INSIDE THE JUNGLE

The forest was littered with two hundred to three hundred meter tall ancient trees.

In a short while, he managed to come a few kilometers deep in the forest before finally slowing down his pace and observe the surroundings.

It was unclear how long this forest had remained untouched by people. In between the trees were countless unnamed coiled black and green vines. On the ground, dead tree leaves over a few meters long sprawled out.

The overhead of this forest was covered by a huge canopy that consisted of layers upon layers of strong branches and leaves. Only a small amount of sunshine broke through, which caused the lower level abnormally gloomy.

"The case of unregulated forest management. When they are not well managed, forest often unhealthy and unproductive because of overcrowding, disease, insects and competition for light, water, and nutrients. If there even any precious resources here? Or this is the case of the magical world, anything goes. Even so, this is a great place for an explosion better than a canyon. It wastes to drop a bomb at the location without any living beings. I need to find a volunteer for my experiment later." Max smiled.

Max extend his hand and try to tear off a nearby dried vine. Using twenty percent of his strength, he was unexpectedly unable to tear it off. This couldn't help but cause him to express surprise.

He meticulously examined the vines again. SECOND has no data regarding this unknown vine. He then wrapped his five fingers around them and used half of his strength.

This time, the vine responded by disintegrating in his hand.

Max shook his head and immediately began to ignore these items as he continues to to travel deeper.

After moving for half an hour, Max's expression suddenly changed. SECOND detected something! His figure swiftly jumped. After a quick movement, he appeared in front if withered three with only half of its tree trunk remaining.

The upper half of this tree had completely obliterated for an unknown reason and the lower half of the tree was comprised of an abnormal bark of black color. Not even a trace of vitality was present.

Max had no interest on the dead tree as he wields his sword to cut the remaining half of the tree till it root. Near the root that also changes to black color, he gazes completely focused on a small red fungus. It seemed to be similar to a regular fungus, except on the surface of the fungus there is golden-line vine stretching from the fungus until the tree.

"Without SECOND scanning, I'm surely missed out on this. SECOND! Scan this thing!" Max ordered.

[Similarity to Blood Fungus: 85.9%! Red Ring Fungus 53.5%! Toad Stool Mushroom: 35.1%%!]The SECOND's voice intoned.

"Blood Fungus?" Bring out its data!"

[Blood Fungus, a mutation of fungus exposed to contaminated mana. It lives as a parasite on a living tree to absorb all it the nutrient. Ingredients of many alchemist potion recipes for blood rejuvenation! Source of information: Catalog of Myriad Herbs]

SECOND had recorded many books inside the Great Library. Max's personal library contained all sorts of information and available to him anytime. In the blink of an eye, SECOND can make a comparison based on the data. Normal apprentices or even Mages would need to search back in their memory or refer to their notes if they encounter something irregular.

"Hmm, an alchemy ingredient. This Blood Fungus should be rare outside of secret realm. I remember someone wants to buy it for a hundred magic crystals but no supply. Normally I would take this herb but this not my reason here. It is a waste of time scavenging for resources, someone will present all of it later to me." Max grinned.

Max decided to left it alone but suddenly he changes his mind. He conjures an offensive spell and destroys the herb. "Even though I don't want to take it, it doesn't mean everyone else can".

After making sure the Blood Fungus no longer usable, he left proceed deeper into the forest.

Ultimately, two hours later he found another two Blood Fungus on two adjacent withered trees. Among the two herbs that he found, one of them was about the same size as the one he saw before while the other one was about three to four size. He destroyed those herbs too.

Thus, it could be said that in a short span of time, he had destroyed four hundred to five hundred magic crystals.

He knew that if he were to continue searching in a larger area, he would definitely find more precious resources to harvest easily with SECOND's scanning but he suppressed his urge and left this area. He continues moving forward.

After all, the time he had in the secret realm was limited and he still had to the most precious treasure in the secret realm while doing his experiments.

"Even so, I managed to found a rare herb this quickly proved that this secret realm is the haven of precious resources. I should take along only the extremely rarest of the resources or it is very useful to me. The rest…"

Just like this, Max traveled a particular direction in the forest and continue his journey. In the way, if he encountered any precious resources, he would instantly decide if he really needs it or destroys it after obtaining the result from SECOND.

Suddenly, in the middle of moving, Max's figure suddenly froze and he stopped on top of a certain tree branch. His gaze completely focused on a certain mark on the ground.

At the end of his sight is a single footprint. Even though it only one-foot print, the size is huge at least three meters wide. Near the footprint, there was a trace of fresh blood dripping on the ground.

Max pondered for a moment and later decided to follow the direction of the footprint. A hundred meter later, he discovered another single footprint. The footprint has the same pattern as the previous one but it is obviously from another leg. Around a hundred meters forward, he also discovered the same footprint but more similar to the first one.

"Interesting, based on the size of the footprints, the creature is at least fifty-meter height. From the pattern shown that the front side of the footprints is deeper than the rest of the print. This creature does not walk on two feet earlier but it jumped and a single step is around a hundred meters long. SECOND cannot deduce more what the creature is with this simple clue but what is certain, this creature is gigantic and it just passed here not long time ago"

Although Max knew that there would definitely a possibility the existence of unknown creatures in this sort of large man-made secret realm, this scene still couldn't help caused his head to jump in fear and curiosity.