Once Tom logged back in, he immediately left the town for the forest, deciding to claim as much of its resources for himself before the bigger factions turned their targets from the zones to the areas around them.

If other monsters were as valuable as the one he had just hunted, he would only have to hunt nine more of them before he could purchase the guide. Or maybe he could find something valuable? Like some plants, or such.

That got him thinking. The tree that the monster had lived under, in a way seemed much more special than the monster itself, as the whole part forest pretended to look like it.

And it seemed quite unlikely that the monster could have caused the whole forest to act like that. So what was the tree hiding? What had caused the monster to choose just it as its home?

Deciding on his direction, he did his best to follow the root he took back from the camouflage area while focusing on the mana around him, looking for the particular type of mana.

He continued walking in the direction he thought he came from, but he hadn't yet noticed any camouflage mana. It was like it was nicely contained to that particular corner of the forest, with none of it leaking into its surroundings. However, as he started to doubt his directional skill, it was like a critical mass had been achieved, and he noticed that a large part of the mana around him was the camouflage mana. Like it, there was too much of it to hide, so instead, it started to obscure the other mana types around it, deciding that if it couldn't hide behind others, everything would become like it.

He continued deeper, following the rising percentage of the mana until he couldn't tell its volume apart from the other. Then started looking at the trees, trying to spot the one that didn't change. It was boring work, staring at a tree until he could tell what it truly looked like. But after ten minutes, he finally spotted one that was too much like the others, as it was the original.

He made his way to it and started stomping around it, looking for the monster home, deciding that starting his inspections of the area from there would be an as good place as any.

Soon enough, his foot sunk much more than it was supposed to as it plunged into the creature's home. He enlargened the hole until he could see inside, and there he saw a bit over meter wide burrow, surrounded by roots that were appearing out of nowhere whenever he dragged his vision over the walls of the burrow. In the center, right under the tree, he saw a nest made of dirt? But as he looked at it more intently, he realized that it was a bundle of sticks piled up together to create a nest.

He started to widen the hole for more so he could go in and collect them, reasoning that they had to be worth something. When he managed to widen it enough, he dived down, head first, fishing for the sticks.

As he entered the burrow, he noticed how the mana was on completely another level, like it was almost trying to get into his body. He could feel it just outside of his body, trying to blend in with his skin and clothes. He didn't like the feeling at all, so he quickly emptied the burrow of the sticks and pulled himself out of the hole wanting to exit it as soon as possible.

After that, he focused his mind and tried to feel the energies inside of the sticks. And sure enough, they were filled to the brim with camouflage mana, just like his trusty stick he had used as his first weapon, was full of nature mana equally spread through it.

Next, he checked the main tree. And sure enough, once his hand touched it, he could feel ridiculous amounts of the camouflage mana just under the surface encompassing the whole tree. Unlike monsters, the energy wasn't centered around something like a core. No, the whole of the tree was the core, the energy was filling its every branch and root. Tom quickly pulled his hand away, scared away by facing so much mana in one location.

Tom shortly wondered if he should collect some of the tree's branches to sell, but quickly concluded that it would be a terrible idea. He didn't wish to be anywhere near when someone would be dumb enough to try and take something out of the trees. The energy sitting inside it scared him. He could see how if even a bit of it was released into him, he would get to experience the second round of a foreign force taking control of his body and destroying it from the inside out. Just the idea made him shudder.

There were around twenty of the sticks, all having different mana concentrations, every piece somewhat below what the tree had. The sticks created quite a large pile, so he had to tie most of them in a bundle above his backpack. He might as well see how much they were worth if it would be worthy of his time in the future to collect more of them.

Then he started making his way out of the camouflage mana area, aiming to go into deeper parts of the forest, curious about what else he could find inside of it.

The further away he got from the creature's home, the more anxious he got. He hadn't run into any other living creatures for half an hour. He didn't believe that the creature had hunted everything in this large of an area. Then again, it could just be possible that he was too loud, and all of the forest occupants just hid from him. Maybe he could only spot the creature that had sought him out as their next diner.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

He continued walking, every now and then enjoying the scenery when he wasn't looking around for anything dangerous. Periodically he would focus on the mana around him, looking for anything interesting.

After another fifteen minutes and he was starting to get confused. Wasn't this forest supposed to be dangerous? He had only run into one other living creature, and that was it, he could see no marks of anything else living here.

While later, he ran into a river. He was quite sure that it was the same one that circled the city, so he switched his direction, wanting to explore the deeper parts of the forest.

He continued walking until he finally felt something different. The mana levels in the air were starting to rise. Tom was excited and wary. What would be waiting for him? As surely some creature would have claimed this area as their own.

