Chapter 324 - Day MXCIV

With the newly established jump point next to the bear cave, I decided to take a stab at getting even further. There were two other hunting spots in around a day of travel, which I could cover with ease in way less time.

I started the day with my usual routine, picked the basic supplies, and then shadow walked to the anchor dropped a day before. Visiting the boss was quite tempting, but I decided to do it later if I will have some spare time.

Both places were in opposite directions, so there was also a chance I might be able to reach only one of them, but I only needed one more, since I already was covering three spots.

I ended up picking the location closer to the wastelands. My decision was based on the fact that I could fight walking, spooky threes there. Those were close to the giants in terms of strength, which meant in theory that the crystals will be worth more points.

The day was lovely for a run, except I had to first kill all the bears around. I made my shadows pile up the crystals afterward, unsummoned them, and started running towards the desired location stoping from time to time to kill an animal, and throw the crystal into my backpack.

I progressed further over few hours before I started noticing a change to the environment around me. The bushes on the ground grew bigger, and the trees closer to each other, with way wider three crowns, letting less light pass through. 

Eventually, all I could see were outlines of what was in front of me, so I activated 'Eyes of the Void' to avoid the obstacles, especially the overgrown bushes full of thorns. I damaged my clothes over those a little bit.

The view changed a bit further with sudden openings in the living ceiling, which made me turn the skill off. Those allowed the pillars of light to hit the ground, illuminating everything in an incredibly beautiful way.

I finally could notice the first walking tree with a gorgeous crown made of deep green leaves. The bark over its body was also pretty. The brown had a goldish shimmer to it. It was humanoid in shape with long limbs and branches coming out mainly from the head part, and back. Although it was hard to differentiate the head from the torso. There were also smaller twigs coming out here and there.

The most spooky things were red lights for the eyes. Those send a shiver down my spine. I took a deep breath to calm myself down a bit, and then rushed towards the walking giant vegetation. As soon as it spotted me, it extended its hand, and from the ground rots shot up, aiming to grab me, but I shadow walked the hell out of there and kept running.

That was not the end of the nature working against me, as the same thing repeated itself before I managed to get close enough, to shadow walk into the air behind my enemy, and stab its head. It wasn't a fatal blow though, and I landed heavily on the ground to get myself kicked back into the air.

I landed few meters further, sliding on the ground.

- Why the fuck are you not using fire magic? - I asked myself after a sudden realization of my own stupidity.

Then I shoot a fireball at the creature. The blast almost knocked it down, so I send a few more blowing it up into pieces that soon turned to smoke. A big crystal was left on the ground. Biggest I have ever seen so far. I picked it up using 'Telekinesis' and there into my backpack. Then I dropped the anchor and returned to the bear cave.

It was hard to judge how late it was, but I decided to go for the other location, where giant spiders were having their lair. I had at least a couple of hours before it even started to become dark.

This made me miss modern world technology. Having a watch or a smartphone would now be very useful. Even a freaking compass, which we could possibly even do. I needed to talk about that to Jayadeva. He for sure could make me one.

I kept running for around an hour or maybe two before I decided to pick up some more speed by activating the 'Shadow fusion'. Eventually, the vegetation started to change, indicating I was close to the hunting ground.

The vegetation shrank. Hudge trees became way smaller and twisted by corruption. The bark darkened, and leaves were nowhere to be seen. This allowed a lot of light to pass, illuminating everything, which was a very strange view.

Soon it changed though, with the spider webs showing here and there at first, but pretty quickly that was all I could see.

It was covering everything, obscuring the view like a thick fog. I couldn't even see the trees. Instead, there were just shadows hidden behind white.

The path got blocked, and I had to cut my way through, which, as you probably are thinking right now, was not a good idea. The first thing I noticed was webs moving occasionally on their own. It could be just wind, but I thought that's probably the monsters, so I activated shadow fusion just in case.

Which was a great idea, by the way, as I was almost immediately swarmed by several giant spiders with legs at least two meters long, covered in thick hair, that was basically like thorns. The abdomens were rather slim and long. They had a set of eight eyes, all set on me, their pray. The mouth was disgusting, with colorless liquid coming out of the venom teeth.

Without even thinking I blasted few fireballs their way, causing a couple of explosions, and a freaking fire, as the webs caught my flames. Those spread rather quickly. There was no sign of the spiders anymore. 

- Fuck - escaped my mouth.

I dropped the anchor, went back to the city to bring more backpacks, and returned. Then summoned the shadows to help me collect the crystals. To my surprise, the trees were mostly intact. Few were burning here and there, but overall, it wasn't that bad. After around three miles of walking in very annoying heat, I found the endpoint of the fire I caused. If not for my fire resistance I probably wouldn't get that far, and had to give up on the way.

It was ridiculous, but there was a wall made of webs, that apparently didn't burn. This had to be a part made by different types of the same monster. I looked at the sky, with the sun still hanging there indicating at least an hour or maybe two of sunlight.

This could be enough, but I decided to just return to the city, and immediately shadow walked to the bear territory to pick up the left crystals, then went to sell them.

It was a tiring day with all the running, and I needed some break and a lot of water. Maybe a clod bath.

I earned 1 740 000 points overall on my little journey. The spider crystals were worth 4 000 points each, and the tree ones were as much as 9 000.

I bought new clothes, as my old ones were pretty damaged by the thorns. Tired I went to soak myself in the water, and then to eat.

The day came to an end with 17 341 489 points remaining on my account, and thirty-eight class points.