Salak Garden

Not many areas are isolated in Yamani, other than a few areas on L-07. During Jane's one year of wandering, it was something she realized long ago. All beings can be freed to do anything and get light punishment even if they make a violation, but humans. When the human race commits an offense for the sake of their own race, then the punishment they get will be very heavy.

If other races did that, or even tried to destroy the human race, there is no law against such a thing. After all, here, the human race was not considered a creature worthy of life. They are only limited to food.

There is no privilege in treating food ingredients.

The Salak Garden is one of the isolated areas. No human can set foot there. It is a forbidden area for humans. In the past, the place was quite safe for humans and made humans use the area as a base for gathering. When the place was discovered by the wrena, a big riot broke out, and the place was now completely closed. No human can set foot there. Not even one. If any human dared to do so, they would die.

It was fortunate that the wrena did not have the tools or powers capable of making them recognize humans quickly.

The giant Salak garden now has a black fence with a height of a few hundred meters. There were only a few doors to enter, and they were guarded by wrenas.

"Do you know how to enter it?" asked Renik, glancing at Jane.

They were now back in the forest to go around another part of the giant garden. Jane nodded casually, asking Renik to keep her head down while they walked slowly through some thickets and big trees at the edge of the forest.

Both of them were already dressed like wrena, with half horns and special eye lenses for Renik. They'd also changed clothes to be neater so they wouldn't be as flimsy as human make-up, and had pocketed each weapon for themselves, making tighter guards so they could save themselves if their cover were to be exposed at any moment.

"There's a secret passage," Jane replied casually.

If she remembered correctly, the secret passage was at the end of a giant barking garden. It is located opposite the coast, near the boundary wall between the ends of the L-07 city and the giant garden. There's a tunnel there, often made by giant moles. At least since Jane's last entered the area, not many people know about it.

"Well, found."

Jane shifted the rock the rats used to hide under, and turned to look at Renik. "This is the path to the inside, the rat's lair."

"Don't they eat humans too?" asked Renik carefully.

Jane chuckled at that, "I can kill them."

Besides, it's still daytime. Rats are nocturnal creatures, and at this hour, they tend to be still hiding in the nest and aren't going anywhere. At night, they are actively traveling. As long as Jane wasn't making a fuss in the path of the rat hole, they should be safe through it.

The two of them finally entered the underground passage. Jane lit the fire. With the new eyes she had, it turns out, the passage also holds several other wrena's entrance portals, so she can assume that the place is also frequented by other creatures.

Jane swallowed her saliva. She just realized that her eyes were able to see the ascetics, who were sometimes very difficult to find. She only found out that the ascetics were invisible when she was in his meditation period. Maybe the rats wouldn't be able to find them either, these people were even see-through.

They passed through the passage in silence, before finally returning to the surface, and now inside the giant barking garden. Jane pops her head to the ground, confirming that there are no guards around before finally getting up, and Renik is right behind her.

The barking garden here is said to be giant, not without reason. Even for the size of a young salak fruit, the height is the size of Jane, with a width of two meters. The thorns of the plant stabbed everywhere, but because they were gigantic, they weren't that much of a threat to Jane.

The girl couldn't even see the ends of the thorny trees.

Renik led the way to get to the top when they were inside the salak garden. The two of them did not get much rest. When night fell, they decided to climb the thorns of the bark of the tree and rest there.

All the creatures here eat meat, especially human flesh. They always went upstairs every night, and sometimes just made their way through the top without making a sound.

One year of living in the forest and being very fond of traveling made Renik and Jane have strong dexterity in facing the terrain in the giant barking garden. Renik even knows of paths that are much safer and not infested by animals or wrena.

This was their third day in the thorn garden. By tomorrow morning, they might be able to reach the top, approaching the Thorny Abyss. Renik spread her arms, signaling Jane to pause.

The girl's hearing was indeed very sharp, Jane trusted Renik completely. Both of them are now on one of the barking thorns, walking between the recesses of the giant tree without getting any closer to the main road that separates one barking tree from another. Because roads like that are always passed by rats and wrena who are on guard.

Sure enough, some guards started to pass through the path where they were hiding. Renik and Jane froze, watching the multiple guards walking down the path looking around. The two of them were now hiding between the gaps of the salak fruit, while Jane's eyes stared at the dozen guards until they were no longer within her line of sight. Only after that do they resume their journey with Renik.

"You noticed something?" asked Jane as they jumped from thorn to thorn to another.

Renik looked at the woman with furrowed brows, not understanding. "Nothing unusual."

Jane pulled a straight face at that, "There is." She replied, while glancing at Renik, "When I came here, there weren't that many." She then again jumped from one thorn to another, leaving one barking tree to another. "Their numbers are increasing. For whatever reason, for whatever reason, they are now increasing the number of guards in this giant garden."