“Since we can converse without me going to my Soul Palace, I got something to ask. My mana vessel rank jumped whole rank. How did that happen? Is it possible to replicate that?”

“That happened because of your fight. During your pathetic excuse for a hunt you faced real death and that caused your body and mind to be pushed to its limit and that caused that jump in rank. In other words, by facing death and surviving you managed to get stronger. What doesn’t kill you simply makes you stronger and at the same time if you don’t kill it, it will try again. And you managed to kill both the tiger and ram.”

“Well, that explains a lot, thanks. By the way, you said your roots extend to almost everywhere, right? Does that mean I can speak to you anywhere now?”

“Yes, as long as there is root nearby you.”

“Sure, that will be convenient. Anyway, now that I awakened from my deep slumber, time for a new adventure then. Anything to recommend?”

“Well, considering your capability now you can go there I suppose. There is an interesting cave if you head west after crossing the first boundary. Creatures in there is will no longer pose a threat to you. Try heading there for your new adventure.”

“Are you sure? Last time I listened to you I almost died, you know.”

“It’s not my fault you have experience in fight and hunting next to nothing.”

Stupid firewood. His continuous condensation pisses me off. But I suppose I can try that cave.

“Okay, I will take your recommendation.”

After coming out I head west and crosses the creek and keep heading west with my camouflage on. After using my camouflage, I see that it’s different from before. It makes me blend in more seamlessly with my surroundings.

While walking I pass by a few animals like wolves, tigers and some I don’t even know about.

I come before a cliff after walking for forty more minutes. Still don’t see any cave around.

“Turn around and after walking for ten minutes turn right.”

“What the, is that you tree?”

“Yes, it’s me you idiot. I told you as long as there is a root nearby I can speak to you and this forest is full of my roots.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Following tree’s directions, I come before a cave mouth. About five meters wide and four meters tall dark cave.

“So, what’s so interesting about this cave?”

“First, go in and find out about it yourself.”

Stingy firewood. I enter the cave and proceed carefully. It seems darkness won’t cause much of a trouble like I expected. I can feel my surrounding with my left arm quite clearly. So, this is how trees see. This is kind of nice. I can see almost twenty meters in every direction.

And after walking for about ten minutes I see a sleeping wolf along my path. Suppose I need to kill it to proceed. But this I will make sure it will be a hunt. Let’s try again what I wanted to try with that fucking tiger. I walk as quiet as I can and come near the wolf. After that I conjure up a mana dagger and will it above the wolf’s head and drop it as hard as I can.

Knife pierces through the wolf’s skull and it dies before it realized what happened without making a single sound. I can feel it’s dissipating life force being absorbed by my body. Sweet taste of success.

After dispatching the wolf, I start walking down the cave tunnel. And I come before a crossroad. Now which way to go? Right or left?

“Head right.”

“You can even reach here?”

“Yes, I can. Now stop asking stupid question and head right.”

Stupid firewood. I take right and proceed along the tunnel. This time I come across a strange creature with six feline legs, head of a lizard with no eyes and body of wolf. And it seems it can see me. Considering it lack eyes I suppose it uses smell, but I don’t have any smell under my camouflage so that means it’s more like an echolocation then.

As I come closer it starts to snarl at me with its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. This time let’s take a different approach. Since I’m in an enclosed space I can’t use my fire. So that only leaves my mana weapons.

I conjure up a mana spear this time and steps closer to the beast. As soon as I get in distance of a meter the beast charges at me. I try to thrust with my spear but it fails to pierce it’s hide. But still manages to stop its charge. It seems my spear head is little too dull to pierce its hide. So, I make my spear head slimmer and to make it more durable with slim structure I pump more mana into it to increase its integrity.

This time I take the first move and thrust my spear at its shoulder. And this time my spear pierces its hide. It roars at top of its lungs. And endures pain in its shoulder and lunges at me with its open mouth.

Just as it was about to bite me I shove my left arm into its mouth and pump more mana into my arm. And that causes it to branch out and pierce the beast from inside out, killing it. Still the same feeling.

After killing the beast, I pull my arm out of its mouth and it reverts to its normal form. Okay this may become my favorite weapon. But I’m getting tired of shoving my arm down beasts’ throats to kill them. I need something that will kill with certainty.

Something that won’t put me in danger like my fire breath. Well, let’s keep that in mind. But first let’s find out why the firewood sent me here.

I keep walking down the tunnel. From the way things looking I might need to fight something every few dozen minutes. And just like I suspected I come across another beast.

This time it’s a tiger I fought but slightly bigger. Lucky for me it seems to be sleeping. So, let’s try again my trick with the dagger. But this time let’s try with a spear.

Like last time, only this time I conjure up a spear and raise it as high as it is possible and drop it with all my might. But for some reason fucking tiger moves forward a little bit and manages to avoid my spear from piercing its skull and gets pierced in its neck. As soon as my spear made a contact with its neck it wakes up roaring painfully. It searches for cause of its injury, looking around confused and angrily. But still fails to find me.

And after bleeding for a few minutes it finally starts to weaken and wobbles. As soon as that happens I inch closer to it and conjure up another spear but longer and thrust it to its eyes and kill it.

Hoo, I’m getting good at this shit.

After confirming my kill, I once again start heading down the tunnel. And finally, after walking for almost two hours I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I increase my speed and runs to the end.