Lux followed the elves cautiously, while also observing her surroundings. The forest remained quiet and deep.

  The elves around her moved with light steps, so silent that Lux couldn't figure out how they did it. She could only try her best to avoid stepping on dry twigs as she walked.

  At the same time, Lux was very curious about how Sacrina's many iron chains didn't make any noise.

  Then, Lux saw Emily’s hand signal to 'stop quietly.' Emily then gestured for Sacrina and two other elves to go around to the left, and pointed to the other five elves, telling them to stay put. Finally, she motioned for Lux and the remaining male elf to follow her.

  As Lux followed Emily through a thicket, Lux finally saw clearly. Not far away was a huge cluster of grapes... no, it was a giant beast carrying grapes on its back. The beast was seven or eight meters long and five or six meters tall, almost half the height of the surrounding giant trees. It had four sharp giant claws planted on the ground, and its body looked as if it were woven from grapevines. A large purple morning glory bloomed on its round head. It was a massive fruit monster.

  Lux followed Emily's footsteps, coming to the left side of the monster. Suddenly, Emily signaled 'action.'

  Then Emily directly drew her sword, a very thin silver longsword. Cyan magic instantly enveloped the blade, making it look like 'a long needle forged by the wind.' Lux felt a gust of wind from behind, and Emily disappeared before the wind touched her, as if treading on the wind, 'surfing' through the air towards the grape monster.

  Lux also drew her cheap sword, took two seconds to infuse it with red magic, and then quickly charged. Fortunately, she had practiced for a whole day yesterday, otherwise she would have had to stand there like a scolded child for a few more seconds.

  When the monster noticed Emily, her sword had already pierced its flank. The seemingly thin 'needle' unleashed a massive whirlwind upon contact with the monster's huge body. The wind was like a giant tree falling sideways, then frantically tried to burrow into the monster's body. Immediately, a gash exploded open on the monster's flank.

  "Be careful not to damage the fruit behind this Kabbalah, move!"

  Then several flashes of light appeared. They were arrows condensed from magic, the arrowheads as sharp as fish-filleting knives, precisely cutting the limbs and neck of the grape Kabbalah. This answered one of Lux's questions: why these elves carried bows but no arrows.

  The wounds where the grape Kabbalah had been cut immediately were covered by newly grown plant vines, then healed. At the same time, these attacks stirred its anger, and pink buds grew on its body. Each bud that bloomed grew a stamen, and at the top of the stamen was a crystal—a crystal that would fire magic bullets.

  The magic bullets, fueled by the grape Kabbalah's rage, rained down on the direction from which the magic arrows had been fired. The forest in front of it was torn to shreds, like a piece of paper with a forest scene drawn on it.

  At this moment, Lux found an opportunity to approach the 'big grape,' but she didn't rush to attack. Instead, she crouched down and took a look.

  'The abdomen is a bit off the ground. Maybe I should try an upward thrust, attack once and run quickly,' Lux thought, having decided on a tactic. Then she charged forward.

  When Lux's sword pierced the grape Kabbalah's body, magic, along with the force of the strike and destruction, slammed into it. Even though the sword was stuck, the surging magic continued to rampage inside the creature like a battering ram.

  But soon, Lux felt as if a huge hand inside the creature was forcefully gripping the magic-spreading sword, like wringing out a towel. Now the sword was caught by this brute force.

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  'I can't pull it out?!' Lux realized she couldn't withdraw her sword, and instantly decided to just abandon this cheap weapon and run.

  And at this moment, a stamen turned to face Lux, the magic bullet about to fire—

  —Suddenly, Lux felt a wind envelop both her and the monster. The wind roared, and then, like a wind carrying blades, the monster's four legs were severed as if they were rotten straw ropes that had been used for ten years. Lux felt the 'giant hand' inside the monster loosen its grip, and she immediately pulled out her sword and ran to the side.