He started making his way forwards extremely carefully, trying to improve his pitiful sneaking skills, hoping that maybe this time he would be the one that got the drop on their opponent.

However, he had no such luck. After a while, Tom was sure that he was being watched. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and he could almost tell that something drew back into the foliage whenever he looked turned around.

He quickly started looking for a place where he could have the advantage, in case he wasn't imagining things.

He continued walking, making his way away from where he thought the creature was. This continued for good ten minutes. Tom was confused, did he truly run into another creature that would only attack him if he gave it a perfect opportunity?

Tom tried his previous tricks, falling over while brandishing his weapons after he fell, but nothing happened. However, the feeling of being watched never stopped. On the contrary, it was intensifying. It was almost like the opponents were multiplying.

As he had nothing else to go by than his gut feeling, so he decided to trust it. He decided that it would be for the best if he end this before the things stalking him could cooperate. So he turned around in an instant and rushed towards the spot where he thought they were.

He rushed past a brush and turned around in an instant. There were three wolves there just five meters away.

He started running away from them, and in an instant, the forest came to life. Four more wolves shot towards him from his sides, on top of the three behind him.

He didn't waste any time checking them out. He knew when he was outmatched. He pushed everything he had into his legs, not daring to look backward, hearing their bounding footsteps just behind him.

After five minutes, he was starting to get confused. Was he truly faster than the wolves? The distance between them hadn't changed at all, the footsteps still sounded the same distance away.

Tom was starting to have a bad feeling about this, as a word popped into his head "shepherd." He tried to switch his direction, but it was already too late. There were wolves running on the same level with him on his sides. He had already fallen into their trap.

While he ran, he tried to figure a plan out. " How can I get away from this? Fight them now? Or wait for an advantageous environment?"

But before he could come to any conclusion, he saw how the forest was starting to thin out, and in the distance, he could see mountains, volcanos, big trees, and other tall natural structures. But there was something strange about them. They seemed almost like they were shorter than they should be?

He didn't have time to take the fantastic view in as he continued rushing forwards, not realizing why the wolves were driving him there.

However, soon enough, it became clear to him that as he got closer to it, he could see a ledge, and beyond it, a whole new world opened up to him.

As he got closer to it, he started to realize what the wolves intended. Before him was just a cliff face that continued in a straight line as far as the eye could see, and beyond it, there was nothing but empty air.

But before the despair could truly set in, he heard a continuous rumbling sound. He was momentarily confused, but then his brain placed the pieces together, river + big fall = waterfall.

He made an immediate turn towards it. Maybe the river could save him?

Just one wolf was standing before him, guarding his escape route toward the river, most of them were blocking his path backward, keeping him pinned between them and the cliff.

Tom rushed straight at it, his blades ready to cut it down, but to his surprise, it didn't contest him, instead it moved backward, blocking his path away from the cliff, making sure that he ran parallel to it.

He didn't look the gift horse in the mouth, accepted his good luck, and continued on running, still holding onto hope.

While he ran, the wolves kept up effortlessly, reacting to his every attempt to run in any other direction than parallel to the cliff toward the river. This more than anything else, made him worried about what waited for him at the river. And sure enough, once he finally saw it, he could feel his despair rising it was over ten meters wide, and the current was so strong that nothing short of jet-powered hovercraft could cross it.

He started slowing down and looking at his pursuers. Altogether, there were ten wolves in a quarter circle around him, closing him between the cliff and river, slowly approaching him, making his space smaller and smaller, and forcing him to slowly back away. He could finally fully see over the cliff, it was a truly beautiful sight. A completely new world opened up before his eyes.

There were countless different biomes, just like the camouflage area, clearly affected by something other that isn't normally seen in the wilderness. He saw vibrantly colorful forests, different colors mixing together with patches of certain colors sticking out. Some areas had big mushrooms, and if he wasn't mistaken, there was an active volcano far in the distance that had something akin to trees burning on its hills. There was just too much to take in.

Everything must have been fifty meters below him, the cliff wall was like a divider between two different worlds. Like someone had taken a ruler and drawn a line across a map, and everything on its other side was a mess of different biomes somehow working together, sunken down the height of a twenty-story building.

He had no time to take it all in, as his death was slowly but surely approaching. The wolves weren't rushing, as when their prey was completely trapped, their steps only seemed to grow more careful, not giving away any weakness, standing as a one against a single opponent.

Tom took another glimpse over the edge and admired its chaotic beauty while keeping eye on the wolves movements.

*sight*

Tom took his backpack off and let it drop over the ledge.

"Time to see just how sturdy this body is..."

Then he took a running start, aiming to get as near as he could to the point where the waterfall hit the water below.

Then he jumped.