Adventure World Online (AWO)

"It seems that guy didn't come along."

The one Lost Martial Artist was referring to was closer than he realized, just not in a form he could recognize. After Kitsune was killed by Demos, the leader of the Doom Star Guild, and revived, all his levels and skills had reset to square one. The little fox let out a few sneezes that sounded oddly dog-like before falling silent. Meanwhile, Fluffy Head-chan gave a playful eye roll, clearly understanding Kitsune's sneezing (that it was due to his embarrassment.)

"Anyway,"

Chang Long, fed up with the chatter, cut in.

"Your subordinates are here now, so you should go back with them."

The firmness in her voice was more serious than ever, and Aswa, hearing it, thought she was concerned about him leaving his guild for so long. (Of course, he was wrong.)

"No way, I've already said I'm going to protect you, Chang Long, and that's exactly what I'll keep doing!"

Aswa declared, with equal determination. His words left his subordinates gaping—was their guild leader really in love with this fierce woman?

"I can take care of myself. Besides, as you can see, I have the Guiding Flame. No undead will come within three meters of me,"

Chang Long replied, annoyance creeping into her voice as she began walking again. She secretly hoped that Merlin's Top Protege and his group, who disliked her, would hold Aswa back and give enough excuses to drag him away. But, much to her dismay...

"Chang Long!"

Aswa's voice made her turn, expecting him to finally say his goodbyes and leave. Instead, he strutted confidently toward her, followed closely by Boron, who held a spear with the Guardian Fire blazing at its tip. Behind them, not far from the light's reach, were Rose, Merlin's Top Protege, and Lost Martial Artist—all of whom looked thoroughly displeased to be there.

"What is it?"

Chang Long asked, frowning in suspicion.

"They told me they wanted to apologize for the rude behavior they showed you before, so they volunteered to help me protect you. From now on, our journey will be much more comfortable,"

Aswa explained, smiling broadly and clearly happy.

"I didn't come here for a leisurely stroll. I'm here to grind for experience points!"

Chang Long snapped, irritated. The longer this went on, the more Aswa annoyed her—not only did he persist relentlessly, but he also never listened to a word she said. Someone like that was impossible to travel with.

Aswa, however, did not pay any attention to what Chang Long had said. In his mind, he was simply thrilled to finally have a chance to walk alongside her and have a proper conversation, something he had not been able to do before due to the constant interruptions by beasts in the Purple Forest. But even now, his obstacles had not disappeared entirely—Kitsune and Fluffy Head-chan were still significant barriers standing between him and his romantic ambitions with Chang Long. How he could get rid of those two remained a mystery to him.

The journey through the Purple Forest was illuminated, even though the path was littered with broken branches and dry leaves. No undead creatures dared to come near. If this had been a quest to find something, it would have been relatively smooth sailing. But for Chang Long, the trip was anything but pleasant. The atmosphere in the group was tense and stifling, to the point where Aswa and Boron were starting to feel uncomfortable after pretending not to notice for too long. Eventually, Aswa could not take it anymore and pulled Merlin's Top Protege aside for a private talk.

"Hey, Top... Can you and the others stop acting like that? Tell Rose and Martial Artist too. I'm losing my patience here!"

Aswa hissed, barely keeping his frustration in check.

"Well, what do you expect, Boss? That woman left a huge grudge against us. How do you expect us to let it go so easily?"

Merlin's Top Protege retorted stubbornly. Although he was not killed by Chang Long herself, he had fallen to Kitsune in his human form, which he assumed was one of Chang Long's friends. On top of that, they had been labeled as thieves who extorted items from other players.

"I get it, Top,"

Aswa said, his expression softening. Merlin's Top Protege thought this meant that the guild leader was not going to force them to travel with Chang Long anymore, and he smiled in satisfaction, relieved that Aswa still had some sense of loyalty to his subordinates. But his smile quickly froze when Aswa continued speaking.

"But Chang Long is the woman who's going to be my girlfriend soon (he sounded very confident). So, you all need to forget whatever grudge you have against her and treat her with the utmost respect. Got it!"

