Chapter 39

The figure directly above Fares finally moved aside, relieving the pressure on his chest.

Fares gasped for air as if a thousand kilograms has been lifted off his chest. After a while, he sat up, not daring to stand yet, and looked at the two figures with both curiosity and revere.

The second figure approached them slowly until it finally reached beside the first one. Fares could see the outlines of the figure and without even needing to take a look at them, he could determine that the second figure was a humanoid female slightly shorter than the first figure. However, she still was just as fit; as he could discern from her straight spine, wide back, and sharp deltoid.

Fares wondered whether they were humans or humanoid creatures. According to science, it was highly unlikely that they are humanoid creatures, but in a world depending purely on energy, he could not quite give up on that possibility.

"What are you?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

"You do not need to know that." The first figure said.

"It is for your own good." The second figure continued.

Fares was irritated, first, the figure just attacks him out of nowhere, then it asks him questions out of the blue, clearly interrogating him. Lastly, do not answer his question, if you do not want to answer that is fine, but why do you have to put it as if you know what is best for me?

The figures then turned their backs on him and went towards the tent yet again. This made Fares anxious, what do they want from Zena and Smooka?

Fares used his energy to refill the hole in the dome tent with earth yet again, surprising the figures. But that was the extent of it, just a surprise, it did not even alarm them, this made Fares both more vigilant and annoyed. These two could easily annihilate him and his friends, and he still had no way to stop it.

"Do not take another step towards that direction." Fares warned slowly, trying to sound firm, but he was still shaken up.

The figures saw the raging energy within Fares and could feel his determination. They smiled at one another, and even though it was pitch black as not even moonlight could pass through the trees, they both knew what the other was thinking.

The first figure then said, "Alright, young man, we will leave for now. But if you are from Crystal Cave village, I advise you to take care of that village chief."

Fares was once again dumbfounded, 'What the hell does that mean? Who are these people? And why does he need to take someone's advice when he won't even tell his name?'

But before he could ask any further, the figures released a lot of energy before vanishing right in front of him.

Fares passed a hand through his hair, and he got frustrated. Whenever he got close to solving a mystery, another, deeper one appears. He had a hunch that there is something big going on, and only people in the Nature Fusion stage were in on it.

"Ah forget it. If they were why we should not be out at night, then I think that there will not be anything else happening tonight, hopefully." He said as he walked back to the earth tent.

Opening a hole wide enough to pass through, he entered through it before closing it behind him again. He wanted to attempt cultivating the Saltasaurus' orb, but he could feel that his body could not handle it yet.

He then decided on cultivating normally for the rest of the night. During this time, he could feel himself absorb more energy with every breath he took.

'Is it because of those crystals inside the cave? Or is there something else inside that mountain?' He thought, remembering the day Smooka was too scared to approach. At first, he thought that someone there scared the squirrel, so his most likely possibility would be the strongest human there, Azkar.

However, Fares doubted that beasts with the instinct to attack would be frightened by a human less than half its size. It was not just Smooka, why would the other beasts stir clear from the mountain? A Mountain like that with a huge forest surrounding it, but no beast dared come closer, had to have something hidden within it.

'I have to check it out next time.' He thought.

The night went on uneventfully, and Fares cultivated a good amount and almost filled his chest nodes by an amount equal to the alpha Raptor core. He had decided to hunt more of them, it is more efficient that way. Only when he has filled his chest node would he think of consuming the Saltasaurus' orb.

As the sun began to shine, Zena was the first to wake up. She looked around lazily while rubbing her eyes with her hands. It was only when she noticed the unfamiliar environment did she became fully alert. However, upon seeing Fares cultivate, she relaxed again and just sat there watching him.

Smooka woke up not long after, and only then did Fares stop cultivating and looked at both of them. His eyes met Zena's, and she blushed when she realized she had been watching him too intently. Fares did not know what was going on, however, he shrugged it off and took out some supplies.

He gave all the blue orbs he got to Smooka, who happily ate all of them, and fell asleep again to cultivate. Meanwhile, he took out the dinosaur's flesh and opened a space through the tent before going out along with Zena.

Once they were outside, he closed the tent again before climbing the closest tree to have a better lookout. Zena followed him and sat on the branch, when they finally arrived, to watch him cook.

She was already drooling, she had not eaten anything since the day before. But what she did not know was that she was even more hungry than usual as Fares made her body heal itself which put a toll on her body.

After cooking the meal, they ate it happily, this Saltasaurus' meat tasted like beef for some reason.

Zena ate quite a bit, however, she did not fall asleep. Mostly because she was on a higher cultivation stage, but also body hunger was a part of it. That was why Fares cut an unusually large piece off of the monster in the first place.

After breakfast, they went around hunting Raptors and only returned at noon. During this time they hunted 7 packs of Raptors and acquired quite a haul.

By the time they got back, Smooka finally woke up and appeared to be even stronger than before.

Fares pat his head taking out all the normal Raptor energy, and gave it to Smooka who happily took it. Before he could throw them all into his mouth, Fares stopped him in his tracks and said, "Not now buddy, let us go catch ourselves another Saltasaurus. You want revenge, right? And I know exactly how to."

Fares flattened the dome tent back into the ground before they left in search of another Saltasaurus.

Not long after, they found one slightly larger than the first happily munching on some tree leaves with a satisfying expression on its face.

Fares quickly explained his plan this time, which was more than likely to work. Both Smooka and Zena nodded along at the explanation with serious expressions on their faces, they had already come close to death once from the dinosaur, they were not going to do the same mistake again.

After everyone got ready in their respective position, Fares was the first to act this time. He propelled himself forwards using his left foot and rushed directly towards the Saltasaurus.

When he reached a few meters close to it, the dinosaur stopped eating and looked at the incoming tiny being. With a disinterested look on its face, it swiped its tail at him. This casual swipe was too fast, but Fares already had a plan the moment he got noticed.

He quickly jumped into the air, by infusing his legs with energy, he jumped far up into the air almost at the same level as the Saltasaurus' back. By then, the dinosaur found the tiny two-legged to be quite annoying, so it swung its tails faster towards him.

In mid-air, Fares could not dodge the attack, but he did not have to. Before the attack reached, the Saltasaurus sensed danger and changed the direction of its tail to defend itself. However, it was too late, Smooka was already by its neck where he clawed at the dinosaur's neck.

ROAR~

The Saltasaurus roared in anger as its skin had been cut, although it was stronger than the first one, Smooka had also got stronger than the day before and its attack had cut off a large chunk of skin.

Before the beast could react, another attack came at the same spot, widening the wound. Right then, a wind blade reached the same area of damage, severing its neck off its body.

The whole process took a fraction of a second, it had been too perfectly timed that one would think they had been hunting together for a long time.

Smooka depended on its instincts to attack at the perfect time-saving Fares as well as catching the dinosaur off-guard.

As for Zena, she has hunted way too long that she could easily identify the perfect timing. Fares, on the other hand, used his more intuitive brain node to slow down time from his perspective.