CHAPTER 178: CHAPTER 178: STRANGE MARKS

In the forest, Kane pushed open the broken door of the cabin and walked in.

Inside was extremely simple, with nothing but a fire pit and a wooden stool.

At the edge of the cabin, there was also a hammock woven from two ropes, hanging above.

This place really brings back memories.

Wiping away the dirt and dust from the stool, Kane sat down and began observing the room’s layout and some traces.

Most of these traces belonged to small animals, typically mice and squirrels.

And the fewer traces belonged to other people who had been here; camping in the forest is very unsafe, but this little dilapidated cabin, though worn, provides a shelter, keeping out wind and rain and warding off mosquitoes.

This group had cautiously erased their camping traces, but being explorers, caution is quite appropriate.

As for why Kane believed the people resting in his cabin were an explorer squad, it was because the traces indicated it wasn’t long ago, just six or seven days prior.

Most likely, it was the explorers who had accepted Uncle Ge Mu’s commission to clear the magic beasts in Laka Forest.

After resting in the cabin for a while, it was a chance to reminisce about the past.

Getting up, he went outside to continue tracking those magic beasts.

Yet another afternoon passed.

Night fell, stars densely scattered across the sky.

Kane returned to the cabin, his face relaxed, and used the wood he collected along the way to start a fire in the central pit.

He then took out a piece of wild boar meat with mixed fat and lean parts from his space equipment; it was from one of the magic beasts he found in the forest today.

After he killed it, Kane noticed it didn’t contain much magic power, so he abandoned extracting magic powers from the magic stone, opting to carve up the boar’s carcass and take a piece of his preferred meat.

As the fire roasted the pork, the sizzling oil and fragrant aroma wafted into Kane’s nostrils.

He sprinkled some of his carried condiments over it and took a hearty bite.

Indeed, magic beast meat is undoubtedly tastier than regular meat, though not comparable to the magical ingredients from the dungeon.

However, his culinary skill is limited and cannot unleash the meat’s full potential.

After dinner, Kane erased all traces of himself from the cabin, with small grasses automatically moving towards the marks Kane left.

With the help of the Forest’s Son effect, these traces are basically impossible to detect, even if discovered, the observer seeing new grasses sprouting above would think it happened long ago.

Having finished all this, Kane climbed a tall tree.

Using magic power, he molded a 3x3x3 treehouse between the trunk and a sturdy bough, lightening the material weight and seamlessly crafting it against the trunk, making it very stable.

In truth, using wooden constructs to build a treehouse would be much more comfortable and reduce Kane’s magic power consumption.

Alas, this is the forest, Kane needs to slot Forest’s Son into his skill grid, allowing the forest’s flora to assist Kane in keeping watch, concealing his surroundings while he rests.

Of course, just because he has Forest’s Son, doesn’t mean he should let his guard down, so he set up numerous alarm traps around using spider silk.

Just as Kane finished everything and was preparing to rest, a cloud drifted down from the sky.

"Beep squeak"

This was Cotton Candy that Kane had brought back; as for Yu Yu, it was taken away by Kreya.

Because Kreya’s home had many books, it was perfect for allowing Yu Yu to record the information in these books; it might be useful in future explorations.

"Why come down to find me, not enjoying a nice playtime in the sky? There won’t be many such opportunities after this period, you know."

When Kane arrived here, he released Cotton Candy attached to him into the sky on his way to the town.

After all, there wasn’t any city here, just the forest and mountains and rivers.

Whenever outside the dungeon, Cotton Candy felt a bit stifled and somewhat restricted in its freedom.

Hence, Kane arranged for Cotton Candy to joyfully play in the surrounding area while he rests, not needing its help at the moment.

Giving Cotton Candy a break was reasonable and fair.

"Beep squeak"

After two days outside, it missed Kane a bit, so it drifted back.

"Alright, come in."

Kane was worrying about not wanting to use the sleeping bag, and Cotton Candy just returned; perhaps this is a shared understanding.

The night was quiet, and Kane wasn’t asleep; instead, he stared at the dark ceiling.

After sublimating to silver, his energy greatly increased, and he could go one or two weeks without rest without any issues.

He was reflecting; earlier today, during his magic beast hunt in the forest, he discovered numerous traces of intelligent races scattered around.

Since Uncle Ge Mu had issued the commission for these explorers to help clear the forest of magic beasts, at first, Kane didn’t mind.

But certain traces perplexed Kane because linking several traces together formed a route with traces from different times separated by days.

Kane found the oldest trace appeared around two weeks ago, while the newest trace was just from the past couple of days.

However, this didn’t match the information Kane gathered from Uncle Ge Mu.

Uncle Ge Mu issued the commission over a week ago, when two teams accepted the task.

In just a week, they only hunted three magic beasts to fulfill it, causing Uncle Ge Mu to lose faith in these explorers.

He thought even they struggled in the forest, unable to track down the more clever magic beasts.

But these were two explorer squads, mainly at the copper-level threshold.

How could they possibly spend over a week helping Uncle Ge Mu clear forest magic beasts?

This was effectively wasting their time, as the commission’s reward was scarce for these explorer teams.

Uncle Ge Mu didn’t know their capabilities, thus assumed their lack of forest adaptability led to only catching three.

But Kane understood; with these two squads’ capabilities, a week wouldn’t be just three, even standing still and waiting for magic beasts to come wouldn’t be that few.

This is why he stayed vigilant during his rest.

Perhaps these two squads were truly idle and very unadapted to forest activities.

Anyway, he’d better stay sharp.