"But!"

"No buts!"

Aswa glared at Merlin's Top Protege with a stern face, leaving the young mage no choice but to grit his teeth and reluctantly agree before heading back to rejoin Rose and Lost Martial Artist.

After that, the mood in the group improved slightly, though a cold, eerie feeling still lingered, raising the hairs on the back of their necks. No one could pinpoint the exact cause, but they all assumed it was the eerie quiet of the Purple Forest. In truth, however, it was Devi-chan, Hisa-chan, and Alice-chan floating nearby, pranking the group to exact a bit of petty revenge on Merlin's Top Protege.

Chang Long walked in silence, her mood foul. Kitsune and Fluffy Head-chan seemed to understand how irritated she was and followed quietly. The only one who kept talking was Aswa, chattering non-stop about his exploits in the game from the time he started playing (conveniently leaving out the part where he was killed by Demos the first time he logged in). He bragged about his efforts in recruiting people to establish the Dark Horse Guild (again, leaving out how Demos had poached many of his top recruits), and how it had grown into one of the largest guilds in the game (though still behind Demos's Doom Star Guild).

"And then, when my guild members and I climbed Mount Longshan to defeat the White Tiger King... Ah!"

Aswa suddenly cut himself off, seemingly in shock. Chang Long, who had been marching ahead without paying attention, and Merlin's Top Protege's group, who had been chatting amongst themselves, all stopped and turned to look at Aswa in confusion.

"What is it, Guild Leader?"

Boron was the first to speak up.

"This... this is the inner region of the Purple Forest. It's pretty dangerous here. The king of this forest is at level 130, and it's vicious,"

Aswa replied in a calm voice. Merlin's Top Protege and the rest of the group turned pale with fear. Even though they were with their guild leader, a small group of players had no chance of taking down a level 130 beast king. Especially them—they would likely be the first to die.

"You mean Jezebel?"

Chang Long asked curiously. Considering how vast the Purple Forest was, she did not think there could only be one king.

"You know the king of the Purple Forest, Chang Long? Yes, it's Jezebel. I ran into her the last time I came to this forest..."

Aswa trailed off, stopping himself from mentioning that he had lost his life here before. That would not exactly make a good impression.

"Uh-huh, if there's only one king in this forest, then there's nothing to worry about. Jezebel won't respawn for another month,"

Chang Long said before resuming her walk, leaving Aswa and his guildmates stunned by her statement. Realizing she was getting ahead of them, Aswa quickly shook off his shock and hurried after her. He was not sure how Chang Long knew Jezebel's respawn timer, but one thing was clear—the inner region of the Purple Forest was now safe for exploration, and they would be the first players to venture in. Merlin's Top Protege and his group temporarily forgot their grudge against Chang Long, caught up in the excitement of exploring the inner forest for the first time, and quickly followed after her and Aswa.

The inner region of the Purple Forest was vastly different from the outer region. Though it remained shrouded in darkness, the ground was paved with stone. Lantern posts lined the path, their dim yellow lights flickering as if they were about to go out at any moment. The trees were twisted, black, and long dead. The winding path seemed more navigable than the dense outer forest, and there were not any high-level beasts roaming as they had expected. In fact, the place felt eerily empty—not even a single insect could be seen.

As they walked cautiously, each step felt like something unseen was watching them, making the air thick with tension. The gnarled trees seemed to twist and contort as if following their movements. Rose was the first to show signs of panic in the unsettling atmosphere, with occasional strange sound whose source was impossible to pinpoint. Eventually, they arrived at a large circular stone platform with a black wooden throne, cushioned in deep red velvet. The throne was empty, and everyone knew the owner of that seat—Jezebel—was awaiting her rebirth. They inspected the area around the throne for a while before continuing on their journey.

It seemed that after they explored Jezebel's throne, strange creatures resembling winged humans, standing at two feet tall and completely black, started appearing. They wielded sharp spears but did not attack, merely watching the group from a distance. It was unclear whether these creatures were non-aggressive or if they were intimidated by the light from Chang Long's Guiding Flame and the Guardian Fire.

