Chapter 21: City of Ravens (7)
Waking up in the morning my body felt refreshed. I ate my rations and prepared the meat that I collected yesterday from the Orthrus. The curse of bad cooking showed up again as somehow the meat got burned. It was edible but burned almost to a crisp.
I refilled the water at a stream and began to search for another Orthrus. Going through the lush forest, I saw many plants and monsters, all in a balance. Small monsters like goblins and jackalopes feeding on plants and each other, while stronger monster feeding on them.
Enclosed in a vicious cycle of life and death. There was nothing that could escape it. Not even humans!
I found the stream that I was observing yesterday and made my way alongside it. Looking for a lair or footprints of an Orthrus, I saw many kinds of monsters and avoiding them became a habit already.
Only the target was important!
It was thirty or so minutes alter I found tracks that looked like Orthrus footprints. Following them I lost them a few times but, in the end, they led me to the lair of the Orthrus. It was like the previous one, hidden from sight with lots of remains littered around. The Orthrus was resting in the corner, with its four eyes closed.
Not wasting any time, I rushed towards it and attacked! It woke up while I was running, but with its reaction delayed I was able to jump on its back and grabbed one of its necks. Holding on with both arms I held as it tried to throw me off.
While I struggled a bit, I broke one of its necks! The other head howled in pain and grief. It started to throw around a lot harder, I lost my grip and fell to the ground!
It jumped on me and tried to bite me, but I grabbed its mouth not letting it close! Feeling the warm breath and saliva dripping on me I panicked a bit. I could see all the details, nooks and crannies of its teeth.
I started to kick it with all the power I had, but it didn't do much to the soft underbelly. Thinking quickly, I came up with a plan of how to get free. I pulled my legs to my chest and with all my strength pushed it up! It got lifted up giving me some breathing room, I moved my arm placing the elbow inside its mouth not allowing it to close!
With one of my hands now free, I grabbed the knife and shoved it deep into its mouth. Slashing and cutting I was soon cover in blood! Cutting open the airway's, arteries and veins, it was dying while coughing its lungs out.
While I ended up covered in blood, I never came close to getting hurt. The only mistake I did was when the soul image disappeared after the fight all the blood that was on it fell on me. Next time I should at least try to get most of it off me.
With my scent being that of a bloody corpse I remembered what happened yesterday. After skinning the now dead Orthrus, I rolled around the ground and moss in an attempt to mask my scent.
With the skin in a bundle, I hastily went back to the tree I slept in and stored it with the other one.
It was now noon, I had plenty of time to hint two more. I made my way back to the stream and this time I went in the opposite direction I took last time. I spent the next hour searching, and the lady luck smiled upon me! I found an Orthrus dragging pray.
I almost missed it, for some reason it only had one head! Where the second head was supposed to be there was a big scar with a part of the spine bone sticking out. It was gruesome.
I climbed up a tree, and when it got close to me, I jumped down and quickly finished it. With one of the heads missing and the considerable scar, it won't be worth as much, but the profit will still be plentiful.
I carried the body closer to the stream where I skinned it. After gathering wood and making a fireplace, I started to roast the meet.
If someone saw me now, they would not think I was a human. Single handedly consuming almost half of the Orthrus. It was burned and a bit hard but edible! There was no place for me to complain, while stuck here to get that amount of food is already good.
On my way back, I kept watching for any fruit trees, instead what I noticed was a snake. Slithering on the ground, with grey scales and a pattern that looked like eyed along it.
It was a rare species called a nine-eyed snake, derived from the pattern on it that looks like nine eyes. There is nothing too special about it, and even though it had elemental essence, it didn't have any special abilities.
What is interesting about it, is where it lives. It digs a small nest in the roots of spiritual plants! Realizing what a stroke of good luck I had, in joy I started to follow it.
Animals, monsters, insects, all living beings have souls. For a long time, it was believed that plants don't have a soul because they have no intelligence or consciousness. In the old days, they believed that spiritual plants are intelligent, magical or possessed by spirits of the dead.
Later that they have unique chemical compounds, but they didn't explain all the effects they had.
Only in recent years, when elemental essence detectors were built did they confirm that they have elemental essence in them. It Is now believed that all live beings all the way from bacteria have souls.
In the case of bacteria, for now, the only one that is considered to have any elemental essence is the black death. For now, scientists think that the chance for such a small organism to be born with elemental essence is so slim that it is close to impossible.
But plants on the other hand, even though it is not often, they can possess elemental essence. The plants with elemental essence are divided into two groups, innate and erratic.
Innate are the most common ones, some are worthless and can be found at the side of the road, while some are being widely farmed for their beneficial effects. Only that their effects are minuscule.
Erratic are the rare ones, only found in the wild, those are plants that randomly awakened their elemental essence! Unlike the Innate plants they cannot be farmed, they are all one of a kind!
Their prices can go sky high depending on what effects does it have. The highest price ever of 56 million is the current record, and it was for a single bud!
But it all depends on luck! If the nine-eyed snake made a nest under a common innate plant, then this will be a waste of time. But if it is under an Erratic plant… I could get a minimum of tens of thousands!
I wanted to kill one more Orthrus before the end of the day, but life is a gamble! I would pay a few thousand for a chance to gain millions.
I followed it for hours, watching it kill a few small rodents, and laze around in wait. But I was nowhere near giving up.
It was evening when the snake finally decided to go back to its lair. On a small mound, at the very top of it there it was. A little flower was silently growing while basking in the fading rays of sunshine.
There were three flowers on top of it, with petals that were shaped like arrowheads and colored red and silver.
The nine-eyed snake was not a threat to me, so I made my way up the mud to collect it.
'Shickkk-Click'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Haron
Haron Hi!
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