infodatos Chapter 20 The Monster Chasing Flesh and Blood
Chapter 20 The Monster Chasing Flesh and Blood
Something unseen is moving in the Wild Dog Forest to the west; it is actually Klein, the Bone Thief Badger, who has activated an invisibility spell.
Without the threat of the Wind Demon Wolves, and with the rampage of the Flesh Monsters forcing other creatures to hide, the Wild Dog Forest is now, in some ways, safer than before.
However, this is on the premise that you don't encounter a flesh-and-blood monster—bang!
Klein witnessed once again the flesh monster leap, then land on a tree and be impaled by the entire tree trunk.
This wasn't for self-harm; it was to suffocate the rock bear that was desperately trying to escape up the tree, and being pierced by the tree seemed to have no effect on it.
This top predator, second only to wolves in predation in the forest, was so desperate that it could only hide in the trees...
This place is very far from the plantation. It used to be the most dangerous part of the Wild Dog Forest, where most predators and prey lived, which is why Klein did not choose to establish a plantation here.
The reason why Klein's plantation is still safe is thanks to the foul-smelling flowers that Klein planted in advance, which keep the animals away from the area.
However, when the animals have nowhere to hide, they will eventually lead the flesh monster to the plantation.
Now, the flesh-and-blood monster began to roll at an incredible speed, swallowing anything that wasn't flesh and blood after it spun around inside its body; it was extremely picky about its food.
By the way, isn't it bigger than it was a day ago?
Klein examined it closely and found that it was a size larger than before, indicating that it had recently devoured quite a few creatures.
That's terrifying... Klein has tracked it several times already.
The flesh monster would sometimes stop, but without any pattern, as if it were resting.
For the rest of the time, it relentlessly devours flesh and blood.
Klein's purpose in tracking the flesh monster was twofold: first, to monitor it, and second, to observe how it discovered and pursued its prey.
Klein reflected on its actions today—
When the flesh monster was first found, it was chasing a steel-tusked boar and had spared the boar's piglets.
After capturing the steel-toothed boar, it went back to chase the piglet, but when it found the piglet, there happened to be a rock-armored bear nearby that wanted to prey on the piglet. As a result, the flesh monster abandoned the piglet and chased the rock-armored bear.
And now—it has actually discovered Klein.
Rumble...
Damn!
The fleshy monster rolled rapidly toward Klein. Even though Klein had activated his invisibility, he was still detected, which meant that it wasn't hunting with sight at all!
The flesh monster was about 500 meters away from Klein, but in the blink of an eye it had closed to within 100 meters.
No, I didn't realize how fast it was from a distance until I was actually being chased!
Is it really reasonable for such a big animal to run so fast?
Although Klein had a way to escape, it would mean giving up the bone-stealing badger he had worked so hard to acquire, and Klein wouldn't choose to do that unless it was a critical moment.
While tracking, Klein would take a seed from the bone-stealing badger's pouch every so often and bury it in the ground, but this was neither a trap nor some mysterious ritual.
This is merely Klein's communication station. Klein's soul can transfer within his vines like electricity, or it can transfer from the vines to his offspring like radio waves.
So burying a seed every certain distance is actually to expand one's reach, making it easier to abandon the bone-stealing badger when encountering danger, and escape by jumping away through the seed medium.
In order to prepare these seeds, Klein's [Seed] skill was also upgraded to LV2.
[Seed LV1: Consumes magic to produce seeds that can be used for parasitism. The seeds can develop into offspring plants, but they are completely identical to the original plant.]
[LV2: Seeds have the ability to store instructions. After storing instructions, the parasitized object will act according to the set instruction sequence. The seed level can be selected.]
[Mana Cost: LV1 seed costs 25 points, LV2 seed costs 50 points.]
Experience: 12/1000
[Upgrade: Gain 1 experience point for each LV1 seed produced, and 2 experience points for each LV2 seed produced.]
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! It's rolling way too fast!
Now that they've been discovered, and are so far away... how could they possibly escape!
Activate skill: Detect
Probability: 10%
Launch failed.
Ten percent?!
