A week went by after Erik found the plant inside the ancient house. The living thing kept the thaids away from his camp by acting as a repellent against them. That was a tremendous heaven-sent gift since Erik managed to sleep well for a whole week, during which he planted a flower every night.
As the plant increased in numbers due to Erik's intervention, the flower spread through the forest, giving Erik many safe places to go if he was in danger. However, he did more than just spread the plant.
Erik worked on his trap-making skills every day. He wasn't good enough to say he was a master, but at least his traps were effective. Most of them were made by making the plants around him grow in specific ways. He worked hard to make complex webs of clever traps to fool and stop even the smartest thaid hiding in the shadows.
With each failed try, he took apart the complicated parts of his creations, figuring out how to improve them and making careful changes to the designs. Through these challenges, he got more accustomed to the process and learned more ways to protect himself passively.
At the same time, Erik looked deep into himself and trained to increase the number of neural links. He didn't get one in the past days because he had much to do and couldn't totally concentrate on training, but each session got him closer to making two more neural links for Hais's and Nathaniel's powers.
"Ah, I've had enough of this for today…"
Erik was tired. He had fought and killed a lot of thaids that day, so his body felt tired and heavy. Each fight had worn him down and left him sweaty and tired. He struggled to catch his breath as he stood over the dead thaid. The sword felt too heavy in his hand and wasn't as sharp as it used to be.
Erik slowly put his sword away and took a moment to look around. The ground was full of dead thaids, a good source of protein for his travel. The air smelled like victory and the end of the battle. He felt happy and tired at the same time.
He knew he needed to rest so that he could get over the fight of the day. But even though he was tired, he didn't stop walking. Every thaid he killed brought him closer to his goal and strengthened him.
"I will walk a few kilometers more and search for a spot where I could put the thaid-repelling plant."
The plant needed to be inside the ground to work. It released a small amount of energy or spores, or whatever affected the other creatures, that discouraged thaids from attacking when it wasn't drawing its nutrients from the ground, but the bottle in which Erik had to keep it blocked everything. The problem was that he was approaching more and more the Eldraith mountain range, and that meant that the thaids were becoming stronger.
So, he couldn't always use the plant due to the fact that he had to keep moving and there were limitations to its usage, but if he did so, that would also hurt his growth. What would happen if the plant didn't work on some thaids or in some places? What if he had to fight some way or another but wasn't strong enough to defend himself?
The best thing for Erik to do was to use the plant to make sure he could rest enough to then have energy the following day when he could spend the rest of the day moving through the forest and killing thaids to get more experience. Moreover, with the new neural link developing technique and Hais's brain crystal power, he didn't need to spend points on other stats, so he focused on energy.
As Erik walked through the thick underbrush of the forest, his steps got heavier as he noticed a significant change in the scenery. As the bushes got less dense, more light could get through. His heart started to feel uneasy, which cast a shadow over his spirit.
At a certain point, what was left was just a vast open space. He felt a lot of different emotions when he saw what was in front of him, but none of them were happy. It was a vast grassland bathed in the harsh light of the sun. The wide-open space felt tight and suffocating. He was distraught by the lack of trees and places to hide.
Erik's heart dropped when he saw that he was in this kind of terrain, a place he hated. He was stunned by how big it was, and a feeling of helplessness came over him like a cold breeze.
The trouble with this kind of terrain was that flying thaids could see down to the ground. There were no trees to cover them, and only a few monsters were able to make it through the empty and dangerous expanse.
A clearing may be easily managed due to its often small size, in contrast to the expansiveness of grasslands, but here, on these lands, in the event that flying thaids attacked him, Erik was unsure of his chances of survival.
He felt exposed without the usual plants around him as if eyes were watching his every move. Once comforting, the forest's canopy had been replaced by an endless sky that didn't give him the peace he was looking for.
"Fuck…"
Erik stopped walking. Uncertainty suddenly made his body feel heavy. His once confident walk was now weighed down by doubt and fear. He could put the plant on the ground to keep thaid away, but it would only work as long as he didn't go anywhere. He could sleep; he knew that much, but proceeding through the journey was a problem.
Erik stood still at the entrance to the grassland, his eyes fixed on the far horizon. As soon as his eyes landed ahead, he saw the majesty of the Eldraith mountain range. Even from 600 kilometers away, it was clear that the mountains were huge and beautiful.
The tall peaks of the Eldraith range poked through the sky like dark sentries. The rough shape of the mountains cast a strong shadow on the land, and their sharp edges showed that forces shaped them a long time ago. Erik's mind went crazy as he tried to picture what was hidden in those dark places.
The peaks of the Eldraith range vanished into the clouds, and the tops of the mountains were always covered in fog. Erik imagined icy cliffs, tumbling rivers, and secret places where elusive animals lived. The darkened hills gave off a sense of weight, as if the mountains themselves were filled with a sense of dread.
The place was a barrier between Frant and Etrium. It was a natural border, so Erik had to go through it to get to Etrium. Its dangerous peaks and steep cliffs scared away people who tried to cross into an unknown country.
But what made the Eldraith range even scarier were the wyverns that lived in the sky above it and in the area. These dangerous sub-races of flying thaids were known for being cruel, wild, and intelligent. Because they had wings like bats, bodies like lizards, and razor-sharp claws, so they roamed the mountain range, making it dangerous for anyone who wanted to get into Etrium.
Not only was that a problem, but this kind of thaids often had strange and powerful brain crystal powers that were as unique and different as the ones humans had. The difference was that these beings' bodies were in a league that the human ones could never hope to reach.
The wyverns were also known for being very territorial and fighting furiously against anyone who tried to get into their territory. Their skill in the air and deadly strikes made it hard to cross the mountains. Erik understood that to venture past the Eldraith range meant confronting these flying predators, and the stakes were high.
The trip ahead held both the hope of getting to Etrium and the risk of running into the wyverns. He would have to be careful as he moved through the dangerous mountain range, using his wits, agility, and the skills he had developed through months of training to get past that place.
Erik was in a terrible situation. On the one hand, he had to get past the Eldraith mountain range to get into Etrium, and on the other, he also had to go through the grassland to approach the foot of the mountain, a place where there was nowhere to hide, and flying thaids could attack him.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice. This damn grassland is very vast, and there is no way to avoid walking through it."
With a heavy sigh, he braced himself for the challenges that lay ahead and cautiously ventured into the vast grassland, his senses heightened and his spirit guarded.
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