Despite the loss, we had to continue on, or we would be killed, too. We eventually decided to store Saskia's body in my inventory before moving onto our journey. All of us were quiet. Although we hadn't known Saskia for more than a few hours, the impact of having someone die on us was still great. As we trekked on through the forest, a gloomy mood settled on us and the atmosphere was heavy. The uncomfortable silence lasted for an hour before a roar broke the quietness like hammer crushing glass. I smirked coldly. Whatever the beast was, it came at a horrible time.
I was ready to slice it up into little chunks of flesh to satisfy the itching urge within me. It called me to kill, to destroy, as if that would bring Saskia back. It wouldn't, but it would at least satisfy my simmering anger. With all these thoughts rushing through my brain and heating me up into an enraged frenzy, I lunged towards the moving shadow, releasing a volley of arrows while bringing out my lion claw daggers. My knife dug a deep hole in the unfortunate deer's stomach, and it collapsed onto the ground.
It was only then that I took in the appearance of my opponent. The deer was larger than normal, and its body was glowing a faint green. The creature's horns had interesting growths attached to them, the way a parasitic vine would wrap itself around a perfectly healthy tree. I pulled out the pair of daggers from its flesh, waiting for the ringing of the notification alarm.
Ding!
You have slain 1x Forest Deer [Lvl. 5]! You gained 500EXP, 4x Forest Deer Meat, 2x Parasitic Wormvine Seeds, 200 New Gems
I was starting to hate that sound, but I didn't have time to complain as the sound of hooves thundering against the forest floor soon reached me. Another deer, presumably one of the same species as the creature I just killed, appeared in front of us, three of its companions in tow. I growled as I stood up, leaping to meet them. I sent a wave of shadow essence to the first deer as I landed two slashes on the second. At the same time, three poisonous arrows were dispatched straight for the third deer. They were all helplessly lying on the ground within a minute, leaving Elias and Kaelen shocked. Even so, it was not enough to quench my desire for revenge.
I didn't even know what I wanted to do to avenge Saskia, but I just had to keep killing things until I found out.
You have slain 1x Forest Deer [Lvl. 5]! You gained 500EXP, 3x Forest Deer Meat, 1x Forest Deer Antler (Parasitic), 200 New Gems
You have slain 1x Forest Deer [Lvl. 5]! You gained 500EXP, 4x Forest Deer Meat, 2x Parasitic Wormvine Seeds, 200 New Gems
You have slain 1x Forest Deer [Lvl. 5]! You gained 500EXP, 2x Forest Deer Meat, 1x Forest Deer Pelt Suit (Unbonded), 200 New Gems
900EXP to next level!
"Terra, you were so fast," Elias' gaze was filled with something similar to admiration.
However, Kaelen frowned as she warned me, "Terra, I know you feel bad about her death, but think about it. If you risk your own life in fighting battles we could have won together, and you die, you are dishonoring her sacrifice even more."
I should listen to her, I knew I should, but the rage boiling in my heart overshadowed everything, coloring the whole world in bright red glasses. She could sprew out all these lies, I thought, but all she really wanted was the loot. Even having this thought was wrong in so many different levels, and I was aware of that, but I wasn't really in control of my own thoughts anymore. The anger was mind-numbing, and it felt so good to fall into its trap, occupying my hands and my mind with nothing except battle.
Even so, I had to keep my thoughts and my words separate, so I nodded rigidly, "Alright, I will be more careful in the future. Don't worry about me."
It was clear on her face that she did not believe me, but the girl said nothing more as we continued on. Casual chatter between Elias and Kaelen started after a while, but I didn't bother joining them. Instead, I spread out my senses as much as I could to scout for any possible enemies nearby, spreading a thin veil of shadow essence through the forest around us. To be honest, I would probably choose to lead us towards a group of monsters just to let off some steam, but much to my annoyance, there was no such opportunity. Our surroundings was infuriatingly devoid of any beasts, as if they were avoiding me intentionally. My vision darkened.
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When we finally arrived at the camping site, I put on a convincing smile and suggested, "I'll build the tree house, and we can fight a few monsters before coming back to rest for the night. Unless any of you wants to train?"
I sent a similar message to Hydra as I waited for Elias' and Kaelen's replies, 'Hydra? We're stopping here for the permanent base. If no one objects, we'll be fighting more monsters after I build the base. Can you look for any potential opponents?'
'Fine, wait for me', Surprisingly, Hydra did not refuse my request this time, and I could hear his heavy wingbeats as he flew away.
