The Woods

Tall trees covered in vines, dense bushes populating wide spans, mushrooms and plants growing and thriving, the nature was bountiful and the air was rich with the mixed aromas of each and every one of them, standing upon a large boulder covered in moss, Edrick observed his surroundings with interest, leaves were falling at this very instant, though, most of the trees were coniferous in this forest, so the overall looks of the places remained mostly the same.

Anoteros had walked a fair distance into the woods, having willfully entered this forest from a place that had no paths leading up to it, making sure to pick a spot that was clearly not ideal to traverse, all to reach an area like this one, surrounded by bushes that grew everywhere and prevented the more interesting flora from growing, and was thus less attractive to herb collectors on top of simply being annoying to manoeuvre.

It actually took him multiple days of attempts to find a good spot he was satisfied with, especially for one specific characteristic, which was a small indentations at the top of this small hill, hidden from sight by the mossy boulder unless you were right by it, this small space which was neither deep nor wide enough to be called a cave, was exactly what Edrick had been looking for.

Looking up, he could see that the sun was still high, it should only be about noon right now… So he might as well try out the validity of this plan, which when he tried to put in details, sounded ridiculous but that didn't mean that it couldn't work.

Walking into the not-cave, Edrick found himself a nice spot that was just as filthy as the rest, although there didn't seem to be any occupants to this place, it was filled with dust and pebbles as well a leaves that had been blown into there by the winds, brushing some of that away, he placed his sheathed rapier, bow and quiver against the wall, although none were truly necessary as there weren't any beasts or creatures that felt like taking on the weirdly tall, smooth-skinned ape, it was always best to have ways to defend oneself and also, it would be suspicious for him to just go into the woods without anything, at least he could claim that he was but a good cultivator that was seeking battle experience against the dwellers of these woods.

In any case, he then took off his clothes and neatly folded them, pilling them up nicely before sitting down and bringing his hands together, circulating his inner energy and beginning to cultivate the Mountain Sasquatch Body technique.

Ever since feeling that reaction from the technique, Edrick had naturally been curious, and although it did feel like it was circulating better in this environment, he could tell that this wasn't what had caused the reaction, it wanted something else.

Which was fine for Anoteros, this wasn't exactly the main reason for his presence here, he just kept on cultivating, feeling himself grow more and more hairy, his hair growing, his body beginning to be covered by long strands of fur, forming a thick mantle that shielded him from the cold air of this accelerated autumn, any feeling of chilliness was chased away.

Eventually, much earlier than usual, Edrick stopped circulating his energy and stood up, walking out and onto the mossy boulder, looking at his hands.

'Mmh, looks like the fur is adapting to the climate? Will I get a sasquatch's winter coat if I cultivate it when winter comes?' he wondered, his hairiness was already greater than that of the creature his technique took from, covering areas that should be uncovered, also, he had learned that the bodily fur wasn't supposed follow his hair colour, it would normally be a brown like that of pretty much all sasquatches, save a few exceptions.

Looking like nothing but a monster as the wind caused the long strands of fur to flutter in the wind, Edrick crouched down in an ape-like manner and cleared his throat.

'Since the technique is working differently and giving me more bonuses than normal…' he thought, pulling on his lungs as he bellowed, he didn't actually know what those sasquatches were supposed to sound like, and given their tendency to remain hidden, few probably did know.

So he just went with his guts and emitted a sort of bear-like growl, or roar, definitely sounding much deeper and ferocious than normal, his voice carried far, causing quite a lot of birds to suddenly fly away.

"Mmh, nice" he stretched his body and then stepped onto the forest floor, as it turns out, the bottom of his feet was thankfully spared from growing fur, however, something that Edrick hadn't noticed before was that they were definitely more resilient, the skin was thicker and made to accommodate for one as they ran through a forest, stepping on branches, pebbles and the likes, like this, he did not have to fear stabbing a particularly sharp pebble into himself by walking on it.

His hands as well, they underwent a similar change, adapted to climb trees and rocks bare-handed, although these changes were also to be felt normally, when he cultivated, they would somewhat morph into more bestial appendages on top of receiving a notable boost that would fade away when his excess fur was trimmed.

This technique wasn't meant to serve as a boost that you could actively use, but it seemed to be working that way for Anoteros right now, truly, his alignment with that technique must be exceptional.

In fact, as he began to move like a prowling predator, climbing up trees and jumping from one to the other with ease, he could feel the energy circulating within him take on a form reminiscent, but not quite identical to that he used to normally cultivate.

'This really is good stuff… Though I need to be careful not to get too into the role of an actual sasquatch' he thought to himself, feeling himself more in tune with the technique as it was quite literally making him more and more into the creature.

Compared to the time he had taken to move through the forest normally, in this manner, Edrick only took about twenty minutes to get close to the area that was most frequented by people, although, he chose not to appear near the places were the roads and paths were, instead deciding to move further away, his attention falling on a group of three people that were moving further into the forest.

Despite Edrick's earlier roar that must have echoed all the way here, people didn't seem too bothered, probably figuring that whatever had made that sound wouldn't come out here.

That assumption was laced with logic, animals and beasts, even monsters, weren't irrational, they wouldn't leave their territories or break their habits to try and gut some people, unfortunately, Edrick was a human…