Is That A Wisp?

Krune had already gone slightly insane while he was adrift on the ocean. After all, a mortal's mind was susceptible to environmental conditions. Though, after he arrived at the Primary Landmass, the sense of land underneath his feet healed his mental state a little.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day, he was alone, mingling among corpses and monsters for his living. Growing stronger had become his only goal, his only drive. If his stay in the Primary Landmass didn't have any deadline, Krune's approach to the situation would have been way different.

Over time, he would have lost the very notion of getting stronger. After all, over time, he would have completely gotten accustomed to the place. Considering his superior intelligence, there was no chance he would ever fall prey to the Monster Geckos.

So, there was a good chance he would become lazy once he had turned his cave into a more comfortable dwelling. After all, without any other humans, his emotional state would become numb. 

At present, Krune had long stopped feeling any sentiments to the notion of killing the Monster Geckos. After all, he had been eating them for three meals daily. To him, it was similar to how humans consumed chicken. 

By consuming it repeatedly without any hesitation, most humans had glossed over the fact that chickens were also living beings but began to consider them as just food, a delicacy. 

At present, Krune was thinking the same. Even though he didn't consider the Monster Geckos a delicacy, they were his only source of nourishment. At the start, he did consider making some tools to cook them. 

Though, after living in solace, he had become disappointed, unable to use his cooking skills properly. After all, there wasn't even a way to start a fire in the place. Krune hadn't come across any rocks that were able to cause a spark.

On top of that, he didn't have any fuel to burn. The bone trees weren't made from wood or a flammable substance. Not to mention the fact that there were neither any spices nor any minerals that could act as seasoning. 

Ultimately, since he was alone, over time, Krune lost all interest. At least, cooking for someone else might have invigorated his inner chef. As he didn't have enough time to make any elaborate dishes, all Krune did was eat the flesh as is.

He did cut them up into neat slices, though, so that he could eat them better. But that was all. After all, he had many things to do in his time when there was land under his feet. Among those things, storing enough food took priority. 

After all, while adrift on the ocean, he had no guarantee of coming across enough fish to satiate his daily needs. As long as the meat remained in contact with water, it wouldn't spoil. As long as he packed it perfectly, the smell of the meat wouldn't radiate outward.

So, that was one such tool he was making. As for the second, it was a boat. Even though he already had a boat's base ready, Krune wasn't sure if it still remained on the Checkpoint Turtle. Even if it remained, if someone else had come across it, they would have definitely stolen it. 

After all, no one would say no to something that would keep them adrift. Plus, materials with as much buoyancy as the Neon Radiance fishes were rare. So, they were great materials in the ocean environment. 

If they weren't stolen by the time he returned, it would only mean no one managed to reach the respective Checkpoint Turtle. After all, based on what that octopus had said, there were many numerous Checkpoint Turtles in Layer 3. 

So, Krune had been working on a boat big enough to last him while on the sea. Moreover, he wasn't working on a normal boat but was making one while using the bone trees. Through his experiments, Krune determined that a bone tree fragment was able to grow into a bone tree. 

But as a whole, a bone tree only reached a height of three meters on average. With that, he was making a layered structure. The outer surfaces were made using the bones of the Monster Geckos he had hunted, while the inner surface was made using the bone trees.

With that, Krune was making an elaborate structure so that he could live comfortably with enough room while on the ocean. Besides, he planned to take complete advantage of the place, which was the differing gravitational fields 1.5 meters above the ocean surface. 

So, as long as he created a cylindrical structure with a height of three meters, he would basically obtain a boat that would never sink. After all, it would be pulled on both sides. As a boat naturally wouldn't sink, this extra step would make it perfectly steady even when it moved due to the ocean currents. 

That alone would make his life wonderful, allowing him to train while on the move. Moreover, as long as he had enough blood, he could snap a branch from the bone tree and grow it into a tree, expanding the size of the boat while he was at it.

Even though he didn't have such plans, at least, when he had such an intention, he could do it readily. Moreover, Krune had a lot of the Monster Gecko skin that he had hunted over the months. He was using this to form a flooring on the boat, giving a leather finish in its interior. 

