Adrian had to admit, he'd grown too reliant on Seep to provide him a broader and clearer vision to the area around him. In his defense, with their second to none efficiency of scouting, no one wouldn't end up relying on them for any task of providing better sight. Whether it was for the immediate vicinity or some remote location afar. And this assessment doesn't even account for the advantages stemming from their remarkably efficient hive mind.

With proper command and filtering, vision data of dozens of Seeps sent to Adrian wouldn't even be overwhelming or distracting. The collective consciousness of the Seeps capable of processing the imagery to become one large top view map, with occasional close up to something that might have needed more attention. Highly convenient.

They are also highly intelligent, capable of understanding even the most complex assignment. In situations where Adrian couldn't properly convey the command, all he had to do was to project his task to the hive mind and it all will be immediately put in action.

 

Their assistance had proven from time to time to be valuable and would turn majority complicated assignments to just mundane chores. Even now their support is enough to make Adrian still feel at ease despite being chased by eleven -actually, make that twelve now- Mudbark. He flew away from the horde of beasts, maintaining a not-so-delicate distance between not too close to get pounced and not too far to make the Mudbarks give up pursuing him.

"I think that's enough."

Adrian turns his body around, flying backwards facing the group of Mudbark that are chasing him. Raising his left arm, he pointed toward the group. His glowing palm emitted a freezing wind that rushed toward the beasts, akin to those found on the cloud piercing mountain.  The white mist crashed like a violent gale, momentarily halting their pursuit.  But they press on, seeing their prey is now as closer as ever.

As the cold gust continues to strike them, the moisture on the layer of mud enveloping their bodies began freezing and solidifying. Their frantic chase gradually transformed into a jog, with icy crystals forming on their brownish mud coating. Those at the front now moved sluggishly, each step requiring more effort from their four legs. That prompted the Mudbarks on the back to gain on those upfront and overtake them, just to get hit by the full force of the chilling gust and are now moving as slow as them.

Adrian nodded, pleased with the speed at which he had managed to freeze them, bringing them closer together. It was noticeably quicker than his previous attempt. Admittedly, allowing over twenty of them to chase him before freezing had been a foolish decision. Now, with just half the previous number, the freezing process was predictably quicker.

At this moment, the once lengthy line of beasts, eager to claim his life, had transformed into a flock of shivering mutts, unknowingly marching towards their doom.

Feeling the Mudbarks had gathered close enough, Adrian decided to continue with the follow up attack. He raises his right arm, enveloped in purple sparks of electricity, to the sky. Seeps flying above the Mudbark group quickly veered aside, avoiding the soon materialization of creeping streaks of purple lightning above the unsuspecting beasts.

Clenching his fist, Adrian channels the converging streaks of lightning above the Mudbark flock into several orbs of pulsating purple sparks. In an instant, thunder descends from the orbs, striking with varying intervals between each wave of deafening thunderclaps.

The thunder came loud, drowning the cries of the Mudbarks attempting to flee. As they are hindered by their chilled bodies, all they can do is stagger and drag themselves from the tempest's fury.

The onslaught persisted for a few more moments, ensuring no Mudbark remained unscathed. As the storm waned, silence descended upon the now-lifeless Mudbark flock, leaving behind only the crackling echoes of spent electricity.

Adrian wipes off his inexistent sweats on his brow, feeling delighted since he could once more use his most favorite element to deal damage to his enemies. Of course nether element is still his strong suit, after all, he had used it for hundreds of years. Not to mention its innate aspect of sapping and damaging the life force of those it struck had proven to be really useful against many adversaries. Addi more to the list is the fact that no one in this world had actual proper resistance against nether elements, turning the most simple nether spell potentially deadlier than it should be.

As for why he preferred the said lightning magics over the nether was because Adrian was fascinated by it. In his previous life, lightning or electricity was just another poorly explained tool of destruction. But in this world, not only do people mostly understand how it works, but they also harness its power and utilize it in their daily life. Many people 's daily tasks have been made easier by the usage of electricity, turning the tamed lightning into other kinds of energy to achieve predetermined results.

