Chapter 30: Eerie Center
Chapter 30: Eerie Center
Gulping down the third set of potions, Shane started to dislike the taste but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.
There were still three sets of potions left for him to use and in total 12 hours time left before Shane had to leave the Soul-Onyx-Jungle, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to see anything at all within the jungle.
The outskirts of the valley’s lower part were still not completely searched through and he estimated that it would take another one or two hours before he would be done.
Shane was already expected to enter the main field as more Nightshade flowers could be plucked within a shorter amount of time, even though there would be more Shadow-pythons to kill.
It was an opportunity he only had to grip firmly and doing so 90 minutes passed before the outskirts were completely cleansed from Nightshade flowers.
The bottom of the valley was littered with Nightshade flowers and only a few spots were not occupied by the flowers, causing Shane’s eyes to brighten up, when he slowly descended to the valley ground, without letting his guard down.
Looking around, Shane noticed that the main field was divided into different sections with the outer field having a few dozen Nightshade flowers placed extremely close to each other and most likely a few Shadow-snakes and pythons within them.
From his shallow experience he accumulated over the last few hours, Shane knew that the more Nightshade flowers occupied a small space, the higher the number and strength from the beasts below.
As such, Shane used this experience to pluck the smaller Nightshade flower field in order to extinguish the smaller threats first.
But even so, the `smaller` bunches of 30 Nightshade flowers already inhabited two mid-Wild stage shadow-pythons and Shane fought them with a slight time disparity, as Umbra distracted the later shadow-python with its shadow needles.
This gave him enough time to use his tempered shiolite dagger to deflect the first shadow-pythons fangs that were about to pierce into his flesh, while he pierced out with his spark dagger, piercing through the scales with a slight resistance, killing it.
Feeling the resistance, Shane knew that the spark dagger could only be used for mid wild stage pythons with their tough scales, and piercing through the endurable scales with his [Mortal-(Uncommon)] dagger was not possible.
As such Shane would have to use his shiolite dagger to kill the slightly stronger beasts with it, otherwise his spark dagger would either be damaged or break completely which was not something he wanted to happen.
There were more and more beasts, Shane had to kill and it took him slightly more time to come out victories than before but even then, the number of Nightshade flowers he plucked within a few minutes, exceeded his previous gains by a large margin.
Circling around the Center with its hundreds of Nightshade flowers, Shane felt weirdly uncomfortable, and he decided to ignore it for the time being without coming too close to it.
Time passed extremely fast and he already consumed the fourth set of potions while he already sent out multiple packages to the Corvi race, making his heart leap in joy.
Even if the packages with the Nightshade flowers were all at the trash quality, he would gain slightly more than 20 gold with each package sent, and who would hate something like that?
The outer parts of the valley ground were already completely cleansed and there were even some times, Shane found a high-Wild Shadow-python that was more than 2 meters long, causing him to gulp heavily.
However, with the help of a surprise attack with the bright shining light caused by the prismarine-luminous crystals, he could kill it rather easily.
This astonished Shane but more weirdly was, that the high-Wild Shadow-python was rather far away from the largest field of the Nightshade flowers where hundreds of flowers were situated.
But even more, confusing for Shane was that not a single beast could be seen close to the main field and a bad premonition filled his mind.
The closer they came to the center, the more uncomfortable both Shane and Umbra became, and an eerie sensation overcame them.
Fortunately, there were more than enough small fields that were still occupied by a bunch of mid-Wild shadow-pythons and, far away from the eerie center.
When Shane gulped down his last set of potions, he almost vomited, as the taste turned even more disgusting, causing him to pledge to himself that he would not drink these potions for the time being, if he didn’t have to.
Carefully picking out the areas with fewer Nightshade flowers, Shane noticed that there were only areas with at least bunches of 100 flowers left.
This told him that he alraedy gained a huge fortune but also, that if he wanted to continue, he had to face not only high-Wild Shadow-snakes alone but probably even multiple at the same time.
Tightening his grip around the shiolite dagger, Shane wanted to give it at least a try and he had already taken out a prismarine-luminous crystal to play everything safe when he got closer to the smallest of the large Nightshade fields.
As long as he wouldn’t come closer to the largest, extremely terrifying Nightshade flower field, everything would be fine.
Before plucking out the Nightshade flowers to enrage the beasts below, Shane carefully walked around, looking out for black scales sticking out of the soil but unfortunately, there was nothing indicating a beast below the flowers.
This meant, he couldn’t assassinate the Shadow- pythons below and now it was Umbra’s time to shine.
Issuing the same sound it had used, when Shane kidnapped it, one could notice obvious movements from below the mud and it was interesting to see the desire of Shadow-pythons to protect offsprings of other beasts from the same kind, even if they killed each other from time to time.
Noticing three large bodies with a size of more than 1.5 meters, goosebumps overcame Shane and once their heads pierced out of the ground, they looked around to search for the culprit.
Seeing Shane, they hissed out full of wrath, and only due to him possessing the [Hunter’s Mind] passive skill, he could barely hold himself together.
He immediately overclocked the prismarine-luminous crystal two times, causing it to shine in an even brighter light than it had ever been before, Shane threw himself to the ground with closed eyes, before he exerted the mana gathering technique with his closed eyes, barely sensing a bunch of dark mana particles enveloping three large silhouettes that stuck out of the ground.
Over the last few hours, he found out that he could barely feel other beings with his closed eyes, once he exerted the mana gathering technique.
Using this advantage, he pierced out with his dagger at the first silhouette, Shane felt the tough resistance from the black scales of a high-wild stage beast before he pierced through it.
Blood splattered on Shane but there was not a single moment left for him to relax as he threw the already overclocked prismarine-luminous crystal in the air after which it scattered, releasing another bright shining light.
With this, another prismarine-luminous crystal appeared within his hand.
However, before using it, Shane appeared in front of a painful hissing silhouette, he slashed at without any hesitation.
There was still resistance even though his dagger was Tier-1 but that wasn’t the main problem that caused Shane to be unable to sever the snakes within a single slash.
His shiolite dagger was sharp enough to do so, only his own physique hindered him in exerting enough strength, causing his rough movement.
When the light around Shane dimmed lightly, he overclocked his second prismarine luminous-crystal causing another painful hiss from the last alive silhouette around him.
Throwing around its body, Shane required a moment to slash at it but finally, the last Shadow-python died.
Once everything was over, the light diminished and Shane could open his eyes once again.
Without further ado, Shane stored the corpses inside his store and he began to pluck the Nightshade flowers, unbothered by everything.
Suddenly a loud roar filled the whole shadow-snake valley and from the center of the valley where the thousands of Nightshade flowers were situated, the mud shifted and Shane could see hand-sized black scales protruding out of the soil.
Two Football-sized yellowish slits could be seen sticking out of the mud, piercing into Shane’s while they released a dense bloodlust with the distinct desire to tear him apart, causing cold sweat to run down his back.
Only now did Shane understand that the Lord of the Shadow-snake valley revealed itself and its interest was none other than he, himself.
‘F**K’