Sometimes you have to move past the goal before can you return to obtain it.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

It felt like the caravan was moving at a snail's pace. I was now in charge of 3/4 of the defenses of the caravan throughout the day and night. Many of the mercenaries were treating me like some sort of God amongst men as I easily slaughtered monsters that they would have to attack in groups. Honestly it was boring. Having traveled this exact route more than a dozen times with Kelly I knew every bend and turn the path would take.

With my current level of cultivation a single hour of sleep was enough to last me for over a week worth of activity. I could probably even push the need for sleep back longer if I wanted. I new what the cultivation manual stated but I hadn’t ever needed to stay awake for that long. Looking at the landmarks I knew we were about halfway to Tinder City. I wanted to rush them. While I knew we would arrive before my time limit was up, I had yet to find the hidden treasure.

Over the past four days I had used scan on every wagon, person, and object I could see without a hint of the hidden treasure. My current hope was that I would come across it in Tinder City. I tried to ignore the feeling in my gut telling me it was in Windgate and I missed it in my hurry to get out of the city. With any luck my overtime necklace would give me more than enough time to search Tinder City.

And it's not like my time hadn't been profitable. Over the past several days I had collected close to 1,500 mana gems. While I could try to trade some of them for gold coins I didn't see the point and just kept tossing them into my coin purse as soon as I harvested them.

I had also managed to stumble upon something the cultivation manual did not mention. Most cultivation requires a person to be sitting, with a clear mind, and focused on their body. With my constant repetitive movements of fighting monsters over the past four days, I had managed to enter a weird hybrid state where I was able to cultivate while moving and fighting the monsters. In this state I wasn't fully aware of the monsters I was fighting or the motions of cutting out the mana gems. So it was quite a surprise to me when I suddenly became alert as I felt something was off.

Looking around the caravan I found no cause of alarm. Deciding to be safe, I jogged around the caravan twice before I realized what was odd. Next to the road was a large stone about the size of a wagon. In all my journeys in the Wilds I had never seen a stone here. At first I wanted to chalk it up to Tower irregularities just like how Seth was alive despite me beheading him, but then I realized that maybe the Tower was trying to do something more subtle. Perhaps it was a monster. I had no idea if a monster could appear to be a rock. I decided it was safer to check it out before it could launch a surprise attack on us.

I cautiously approached the rock with my sword out and as I closed in I became more certain. It was just a rock. Sure it was weird that it was next to the road when I had never seen it before, but it was still just a rock. Finally I was within striking distance of the rock and I put my hand on it.

Congratulations you have found a hidden dungeon.

Dungeon: Heart of the Wilds

Difficulty: ★★★

What the hell was a dungeon? Judging by the prompt it was definitely something to do with the Tower. The wording of the prompt made me realize this could be the location of the hidden item for this floor. Which left me with a difficult choice.

Really had three choices. 1) I could abandon the caravan and explore the dungeon on my own. 2) I could continue with the caravan to Tinder City and return after completing the floor to explore the dungeon. 3) I could ignore the dungeon and just focus on completing the floor.

Option one was the dumbest choice. I had no idea what a three star difficulty dungeon was or how long it would take for me to explore. If I left the caravan unguarded there was a good chance I would fail this floor and die. In most cases the third option would probably be the smartest, just ignore the dungeon and focus instead on completing the floor. But I had a secret that made option two the easy choice.

Time limit: 10 days

Time remaining: 5 days 20 hours, 42 minutes*

*Overtime not in effect

The overtime necklace. If it worked the same as the second floor, when I completed the floor goals my time remaining would be increased by a factor of 10. If I could hurry up the caravan and complete the goal with at least two full days remaining, I would have 20 days to complete the dungeon. Surely that would be plenty of time on a floor that only gave me 10 days to complete the main goal.

As we continued forward I spent several hours trying to think of a good excuse that would cause the whole caravan to speed up. As I tried to think of something that would press us on at a faster pace, a terrible roar echoed across the wilderness. Quickly scanning the area, I found what appeared to be a tree moving slowly from the center of the Wilds towards our caravan. It was perfect timing.

Seeing an opportunity to get the caravan moving faster I turn to tell the others only to find all the mercenaries rushing onto the wagons. The wagon drivers were not waiting for anyone to get settled and were picking up speed to move down the road as fast as possible. I ran forward easily catching up to the wagons as my normal running speed outstripped that of a fully loaded wagon.

I took a look back and tried to guess the size of the tree monster. The pines off the side of the path ranged from 30 to 50 feet. Since it towered over the other trees it had to be big. My guess was 80 to 90 feet.

“Miki, that is the guardian of the Wilds,” said Phillip. “What little information we have suggests it is at least level 70. We're going to run for it, but we need help clearing up the monsters that will try to block us as we leave. Do you know how to shoot a crossbow?”

“I do, but I think I will be more useful if I just run in front of the caravan and kill any monsters in our way. If I can keep the road clear, the rest if you can focus on killing anything that slips past me.”

“If you think you can handle it, lead the way.”

I jogged past the rest of the wagons heading to the front. While moving past the wagons I saw the mercenaries handing out crossbows to everyone in the wagon. Surprisingly the drivers and those who had been recruited to help with the animals and loading supplies we also handed crossbows. Hopefully no one would shoot me in the back on accident.

The next four hours were a frantic rush to get away. If that monster was level 70, I was willing to bet all of its stats were in strength and endurance. Even with my cultivation bonuses I didn't know if my weapons would be able to take down a tree. Swords were great at slicing flesh, not chopping wood. Unless the tree-like monster had actual flesh instead of bark and wood I would be in trouble.

We slowed to a stop as the sun set since everybody was tired. That is everybody but me. Running in front of the wagon and clearing the monsters from a single direction was far easier than dashing in circles around the caravan as I had been for the past 4 days.

As the horses were watered, I was invited to join a discussion on how to proceed with the next few days. The various mercenaries and leaders of the caravan discuss different options. I encouraged them to move quickly, but not too fast to over fatigue the horses.

As the son of a merchant I knew caravans lived and died by their horses. While you could push the horses’ pace a little, pushing too hard too often increased the risk of injury. It was not even the big injuries that were the most probable during a week long trip. A muscle injury or strain would lead to the horse refusing to pull any additional weight, leaving you stranded until the horse recovered enough to continue at a very slow walk.

Ultimately it was decided to push the horses a little harder than the normal pace for the next day. Either we would escape the monster's attention by the end of the next day or not. Pushing any harder ran the risk of injuring the horses and not being able to complete the journey at all.

That night I took guard duty by myself and let all the mercenaries rest. I was hoping that if everyone was well rested we could move a bit faster the next day. It also did not hurt to continue filling my coin purse with mana gems. At first light the caravan proceeded to move out at a steady pace and we quickly distanced ourselves from where we had last seen the monster.

We ended up reaching Tinder City on the seventh day. I also reached the bottleneck in my cultivation as I reached level 55 and most of my fighting the last two days of travel had only increased my gem count and not my level. As the last wagon crossed through the gate a portal opened next to me.

Floor cleared! Proceed through the portal for rewards!

Time limit: 10 days

Time remaining: 27 days 1 hours, 14 minutes*

*Overtime in effect