Chapter 306: Thunderbird

Long‑snout Crocodile demons have thick skin and flesh, but their spellcasting ability is quite limited; they are classified as Mid‑stage monsters solely based on their massive size and strength.

Even the largest crocodile demon leader does not reach High‑stage.

After being blinded by Light Burst Technique, they spin wildly in place as if drunk, spewing poison gas to protect themselves. This paralytic toxin poses no threat to Extreme Warriors; they received a weakened toxin resistance from Lei En and have a fifth‑ to sixth‑level resistance.

The Extreme Warriors swing their great swords as easily as chopping melons, cutting down crocodile demons in succession.

Lei En swapped his staff for the Thunder‑and‑Lightning Hammer, charged forward to the largest crocodile demon, ignored the foul poison gas, and smashed its skull in one blow.

Bulaimit's Earth Bear revealed its true form, its massive paws slamming the ground.

The earth trembled.

Dozens of earth spikes pierced the ground, impaling several crocodile demons that were advancing from behind.

A rainbow‑like beam swept across the river, shredding the crocodile demons on this bank into fragments; the remaining few were burned into charred corpses by the Flame Dragon's fire.

The battle ended within ten seconds, and Bulaimit didn't even have a chance to fire.

The dwarf clicked his tongue and sighed, "Having a spellcaster makes all the difference; once the situation is controlled, the fight becomes too easy."

Lei En flung off the crocodile demon brain matter clinging to his war hammer, then sheathed it.

The soul flew out of the corpse and was absorbed by him.

He distributed all the converted electricity evenly among the four Extreme Warriors; it wasn't much, but it boosted their strength a bit.

Bulaimit looked puzzled and asked, "Don't you harvest their Demon Souls?"

He had previously adventured with human super‑humans, and after each battle, the first thing every super‑human did was take out a Soul Stone to collect Demon Souls.

Lei En only then realized his behavior was odd and hurried to explain, "Long‑snout Crocodile demons have scarce Elements and are rather mediocre, so they fetch no good price."

Bulaimit didn't doubt him and laughed, "Lord, you are truly generous!"

He thought Lei En didn't care about small money.

Lei En said nothing more, ordering the Flame Dragon to devour the Long‑snout Crocodile demons' corpses, giving them a full meal and putting the waste to use.

Sounds of flesh being torn apart echoed through the forest; the scene was bloody, and even the river surface turned crimson with blood.

Lei En surveyed his surroundings: the riverside forest was damp, trees dense, underbrush thick, and the farther from the river, the dimmer the light.

The Flame Dragon's size was too large, constantly hindered by the forest, becoming a burden.

Having them circle in the sky would only startle the grass and snakes below.

Moreover, they couldn't be re‑contained in the training space in front of Bulaimit; there was already one Flame Dragon and two Bronze Wild Horses inside, and adding five more Flame Dragons would exceed the electricity capacity.

Lei En felt a headache and could only say, "Keluonuan, you and Badi Shi keep the Flame Dragons behind, fly up to follow every half hour, and stay safe."

The two Extreme Warriors grasped the intent and replied in unison, "Got it, boss."

Lei En nodded and glanced at his phone interface.

After entering the river valley, the weather display showed a rise in nearby Thunder Element density, matching the information Elder Suolim had provided.

Logically, the denser the Thunder Elements, the higher the chance of thunder‑type creatures appearing.

He walked two circuits nearby, observing the index changes and consulting the valley map, roughly mapping the distribution of Thunder Elements.

Then, pointing toward a direction, he said, "Let's go, let's check over there."

"Big Horn!"

Bulaimit shouted, expertly sending the Earth Bear ahead to clear a path, while the Green Forest Owl perched on his shoulder rose into the air, its sharp gaze scanning the surroundings.

He stayed beside Lei En, with the two Extreme Warriors following behind.

The Earth Bear formed a layer of stone armor around its body; thorns and underbrush could not impede it at all, and its massive frame carved a passage through the forest.

The party advanced along the riverbank.

Lei En activated the Voice of All Things, constantly listening to the surrounding sounds.

"Goo…"

Not far after they set out, the Green Forest Owl deftly swooped through the canopy and let out a soft call; Bulaimit shared its view and said, "A few wolves are hidden behind a tree trunk about 150 steps away, possibly Thunder Wolves. Shall we go?"

"Not Thunder Wolves," Lei En shook his head.

In fact, he had spotted them even earlier than the Green Forest Owl; judging by their heartbeats, they were just an ordinary wolf pack, not even a beast, so they couldn't be Thunder Wolves.

Bulaimit, however, didn't believe him and ordered the Earth Bear to change course, charge forward once near.

A few gray wolves fled in terror toward the distance.

"Uh…" the dwarf looked startled and a bit embarrassed; as an old hunter, his judgment was less accurate than Lei En's, and he asked, "How did you know?"

"I can hear a lot," Lei En said, pointing to his ear, without further explanation.

Bulaimit exclaimed, "So it's super hearing!"

From then on, he fully witnessed how powerful Lei En's perception was.

