CRACK! CRACK!
The [Bayfolk Berserker], Honest Man Eight Fingers, led the way, swinging his twin machetes.
At First Rank, he acquired three basic abilities: superhuman endurance, Beast Intuition, and military weapon mastery (close combat category).
In just over a month, it was as if he underwent a second development; his entire body bulked up significantly, and his style grew much rougher.
This made him especially adept at performing such physical tasks.
However, the two missing fingers on his left hand ultimately affected his combat ability.
Byron was already gathering materials, ready to use a high-level Blood Brew—having just met the prerequisite conditions—to help him regenerate completely.
"Tighten up your canvas cuffs and leggings unless you want to feed leeches and mosquitoes.
Don't casually eat anything you see here, even if it looks exactly like something from outside—if it's from here, absolutely do not.
If you encounter anything abnormal, don't deal with it yourself. Remember to report it immediately, and particularly note that this forest contains none of your kin, nor will anyone here call out your name..."
Byron, acting as the pioneer officer, was also on the front line.
While using the Sailing Logbook to scout for dangers within a six-meter radius, he did not forget to repeatedly remind the Marines around him of the precautions needed for jungle marches.
"Understood, Captain."
To avoid unnecessary casualties, the Pioneer Navigation Colonization Company selected only 180 elite Pirates from the six ships under its command.
Each was fully armed, with a bottle of [Heroic Spirit Blood Brew] in their pockets.
Following them was a mighty army comprised of nearly five thousand Colonizers and Chichen Itza citizens.
The path ahead was led by the deputy commander, Bill (Bruh).
[Oath Knight] Bruh and [Executioner] Bill were also both part of the Tribunal Sequence. Disguising themselves was no trouble at all.
He led the two strongest Pirate Generals, [Throatslitter] and [Hook], along with Geronimo, Wayne Dote's grandfather, who, having stepped into Third Order, was gradually becoming inhuman as an [Eagle Spirit Warrior].
The central force, with the Marines, was personally commanded by General Newman. The rear was secured by the Grand Wizard, [Swarm].
CLANG—!
In the woods, a flash of cold light appeared as Byron suddenly drew his sword.
In just an instant, he sliced a dozen blood-drinking insects that were rapidly shooting down from the moss-covered treetops, cutting them cleanly in half.
Before the others could react, his Bastard Sword was already sheathed.
This technique with the Bastard Sword was several times faster than others' Swift Swords.
He glanced casually at the alert that had just been updated in the [Sailing Logbook].
It turned out to be a blood-drinking insect named "sweat leech," possessing a very strong thermal sensing ability and capable of tracking homeothermic creatures by bouncing.
When biting, it released an anesthetic and an anticoagulant, making the bite painless.
Excessive blood loss could lead to sudden fainting, from which one might never awaken; sometimes even a tough-skinned wild ox could not withstand it.
The perils of the rainforest are everywhere, but it is also a treasure trove of unknown mysteries. If I had chosen to become a [Naturalist], my prospects would indeed be bright.
He shook his head with a touch of regret.
[Naturalists], upon reaching Second Order, obtain the core ability [Exploration Discovery]. The more they explore the unknown, the greater their Spirituality becomes.
Furthermore, the rarer the discovery they are the first to find in an unknown world, and the fewer people who find it, the stronger the skills they can borrow from the discovery.
For example, a deep-sea giant octopus—if only he discovered it, perhaps he could summon a projection to assist in combat. But if hundreds or thousands found it, maybe it would only add a bit of swimming proficiency.
And that swimming skill would have to be the "eight-leg adapted version."
The graded abilities of the Ladder of Glory are just like that; each has its shortcomings and strengths, so envy is futile. It's merely that his propensity for looting and skinning twitched, grieving over the inability to maximize the benefits of exploration.
I do know that those national powers laboring steadily in the rear are merely the third and fourth echelons. Various indications show that south of the Bantaan Archipelago, there's an even larger landmass rather than an island. The strongest Adventurers and Great Pirates of the Bantaan Archipelago have already gone farther south, competing for the right to discover new sea routes and new continents. Navigators, [Naturalists], morale-boosting [Singers], the [Gunsmiths] I've coveted for so long... yet on my ship, many essential positions are still vacant. There is much to be done.
After walking several more miles, he suddenly sensed an unusual fishy smell mixed in the wind and barked a command, "On guard! To the right-hand side of the group, ten meters in the brush, Musketeer Corps, concentrate fire!"
As the vanguard, the highly vigilant elite Pirates responded quickly to the order and immediately fired their guns.
BANG! BANG! BANG!...
Hundreds of shots blanketed the underbrush, which was half a man's height.
BOOM! A gust of foul air billowed.
Out of the bushes, a gigantic creature leaped skyward, then slammed heavily in front of the group, revealing its true form.
It was a massive, bucket-thick, bluish-gray serpent!
Though riddled with bullet holes, its strong vitality kept it opening its enormous jaws, writhing and rolling on the ground, letting out a chilling, hissing sound.
"Such a huge snake! What does it eat to grow that big?"
While its size didn't quite match the Sea Monsters they had faced before, the close encounter with such a creature still frightened everyone.
If Byron had not detected it in time, it would have been no problem for the serpent to swallow two or three people at once.
Monsters like this could be lurking in the depths of the jungles in untold numbers.
They had just entered Yucatan Island for less than a day, and already it was as if they had strayed into a lost ancient world.
Unlike the east of Bantaan Archipelago, which had been transformed through the [Silver Law] and countless lighthouses, the west was bloody, closed-off, and wild...
