Chapter 58: Explosion.

Even though, Aide was sent to do a dangerous mission, he still managed to collect some rare plants and herbs for his research along his way, not minding the danger that he might face inside of this place.

Using the powerful light barrier to block and illuminate everything around him, Aide is now free to roam inside of the fog without getting hindered by the limitations of his hood.

Although it still taxing for Aide, to maintain this barrier for a long time, since the fog have somehow interferes with his powers, that makes it harder for him to convert his mana to light elements.

Aide also needs to spend double the amount of mana just in order for him to maintain the light barrier around him.

He couldn't also resort to other method since this is the most effective and convenient way to resist the effects of the fog.

Even though countless wizards and knights have spent several days to unshackle the secret of this place they still failed to find out the caused of it.

Those people who is responsible for the investigation also lost a lot of their hair in the the process of investigation, but they still haven't found any clue to solve the mystery behind this phenomenon.

But it didn't mean that their research is useless, as they still managed to find out several ways to explore this mysterious fog, without being infected by the parasites, although all of that methods can only be use for a limited amount of time.

The risk of exploring this place is too high as there's too many unknown things that might happen. But even so, Aide still continued his mission without any hesitation.

Aide is aware that he only have several hours to explore the fog, since his mana won't be enough to sustain him for a heavy fight, incase of an emergency, especially now that they are aware about the existence of corrupted creatures.

Aide is a careful man and even though a lot of people have already recognized him as one of the powerful wizard in the kingdom, he doesn't let all that praise to get in his head because he knows that a small kingdom of Turox is nothing compared to the 3 empire.

He always plan in advance before doing any moves to make sure that everything will go well.

So, for this mission Aide estimates that the longest time that he can spend inside of this place is only around 6 hours, without getting infected by the tiny parasites around him.

"This fog is full of mystery." Aide seriously said as he roam his limited sight around, while hovering a few meters above the  ground.

"Wait a minute.... Is that?...I can't believe it." Aide said in a surprise voice as he slowly approach the flower.

"Is this really the blazing lily? But this place is still quite far from the enchanted forest." Aide said in amazement.

Blazing lily is a well known magic plant for it's unique flower that has 5 prominent petal that is made out of mana that it sucks out from the surroundings.

Each petal of this flower looks like a blazing blue fire hence, why it was name as blazing lily. Although it's petals doesn't have any significant use aside from being a pretty ornament.

This type of plants only grow in places that are rich in mana elements, especially inside the enchanted forest.

"This place is really thriving in treasure." Aide happily thought off, as he landed on a nearest branch of a tall tree.

"But it's so strange..... this flower.... the fog and the parasites around us didn't even react to the mana it's releasing."Aide thought off as he set his gaze on his hands holding a stem of blazing lily.

"Anyway, that's not the reason why I'm here." Aide said before brushing it off and proceeding deeper in the Beaufort territory.

"I need to look for the source of this fog and find a solution for the parasites who lives inside of it." Aide seriously thought off as he hasten his speed while collecting some specimens of plants.

But what Aide didn't know, is that from the time, that he turn his back and leaves the blazing lily, the bluish flames that's its releasing on it's petals have suddenly turn as dark as night.

And countless dark particles was release from its flowers, like spores that spreads around the area.

This dark particles are the parasites that have managed to convert this magical ornamental plant to their own breeding grounds capable of producing more parasites.

The leaves and grass around the blazing lily have also turn dark as they all lost their vitality in the matter of seconds.

But a magical scene have suddenly happen since it was immediately replace by a more lush and healthy looking grass. that removes this corrupted blazing lily in this forest, like some kind of mysterious power keeps everything on balance.

Making it seems like everything that happen in this place is just an illusion, since this kind of scene has been going on for a long time, without anyone finding out about it.

"Even if I used my fastest speed, it would still not be enough for me to reach the Florentine city in several hours." Aide thought off while speedily flying several meters above the ground.