Too high a level? No... it could also be that the HP is too high.
Klein was watching its movements as he launched the attack, but its magical senses seemed unable to detect it at a distance of several hundred meters. Even if it had, Klein should have been able to dodge the tentacle attacks.
Klein sprinted with all his might, but in the blink of an eye, he was pulled away by another hundred meters.
I don't know if I'll make it...
Sensing the vibrations emanating from the roots of nearby seeds, Klein pinpointed a forest within two hundred meters, where the monster he needed was said to be.
Perhaps this will confirm my guess?
Damn it, the target started running; it must be because of the large movements.
What to do? The flesh-and-blood monster is getting closer and closer... We have no choice but to take a gamble!
Klein had upgraded the Parasitic Bone-Stealing Badger's seed to LV2 before the operation, meaning it could now store commands.
After storing the instruction to run four hundred steps toward the forest on the seed, Klein immediately made his soul jump rapidly between the buried seeds, and when he opened his eyes, he arrived at the forest where his target was.
Activate skill: Accelerate growth
Klein's seed only had roots and no branches, but now it immediately sprouted branches and emerged from the ground.
Found them! It's a herd of thunderhorn deer, and they're running away!
Activate magic: Wind Blade
Aim...fire!
Buzz—hiss.
"hold head high--"
The Thunderhorn Deer let out a sharp whistle in pain. The wind blade struck one of the fleeing Thunderhorn Deer with great precision, and it fell to the ground, its lower leg severed by Klein.
Rumble...
Meanwhile, the flesh-and-blood monster has already approached the forest.
Klein also sensed the approaching seed of the Bone-Stealing Badger. The Bone-Stealing Badger, which was running desperately according to Klein's command, was very lucky not to trip, but it was only a hundred meters away from the flesh monster!
Klein quickly transferred his soul into the Bone-Stealing Badger and personally controlled it to rush into the forest, heading in the same direction as the Thunderhorn Deer, but in a direction where they would not meet.
At this moment, the flesh-and-blood monster has also arrived at the edge of the forest!
Ninety meters!
Eighty meters!
Seventy meters!
Sixty meters!
Klein could feel the stench swirling behind him, and the violent shaking of the ground was like his wildly beating heart.
Fifty meters!
At this moment, the fallen Thunderhorn Deer and Klein were at the same distance from the flesh monster.
The fleshy monster behind him was compressing, and then...
Whoosh—bang.
Given the choice, the flesh monster chose to jump onto the fallen Thunderhorn Deer and descend from the sky to engulf it.
At that moment, Klein ran in the opposite direction from the fleeing herd of redhorn deer.
The flesh-and-blood monster paused for a moment, then ignored Klein and chased after the herd of Thunderhorn Deer.
It was a success...
Klein breathed a sigh of relief, but did not stop walking.
After this adventure, Klein realized one thing—the flesh-and-blood monster chooses its targets based on their strength and capabilities.
The steel-toothed wild boar has more meat than the piglet, so it chases the adult boar. The rock-armored bear also has more meat than the piglet, so even when it was about to catch the piglet, it still chased the rock-armored bear. It only chased Klein, which was the furthest away, when there was no prey.
Klein had just confirmed this, determining from the magnitude of the vibrations that the Thunderhorn Deer was much heavier than the Bone-Stealing Badger, which was why he lured the flesh monster there.
It turns out that what attracts the Flesh Monster is a large amount of flesh, and the Wind Demon Wolf is smaller than the Bone Stealer Badger. The fact that the Flesh Monster didn't chase Klein that night but instead chased the Wind Demon Wolf shows that it chooses the total size of the group rather than a slightly larger individual.
In other words, as long as there are creatures larger than Yanami in the forest, and Yanami is closer to the flesh monster, it will not choose Yanami.
Moreover, it has no vision, so it may not be able to accurately lock onto the target's location. It relies on magical sensing to accurately attack with its tentacles, so it usually has to rely on the overwhelming force of a large-scale mountain to hunt.
In this case, the flesh monster is not actually that dangerous, but we still have no idea how to deal with it.