Chapter 552: River (1/2)

Zac had spent close to two days in the marshes already, and he would definitely reach what could be considered the core zone today. Of course, that wasn't saying much as the core of such a massive forest was large enough that he could wander around for weeks without seeing the same tree twice.

As for what Zac considered the core area, it was where Cosmic Energy was the densest. The Nexus Vein covered his whole island and then some back home, and he guessed it was a similar situation here in the forest. The core Zone was equivalent to Port Atwood, and this was where the strongest beasts would reside, along with the most valuable herbs and minerals.

His hunch was quickly proven right over the following hours as the number of E-Grade beasts he encountered kept increasing. He even spotted a massive swarm of E-Grade hornets far in the distance, each one of them as large as a labrador. Even Zac felt a bit intimidated by the swarm, so he actually chose to hide inside the river to not draw their attention.

Beasts were weaker than cultivators in general, but they made up for it in numbers. He wasn't in any mood to be besieged by thousands of murderous hornets for no real return. Even if he emerged victoriously it would still be a pitched battle, and the risk didn't weigh up for the rewards. There was no point in messing with a swarm like that unless they were guarding some great treasure.

He did fight the occasional E-Grade beast though, mostly overgrown bugs or river-creatures. There was a large number of alien amphibians that looked like predatory catfish. Their maws were wide enough to swallow Zac in one bite, and there were over five rows of jagged teeth hiding within. They even had short stubby legs like salamanders, and they could break into a surprisingly quick sprint on the ground.

Zac fought and harvested intermittently as he scoped the core zone, and his Cosmos Sack was gradually filling up with valuables. He didn't recognize the herbs he was picking at all, but each beast carcass was worth between 10 000 and 100 000 Nexus Coins depending on species and level.

The bountiful harvest went on for a few hours until there was a startling change in the atmosphere; it had become quiet.

The sounds of nature had always been a bit subdued in this swamp, but it had suddenly become completely silent after Zac passed an unseen threshold. He had never encountered this before, but it could only mean a few things. There were no beasts here, meaning they either had all been killed or scared away by something. Zac immediately started to look around for clues, but there wasn't much to go by.

This section of the wetlands looked pretty much the same as the rest, with the exception that the river he was following along was a bit wider than the rest. It was over five kilometers across, which would have allowed it to compete with massive rivers like the Amazon River before the Integration. Now it was just a tributary from some much larger source of water.

Zac's first instinct was to avoid this place just like the hornets earlier, but he eventually chose to stay. He was here for training and treasures, after all, and this felt like a place that could provide both. He kept going along the shoreline, but he concealed as much of his aura as he could. However, he only walked a few hundred meters before there was a change in his body.

His cells had all woken up and were screaming at him that there was something delicious nearby. This wasn't something coming from his recently upgraded [Forester's Constitution], but rather the general feelings of desire that great treasures like the Fruit of Ascension elicited. Zac immediately started to look for any special energy signatures with [Cosmic Gaze], though not without some hesitation.

There was something odd about the feeling, though he couldn't exactly place it.

It quickly became apparent that the treasure could be found on a small island in the middle of the river. There was a constant swirl of haze surrounding it though, making it impossible for Zac to guess what was going on inside. He could only see the edges of the island sticking out, but he could at least make some deductions of what kind of situation might be waiting for him over there.

The island just had a diameter of 100 meters or so, so the valuable item shouldn’t be something huge like a Crystal Mine. It was also unlikely that there was some sort of hive with a huge number of beasts like a hornet hive or an ant's nest waiting on the other side of the fog. The island was too small, so there could either be just one big guy guarding the treasure, or a pack of medium-sized beasts.

As for the treasure, it was probably some sort of plant with a powerful energy signature.

However, Zac didn’t immediately rush over to take the item. There was a constant buzz in the back of his head, alerting him of danger. It wasn’t an acute sense of dread, but rather a pervasive sense of wrongness. He couldn't make heads or tails about the feeling, but he knew to take extra precautions.

Perhaps the feeling was simply because his subconscious believed a life and death struggle waited for him on the island. The most powerful animals always erected their lairs next to valuable herbs as the aura the treasures released could help refine their bloodlines. There was no way that this island wasn’t occupied since Zac’s cells were screaming at him to eat whatever was hiding within the mists.

With the sheer amount of hidden cards and advantages he had stacked up over the past year, Zac didn't feel all too worried about whatever was waiting for him though. He was confident in dealing with pretty much anything Earth was able to throw at him this early into the integration. However, Zac still wanted to deal with this situation like a normal cultivator.

He needed to come up with a plan that would allow him to minimize the danger. He wouldn’t always stay on Earth where there were no real surprises. Cultivation on Earth was too orderly as everyone began at the same time, and it provided him a false sense of security that wouldn't hold up out in the multiverse. Even the Mystic Realm would contain unknown dangers that could threaten his life by all accounts.

He needed to learn to do things the right way, or he would sooner or later be killed because he encountered something that couldn’t be solved by swinging his axe extra hard.

His class and Dao thankfully enabled Zac to blend in with the surroundings, allowing him to spy on the island from his vantage hidden in a tree crown by the shore. However, Zac frowned when there was no change even after four hours. The mists didn’t dissipate, and there were never any sounds that came from the island. No beast ever left the moat to hunt either, leaving Zac wondering if he was just being paranoid.

Was there actually no beast living there?