Chapter 12: A Risky Path to Thread

Laura couldn't help but feel astonished at Jack while they walked, and he spoke. Such a thing was only possible because her field of view had expanded, allowing her to read his lips even if she was behind or beside him.

Yet what truly surprised her was that in a single night of hunting he had finally broken through to the two star awakened level and even scouted ahead, finding a somewhat hidden trail besides the river and below the canopy of trees. They kept on walking, surprisingly much fewer beasts could be seen on this path than the one further away from the river and the view of the large body of water was calming in a certain way, as if instead of attracting thirsty monsters it kept them away. The water was translucent and deep, and even Laura could barely see the other side of the river, which spoke in lengths on how big it was.

''Seems like the forest is safer during the day.'' He said. ''Probably means that the plains are safer during the night, which explains how both of the dominant species of this cave meet at dawn. We sure as hell are unlucky.''

Laura was intently listening to his explanations, but wondering: ''How the hell did he find out such things in a single night, almost feels like he found someone to guide us, but I feel or see nothing around us.'' It all seemed so mysterious to her, she almost wished she had kept awake despite the tiredness to have witnessed whatever adventure he had experienced during the night.

''We just have to keep following the river upward, and we should eventually reach the edge of the large cave, from there we'll look for some smaller cave entrance to lead us up.'' He said with an almost certain tone, which only deepened Laura's confusion. ''He isn't a monster, right?'' She thought again, feeling guilty. ''No way, Jack saved my life one too many times for him to have an ulterior reason...''

They walked for a few hours, and it was almost noon when Jack stopped and asked if she wanted to stop and have a meal. She nodded, and they found themselves a big rock on the riverside to sit on top, it allowed them to have ample enough view to spot any approaching dangers. Thus, they quickly made a fire and Jack began cooking the pieces of meat he had on him while Laura scouted the area around from the high vantage point.

When the lunch was done, they both sat beside the fire and began eating. It wasn't the best food out there as it was monster meat, but despite the taste and with a little cooking, it became somewhat more edible, giving them the energy to move on. From time to time, they went down from the high spot to have some water. When they did this, our hero was careful not to fall in the water as he knew not what would happen to him, what he would awaken.

Laura, being as perceptive as she was, noticed this and as he returned, used her hunting knife to scratch some stuff in the rock. ''You don't think we could bathe in this river, do you?''

Jack widened his eyes in surprise from her observation, but quickly thought of an excuse. ''It's probably safe to drink, but with how deep it is, we have no way of knowing if any beasts made it their lair.''

''Then why stay close to it?'' She wrote.

''My instincts tell me that the fungi infected, that seem to make up the majority of monsters in the forest, don't really like this river, so I guess it's a good cover at least from them.''

She nodded, then wrote down: ''Makes sense. Just to ask, how many beasts did you kill yesterday? Just want to have an idea of how much blood it takes for you to level up.'' She asked, still curious.

''Oh, just two.''

That startled her a bit, as the amount of blood he had received so far was no Joke, and she expected it would take even longer for him to gain another star. So, there were two options, either he was very over saturated with blood and just a bit was enough for him to grow, or he found and killed two pretty dangerous beasts. Laura was more inclined towards the first option as it made more sense, but if it by chance was the second one, he was hiding a lot more from her than she liked to imagine.

''So... I know this is sudden, but I wanted to get to know more of your past back on earth. Is it okay with you to tell me more about it?'' She wrote in the rock, trying to dispel her doubts. If she had been able to talk, Jack would've sensed some hint of unease and suspicion in her non-existent voice.

''Oh sure, let's just keep on walking while we are at i-'' He interrupted himself, crouching down. ''Danger. Something is coming.''

She looked around, frustrated she didn't get her answer, but still focused on the task at hand, survival.

Slowly approaching the river to drink some water was another ox creature like the one they'd seen before. This time, however, they noticed that it had a much more natural coloration and no fungi were spread all over its body.

''Are you in need of any blood or meat?'' Jack whispered, to which she nodded, it had taken almost all the blood she had saved in her special bottle yesterday before sleeping to enhance her ability some more.

''Great, cause it seems as well have to take it on as I don't want to go back deep in the forest and risk meeting something else, something potentially more dangerous.'' That was how he explained to her at least, in reality he didn't want to kill the living beings of the forest without a necessity, specially a non-infected one. Getting stronger on the other hand was a pretty big necessity, but he had the feeling he shouldn't absorb blood for a while, as he still felt satiated with Silva's blood. But if Laura needed to replenish hers, it was more than enough reason, as running out of blood might actually spell their doom. Thus, they quickly devised a strategy to eliminate it while it was preoccupied with drinking water.

Putting it into motion, they each went to their respective positions. The thing didn't know what hit it, the moment an arrow flew and hit him in the bull's eye, quite literally.