No matter what monster they encountered, Lei En was always the first to spot it, pinpoint its exact location, and pull it out of hiding.

Some monsters could be identified by Lei En without even seeing them.

The dim, complex forest environment hardly affected Lei En; it was as familiar to him as his own living room, and every uninvited guest that entered his auditory range could not escape his ears.

Some monsters could hold their heartbeat, hiding or camouflaging themselves.

Nevertheless, Lei En could still see through them at a glance.

Even the most realistic disguises or transformations could not fool Lei En's eyes; it seemed nothing in the world could hide from his sight.

This made Bulaimit utter a sigh of frustration.

Hunters rely most on perception, and few can match him; Bulaimit had always been proud of his keen senses, thinking the forest was his domain, only to be outclassed by Lei En and become dispensable.

Indeed, the Ismu River Valley harbored many thunder‑type species.

In just a few hours, Lei En's party discovered cloud martens, lightning foxes, Thunder Wolves, silver‑ring rattlesnakes, and so on in the forest—five or six species that could develop Thunder‑Affinity, far more than elsewhere.

Unfortunately, they all lacked the Thunder‑Affinity Element, and after being killed, their Demon Souls were collected in Soul Stones.

The sky darkened quickly.

The party set up camp by the river for the night and continued searching the next day.

The valley's size was neither large nor small, and Lei En could only search it piece by piece. After three consecutive days of searching, they reached the middle region of the valley on the fourth day.

Here the thunder Element density reached 12, the peak value in the valley.

In the forest, Lei En suddenly halted his steps.

"Did you find something?"

Blaymit habitually asked, and after hundreds of times in the past few days he had become numb.

Lei En gave no answer, but turned back to the riverbank and stared ahead.

This river is called the Ismu River, originating from meltwater of the Shi Jie Shan Mai, flowing through the Sain Plateau before emptying into the Sea of Dead Forest; Lei En had traveled from upstream to downstream.

More than a kilometer downstream, a sheer cliff hundreds of meters high rose on the left bank of the rapid current.

The cliff wall was almost vertical to the water, as if a mountain peak had been sliced off halfway; its broad top was the highest point within dozens of miles, like an island rising from the sea of forest.

From afar, the entire cliff and the opposite slope were dotted with thousands of massive nests.

Inside the nests lived a single large blue‑gray bird, its feathers coursing with lightning.

"Thunderbird?"

Blaymit widened his eyes, saw the bird clearly, and exclaimed, "Maharl is up there, there are far too many thunderbirds!"

Lei En's expression was also grave.

He had seen thunderbirds before; last year at Viola's Winter Thunder Fortress he fought a shape‑shifting Wizard, who turned into a thunderbird before dying and was killed by Lei En's rainbow‑light beam.

Thunderbirds are well‑known birds of prey: they are slender, their bodies not as bulky as giant eagles, with long necks, a tuft of crest behind the head, and proportionally wider wingspans. This build gives them extremely fast flight, but their strength is low and they cannot carry much weight, making them unsuitable as mounts.

However, thunderbirds excel at casting thunder‑type spells.

From the initial stage to the high stage, each advancement lets a thunderbird comprehend one or two new spells, and the chance of gaining lightning Affinity is not low.

Lei En already knew thunderbirds prefer to live in flocks, yet the number of this flock far exceeded the norm.

Because they were too far away to count.

He could only roughly estimate, somewhere between three thousand and four thousand.

Judging from size, ninety percent of thunderbirds have wingspans under three meters—these are initial‑stage birds; mid‑stage thunderbirds have wingspans around five meters, at least three hundred of them; high‑stage thunderbirds dwell in the highest nests, few in number, only a handful, and their wingspans reach seven to eight meters!

Lei En saw no larger thunderbirds, so none had reached the legendary stage.

Blaymit looked at the flock and said, "Thunderbirds are highly alert; they sense enemies through changes in nearby thunder Elements. Once they spot a target, they swarm wildly."

"Dozens of thunderbirds releasing lightning together are as powerful as central spells."

"If hundreds, even thousands attack simultaneously, it's essentially an enhanced 'Thunder Cloud Storm', instant‑cast, long‑lasting, and no magical resistance, however high, can endure it."

Lei En nodded.

He had thunderbird data in his phone library, just as the dwarf had said.

Blaymit, feeling the difficulty, shook his head and said, "If you want Lightning Affinity Elements, you must hunt high‑stage thunderbirds, but not every high‑stage bird has lightning affinity; you may have to try many times—it's troublesome!"

For anyone else, that would certainly be a hard problem.

Lei En has a Soul Eye, so he can pinpoint targets easily. He didn't need to mention it; he would simply select a lightning‑affine thunderbird when the time came and claim it was luck.

He didn't rashly approach, but kept observing; however, from that distance he couldn't see the Elements.

Just as he was thinking of a plan, dark clouds gathered overhead and humidity increased.

Soon, thunder roared.

A torrential downpour fell over the boundless forest, the river grew even more rapid, and bolts of lightning struck the cliff tops where the thunderbirds nested.

(End of chapter)