"I'm fine with that," Elias shrugged, "To me, monster fighting is a good way of practising while getting rewards at the same time."
"I would be overruled even if I said no," Kaelen sighed, scrutinizing me as she continued, "So I vote yes, but only if we can actually work as a team."
She gave a pointed look at me, which roused my anger again, but I pushed a wiggling frown down as I nodded. A wave of nausea and bone aches swept through me as I tried to cage my emotions in so as not to show irritation on my face.
Kaelen looked satisfied at that. Taking advantage of their agreement and how Hydra had not returned yet, I opened my inventory to create the wooden tree house. Of course, it is possible to make a permanent base using Artist, but I wasn't sure how much mana this endeavor would take. If there is resources already available to use, there was no reason for me to create the tree house myself.
As the blue screen appeared in front of me, I was briefly worried that the screen would still be locked since it might not have been two hours yet, but the inventory page popped up without any ERROR notices.
11460 New Gems, 5 Ancient Crystals
W: Weapons
M: Materials
C: Clothing
T: Tools
F: Food
CI: Cursed Items
MI: Magical Items
O: Other
2x Lion Claw, 1x Lion Hide, 1x Raw Lion Meat, 1x Green Bean Seed, 1x Rope, 1x Rope [Acid Resistant], 1x Magma Griffin Golem Feather [Unbonded], 2x Cooked Griffin Meat, 1x Magma Griffin Golem Cloak [Unbonded], 7x Stingers, 8x Worker Bee Venom Sacs, 1x Exoskeleton Armor [Unbonded], 1x Teleportation Crystal to City Grounds, 1x Teleportation Crystal to the location of your choice, 1x Skin Suit [Unbonded], 3x Mutated Bear Claws, 1x Skeleton Cage, 1x Human-Hair Wig, 1x Fox Tail [Evolved], 10x Three-Headed Cobra Scales, 2x Forest Deer Meat, 3x Horned Wolf Meat, 1x Ability Stone: Shroud of Darkness, 3x Darkness Bombs, 1x Concealing Cloak [Unbonded], 2x Python Meat, 2x Python Fangs (Venomous), 1x Temporary Shelter, 50x Wooden Logs (Basic), 50x Wooden Planks (Basic), 100x Nails (Strong), 50x Wooden Tiles (Thin), 100x Small Stones, 1x Venom Sac, 4x Two-Headed Cobra Scales, 1x Wolf Horn, 13x Forest Deer Meat, 1x Forest Deer Antler (Parasitic), 4x Parasitic Wormvine Seeds, 1x Forest Deer Pelt Suit (Unbonded), 1x Body of Saskia Reyes
I tried not to look at the last item in my inventory as I focused on creating the tree house. Just like how it was like when I first received the resources, merely thinking about the final product I wanted to produce was sufficient to generate a System message that I had been waiting for. Seeing it reassured me somehow and calmed me down, even by the tiniest amount.
Build a Tree House?
[Yes] [No]
Without much hesitation, I pressed 'yes' and the screen turned to a loading bar as the System began constructing the tree house on an ancient oak tree nearby.
Build a Tree House in progress!
Time Remaining: 20 minutes
"It said it would take a while," I relayed the information to Kaelen and Elias. At the same time, Hydra returned from his flight with a piece of bad news.
'Hatchling, it is very weird,' the dragon's low voice rumbled in my mind, 'There are no signs of monster activity anywhere nearby. I did not search very deeply, but most monsters should be visible to me on a quick, basic scan.'
'So either they are too strong, too good at disguising themselves, or there's just no monster nearby,' I deduced.
As soon as the dragon sent an emotion wave of affirmation, I disconnected our telepathic link to explain the situation to Elias and Kaelen, "I asked Hydra to search the surrounding woods for potential enemies we can fight... and he found none."
"None?!" Kaelen's eyes widened as she exclaimed with much shock on her face, "Terra, what did you do?"
"Maybe we are too strong for them?" Elias smirked, but when neither of us laughed along, his chuckles grew awkward. He soon realized why we were affected by his words, and lowered his head guiltily.
I cleared my throat, swallowing bile as I kept up the positive mask. Inwardly, I wanted to strangle him. If we were powerful enough, she wouldn't have died.
"I don't know," I replied honestly. There were three (and maybe more) reasons behind the disappearance of monsters nearby, and I couldn't be sure which ones caused it, "But rather than coming up with ways to explain the mass monster deletion, there is something else we can do while waiting for the tree house to finish building itself."