CH 225

Danger Zone

Third day of being in the Great forest of Roza.

Yesterday went well, and on top of the 2 Ongneers from the Orc King and the humanoid rabbit, I had also gathered a huge load of poisonous plants as well.

On top of Reizen grass and Lizaf fruits being the main focus, I now was actively looking for Eggmash, that raised magic, as well as it had risen in my personal demand recently. And overall, I had collected a lot of each of the 5 basic types of plants in huge quantities.

Like the old Golem guy said, my talent for magic was basically non-existent so I ended up using more mana than normally needed whenever I use magic.

Even when I used [Anti magic] against Mielle, I could literally feel mana leak out of my body even when I was trying to hold it in.

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In a one vs one battle, my current mana quantity would suffice, but if I was facing multiple enemies, or fighting consecutively, then I’ll need a lot more mana than what I have right now.

I’m thinking of consistently raising my magic stat from here onwards.

——all that aside, the main point was that 9i had been able to gather a lot of poisonous plants in the half day I spent on it yesterday.

Well, to be honest, I wanted to gather a bit more but…….

Today’s the day I had planned to go and investigate a previously unexplored area in the Great Forest of Roza.

Since coming here, I had been pondering over where next to start exploring but, finally I decided that I’ll head to the East Area of the forest today.

It’s the dangerous swamp area that Henjak had warned me not to get too close to.

I had originally planned to not go there until I got more used to the forest but, right now I didn’t have Snow with me.

In the last three days I have only felt Snow’s absence more and more but, if there was one area where not having Snow with me was an advantage, it was this swamp area to the East.

Since I have [Null Poison] and [Skin Strengthen], my skills allow me to explore that area on my own comparatively safely.

Even the Rexbills that are said to live in this swamp won’t be too much trouble for me if I keep [Skin Strengthen] active, and I could always further use [Fortification] to harden my skin and defend against them.

I could also erase my presence with the combination of [Colour change][Stealth][Silent Steps], and in case of emergency I even had [Self regen] to heal myself.

I would never feel safe bringing Snow to that swamp area but, alone, I had no worries about it.

Of course, I don’t intend to go in too deep but, I want to see with my own eyes just how dangerous this place is and if possible, find and harvest any new things I might find there.

It won’t be strange to find plants that only grown in swampy regions after all.

After checking through my careful prep work one last time, I began walking towards the east area of the Great Forest of Roza.

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5 hours after walking east from my base, I finally entered the swamp area of the forest.

On the way here, I didn’t run into any major problems but, as Henjak had warned, the ground was slowly getting softer and muddier as I approached closer, and this entire area had an eerie atmosphere around it.

This was still just the entrance to the area as well but, I had already caught sight of one the dangerous monsters, the Rexbill, and as soon as I stepped into the swamp, a group of them swarmed straight towards me.

From a glance, I counted about 10 of them, and I just knew that there were definitely more of them hiding under the mud which was far from a pleasant thought.

For the time being I grabbed and picked up one of the Rexbills, and then jumped away from the swamp to try and do some preliminary tests.

I put this caught leech like monster on my arm and activated [Skin Strengthen].

If it managed to bite through my skin, it’d mean that I’ll need to constantly use [Fortification] to traverse through this swamp area, but let’s see how it goes.

The Rexbill stuck on to my arm and I could feel it was trying to bite through my skin.

I could feel a little bit of pain even with the skill active, so I’m sure it would have instantly ripped through my skin and entered my body if I didn’t have the skill active.

But for now, as long as the skill was active, my skin wasn’t losing to its biting.

Which means [Fortification] wasn’t compulsory and I could continue with just [Skin Strengthen].

I crushed the Rexbill that was stuck to my arm with my hand, and then began walking once again through the swamp area.

After going in a bit further, it became impossible to see the ground due to the muddy water, and I was surrounded by nothing but swamp water on all sides.

There were a lot of different plants and shrubs growing from this muddy swamp, and I could tell that the growth of the plants here was affected by their unique environment.

Right now, the water was only at my knee level, yet I still was having trouble walking normally due to slippery and muddy ground underneath.

But, perhaps because it wasn’t deep enough, I couldn’t see any of those underwater carnivores that Henjak had warned me about either.

But, there were still were some really small creatures squirming about, and on top of the Rexbills, I also saw a small spider-like insect and a mosquito-like monster as well.

Then there were also some small fish that had surprisingly sharp teeth, as well some weird kind of shellfish that came close to my legs to try and bite at me.

Even though I was so much bigger in size, these creatures still constantly continued to attack me.

Honestly, I was wanting to turn back already but, I forced myself to continue onwards a bit longer and so I ignored all the small creatures that were trying to attack me and continued walking.

When the water level rose up to about my thigh level, the amount of monsters that were being revealed by my detection skills exploded in number.

And I started to see more and more corpses of animals and monsters all over the place, and I got the sense that this place really was an area ruled by the rule of survival of the fittest.

………it really might be too dangerous to continue any further.

There were birds already circling above me, and there was already a bird-like monster with long legs slowly walking at me.

There were also a lot of fish that were still stuck on my leg trying to bite me, and I could even feel some tentacle like thing trying to make me trip and fall as well.

Even with [Skin Strengthen] if I fall into this water, these monster could always attack my eyes, ears, or get inside through my mouth and other such openings so, my entire body was tense from the fear of making a mistake like that.

I could sense all sorts of strong presences from all around me, and if I get into a fight, the chances of me falling will drastically increase.

——And the most terrifying things amongst all this, was the presence of a monster that seemed to be discharging electricity.

Part of me wanted to grab this monster and use it as a host for Ongneer but, if I got electrocuted in my current condition, I might genuinely die.

I’m not brave enough to just slouch and dive into the swamp either, and even though I had gained nothing from coming here yet…………..I decided to retreat for now.

Stopping my exploration of the East area here, I decided it was better to fall back before my life gets genuinely in danger.

Making sure that I don’t let my guard down until I was completely out of the area again, I slowly, step by step, began to walk back towards me base.