Ethan smiled and transformed the Demonic Armor on his hand into the shape of an instant-cast magic wand.
Then, he pointed it at the Demon Forest and recited a sentence.
"Great Fire Rain!"
Instantly, countless drops of rain formed from flames descended from the sky.
They fell directly into the Demon Forest, but when the treant saw this, not only did it show no sign of nervousness, it even burst out laughing and said, "You think you can burn down the entire Demon Forest with this little bit of fire? Human, aren't you being too fanciful!"
Sure enough, just as the treant had said, the moment the Great Fire Rain summoned by Ethan fell, countless Shadow Birds flew out of the Demon Forest once again, and then those Shadow Birds charged toward the fire rain one after another, like soldiers determined to die.
Caw!
Sss~
The moment the Shadow Birds collided with the fire rain, they would let out a series of screams.
Then the Shadow Birds would directly perish together with the fire rain. There would even be a sound resembling the "sss" of flames being extinguished coming from the bodies of the Shadow Birds.
It was extremely strange.
"See that?", The treant sneered, "This is the greatness of the Demon Forest! I can only say that the first five stages are absolutely the world of us treants, because apart from us treants, the other races simply can't get through this Demon Forest, hahaha!"
"What if I say I can get through?", Ethan picked his nose, looking somewhat bored, "It only means you can't fly through the sky. That doesn't mean the other paths can't be taken. What's there to be proud of?"
"Heh! If you can get through faster than me, I'll break off all my own hands and feet and give them to you as firewood!"
"Sure, it's a deal!"
After Ethan finished speaking, the armor on his body began to disassemble, then assembled itself into a ground-drilling machine resembling the structure of a pangolin.
Then, Ethan began drilling into the ground.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In merely the blink of an eye, Ethan had already drilled a deep hole into the ground. Then Ethan directly burrowed into the hole like a pangolin and disappeared.
This left the treant staring in dumbfounded amazement from the side.
"This... works too?"
Then, it was afraid that Ethan might really cross the Demon Forest faster than it could...
It immediately didn't dare to delay any longer and hurriedly charged into the Demon Forest. Those trees seemed to be able to sense the aura of their own kind, and they even made way one after another, allowing the treant to pass.
Not long after Ethan and the treant left, the subsequent large group of players who had passed the first stage also arrived one after another.
Naturally, leading the charge were those fearless beastfolk who charged quickly. At this moment, they didn't care what dangers there were in the Demon Forest. They all rushed into the Demon Forest in a swarm.
Then, countless vines instantly descended from the large trees of the Demon Forest, directly hanging those reckless fellows to death one after another, or dragging them into the water and drowning them.
Some were even strangled to death directly.
But these idiots simply didn't care who around them was alive or dead. They only knew how to charge, charge, charge. As long as they charged forward like a herd of pigs, they would definitely win.
By charging straight through recklessly, the tree spirits of the Demon Forest really had no way to deal with these brainless beasts.
They could only watch helplessly as those beasts broke through the Demon Forest's first layer of defenses and charged inward, but following closely behind the beastfolk were the Beast Taming race.
For example, the elephantmen and monkeymen. They all tamed large beasts such as mammoths or gorillas, used them as mounts, and then followed the path opened up by the beastfolk, advancing closely behind them.
As Lord David of Region 2 had gained the favor of an elephantman beast tamer, he had passed through two stages in a row without using almost any effort at all. He simply sat on the back of a mammoth and was carried through.
But the three lords from Region Three, Four, and Nine were not so lucky.
The three of them had narrowly escaped death on the single-plank bridge, and only finally passed the first stage by supporting one another. Afterward, they had finally become a little smarter and followed behind a giant mammoth, finally charging all the way to the Demon Forest.
"Hahaha! We finally passed the first stage."
Orin of Region 4 said excitedly, "The second stage seems to be the Wood Element. It looks like it should be this Demon Forest in front of us."
"With this giant mammoth protecting us, we should be able to get through without any danger," Blake of Region 3 also kept flattering Duma of Region 9, saying, "All of this is thanks to Duma's Forget-Dust Master skill. That's how we made the giant mammoth forget about its own child, and it even came to regard us as its children, protecting us the whole time."
"Hehe, what's so difficult about that?", Duma of Region 9 said proudly, "Making a mere beast's thinking confused is a piece of cake! This time, I don't think Ethan will be so lucky. He should be unable to easily find a giant mammoth to carry him through like we did. I want to see how he plans to win this round!"
However... Before the few of them could finish flattering each other, the system's announcement suddenly rang out from the sky again.
[Congratulations to Player Ⅲ-A7-008 for becoming the first player to pass the second round!]
[He will receive the first-place reward: one Special-Grade Raft!]