13

My senses perked up suddenly. I was near something incredibly powerful. Something that scared me. I turned around, and headed back into the thrashing branches. I wasn't ready to face whatever that thing was yet. 

I was willing to run through danger to get away from this powerful enemy. Whatever was at the center of this forest was dangerous enough to completely stifle my joy, and make me run away. I frowned to myself as I ran as fast as I could through the thrashing branches, and roots. Jumping above the danger quicky as I avoided death to the best of my ability. I got clipped by a branch or two while I was running away. 

I spotted a clear spot, and leapt for it. Landing in a crouch. Pain surged up my feet into my knees. I'd slammed into the ground pretty hard. I'd managed to lose all the monsters by backtracking the way I had. 

They couldn't follow me through all those thrashing branches. I stayed there crouched. Waiting for something to come at me while I was standing there. Giving my mana some time to regenerate. I looked around to the forest around me. 

The roots were fairly tall in this area. I might be able to hide here for some time. Time I needed to regenerate my mana. Killing a few of these trees would give me some much needed breathing room. That might just set off the monster in the center of the forest. 

I might be wrong though. For all I knew these trees might just be part of the being at the center of the forest. If that was true it might be impossible for me to kill this forest. I needed to give it another try. That would require me to have all of my mana. 

I needed to be in peak condition, and I needed to choose a tree that was a little separated from the rest of the forest. That meant I needed to find the edge of this forest. It was hard for me to sense the trees. I couldn't tell how strong these trees were let alone how to kill them. Burning them might be my best option to kill them. 

They were trees so it made sense. Burning them was easily the best option available to me at the moment. I would wait until my mana was full then I would strike. If I was lucky then I would have time to regenerate my mana completely before being attacked. I started digging. 

I hate to say that I was getting strategy from a video game, but digging a hole, and hiding in it was a good strategy. I kept glancing around myself as I quietly dug further, and further into the soil. I was happy I didn't come across any tree roots, but these trees were not normal in any way shape or form. The smaller water seeking roots normal trees had weren't present here. I piled the soil up around me, and sat down in the cool dry soil. 

Dry soil? This soil was completely dry. Almost sandy in texture. There was no water here. My mouth felt dry at the thought. 

I settled down in the dirt, and checked my ankle. The cuts on my ankle had stopped bleeding a long time ago. Some of the smaller ones had even started to seal up. I liked this vitality stat, but it was too slow. I needed to increase it's effectiveness. 

I frowned at the wound. I was glad that monster wasn't poisonous. I'd be in trouble if it was. I was waiting for my mana to regenerate or for something to attack. I only had so much time. 

I didn't know how far time was altered while I was in here. It felt like I'd been in this dungeon for days at this point. My muscles relaxed slowly as the hours passed. All I had to wait for now was the daily healing. I folded my arms tightly over my chest to preserve my warmth. 

I smiled wistfully to myself. I wanted to see my family, and my boys. I promised I'd protect them. I couldn't spend too long here. I thanked whatever twisted god made these dungeons. 

The time difference was saving me right now. A day in here was nothing out there. I started circulating my mana at a rapid rate. I had more mana veins I needed to open. I had a feeling that I would be able to sense mana better once all my mana veins were fully opened. 

I started forcing mana down the smaller mana paths. The act of forcing the mana veins open caused me some searing pain in that portion of my body. It hurt even worse then opening the main veins. The pain was pulsing all the way down my arm into my wrist. This strategy wasn't working as well as it had the first time. 

I changed tactics a little. Forcing a thread of mana through the blockage to the other side, and prying it out into the free flowing mana in the mana veins I'd already opened. My chest tightened up suddenly. Heat flying through my entire body as the impurities flowed through my whole body. I saw black spots in my vision as my body tried to forcibly expel the impurities. 

I started retching up black sludge as the impurities were forced out the path of least resistance, but it did work. That mana vein was now completely open, and the flow of my mana to my right arm significantly improved. That meant I'd be able to create a strong soul fang blade in my right hand. I was pretty sure that was what was limiting the sharpness of my soul fangs. I stared at my hand for a little while before scanning my surroundings once again. 

I didn't see anything moving, and the trees were unnervingly still. It made my skin crawl now that I had time to think about it. I would have slapped myself if I wasn't completely focused on not being noticed right now. My mana was approaching the halfway point. I still had a few hours to wait.