บท 78: Cycle
Hugh walked back towards the main shaft of the tree. He was exhausted, and he did not want to encounter more eagles for the time being.
He had canvassed the tree enough not to be lost if he ever explored it again. He looked towards the main shaft of the tree and started to dig down.
This time, he wanted to explore more of the connecting tunnels in the tree. He would also eat the wood that he dug so that he could finish his daily missions.
He would encounter squirrels' dens as he explored the interconnecting tunnels of the squirrels. He did not make his presence known to them because he did not want to fight any of them yet.
He only wanted to know all of their locations and their respective treasure piles. He had explored for hours and hours, but it seemed like he had just scratched the surface of the tree.
Multiple squirrels had a close encounter with Hugh, but he was lucky enough to be stealthy and avoid their eyes.
There was one time where Hugh accidentally stepped on a loose wood, and it created a creaking sound. Hugh's presence was known, and he had no choice but to confront the squirrel.
At first, he did not use his transformation because he wanted to know how long he would last against a squirrel in a fight.
It did not take long, and as soon as his sixteen-second armor was on cooldown, he got beat up. He suffered broken ribs and a deep cut in his chest from the squirrel's claws.
In the end, he had to use his transformation to kill the squirrel without any problem. He was not discouraged by this occurrence.
In the fight against the squirrel, he made sure to observe the squirrel's movements and memorize its patterns. He was confident that he would last longer the next time that he would face another squirrel.
He ate the feathers stored up in a pile as his reward, and the day came to a close. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The next day, he was back again in the place where he came from. The first thing that he did as soon as he woke up was check his rewards for the daily missions the day before.
He activated his armor and counted the seconds that it would stay active. After 21 seconds, he felt the strength fade away from his body, and his armor disappeared back into its liquid form.
Hugh was happy at the progress that he had in his armor. From 16 seconds, it turned into 21 seconds. It had improved five seconds, less than the improvement the day before.
Yesterday, he made sure to eat more wood than he usually ate to check if it improved his armor. This meant that he would continue to improve if he ate the wood, but the improvement would be less each day.
From
3s -> 10s = 7s
10s -> 16s = 6s
16s -> 21s = 5s
From this information that he gathered, Hugh was sure that he would improve his armor to twenty-five seconds if he completed his missions today and ate wood from the giant tree.
With this plan in mind, Hugh started to plan to go to the giant tree. He gathered caterpillars and made some bait for the eagle to come to him.
He used the eagle to travel to the giant tree, and when he arrived, he killed the eagle for its meat. He traveled through the same route in the branches to see if the same two eagles would come there.
He was excited to see the two eagles land on the branch at the same time that he expected it to. He took this chance to enhance his fighting skills as he challenged the two eagles to fight.
He got multiple injuries as he fought the two eagles, but it was significantly less than before. It got easier to fight them because he had already fought them before, and all he needed to do was avoid their attacks.
He did the same with the squirrels in the tunnel. He would explore the tunnels and widen his knowledge of the whole map on the tree, and finish his day with a fight with the squirrel.
This time, he could last at least thirty seconds before he had to use his transformation. He ate the pile of treasures in the den and went to sleep.
He woke up and realized that it was the fifth day he was in the dungeon. Like he had guessed, he improved his armor to 25 seconds, less improvement than before.
He went to the tree and fought more eagles. This time, he fought another eagle aside from the two that he always fought before.
He fought the squirrel again and was able to last at least a minute. He could also injure the squirrel only using his armor, which was a massive improvement because he fought a C-rank creature.
Day by day, he was improving his armor and his fighting skills. He continued this cycle of consume, fight and sleep as he got better and better at fighting the creatures in the dungeon.
It was now the seventh day that he was in the dungeon, and his armor could now be used for thirty seconds. It felt like even if he ate all the wood in the giant tree, he would not improve any further.
It felt like it was his limit, and he knew that eating more wood would not do any good. He went back to the tree and continued to explore the tunnels and the squirrels.
This was the day that he decided that he would defeat a squirrel only using his transformation. He had spent that last few days studying its movements and its weaknesses to prepare for this day.
He walked towards the squirrel's den with a confident swagger and challenged it with his eyes. Like he had expected, the squirrel was angry and charged at him.
He dodged those attacks like flowing waters. His focus was at its maximum, and he looked for the perfect opportunity to strike.
After a few exchanges, Hugh stabbed his hand on the squirrel's belly. This was its vulnerable side. He would continue to strike this place, worsening its injury until it lost its strength and fell into the ground.
Hugh panted and looked at the carcass of the squirrel on his feet. He had finally done it. He had killed a squirrel without using his transformation.
The squirrel meat never is felt so good before. His hard work had paid off, and he savored every piece and every bone of the squirrel like a festival.
There was still a lot of time in the day before he wanted to sleep, so he started to explore the tunnels of the tree. He followed the spiraling tunnels downward for hours on end.
After what seemed like an eternity, Hugh finally reached the bottom of the tree, and there were no more tunnels to be seen. There was only a staircase that led to a dark place underground.
Hugh could see a red glint underground, and as soon as he walked near it, he could feel the heat coming towards him. He knew that there would be trouble if he continued downward, so he did not immediately go down.
He was starting to feel sleepy, so Hugh decided to sleep on the bottom of the tree. His last sight as he went to sleep was the red glint underground.
As soon as he woke up, he expected his surroundings to be bright and blue, as he had always experienced. This time was different; he was at the same place that he was in before.
He was staring at the stairs that led to the hot underground. Since he did not return to the place he was in before, Hugh had no choice but to venture downwards to the underground.
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