This way, he would have comfort while being able to train. He had been planning some rooms to add as well while he was at it. In the chamber where he had been sleeping was now the construct that he had been working on for almost six months. 

In the first two months, he had been creating some tools that he could later use, other than the traps. After all, everything he was doing was to not go insane. Krune knew for a fact that if he didn't have anything to think about during this time, he would literally go insane. 

So, he busied himself, resting when necessary and working for the rest of the time. This way, he kept his mental erosion in check. As long as he was busy, he would remain sane. But even then, once he began to consider the Monster Geckos as just food, Krune stopped caring about their life and death.

That was why his schemes became crueler as time passed. And now, if any Monster Gecko saw what he was about to do, they would lose their minds. After all, having grown before him was a bone tree that spanned 40 meters in height. 

And what ripened on it was a fruit that was twice his height. Similar fruits were hanging all over the bone tree. But, a single glance at the Mutated Monster Gecko was enough for him to determine the real deal among them. The rest of the fruits were just fakes of similar size and without any real substance. They weren't even worth a normal bone tree fruit. 

Having been observing it for the past two months, Krune was able to guess its emotions by now. As he noticed the unabated excitement in its eyes, Krune realized that the colossal fruit had ripened at this moment.

He grabbed hold of the two ropes, clutching the second one with greater strength as he tugged the first one. The moment he tugged it, the thin branch holding the colossal fruit snapped, causing the colossal fruit to fall.

If it fell from such a height, it would just shatter into mush. That was why he had tied it with the second rope. As the colossal fruit fell, its weight pulled the second rope that was hung over another branch, used as a pulley.

Holding on the other end was Krune, immediately pulling into the air as the colossal fruit fell. Krune had jumped accordingly, making his body move up. The pull from the second rope then continued to pull him up as the weight of the colossal fruit was almost the same as him. Even though it was twice his size, their weights were similar. 

The colossal fruit wasn't as dense as its size implied. This worked in favor of Krune, whose body moved up. He used his legs to walk over the stem of the bone tree, controlling the speed at which he moved up, applying more and more pressure as the fruit moved downward.

Eventually, he used the tension and weight differences to make the colossal fruit stop a meter above the ground, slowly making it land. Krune then leaped from one branch to another, landing on the ground soon after. 

Over the past two months, as the bone tree grew, he had been practicing climbing it. After all, time was of the purest essence now. He couldn't waste it by climbing down slowly. Krune noticed that the bone tree hadn't shown any signs of wilting yet. 

After all, it was robust and was massive. Even the twenty-meter-tall bone tree took almost half a day to completely wilt. And, this seemed to take even longer. It was exactly what he desired. Krune used his Whale Tooth Dagger to cut the Mutant Monster Gecko's bindings, kicking its shoulder joints to set its arms back in place. 

Though, he didn't set them up perfectly. The Mutant Monster Gecko was still able to move its hands, but it couldn't use them to fight. To the current Krune, it wouldn't pose as much threat as compared to a normal Mutant Monster Gecko.

Moreover, over the past two months, his vicious practices had almost tamed the Mutant Monster Gecko. After all, the moment it was able to get up, it whimpered, bowing a little while facing Krune. 

There was a limit to the duration a mortal's mind could remain steady. Even the two-century-old monster Krune had succumbed to his mortal state of mind, not to mention a mere monster with lacking intelligence. Moreover, its opponent was Krune, a monster that had lived past two centuries. 

So, it lost the battle of wits, becoming subservient to Krune. 

"It's all yours. Become a King now!" Krune kicked its ass, watching it pounce on the colossal fruit immediately. Among the two Mutant Monster Geckos, the current one seemed to have been older. Physique-wise, it was a tad superior. That's why he had chosen it. Sometimes, even the subtle differences meant a lot.

Also, since he had seen the two fight, he could determine the extent of their development. With that, Krune then watched the Mutant Monster Gecko devour the colossal fruit in a frenzy.