Shang jumped onto the first tree in the northwestern forest as always. Running on the ground was dangerous.
As Shang jumped from tree to tree, he noticed that he felt uncomfortable.
Why?
Because Shang was usually hunting at night, and at night, he could somewhat feel his surroundings thanks to his Darkness Affinity.
However, during the day, Light and Darkness Mana were mixed inside the forest. After all, even during the day, a thick forest was not very bright.
There was not enough Light Mana nor Darkness Mana to scout the surroundings.
Shang hadn't noticed until now how much he had relied on his Darkness Vision.
Nevertheless, Shang didn't intend to cancel his mission. He wanted to get the Fire ore as soon as possible.
In his mind, he had already wasted two weeks by not being able to practice his techniques due to his weak weapon. Every additional day felt like another wasted day.
Since Shang was now alone without any distractions, he saw the bloodied face return again.
It didn't appear in the surroundings like some specter, but the image that had been burned into Shang's mind simply replaced his vision time and time again for a short instant.
Shang pushed the image away again and again, telling himself that he was under control.
Sadly, it always came back.
'I didn't make a mistake.'
'Empathy is weakness in this world.'
'I can't be light on my enemies.'
Absentmindedly, Shang inspected his surroundings.
When he saw a Pest Cat, he killed it, but since it was during the day, he couldn't find many of them. He found most of them by following traces and entering their nests.
After an hour, Shang had already killed 20 Pest Cats. One of their nests had had young in them, which had given him another twelve.
'I should have hunted during the night. It's difficult to find Pest Cats during the day. Why did I decide to hunt in the middle of the day?'
And then, Shang suddenly stopped in shock.
'I'm not here to hunt Pest Cats!' Shang thought.
Shang grabbed the side of his head with his right hand. 'What the hell is wrong with me?! I'm here to break Javelin beaks! Why am I suddenly focusing on Pest Cats?!'
Shang gritted his teeth as he looked at his beast sack. 'That's one hour wasted.'
Shang became frustrated and angry at himself. What the hell was he doing?! Why was he suddenly hunting Pest Cats?!
'Javelin beaks!' he shouted at himself in his mind.
Shang continued reminding himself that he came for Javelin beaks as he jumped from branch to branch, continually shoving the image of the bloodied face into the back of his mind.
For the next couple of minutes, Shang inspected every beast he could find. Many of them were unknown to Shang, but he also saw some familiar ones. He didn't know their names, but he had seen them before.
CRK!
As Shang was jumping from one tree to the next, he suddenly heard the sound of wood violently creaking. Shang's eyes widened as he looked toward the tree he was jumping to.
Its branches were shooting at Shang aggressively, their tips incredibly sharp. It was like Shang was being attacked by several spears!
Shang was in the middle of the jump, and the branches would impale him shortly.
BANG!
Shang released a Fire Blast towards the top, shooting him downwards.
BANG!
Shang hit the ground hard, but his body was powerful enough to resist such an impact.
Shang could see the branches stab through the spot where he had just been.
And then, Shang's eyes narrowed.
He looked towards the tree in front of him.
It was an abomination of a tree. It was twisted like a rope, and several dead branches were hanging out from the spiral. A couple of other branches have transformed into spears, mouths, claws, teeth, and different things.
This tree was a perfect example of the words chaos and rampant mutation.
BANG!
Shang unleashed an Ice Blast towards his back, shooting him towards the tree.
The tree couldn't even react before Shang arrived directly in front of it.
Shang put his nearly destroyed arm on the tree's trunk and used his Darkness Absorb.
CRK! CRK!
The tree began to shrink rapidly as several branches fell off. It was like the tree had aged by thousands of years in an instant.
Shang's left arm became filled with life energy, but the additional life energy quickly healed his arm, making everything return to normal.
At that point, Shang heard the silent but quick fluttering of insect wings.
BANG!
Shang used his Fire Blast again to charge towards the noise, and in an instant, he caught up, catching the source.
Shang looked at the thing in his right hand.
It was a white bug, its legs violently moving around as its mandibles opened and closed several times.
However, none of its weapons could touch Shang's hand since he had perfectly caught it at its abdomen.
'So, that's a Life Scarab, huh?' Shang thought as he looked at it.
Shang looked around the area and noticed several corpses lying on the ground. A couple of them were stacked around the tree itself, but many others were simply lying around the area.
Shang could see cats, wolves, bears, and even two Pest Cats in the pile.
The tree had obviously killed a lot of living beings.
Shang looked back at the Life Scarab in his hand and took out his sword. After quickly bisecting the Life Scarab's head, he put it into his beast sack.
'200 Contribution Points. Cool,' Shang thought.
Shang's eyes wandered towards the dead tree.
For a while, he only looked at its twisted and bizarre form.
Then, Shang gritted his teeth again.
'How did I not see that?' he asked himself.
'I should have noticed this tree long ago! It looks completely different from any other tree. I should have known that something wasn't right with it!'
For a moment, Shang paused.
'Was teacher Mervin right? Is my concentration waning because I haven't slept in so long? Do I actually have a headache?' he asked himself as he touched his head.
As he moved his head from side to side, he noticed that he felt like his brain was rolling around inside his skull. It was like he felt the inertia of his brain whenever he moved.
'A headache, huh? How long have I had that? When did it start?'
'I genuinely have no idea. If I hadn't specifically searched for it, I wouldn't even have noticed.'
Shang silently thought to himself for several seconds.
'I need to sleep,' he thought. 'As soon as I return, I should go to sleep. I'm obviously not at the peak of my abilities. My concentration is waning, and that can prove deadly in this forest.'
The image of the two pieces of Fire ore shot through Shang's mind.
'But I'm so close. Only this hunt. I only need to complete this one hunt, and I can take a break.'
'Just three Javelin beaks. That's all I need. After that, I can go to the academy and sleep.'
And then, Shang jumped back to the branches as he continued deeper into the forest.
The bloodied face returned again and again, but Shang kept shoving it away.
Yet, its appearance also made him nervous.
It was like it was watching him.