Both the plants and animals continually challenged the worldviews of the group.
This was without considering the Bizarre and Evil Spirits that were bound to appear after nightfall.
In the leading group, an exceptionally majestic giant eagle suddenly soared into the sky, flew next to the great snake, pecked open its belly, and pierced it.
It then devoured the snake's heart and gallbladder in a single gulp.
With a flap of its wings, it landed beside Byron, returning to the form of an old man with a pair of golden eagle eyes, vigorous spirit, and an imposing presence.
In front of Byron, the benefactor who had saved his only grandson, Geronimo, an old man who held a position among the top three in Chichen Itza City as the Captain of the Temple Guard, showed no pretense.
He nodded amicably to him. "Captain Byron, according to your units of measurement, there are approximately two more kilometers until we reach the first designated campsite. I suggest we set up camp right here. At night, there will be no place safer in this jungle than the abandoned Tarasco City-State."
Even though many in the group possessed Extraordinary Power, and the rest were elites, the tropical rainforest before them was no ordinary challenge.
The inherent vitality of the tropical rainforest meant that even if local Hunters blazed a trail, it would regrow into a dense jungle within a few days.
For this team to march fifty kilometers a day in the tropical rainforest was about the limit to maintain combat readiness.
The two of them served as leaders and guides.
Besides keeping the route correct, planning when to march and when to rest was also a task that tested both ability and experience.
This also explained one of the reasons General Newman and the others were so eager to have native collaborators.
Just like Bayfolk Princess Violet, Byron also heeded advice in fields he was not an expert in and promptly acquiesced. "As you say. Notify the rear, we set up camp ahead!"
Before the sun had even set, in the late afternoon, he ordered the vanguard to set up camp in the ancient city they could already see ahead, amongst the stone structures.
At this time, Wayne Dote, responsible for scouting ahead with the [Eagle Spirit Warriors], descended from the sky to Byron and Geronimo's side. "Captain, Grandfather, we've just scouted ahead, and aside from some scattered wild animals, it's safe. But there's something strange. There's a clean water source nearby and vast farmlands that have been reclaimed by the rainforest, yet not a single corpse or bone can be seen on the ground. Why would those pesky Aztecs abandon such a rare and favorable place like Tarascan City?"
The question at the end was clearly directed at Geronimo, who had lived in the jungle his entire life.
"Tarascan City..."
The old man's gaze became distant, as if he was traversing through decades of time, back to when the People of Castilia had just arrived at these islands.
"To speak of that, one cannot avoid mentioning the 'Bone Gnawing God,' a Curse Spirit."
The moment he uttered this name, the jungle that had been alive with various sounds suddenly fell silent.
Including Byron, all listeners unconsciously held their breath.
"When those People of Castilia first discovered Yucatan Island, they were nowhere near as composed as they are now. They had no idea that the populations of the two great Empires numbered in the tens of millions, surpassing those small tribes they had easily conquered in terms of organization, Extraordinary Levels... in every aspect. They even thought the imperial city-states were as fragile as the scattered Tenor People on the eastern islands, guarded only by Totem Poles. At their first stop in this Tarascan City, they met with a harsh lesson..."
Listening to the story from that distant era, Byron felt as though he could faintly smell blood and rotting flesh.
The deity worshipped by this city in the jungle was Death God Apuche, a powerful Nature Spirit whose status in the Aztec faith system was not inferior to that of the Feathered Serpent God.
It had a skull for a head, fleshless ribs, a spine bristling with thorns, and its flesh all over was highly decomposed.
It was said to have been born from the battlefields where Aztecs fought year after year, leaving a landscape strewn with corpses.
When those desperately poor Castilian adventurers paid a heavy price to breach Tarascan City, enraged shamanic Wizards conducted a forbidden ritual, sacrificing the souls of their entire tribe to Death God Apuche.
They severed all anchors and deliberately sank their islet in the Spiritual World—an islet formed by all the city-state's living people and ancestors—causing it to submerge entirely into the Primordial Ocean.
This act was akin to the Bayfolk detonating the "Valhalla of Heroes."
Immediately after, a terrifying avenger was born from the intense hatred in the dead bones and flesh of the tens of thousands of people of the city-state as well as the People of Castilia.
It was clothed in a filthy deerskin war robe, with black maggots writhing within its body.
Its head was a white, terrifying skull, wielding an obsidian saw-toothed sword—also called a "Macuahuitl"—and an obsidian spear.
It rode a skeletal warhorse, wreathed in tattered ropes and caltrops, its nostrils flaring sparks.
That was an exotic Species brought by the People of Castilia.
"During that time, the 'Bone Gnawing God' roamed the vast rainforest like a bone-gnawing maggot, killing all outsiders with Aztec blood on their hands. Of course, at that time, the only outsiders in the entire Bantaan Archipelago were the People of Castilia. Unafraid of swords, spears, or firearms, it surpassed ordinary Evil Spirits and Bizarre entities in Rank—a true 'Curse Spirit' (Chapter 59)! It was the incarnation of a curse, appearing and disappearing unpredictably, unstoppable and undying. Even if temporarily killed, it would return after a period of time. Once targeted by it, even if one temporarily escaped, they might suddenly die an abrupt death some day..."
As they reached this point in the story, the group just stepped out of the rainforest and had a full view of the city where the 'Bone Gnawing God' was born.
WHOOSH...
Though they were clearly in a tropical jungle bathed in pleasant afternoon sunlight, a piercingly cold wind suddenly swept across the nape of their necks.
Everyone, except Byron, who wore the Storm Sigil Ring on his hand.