Everything was cold, dark, and silent. There was no thought, no desire as his body lay still, covered in dust and rot.
As if dissatisfied with all that… something broke the silence.
Caw! Caw! Caw!...
Despite its try, the boy didn't move yet. Tilting its head, the crow looked at the body and moved a bit closer. Looking at him, he cawed once again.
Caw! Caw! Caw!...
This time it could see his eyelids twitching. Getting closer, it crow cawed once again.
Caw! Caw! Caw!...
The boy stirred, furrowing his brows in annoyance. Soon, a whisper escaped his mouth along with a pained groan.
"Am... I... hell-- ahhh!"
Caw! Caw!
Only after this one did the boy finally come back to his senses.
"Shit..."
The memory came crashing down as Nolan opened his eyes. He was looking for Shrooms but was instead greeted by the black wings flapping in front of him.
"Not here… not now… man!!" muttering, he looked around.
Having its work done, the crow flew into the sky and began circling above his head.
Summoning his ember, he was ready to fight the monsters, but was met with absolute silence.
"What the fuckk!?"
His brows furrowed in confusion as the scenario in front of him didn't quite match with the memory. Looking around, Nolan was astonished to find the world in front of him was nothing like it had been before… a few minutes ago?
It was like a disaster had passed through it.
"Did a meteorite strike it or what?" he thought out loud, seeing the change in terrain in front of it.
The field, which was filled with towering mushrooms and ever-growing mycelium on the ground, was gone as well. Everything flattened, torn, and devoured for more than 50 meters around him.
What remained looked like the land had been clawed at by something huge, something with no care for shape or reason.
The ground was torn into deep, winding trenches that zigzagged wildly, as if something monstrous—beyond anything already seen—had burrowed and twisted through the earth in every direction.
Soil and broken mushroom pulp were scattered everywhere. Everywhere, it was filled with broken fungi and smelled of rot.
Some spots still steamed faintly, the air thick with the sharp smell of churned earth and crushed fungus. There was no sign of life left around him. No Shrooms, no boars, nothing.
Just silence, corpses, and barren land were left around him. It looked like a battlefield after the storm had passed, but one where no one had been left standing.
"What had just happened here..." Nolan sat there, breathing hard.
The scenario in front of him was so surreal that he had temporarily forgotten about his wound and the pain that permeated his body... but that wouldn't last for long, as soon enough everything came crashing down.
Ahhhhh!!
'Fuckkk!... have to get the hell away from here...'
Pain brought some senses with him as he stopped worrying about the scenario and instead got on his feet—barely. He was about to move toward the tree when a thought appeared in his head.
'Only corpses are left... hmm!' Thinking, Nolan looked around and indeed there were corpses around. It wasn't all of them, but here and there, it all adds to more than ten of them.
Suddenly, a devious thought appeared over his head. Touching his pockets, his eyes darted from one corpse to another.
'There must be essence stone… shards? In them as well!?...' He didn't even know what the essence stone did, but was already greedy for them.
'No... no, for fuck's sake, Nolan... this fucking greed will get you killed...' Shaking his head, he turned around and took a step. He was about to take his second step when his leg stopped on its own for some reason.
"On second thought... wasn't there a saying that if greed left man, then wouldn't the spoons start to starve? There is nothing wrong with getting a little greedy, right!?"
Nolan whispered, and somehow another being agreed with him.
Caw! Caw!...
Smiling, he looked at the crow and nodded his head as well. "Now you are acting like a good boy... let's go and loot the shit out of them... hehehe.."
Caw!! Caw!!...
The crow couldn't agree more.
With his body on the verge of breaking apart, Nolan somehow motivated himself to move. Moving with the help of a spear, he reached the first corpse. It was of the Grallith he himself had killed.
'Now where would the shards be in th---' he was about to remember the boar's anatomy, but stopped after finding that the crow had sat on top of the monster's corpse and was now pecking at a particular spot.
'Shit... does it know??.. What do I mean by how does he one? Of course it would know… this little bastard lived in this hell after all...'
Impressed, he moved toward it and sliced at the skin. The hide was thick and took him some time, but eventually it wasn't anything his sword couldn't cut.
When the cut was big enough, Nolan bent down and looked inside...
"Lo and behold... You bastard. Sorry for everything I said to you..." saying, he moved to kiss the crow, but the bird just flew away and moved toward the next corpse.
Gripping the stone, Nolan was about to move forward when he noticed something interesting. There was more of it. The Grallith had more than one shard.
Confused, he snatched the second one and looked around. To his surprise, there was one more. Grinning, he looked inside, but sadly that was all... There were only three essence shards.
'So one isn't the limit... does one get more of this as they grow up?' Nodding his head, Nolan fished the whole heart as well and moved toward the next corpse.
It was the second and last Grallith's corpse. After that, only the bodies of Shrooms were left.
Caw! Caw!...
Ahead of him, the crow was pointing toward the shards once again.
'Three more... jackpot...' Smiling, he moved toward the next corpse. This one was one of the Shrooms. As he fiddled around with the corpse, he was somehow disappointed when he found that there were only two of them in these corpses.
What fucking bastards... good for nothing… Cursing, he moved ahead.
The rest of the eleven corpses only had two in them as well. After collecting all of them, he moved toward the first Grallith's corpse and began counting them.
All in all, he had thirty-one essence cores. Because of their small size, he was able to fit all of them in his pocket. Before leaving for the tree, though, he picked the hearts, liver, and kidneys of both of the Gralliths as well.
'Truly a feast I will have tonight... hehe!! Ouchh!...' At this point, he didn't know how to feel. Curse himself for doing things recklessly or patting himself on the back for surviving.
"To hell with that... I'm not thinking all that."
Sighing, he moved forward, limping because of the pain.