Spirit Stones, but there were also some rare Gold and Wind Spirit Stones.

There were even two Thunder Spirit Stones.

So there must be Lightning Slimes in the area.

"Thanks." Johnnie said as he took the Spirit Stones, feeling happy. Refining these Spirit Stones would give his strength a good boost.

"Alright, you can leave now." Mountain Hunter waved his hand impatiently, then grabbed a handful of Slime gel and shoved it straight into his mouth, eating it like jelly.

Everyone felt sick watching this, and Nalorin·Sylvia couldn’t help but gag a little.

"Let’s go!" She couldn’t stand it anymore and turned to leave right away.

"Master, can I have some of the Fire Spirit Stones?" Jack asked carefully.

He noticed there were over a hundred Fire Spirit Stones in the batch they got just now.

Even if he hunted Slimes for half a month, he wouldn’t be able to collect that many.

Johnnie frowned, not trusting Jack much. "Find Cecilia for me first, then I’ll reward you with ten of them."

"Alright, I’ll definitely help Master find Cecilia." Jack promised right away.

"Now take me to the Slime nest." Johnnie decided to keep hunting Slimes to level up his Mage of the Five Elements class.

The best part was he could also trade in the gel for more Spirit Stones, and try to comprehend the remaining Gold, Water, and Earth elemental gifts.

And maybe even the rare Wind and Thunder gifts.

The Mage of the Five Elements class could use all sorts of elemental powers without any problem.

As long as there were enough Slimes, it’d be easy.

"Okay, Master, follow me." Jack said, though he was a little hesitant when he thought of the Half-God level Slime at the nest.

However, since Nalorin Sylvia was with Johnnie, they should be able to handle it.

He immediately led the way to the Slime nest.

...

The group moved deeper into the forest, and there were clearly more Slimes here.

"Master, let me handle it!" Nalorin·Sylvia said, and used her Sword Control Technique to slaughter the Slimes.

Most were only stage 6 or 7 and stood no chance against her.

But she noticed the drop rate for Slime gel was pretty low—about one drop per every ten Slimes.

That seemed normal.

"These Slimes are better left to me—you’re wasting them." Johnnie said.

Killing the Slimes himself helped him with his class advancement and let him trade for Spirit Stones.

"Alright." Nalorin·Sylvia gave up helplessly. She realized Johnnie was special—every time he killed a monster, it always dropped loot, and every Slime gave him a gel.

Luckily, there were other monsters besides Slimes, not many, but enough for her to level up her Sword Control Technique.

Slimes were getting wiped out in groups.

Benz and Jack followed behind, cleaning up the battlefield—picking up Slime gel, loot, and Magic Cores.

In no time, they’d collected over ten thousand Slime gels.

"Sir, what do you think Slime gel tastes like?" Benz asked curiously, playing with a blue piece of gel.

Johnnie glanced at him and said, "Why don’t you try it?"

Benz frowned, but he actually considered it. "Alright, I’ll give it a shot."

As soon as he said that, everyone else instinctively took a few steps back. Nalorin·Sylvia looked especially disgusted and moved as far away from Benz as she could.

"Hey, what’s with those looks?" Benz complained. "If that Black Bear Demon eats it, it must be good for strength."

He looked at the sticky gel, hesitated for a second, then sucked it right up.

"So, Benz, how does it taste?" Johnnie asked, curious.

"Mmm!" Benz gave a big thumbs up, pretending to enjoy it. Then he pulled out two more gels from his pocket and offered them to Johnnie and Jack.