Still, that didn't change the fact that the element itself held immense destructive potential and was highly versatile in combat.

"Ah, it begins."

From the supposed deceased body of Mudbarks, something sprouted. It tears the husk and splits the body open as it grows its branches up and burying its roots to the ground. The branches converge into one large trunk and at the top of it a giant flower emerges.

The flower blossomed, showing mesmerizing colorful petals and both of the large pistil and stamen of the said flower. The plant grew taller than Adrian, roughly reaching three meters if the flower was counted.

"Only three? That's good."

From the numerous corpses of Mudbarks piled up, the plant only sprouted from three of them. The said plants hastily rotate the flower towards Adrian and then chuck a goo consisted of mix between green and yellow sludge at Adrian simultaneously in near the same time.

The goos flown him in straight line unimpeded, defying the law of physics regarding trajectory of an object. Adrian didn't bother to dodge, he instead enveloped himself in dimensional rupture.

The moment the sludge entered the affected area of the dimensional rupture, it was immediately teleported to another place away from Adrian, causing no harm on him. Seeking amusement, he teleported one of them facing straight up to the sky. As expected, it keeps soaring with the same exact speed, defying gravity even in a vertical climb.

With a contemptuous expression on his face, Adrian conjured a slender, rapidly spinning buzzsaw of flame atop his fingertip. With a swift motion, he propelled the fiery buzzsaw toward the plants.

The buzzsaw sliced through all three of them in a single sweeping motion, searing the trunks with an inferno of blazing flames. Their short existence was abruptly obliterated in a violent conflagration, reduced to rapidly dissipating ashes that floated in the air.

'Good, fire is still very effective on them.' 

While it might sound obvious that fire can easily consume wood under proper conditions, within the Exclusion Zone, nothing can be taken for granted.  Since the residents could be molded to suddenly evolve by the Zone itself, removing their weakness and even gaining new strength.

Two monthly conquering routines before, the sludge they spout is still effective against themselves. Their trunks and barks would melt with the contact of their own projectiles, allowing Adrian to redirect back the attack they did to finish them with less effort. But now, the sludge invigorates them instead, healing even the most severe damage they had, turning them back into pristine condition.

Fortunately, the effects the sludge had towards people had somewhat lessened because of it. Previously it would rapidly melt the flesh, bone and equipment, even armor made of common metal. Now, although it would still melt them all, it had greatly reduced pace, allowing people to quickly wash it off to reduce the damage it would cause.

Although there are unprecedented consequences from the change that happened on the  Mudbarks. Even without any mutation, Mudbark species is still one of the most hunted Exclusion Zone beasts due to precious material that could be obtained from it. Within each of the creatures, there is a seed that would usually grow to a deadly plant upon its death. 

That seed, if managed to get harvested intact, was one of the stable reagents to turn a minor health potion to a proper health potion. That turns a potion that only heals cuts and bruises outside, to a potion that could stop and mend internal bleeding, heals broken bones, and even recover lost bloods to some extent. Moreover, this mutation had further enhanced the potency of the seed, raising their value even higher.

As soon as the information of the Mudbark's newest condition spreaded, more people from different corners of the world came to make profit from it. Not only forgetting they had to defeat the first Guardian to even proceed to the area where Mudbarks reside, there's no Mudbarks ever sighted on the outermost layer. But also underestimate the residents of the Zone, just after hearing its Enforcer hasn't even graduated from high school yet.

No matter how many times Adrian thought about the casualties that instead increased by this change, his face kept turning into a frown.

But, on the other hand, the SCT had gained more profit, both from the loaned potions policy, item sales and the medical bill of the said reckless explorer.

And that still counts as a win, doesn't it?

