After travelling for about four days I finally arrived at my destination. Right now, I’m standing on a foot of the naked mountain. There isn’t a single tree on this mountain. Near the peak, there is a huge cave mouth and there are large green crows flying or perched around that cave. Smallest ones are almost four meters long when they are flying. And almost two meters tall when perched on a rock.

Some are going in and out of the cave. Some are bringing something from far and heading inside the cave.

“Are you sure your memento is in there?”

“Of course, I’m sure you cretin. Or else why would I come and beg the World Tree or require your help. Now get up there and get me my memento this instant you cretin.”

“I go up there now I will simply become a crow’s stool. I need to sneak in when it gets dark.”

“Fine.”

From the looks of it I may need to commit another genocide. But once again problem is I don’t know what might pop out of the cave this time.

Last time with bats even bigger bats popped up. And I’m pretty sure this time will be same too. So, I need to do a little bit of surveillance first and know what I’m up against.

“Anyway, can you elaborate on what these crows can do.”

“Well, all of them are poisonous. So, avoid getting scratched by their claws or getting pecked by their beaks. Smaller ones are only that but bigger ones are capable of breathing acid from long range. And their patriarch is capable of creating poison mist.”

“Then mist wouldn’t be much of a problem as my mask can filter it out. As for their physical attack I can only dodge them or in case I get poisoned I can only hope my vitality can expel the poison.”

Now that I got a little insight on these birds I only got to wait for the dusk.

………

After waiting for ten more hours it gets dark enough for me to sneak in. I activate my camouflage and start to climb the mountain as quietly as I can. Lucky for me those birds seem to be diurnal animals.

After it got dark they simply went into their cave and none came out.

I come before the cave mouth and take a peek. Its empty except whistling wind. And from looks of it, it seems this cave goes down to the base of the mountain.

I go into the cave mouth and start to descend. After walking slowly for almost an hour I finally hear a sound of wing beats. I think I walked for ten kilometers. I think I’m already underground. It’s humid and hot as hell in here.

Then I see an opening. I stop just before crossing it and take a look into the cave. Even though it is dark I can see inside it just fine after activating my mana vision.

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Big cave but not as giant as the last one but still big. And it is full of these fucking crows. But most of them are sleeping anyway. And I see three kind in here smallest ones are as big as me, slightly bigger ones are almost fifty percent bigger than the smaller ones. And last biggest ones are almost three times bigger than the smallest ones.

“Alt are you there?”

I whisper next to me and see the fox materializing next to me like before.

“I’m here. What do you need?”

“I need you to speak a little quieter and tell me whether you know exact location of your memento.”

“Fine. I can feel where it is. Look to the front. Can you another cave mouth leading to another cave?”

After squinting my eyes and concentrating I manage to see the cave.

“Yes, I see it.”

“Go in there and you will find my memento.”

After confirming my target’s location, I start to sneak around the cave quietly and carefully. Lucky for me most of the birds are sleeping in high places there isn’t a single bird in my way but floor is full of bird crap. And that is really unpleasant.

I come before the cave mouth after dodging falling grenades from the sky as best as I can. these birds are disgusting.

Now how do I get up to the cave mouth quietly. And now that I took a closer look this cave mouth is big. almost ten in radius.

I kneel on the ground and will my mana to take a shape beneath me. As my mana compresses and takes shape it starts to lift me up, quietly.

After extending for ten meters above the ground I enter the cave mouth and continue walking. This one is going down too.

I finally see another opening after walking for more than ten kilometers. But his opening is exuding light unlike the last one. Like before I take a look before going into the cave.

As I take a look I see two giant green crows sleeping on a hill of a shiny things. I can’t see that it is since it’s so shiny it almost blinds me as I look at it with my mana vision.

Only after I deactivated my mana vision does it get easier to look at it. after deactivating my mana vision, I see something else too. This cave is full of green vapor. I think this is what Alt referred as poison mist.

But strangely this mist doesn’t pass the boundary of the cave mouth. As soon as I see it I activate my mask.

So, I suppose those two are patriarch and its mate.

“Alt, are you there.”

“I’m here.”

This time I don’t see Alt materializing next to me. I simply hear his voice from who knows where.

“Can you see your memento?”

“I see it. It’s on the middle of the hill. Next to a crystalized skull.”

As I look over, first I see elongated crystalized skull that resembles skull of a horse. Next to it another crystalized fang as big as my forearm. That is a big fang.

Now that I managed to locate my target, next is how to acquire it. Let’s just hope those two are a heavy-sleepers.

I start to walk to treasure hill as quiet and as careful as I can. After coming before it I start to pump mana into my left arm slowly. As I pump more mana into my left arm albeit slowly, excruciatingly slowly, my arm starts to extend slowly and quietly just like I intended.

Only after standing and pumping mana into my arm slowly for almost an hour do I manage to reach the fang. After reaching it I pick it up as quite as I can. After picking it up pull my arm once again slowly and quietly as I can. That take another hour.

Now that I acquired my target next is exiting this nest in one piece without waking these birds. And since I managed to infiltrate it without notice I think I can exit it without a problem.

And once again I start to walk slowly to the cave’s exit. After another excruciatingly tense two hours I finally manage to get out of the cave and descend the mountain.

“I would advise you to run as fast as you can now.”

“Sigh. Why is that?”

“Those crows are hoarders they will immediately know when something is missing from their collection. And as soon as they know that it is missing they will chase you with deadly abandon.”

“And that somehow managed to escape your attention before when I asked you about them.”

“Oops.”

Fucking fox did it on purpose.

As soon as I got that information I start to run like hell. Sun starts to rise only after I run for a two more hours.

And as soon as sun rose I start to feel something ominous and danger. I think those birds are awake now.