Eventually, they reached a dead end—a massive circular area almost the size of a football field. At the far end stood a tall black cliff, towering into the darkness above. Next to the cliff was a large square stone platform, five by five meters in size, jet-black in color, and showing signs of erosion from age. Strange claw-like carvings adorned the edges, and at each sharp corner, there was a groove shaped like a half-circle, roughly the size of a hand. The center of the platform was inscribed with mysterious characters that even Chang Long, with her level 3 basic ancient scriptreading skill, could not decipher.

Beside the platform were four skeletal statues, dressed in tattered warrior attire. Each stood with arms crossed over its chest, backs pressed against each other on both sides of the stone platform. They carried massive weapons—a sword, an axe, a spear, and a halberd. Their grim faces were intimidating, and the empty eye sockets of the two in the front were fixated on a line on the ground, though no one in the group knew why.

"What the hell is that?"

Lost Martial Artist blurted out, forgetting himself as he stared at the skeletal statues, each towering at five meters in height with terrifying face.

"Creepy. I hope they don't come to life,"

Rose muttered anxiously, hiding behind Merlin's Top Protege. At this point, none of them were worried about being attacked by other beasts—the eerie white glowing stones around the altar made everyone look pale and sickly.

Chang Long, more interested in the inscriptions on the stone platform than anything else, stepped across the line the skeletal statues seemed to be watching. Fluffy Head-chan, Kitsune, and Aswa followed her closely, without noticing that the skeletal statues turned their heads slightly to watch them as they moved.

"What is this language? I can't make out any of it,"

Aswa said, running his hand along the scratch-like characters carved into the platform. He glanced at Chang Long, who was doing something similar.

"The basic ancient script reading skill doesn't work on this. Maybe my level is too low to read it,"

Chang Long muttered to herself, struggling to decipher the inscription that looked like scratch marks.

Crack crack crack crack...

The sound of stone breaking echoed around them. Everyone looked around cautiously., Soon, they were shocked at what they saw. The stone statues were moving. Every movement was accompanied by a loud cracking noise as bits of stone fell away from their bodies. In no time, the four skeletal statues, which had suddenly come to life, surrounded Chang Long's group, cutting off all possible escape routes.

The stone guardians wielded their weapons menacingly, their grim faces glaring at the intruders. Their sheer size was intimidating, making Chang Long's group uneasy. Knowing the larger they were, the harder they would be to take down, especially since their bodies were made of stone. But their concern deepened further when they heard the system announce their levels:

"Stone Guardian of the Sword, Level 90, preparing to attack. Stone Guardian of the Axe, Level 90, preparing to attack. Stone Guardian of the Spear, Level 90, preparing to attack. Stone Guardian of the Halberd, Level 90, preparing to attack."

Every single one was level 90. Among Chang Long's group, only Aswa had a level approaching 80, and even facing one level 90 beast alone would be a challenge. But there were four of them, and their murderous intent radiated toward the group relentlessly as they swung their massive weapons without mercy.

Boommm!

A giant stone sword slammed into the ground where Aswa had just been standing, leaving a deep gash several feet deep. The other guardians also launched their attacks at Chang Long and Merlin's Top Protege's group. The sight might have been comical if it were not so deadly. Rose screamed louder than Merlin's Top Protege had ever heard before. The group could not find a way to defend themselves, forced instead to dodge the rapid and coordinated strikes from the colossal Stone Guardians.

Chang Long quickly sealed Kitsune back into her ring and sealed Fluffy Head-chan into a puppet. She too had to dodge the attacks of the Stone Guardians, but thanks to their large size, it was easier to anticipate their movements. While she considered summoning Hisa-chan and Devi-chan for help, Aswa acted first. He unleashed a skill unique to high-level martial artists, transforming his mana into the shape of a long, golden Chinese dragon. The dragon surged forward, attacking the four Stone Guardians before vanishing.

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