"My mana consumption is rising considerably the deeper I go into this fog. It seems like I can't proceed with my original plans." Aide grimly said  as he suddenly stop flying and landed in the hard ground.

"This used to be a stone road to enter the Florentine city but it's now covered in thick grass." Aide said as he stump his foot into the solid ground.

"If I didn't know the truth about this place, I would think that this road has been abandon for more than a decade now." Aide said as he further solidify his light barrier as he walk back towards the place he comes from.

"Let me test it if my assumption is true." Aide thought off, as he firmly flies back while carefully assessing his mana consumption.

"Hmmm...the changes is minimal but its definitely there." He said as he slowly floats back in the air and decided to go back.

Aide have finally decided to give up his plan on going directly into Florentine city as the risk is too great and his mana reserves would not be enough to support him to get there all by himself.

He also realized that his mana consumption is constantly rising the deeper he goes into the fog, and even for a 3rd level Intermediate wizard like him, it would still not be easy for Aide to use multiple spell while inside of this fog as it consume huge amount of mana than normal.

"Hmmm..." Aide said as he suddenly stopped midway of his flight.

"What is this?" He ask curiously as he lands back to the ground while starring at the huge black spot in the forest.

All the plants and trees around him are dead and only a dark patch of land remains on its place.

"This place isn't like this earlier." He said in a serious voice as he inspect everything around him.

Aide also took the same route he takes earlier, so he is already familiar with everything around him and he knows that this place is previously full of vitality, which is far from what it looks like now.

He walks for a moment to explore this unusual phenomenon when he suddenly notices something new.

He heard the loud breath of an unknown creature who sounds like its gasping for air.

"Hoooo.....Haaaa....Hooooo.....Haaaa"

He immediately masked the light of his barrier to make sure that it won't spot him easily and carefully approaches the place where the loud sound of breath is coming from.

It only took him a minute before he found the creature that he was looking for.

And based on the things around the creature he deduce that it is possibly a corrupted human being based on the things that litters on the forest ground.

He quietly approach the place and there he found a big creature covered in a dark slimy substance.

It's still have the basic shape of a human being, but for some unknown reason it's body is now bloated like someone have pump huge amount of liquid into its body. And unlike the previous corrupted creatures that he encountered, Aide deduce that this one doesn't have that much of threat. Well that's what he thought at first.

Since this corrupted creatures can't even stand properly on its own feet and can only lay down on the ground as it's muscle can't even support its own body.

Aide decided to immediately end the suffering of this creature because he also knows that this is also a former human and even if he wants to help this thing, it's already too late as they still haven't found a cure for this corruption.

But what Aide didn't expect is that when the creature have noticed him approaching, it immediately stand on its place. Like it sees something amazing, and the next thing he knows is that, he only heard a giant boom before he was pushed back several meters away from this creature and momentarily lost his consciousness for short amount of time but his spells have remain active around him.

A giant boom of explosion can be heard on this silent forest as the body of this bloated creature exploded on its own.

The explosion have also caused a lot of its guts to fly everywhere bringing destruction to everything it touches, as it immediately sucks out all the vitality around it.

Although the creature dies immediately after the explosion it also left a deep and huge crater on its place.

And although Aide is equip with a powerful light barrier he is still not safe with the vibration from that explosion, as Aide found himself several meters away from the crater with a constant loud ringing on his ear.

"What the fuck?" He said while groaning as he weakly stand on his feet.

"What the fuck is that?" He ask as he quickly cast a recovery spell on his body.

"I need to report this back to the king." He said after inspecting the deep crater left by the giant explosion.

"I can't believe it. The corrupted creatures in this place are still capable of evolving. We can't let this happen or else the kingdom might succumb to them." Aide said as he immediately floats to the air and flies back towards the Turox kingdom.

Aide also sent a quick report to the kingdom using the mini antenna that he have brought with him announcing that something dangerous is lurking inside the fog.