Blinded in one eye, much like the bull they had previously fought, it turned around quickly, spotting the archer atop the stone beside him. It was about to charge to try and knock her down, yet, concurrently, Jack was charging at it in the blind spot created.

Different from before, the thing felt pain and Jack was much stronger than before.

So in a fell swoop Jack tried and decapitate, what he didn't anticipate was that, since this one was not infected, its instincts were much better than the other.

Therefore, despite wanting to finish things quick, he ended up slashing its throat, wounding it heavily, but not killing it.

At once, the ox creature tried to gore Jack with its horns, but he dodged backwards, his back toward the mushroom forest. It howled in anger and pain. And beginning its charge towards Jack one more time.

Jack, who had no more problems at all to dodge, but failed to notice one thing. The bull kept going toward the woods instead of stopping and charging again.

''Shit! Its running away!'' He shouted, though there was no need to do so, as another arrow was already flying towards it.

Hitting it in the back of the neck and incapacitating it.

The beast fell to the floor, but Jack rushed to it with hurry. Finalizing it by piercing its heart and ending its suffering. ''I'm sorry...'' the boy thought: ''But I can't save the forest without the power your blood might give me, so rest in peace.''

Laura, saw what he did and approached him from behind, until she stopped and notices something was off about him.

Jack then began screaming in pain, which prompted Anna to run to him in worry.

He thought for a moment that nature was punishing him for killing the creature so brutally, but soon realized that was not it, what was hurting was the blood of the creature that had fallen on him when he had slashed its throat.

He pushed Laura away and went straight to the water and began washing it off. Soon the pain began to subside. When he turned around, she was there staring at him, and she didn't even have to write anything as he knew what she was asking.

''Sorry for not telling you everything, but you know that secrets of blooded can be quite dangerous to share. What I can tell you is that I'm fine, and that I just can't get into contact with blood for a while, as one of my skills is saturated and a specific condition must be met for it to evolve.''

Surprises were very common in their partnership, and there hadn't yet been a dull time, this one included, as she realized how special Jack was. ''Not just has he already gained a star, but one of his skills is about to reach a new level of mastery? Wait, that isn't that surprising... but he can absorb blood through his skin?!"

''No wonder he could actually bathe in the blood and be fine, but at least it seems there are some limitations to his physique.'' That actually calmed her a bit in her assessment of him, as she would begin to really think he was a monster if he could absorb an unlimited amount of blood.

But noticing some anxiety in Jack, she decided to nod and get on with collecting the blood. Now, her recipient was almost full, and they could ignore some of the beasts on their path.

Thus, after a not so intense battle and a scare, they continued on their journey. Walking in the woods during the day was not bad at all, it had a refreshing feel to it and with a lot less added danger. Thus, time flew fast as they traversed the forest, the day was almost ending and soon Laura noticed something.

Despite the absurd quantity of mushrooms, in the forest, one could easily not notice that trees and plants were strewn about. Both Jack and Laura had noticed this as they knew plants with beast blood were dangerous, you see, even Jack, who didn't interact with people very often, was aware of a plant-based disaster that had forced the evacuation of a sizable city.

In conclusion, they were quite observant of both, beasts, sounds and plants. Which came in no surprise that Laura noticed that after a certain point, less and less non fungical plants could be found around the enviroment.

Not just that but even Jack, without a super vision noticed that, while the mushrooms in the area they were in begun to glow faintly blue, the ones further ahead were glowing red, almost as if signaling danger ahead. Even the otherwise beautiful sunset was painting the suroundings of the divide a brutal tone of blood.

''Let's stop here for a bit and wait, I have a bad feeling,'' Jack said. But what was really happening in his mind was certain, he knew they were in the border of the Fungi fallen's territory and soon, when the war between the two potencies of the forest resumed, a stampede would happen.

Unfortunatly, they had to get throught it to reach the only passage that led higher up in the great sky pillar.

Thus Jack led Laura to another high spot, this time another mushroom, the highest and sturdiest one yet. For he knew what was coming and the level of destruction that was to come.

Jack also had a clue that, the scorpion-fungi wouldn't leave his nest so easily, as it really didn't need to. If his guess was right, it only left when it felt like it, sure, it would loose more of it's infected, but it could aways just create some more, even if with the very birds they were fighting against. ''My guess is it'll only leave its nest if the other fallen was to do the same.''

It didn't take long untill it began aggain, the mad stampede that made the ground shake little by little. Every second amping up in itensity until a cloud of dirt and debris coulb be seen lifting up.

The crashing of mushrooms coulb be heard in the distance and on the other hand Laura could see it, the stampede was aproaching them fast, but luckly they were a bit off it's trajectory this time. Plus the fact that most fungi infected didn't even go near the river, made it so they would'nt be caught up in the middle of it all.