Adrian stops his idle thought, and continues to fly towards the center of the Exclusion Zone, leaving the heap of treasure behind him for those lucky enough to stumble upon.

The Seeps followed him in wide formation, flying higher than him, but not high enough that the charged clouds on the current overcast sky would strike them.

The sky within the zone had abruptly changed from the cloudy afternoon sky into a gray overcast of the incoming storm. The clouds covering the entire sky had ripples of electricity visible creeping on their crevices. The change happened soon after Adrian had defeated the first Guardian and moved into a deeper section of the zone.

This particular change was first sighted around three months ago. The electrified clouds are apparently altered by the Zone to strike anything close to them, making flying high above is not an option anymore. But aside from reducing the maximum flight height and darkening the light slightly, it doesn't do much else.

During his flight to the center of the crater, he was once again chased by Mudbarks. Another persisting pursuit of the Mudbarks ensued, each one joining the chase as he zipped past. They slowly formed a pack of ravenous beasts, lining behind him hungry for his blood. However, the number didn't increase past ten this time, perhaps because Adrian was getting closer to middle away from their usual habitat.

That group of ten was easily taken care of using the very same strategy he'd use earlier, making the encounter unremarkable. But just when he was striking the group of Mudbarks, one of the Seep notified him about an incoming beast.

A vision of the beast is shown inside his head, projected from the Seep's hive mind —a large bark colored lizard. The creature, approximately three meters in length, defied the laws of physics as it glided toward him at alarming speed, its sleek form cutting through the air effortlessly despite its apparent lack of wings. Adrian squinted his eyes reflexively at the sight, not that it increased the clarity, since the view was directly shown into his head.

Adrian didn't bother to move away, also the Mudbarks still needed a few more lightning strikes to finish them. Instead, he engulfed himself inside a large dimensional scar, waiting for the beast to come and attack him directly.

The big reptile came gliding at him using a thin membrane that spreaded between its forelimbs and body. With its maw open it got closer to him at alarming speed. 

Just to get past Adrian's body and crash to the ground on the other side.

The beast convulsing, thrashing on the muddy ground in pain. It groans, wails in distraught, smashing its head against the ground.

This does make Adrian really think about his dimensional magic, it's still hard for him to accept that passing through his dimensional rupture is really that unpleasant. So far, people that had tried to pass through his dimensional rupture would nearly always come out nauseous. Rarely even able to stand, often followed by throwing up their meals out.

The only exception is Chitose, not only did the process not phase her, she herself admits the experience was quite pleasant.

'I'm just entrusting myself to you, that's all.'

Until this day Adrian still couldn't understand the process inside her mind. That explanation was nowhere to give any idea to him on how she even mitigated the effects of passing through the dimensional rupture on herself. 

Adrian returned his focus on the writhing lizard, since the Mudbarks had successfully decimated without even any plants blooming. Which makes him feel slightly elated.

The lizard was one of the variants of Kamaitachi -the wind gliding scythe species, just now in the form of a large predator lizard. It still shares the same familiar aspect of every Kamaitachis. Decent wind magic proficiency to generate height or force for them to quickly close the gap to their victims by flying or gliding, and protruding blades on their bodies as another weapon to attack.

He then conjures a Graviton Spear on his right hand and launches it to the large lizard with a swing of his arm. The spear flew without any speed enchantment like he did against the thunder-clad tortoise, but it was still hurtling towards the lizard at breakneck speed. 

The spear hits right on the neck of the beast, swiftly ending its agony. It pierces through the reptile, dragging its massive body a few ten meters creating a path on the muddy ground.

Adrian took a look at the cold corpse of the lizard with an exhausted expression, their fight, if this could even be called that, was more of a pushover than an inconvenience, not something to look forward to. And he will have more encounters with these beasts as he gets closer to the second Guardian Arena.

With a resigned sigh, Adrian continued his path towards the center of the crater, determined to finish his task but reluctant to continue his journey.