  'I hesitated just now,' Lux thought, a lingering fear in her heart. She had been a little reluctant to immediately abandon her first, albeit cheap, sword. Lux felt that if she had used the Self-Sacrificing Slash she learned from the Hero's shard, she wouldn't have gotten stuck. Instead, she would have directly cleaved the monster, grapes and all, in half. Then, Lux would have been lying on the ground with the monster for a while due to magic exhaustion.

  Suddenly, Lux sensed danger and blocked with her magic-infused sword. A magic bullet directly struck Lux's blade, sending her stumbling backward and falling to the ground.

  'Good, blocked it,' Lux thought, getting up and starting to look for trees to hide behind.

  Meanwhile, the other elves had each drawn their weapons and charged towards the grape Kabbalah. The grape Kabbalah retaliated with magic bullets, but these were smaller and sparser than before.

  Sacrina charged straight at the grape Kabbalah. The chains around her glowed with golden light, then spread out and swayed like seaweed. When magic bullets shot towards Sacrina, the chains actually sliced at them directly, deflecting the projectiles. Then she drew a slender chain with a bladed tip.

  "Light and Shadow Prison!" As Sacrina shouted these words, the slender chain seemed to come alive, coiling like a snake before lashing out with all its force, piercing the monster's foreleg, then continuing to snake around to bind both forelegs.

  "Ooooh—!" The monster let out a desperate wail, then its head split open, blooming into a huge flower with purple and pink gradients. Immediately, vast amounts of magic began to condense! It was making a desperate final attack!

  But the wind didn't give it the chance. A huge pillar of wind enveloped the flower that was condensing the massive magic bullet, seemingly trying to shred it. The monster immediately recoiled, tearing off its two forelegs to evade the wind pillar. Then it saw Emily moving on the wind and immediately turned its head, the magic bullet rushing towards Emily like a gigantic, enraged bull charged with lightning!

  But Emily danced with the wind's Capote. With a turn, a step, and a bend of her waist, she narrowly dodged the speeding magic bullet.

  'Good opportunity!' Hiding in the bushes, Lux saw the monster raise its head, completely exposing its front body. She unleashed the magic in her sword and swung it towards the monster.

  This one strike, even before the blade touched the monster, the magic tore through the monster's skin, ripping a large hole in it! Half of the monster's head was gone.

  Lux felt refreshed, because this not only heavily injured the grape Kabbalah, but it also looked incredibly cool.

  The grape monster tried to lift its head one last time, but failed...

  "Victory!" Lux wanted to celebrate, but she didn't hear cheers from the others. Instead, she heard the anxious voice of the blonde elf, Sacrina: "You human! Do you know you almost destroyed the fruit and ruined all our efforts?!"

  Lux chose to ignore that for now and looked at the other elves. They were examining the grape Kabbalah's corpse, seemingly genuinely worried that Lux's last strike had damaged the fruit.

  "Um... Emily, no, Captain Emily, how was my performance just now?" Lux asked, looking towards Emily, who had landed lightly after the fight and was watching Lux swing her sword.

  "Basic skills are very poor, control of power is bad, you almost destroyed the fruit, agility isn't good either. Basically, you can be rated as a newbie," Emily said.

  'Alright, looks like my first mission went just like that,' Lux thought, a little disappointed. But at least she wasn't completely useless, she comforted herself.

  "However, your magic release has improved a lot," Emily added before leaving to inspect the spoils of the battle.

  "Okay, this battle's rating is slightly positive," Lux thought. For her, if Emily gave even a little praise, it counted as an overall positive evaluation. This was her secret to staying in a good mood.

  Of course, she said this very quietly, not wanting to be scorned by others just to maintain her mood.

  "Captain!" suddenly, an elf who had been assigned to scout ahead ran over and said, "We've found plant people up ahead!"

  Hearing this, Emily immediately said, "Vayne and Kemmit, stay here and harvest the Kabbalah's fruit. The rest of us, move forward!"

  Although Lux didn't know what was happening, she snapped out of her thoughts and followed Emily's directions.