Chapter 8: Tri-colour Serpent [Part-1]
'Just a bit… longer…'
I kept reminding myself that it was now a battle of attrition and that I had to win.
With the help of a powerful pull created by the beast itself, my hand slowly started creeping out of the hole.
The hand that came out of the hole was all bloodied with splinters of wood sticking out of my skin.
As the wood-walker was also pulling me away from it, I used its force to pull its mana pearl out of its body.
"Come out, damn it!" It was at that moment that multiple threads snapped at the same time, the sudden lack of resistance allowed the wood-walker's vines to throw me away.
—Bam!
—Thud!
I slammed into a nearby tree then crumpled on the ground below.
Due to the pain coming from the sharpe nooks of the wood piercing my back, my hands closed tight fists. After coughing a few times, I slowly stood up and checked the pearl in my hand that was shining a greenish-brown color.
Compared to the beast orb from the Obsidian Serpent—which was the size of a softball—this thing in my hand was no bigger than a pearl.
[Mana pearl: (Zeroth Circle)
A naturally occurring material. It is produced inside a beast or an area containing similar conditions. It has accumulated mana and is often used to train one's mana pathways.]
After a few moments of staring at it, and reading the information about it, I removed a small cloth pouch from my waist and stored the mana pearl in there.
From the other side of my waist, I removed an animal-skin-bag, its contents being the same healing potion.
I uncorked it and drank the contents sparingly. It was common knowledge that doing so increased the efficiency of the potions.
As I waited for the effects of the potion to kick in, I observed my wounds.
'All of the skin on my back is gone, huh…' I shook my head with a bitter smile.
'How am I even standing...?' I wondered. With this kind of blood loss, I should have fainted ages ago!
[Thank me, Master!]
'How are you?—Ah!' As I was wondering how she helped me, It dawned on me that having a soul beast increases base physique.
'Thanks, Dia.'
[Hehe...]
Hearing Dia's childish giggle brought a smile to my tired face.
Although it was only by a miniscule amount, having a soul beast increased the base stat the beast specialized in. In mine and Dia's case, it increased my endurance.
—Slap!
As my thoughts reached there, I slapped my cheeks to wake myself up.
"You've got a whole day ahead of you!"
As if on queue, a warm feeling started to spread outward from my stomach, but it didn't spread to my whole body, since most of the healing ability was spent just closing the wounds on my back, but that was enough for now.
While the potion was doing its work, I looked around again for any immediate threats before I drank another bottle worth of potion.
—Gulp!
"Haaa... That should do it."
The leather-pouch could hold half a liter of liquid—two and a half bottles worth of potion—so now it was empty.
Since most of my back had been patched up by now, the second dose of potion started to work on the internal injuries caused by the vines wrapping around my belly.
Drinking potion also replenished some of my stamina. It couldn't bring me up to my optimum state, but it was enough for now.
'Hey Dia, can you eat that thing?' I asked Dia, eyeing the body of the wood-walker.
[No, Master, I can't. I'm sorry,] Dia said dejectedly, scratching my heart.
'Awe, It's okay, let me find you another meal then.'
Since my second main objective for coming here was to find food for Dia, I couldn't leave without that, now could I?
However, before I left the scene, I walked towards the wood-walker's body, removed my precious knife, and kicked the wood-walker with all my power.
"Ouch!"
It's body was so heavy that the forceful contact made my foot hurt, while the wood-walker's body only budged slightly.
You might wonder why I wasn't checking to see if it was still alive right? Well tell me, would you be alive if your heart was pulled out? No, right? That's what happened here.
After giving my 'wishes' to the dead, I left in the direction I came from since the beasts might be on their way here due to all the commotion our fight had caused.
As I was walking, I neared a tree with a hole in it. Since I was ready to have a bloody fight, I had prepared some spare clothes to avoid my 'extra special family time' with mom...
After checking that my clothes were still there, I moved in a different direction. Since I only had a single set of spare clothes, it'd be better to change into them when I was finished with the whole hunting business.
For the day at least.
'If there's a wood-walker here... I should go to another area.'
Wood-walkers are never born by themselves, as some people might think. Wherever there was a single wood-walker, there were at least 20 of them nearby because their main purpose was to protect their parent/creator—the Ent.
Ents are also beasts, albeit a bit smarter than others. If walking wood is the definition of wood-walkers, then the definition of an Ent would be a walking tree.
Yea... There are walking trees and the forest is their natural habitat and I just killed an underling of an Ent in its own home...
As my thoughts paused there, a frown crept onto my face.
'Why would there be an Ent so close to the outskirts of the forest?'
'Could it be...'
As an absurd possibility came to my mind, an equally absurd idea sprung up in my mind at the same time.
'This adds to my already long to-do list.' I muttered as I scratched the back of my neck.
'Oi codex, you there?'
[I am always here, Ryan.]
'Tell me something, you fused with my nano-chips, am I correct?' I conversed with codex as I searched for Dia's food.
[Ryan, you don't have to beat around the bush. I can read your mind, and clearly at that.]
'So? Is it possible?'
[No… not yet.]
'Well 'not yet' is good and all, but you could have just told me when, right?' I shot back as my eyebrows twitched.
[...I will tell you when you are ready.]
"Just tell me al-!"
[Ryan!]
I was just about to shout aloud in anger when Codex immediately warned me and I covered my mouth with both my hands and fled the scene.
'Just tell me already! Got it!?'
[Haa... No gratitude for the warning. Alright, you can use 'that' when you reach the first Rune of the Zeroth Circle on the mage path.]
Though Codex sounded as if it were sulking, I didn't pay much attention to it and instead focused on the condition I needed to fulfil in order to activate my would-be trump card.
Zeroth Circle, the first step on the path of Magic...
When the body is familiarised with mana and starts absorbing it from its surroundings, then the person is said to have reached the first Rune of the Zeroth Magic Circle and had broken free from the shackles of mortality.
"Codex, show me all the information about magic circles that I can access." This time I didn't even bother asking for locked information.
[There are a total of nine circles in the mage realm, also known as the beast mage realm, and each Magic Circle has 9 stages called Runes.
To reach and surpass the Zeroth Magic Circle, the basic requirement is mana pearls. Those of a respective rank or higher than the Mage's rank are the most preferred ones to use.]
That was the cause of my headache...
Each pearl, no matter the rank, was hella expensive!
At least for our family. Although I was not sure how much money we had right now, I am pretty sure that all of that could be spent on buying 8-9 mana pearls of the lowest rank, and... I also didn't want to lean on our family budget for something I wanted.
'Oi, Codex, How many pearls do I need to reach the first Rune of the Zeroth Circle?'
[Two should be enough.]
'I already have one from the wood-walker, so I only need one more.' I mused to myself.
Since I needed to come here to find food for Dia, it has become a 'Two birds with one stone' mission.
As I was walking around in the wilderness, I spotted a nest high on the branch of a tree that seemed to be 10 metres in height. The nest was made of small twigs of the same colour and texture as of the branch it was settled on.
The reason I could spot such a well-hidden nest was that a snake was slowly but surely creeping closer to the nest. The snake had three distinct colours on its scales. Its head was blue and its tail was green. Between them both, it had a red colored belly.
Although I couldn't see what was in the nest that the snake might want, I could guess that it was either an egg or a defenceless newborn.
I silently approached the tree in question and crouched down near its base as I eyed the tricolored serpent, just as it eyed its prey.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Rookie_Draconian
Rookie_Draconian Sorry, I'll go to sleep after this, my head and stomach hurts...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone