Chapter 81: What is he… looking for?
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The previous time he saw Green Tree Snakes was also in a Bottle Tree forest. Perhaps these types of snakes had some preference for Bottle Trees.
There were at least a dozen Green Tree Snakes that were active in this patch of forest.
Usually in the day, Green Tree Snakes would hang from tree branches, pretending to be green moss. They would stay still and wait for prey to approach. Their prey included small insects and bird-like creatures.
Dumby was walking through the Bottle Tree forest as though nothing could stand in its way. In Dumby’s eyes, there was no such thing as cold-blooded animals. Unless the creature possessed some special skill to mask its presence, with its soul flames, every creature could be seen as easily as a bright torch in the night.
One by one, Green Tree Snakes were being violently yanked off from their trees by Dumby. Dumby would then twist their heads off and carefully remove the greyish-green monster core crystals from their heads.
The crystals were about the size of a soybean, but compared to Dumby’s large size, it would be like picking up a sesame seed.
Dumby carefully removed the monster core crystal and wiped it on its black robe before handing it over to Gao Peng.
Gao Peng stopped and looked at Dumby.
Dumby opened its mouth as if trying to say something. It could not, of course, and only the sound of its teeth chattering could be heard.
It tried hard to pass its master the core crystal, using its other hand to point at it.
Seeing its master accept the monster core crystal, Dumby tilted its head and smiled dumbly.
“Silly fella,” said Gao Peng as he placed the Green Tree Snake core crystals into a leather pouch. He wanted to say something but somehow could not find the words to do so. In the end, he turned around as if nothing happened and instructed, “Dumby, break these Bottle Trees in the middle.”
Dumby nodded vigorously.
The other Green Tree Snakes in the forest had seen what happened to the rest of their kind and knew how to keep away from danger. They turned around to hide back in their tree hollows.
They moved slowly, as if afraid of angering the fierce god that was wreaking havoc in the forest.
They had thought they were safe in the tree hollows, but suddenly loud snapping sounds could be heard from the tree trunk.
Without having the chance to react in time, some snakes felt their world spin. With a loud crash, a large tree was suddenly sent crashing to the ground, knocking the snakes silly. The snakes then quickly slithered from the tree hollows into the leaf litter, vanishing out of sight.
Gao Peng followed the trail of broken tree trunks and searched for Wood Space Hearts. Wood Space Hearts grew in the thickest area of the trunks of the Bottle Trees, which was the belly of the beer bottle. All he had to do was get Dumby to break the tree at that point.
The broken “beer bellies” would be hollow, with an empty space inside.
Not every tree would have a Wood Space Heart; only around one in five would have it.
Under each large tree, Dumby looked as though it was a fearsome boxer as it madly pummeled each tree with both its fists. Each fist was capable of sending large chunks of wood flying.
With its fists tightly clenched, every punch it sent out cut through the air. The bones on its knuckles that stuck out slightly would tear the tree trunk to bits.
With bits of bark flying, the Bottle Tree shook violently.
In just a few punches, the Bottle Tree was on the verge of collapse.
The dense punching sounds reverberated in the dense jungle and travelled across a long distance.
Around one kilometer away, three hunters were making their way through the jungle. They were well protected by their gear, which covered their entire bodies, and they were carrying large bulging bags, evidence of a fruitful hunt. Following by their sides were a number of Familiars. At this moment, a bunch of squeaking sounds suddenly came from one of the hunter’s shoulders.
On his shoulder, a mouse with extraordinarily large ears had stood up on its hind legs, turned around with a start, and was squeaking non-stop towards a certain direction.
“Hm? Captain, has Tutu noticed something,” asked one of the members. He was a young man with a scar on his face.
“Dunno, Tutu must have made a new discovery,” said the oldest member of the team. He gently pinched the ears of the mouse on his shoulder and handed it two peanuts as a reward.
The mouse’s eyes squinted in delight as it happily chewed on its peanuts.
“Tutu says there’s a loud sound coming from over there,” said the captain as he licked his lips. “Let’s go check it out then.”
“Yes captain.”
The members of the team agreed unanimously. There were no objections.
This was not the first time they had encountered something like this.
The last time, it happened to be a fight between two commander tier monsters. As the saying goes, when two dogs strive for a bone, the third runs off with it.
They had managed to let one commander tier monster escape, but they still got away with the carcass of the other commander tier monster. They had gotten good money selling off that carcass.
The scar-faced young man licked his lips. His Familiar was already at level 20. The only thing holding it back from ascending into the commander tier was its grade. He had approached many Monster Breeders before, but sadly, raising a monster’s grade was no easy feat. Sometimes, it all came down to the RNG.
He had made many attempts but his Familiar’s grade still remained the same in the end.
Sometimes, he felt helpless. Perhaps lady luck just never seemed to smile at him.
He had always had rather bad luck since he was young.
The good thing was… he was already used to it.
They rushed over and were almost there, when the realized that there was something wrong with the sound that they heard.
It did not seem to be the sound of monsters battling. The sound was low, and rather dull as well. There was even a rhythm to it.
What is this sound…
The group looked at each other, with perplexed expressions on their faces.
In the team, the last member was a rather tall, dark and lanky young man. He frowned and said hesitantly, “Why does it seem like the sound of boxing practice, like I used to do in the past?”
“Boxing practice? Yao Huan, have you gone silly from all your boxing? How could there be someone practicing boxing in the middle of the jungle?” laughed the scar faced man.
Practicing boxing in this jungle full of monsters? Something in your brain must be broken.
Crash!
Not far from them, a large tree snapped and came crashing down. Numerous branches snapped as the tree fell, giving of series of cracking sounds.
“Move, let’s go over to take a look. Quietly,” said the captain seriously.
After getting closer, they saw a giant humanoid creature in a black robe madly punching a tree. The tree in front of it was swaying and about to fall at any time.
Ka-cha.
The large tree made a sound of giving way, and then fell with a loud crash.
The few of them were dumbstruck.
To them, all the trees in the jungle were the same. They only had one name – tree.
As for the tree’s actual name or its characteristics…
They did not give a d*mn.
The captain focused his eyes on something.
Within the mess of broken trees, there was a crouching figure making its way through the forests as though searching for something within the tree trunks.
What could he be looking for in the broken tree trunks? The captain squinted. His hunter’s senses made him realize that something was unusual.
“Captain, let’s go.” Yao Huan shook his head. He thought it was a monster at first but it turned out to be another person. The monster in the black robe was clearly raised by someone.
The captain raised his right hand to signal for the rest to be quiet.
What is this person… looking for?
He suddenly felt very curious.