Chapter 172 - Exploration - IV (2/2)

”You've seen anything?”

”No, Bel. I think that all the animals are avoiding this place. The Nandi couple might have been quite territorial,” said Robert. ”But I did solve the partition problem that we were facing.”

”How?”

”It is actually the wood.”

”I told you that it is a waste to carve it without our blades. They will be of better use against the beasts.”

”Calm down. It is not what you think, Bel,” said Robert as he waved a green sheet like material in front of him.

”What is this?”

”This is the bark of a few smaller trees that I found close to the stream. Need only a few cuts from the blades to pull them off the stem. It is quite easy. It can actually be used to wrap up poisonous items. We don't even need to touch them with our hands,” explained Robert.

”This is great. It will make our work much easier. Show me, how to pull them off. We will stock up before we go,” said Balthazar.

”No, need. I have been on it for about an hour,” said Robert.

”In the night?”

”Ya, the night passed about an hour ago. I just saw one of those and went to try it out. After that I was excited and picked up more and kind forgot track of time.”

”You are saying that you left me unguarded for an hour in a cave while you went ahead to peel skin off trees?”

”Ok. That might sound stupid, but you were quite safe. There were no beast or animals in the vicinity, and they all stayed away from the cave. The only things around here were those coyotes and they were probably scared after them being hunted by both you and the Nandi,” said Robert covering for himself.

Balthazar was still looking at him seriously. He was angry that his cousin had forgotten to guard over him. He knew from guarding the place when Robert was sleeping that it wasn't that dangerous due to the reasons told by Robert, but he was still indignant that his cousin left him unguarded in an unknown region when he was sleeping.

”I am sorry. I realize that I am wrong. It won't happen again,” apologized Robert for a few more times before Balthazar let it go and they went out of the cave to get through the forest.

The started moving through the forest and found a few more items on the list. They continued this way till noon when they reached the end of the woods, they were in. They were at a rocky mountainous region. It had no plants and was very dry and looked deserted. They had been wondering about it since they saw it mapped by their sensors but continued till they reached it.

”What should we do?” asked Robert. ”None of the items on the list are found in such a rocky place except for a few beasts.”

”Ya. Even if beasts are found, the ones in such areas will be stronger if they are surviving in this environment and without the trees providing cover, it will be a lot harder to kill them,” said Balthazar. All this time, he had been killing the beasts that they encountered by making surprise attacks and traps, but without the cover of the trees it would be extremely hard.

”Let us eat some fruits, send our collections and then return back, search through the area in the south. It is a waste of time to continue through that area,” decided Balthazar. Though he sad that to keep Robert motivated he didn't have the same feeling as they would have to move a lot through the forest and with the noise that the made, it would be hard for them to encounter more beasts. He was sure that the wildlife were already aware of their approach since the morning.

As the drone came for their goods, an unexpected notice followed. It was another set of unlock codes for both of them. It indicated that they were provided these as they managed to stay for 12 hours. It unlocked the gravity compensation. stealth capabilities and special attack effects of the suit along with orders for them to go and explore the mountain area.

The most confusing part of this order was that unlike the previous instances, where they had given a list and they had to procure the items of the list, this mission required them to catalog the different things that they observe.

”Why the sudden change in the mission parameters?” asked Robert surprised at the new instructions.

”I think they are now considering us self-sufficient and the actual trial had begun,” blabbed Balthazar even though he hadn't the slightest clue why the test was like this.

”I just think that one of those judges were bought out by someone on the council and is making it real hard for us to finish our trial,” said Robert waving his hand as he realized that his cousin was simply spouting nonsense.

”I guess the advantage is that it won't be very hard to find a place like that cave in this region,” said Balthazar. ”The bad part is that we actually should be worried about guarding the area. They didn't even give us information of the area's dangers or anything. We are going to go enter completely blind.”