Fuck. He might actually end up killing that bastard if he laid eyes on him.
Kenan backed away slowly. The monocot leaves hanging at the entrance of the cave was dry as if the resident had forgotten to change it in a long time.
Calling out the password of his spatial ring, he glanced at the single figure that signified the amount of food he had left, and couldn't help but let out a sigh—if Uncle Jim hadn't insisted, he would've simply marched into the Dark Lands empty handed, awaiting his self-proclaimed heroic death.
He would never have gone to such a place without adequate preparation, however, not only was he very poor, he was also eager to quell the pain that came with awakening in the Sun Continent even at the cost of his life—that was just how unbearable the pain was.
His steps came to a halt when he noticed the shimmering lake, one that seemed to go against all natural principles. The acidic lake glistened without light, its surface tension was way higher than that of ordinary water, and even though it was obvious that the lake was shallow, its bottom was not visible despite how clear the liquid was.
Kenan looked away from the lake as he thought, the food in his possession would only be enough for two days and he'd rather die than eat anything he finds in the cave of the Deserter. The mesocarp of the Unevolved Bloom was not even edible.
He glanced up at the large cocoon hanging from a tree branch over the lake. And yet again, that one intangible thought crossed his mind.
The thought crossed his mind once before, lingered ever so slightly, and popped up like an annoying ad anytime he catches even the faintest glimpse of the glistening lake.
Again and again,
What if the gate was at the bottom of the lake?
According to the numerous tales passed around in high school, gates always existed where there was an influx of beasts or the most dangerous part of a Fold.
It wasn't credible but it could be said to be worth the try.
"Ah! Damn it! I'm just going to do it!" He groaned with his hands in his head as he spoke to himself like a man with only one-third of his sanity still intact.
To make sure he doesn't end up changing his mind, he opened his spatial storage once again and grabbed all the consumables that were left, he carefully ate all of them, temporarily enjoying the feeling of being full for the first time since what seemed like forever.
If it ends up failing, then he would just jump bare-bodied into the shimmering lake, that way, he would have at least the power of choosing how to bring his life to an end. Not that he had any plans of dying for naught, anyway.
******
And soon he was already halfway up the tree. Regret washed over him like a rushing tide.
'Shit.' He wanted to curse, he wanted to climb down and just find some other way. The closer he got to the cocoon, the more regretful he felt.
He climbed onto the sturdy branch from which the cocoon was hanging off. Numerous vines of various sizes wrapped around the cocoon, attaching it firmly to the branch, however, underneath the jagged vines, Kenan could make out a smooth surface.
Acid was no longer dripping from the vines and the pulsating had gone quiet.
Still regretful and unsure of what to do, Kenan sat comfortably on the branch and pulled out his katana, cutting the vines one by one until only a few held the cocoon to the tree branch. At that moment, his biosync beeped.
[Evolved Bloom - Fiend Rank]
Whatever was wrapped within those vines wiggled as if responding to Kenan.
His original plan was to cut a part of the cocoon open, if whatever was inside were small, savage-ranked Blood Blooms, then he'd kill them, stuff a dead Unevolved Bloom, enter into the it, and cut the vines, the cocoon would sink to the depths of the acidic lake since it was resistant to acid. However, this sudden message was like a beautiful song in his ears and the beat of death drums all at once.
An Evolved Bloom, how was it any different from an Unevolved Bloom? However, the biosync remained silent, giving the description whatsoever.
The entire cocoon was one large Evolved Bloom, one at Fiend rank at that. His bones would be crushed into powder immediately he goes into that thing.
The regret that had turned into fear was changing to regret once again. How would he survive inside the Bloom without damaging it too much? How would his bones even bear the crushing force?
The positive side, though, was that the Evolved Bloom was tens if not thousands of times stronger than an average Unevolved Bloom—An Unevolved beast was no different from a scary, exotic animal. However, an Evolved beast boasted supernatural strength and even intelligence that was in the likeness of humans, even superior.
There was no going back. Kenan sat carefully and wrapped his legs as tightly as he could around the tree branch. He stabbed his weapon into the beast's mesocarp with all his strength and only the sharp edge of the blade managed to pierce through.
He never even thought of this.
As soon as he pulled out the blade, the small stab wound covered up. And the beast's bud didn't open like it didn't even consider Kenan a worthy opponent or prey.
Now, Kenan was in a real turmoil. He couldn't dig his way into the Evolved Bloom, neither could he get it to open up its bud on its own.
He climbed higher and broke off a piece of wood. Climbing back down, he stabbed the beast again, this time, barely even leaving a scratch. Unwilling to give up, Kenan browsed through his spatial storage ring for the umpteenth time and found nothing that would be useful in the situation he found himself in. Maybe, instead of spending his entire savings in the Sun Continent, he might have equipped himself with more weapons…not that his money could buy anything worth having, anyway. Except cheap scraps that'll leave him dead in few seconds.
With this thought, he couldn't help but wonder how much Uncle Jim spent on this katana since it was rather durable.
————————————————————
(A Fold is an area within the Dark Lands. Since the Dark Lands is just a large space with multiple horrendous dimensions, each of this dimension is called a Fold.)
Lol, Kenan is always auto-corrected to Kebab or Karen.