Chapter 2 – Survival

Blank ran quickly through the woods. Horror was still pounding in his head. He had to pass unnoticed and leave this place. But the only ones who could find him, both came for him. When the first one cried out and ran away in horror. Blank was convinced that his secret had been revealed and he was about to be killed. He tried to speed up his pace, a huge huge hand fell on his head, capable of crushing his skull with a slight movement. He tried to come up with a plausible excuse that the alchemist asked to throw this unpleasant thing further away from the colony. But panic broke his speech and he began to give out incoherent fragments, but suddenly he noticed a slight glazing of his interlocutor’s gaze, which periodically cleared up, and realized that his stocks of analogs of nanobots were practically used up. Completely immersed in fear that his skull would now be crushed, he did not even try to lie anymore, to compose and spoke as it was. As a slave boy, the Alchemist’s test subject. When he was released, he reached the first tree, completely lost control of his emotions, and ran, ran without stopping, until he passed out from fatigue.

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 And the fear of a broken skull will be amusingly interpreted as a command, finally erasing all traces of his escape. Two weeks later, the Guardian of the Fort  arrived, only found slaves and servants scared to death, huddled in houses, and did not dare to leave, many died of starvation. Only the bloody room of the Alchemist, and the Healer and the head of the colony near the forest whose bodies were already half-eaten by wild animals, which no longer made it possible to understand the reasons for their death. The picture was creepy, because the Guardian of the Fort simply wrote a report that apparently a rare variation of the ghost visited the colony, killed the cultivators and left the place. Having calmed down the inhabitants a little, he quickly left this cursed place. He served in a fort nearby, and although personal injury was present, it was minimal. Yes, and a ghost killing cultivators, not what he would like to meet. It obviously wasn’t wraith who is harmless to cultivators. And not wanting to linger here, he closed this case.

When Blank regained consciousness, he found himself in a ravine covered with moss. He asked BLAC if this was his act. He replied in the negative saying that strange creatures live here. And for some reason they considered him as some terrible existence  and tried to appease him.

Based on the data of the old world, adding the well-known superstitions of this, you can create a guess that these are the spirits of the forest who are afraid of you because the body continues to actively absorb energy from the surrounding world. Called the Abyss of Mana, Energy, Ether. They are most likely afraid that you have come to devour them, and they, as creatures from this energy, are not able to harm you. In any case, judging by the previous events, the current knowledge of the logic of this world is not sufficient. Who would have thought that feeling discomfort from the presence, they did not begin to avoid you, but immediately complained about you, and even tried to attack.

Quite the opposite reaction from the spirits of the forest, although there is an assumption that they want to take our artifact, as payment for protection, in this forest. While you were unconscious, they drove away wild animals with energies, some of which were more terrifying than those two cultivators. Also, a meter away on your right hand, you will find the berries that they brought.

Are you sure you understood their intentions correctly? What if they are kind spirits who help the lost?

All of a sudden, a stream of knowledge appeared in the form of a book, Forest Spirits, Borderlands and What They Eat. Some dull fear quickly slipped through his mind. Spirits eat any living creatures, and they eat people especially willingly, therefore no one ever tried to escape from this colony. The road exists only to resupply slaves, and only half of the supply reaches the colony. His energy-consuming nature protects him. He specified how long it will be? Not forever, is it?

The answer was: – “Until the structure of the knowledge base will be restored and formed.At the moment, the pace of progress is insignificant, too little data and energy.. I recommend practicing cultivation techniques as often as possible. At the current level, it will take centuries to fully load.”

Why is 8 years old, it does not create convenience?

 Previously, it was not possible, there were too many strong and dangerous beings around. They cannot even be called humans or cultivators. They are beings of a different order. You can take it this way.. Do not fantasize that you are from a family of aristocrats, or important persons. It was like a nursery, where the selection was carried out, you were judged as defective, and thrown out like a slave. 

Do you mean because of your presence?

This child was really handicapped. You have not been reborn, you have taken possession of this body because of its defectiveness. It did not have the potential for cultivation, so we were able to penetrate into it, and create what they call an abyss of energy. I only started engulfing when we were branded as slaves, breaking the curse of slavery reactivated me from standby.

During the time we were slaves, I changed this body so that it could begin cultivation, and eventually stopped growing at the age of 8, suitable for rapid learning and development. Yes, some childhood defects are now causing problems, but upon completion of the modeling of consciousness, the regulation of hormones, and the paralysis of unnecessary naive parts of the brain, will lead us to an optimal state of mind. Until then, enjoy your childhood.

For some reason, Blank thought there was a hint of envy in this information. But there should be no reason for this. BLAC was never a child, is it a compilation of programs that simulate human behavior, even if it was created by someone? someone? who had a bad temper and a bad sense of humor.

He had too many questions. But he also felt that the dialogues with BLAC were draining him greatly. He needs to start absorbing a lot more energy in order to find out the answers. Siev Berries Blanc moved on along the road. He saw how flashes drove away animals that were not familiar to him, and sometimes berries and freshly killed carcasses of hares lay along the way.

 When Blank wanted to light a fire to prepare the meat, BLAC woke up and said that the fire would offend his benefactors, the blood had already been released from the carcasses, and thanks to the peculiarities of the local inhabitants’ bodies, it could be eaten without cooking, although it might not be tasty, it would be more productive.

It didn’t taste so bad, it was much better than what he ate in the mines. BLAC deliberately did not upload memories of tastes from the past world, so based on the experience from this world, everything was just gourmet. BLAC only hinted with some irony, be patient, soon your taste will change.

Day and night changed several dozen times, and for the first time Blank himself caught and killed a hare. It was not hunger, he wanted to test the results of training and cultivation. The spirits of the forest rarely caught his eye, they were obviously wary of him, but not so much that they were really afraid.

Most likely, they really did not want to forcibly obtain his artifact. It took the form only a few days later to figure out how to use it. Any contact with him made anyone, simply by the fact that creatures with a low energy level do not want to see, and try to avoid. For example, while the artifact is in his hands, hares will not approach him even a thousand meters, but by wrapping it in hare hide and putting it in his bosom, it ceased to affect those around him.

When Blank wanted to butcher his first loot, several lights appeared in his path. They were the Spirits of the Forest, they were flying chaotically, but BLAC quickly interpreted their actions.

Quickly run away from the path of the road and hide.

Putting the hare in his bosom, Blank saw that the spirits had fled and was about to get the artifact, but he quickly changed his mind, only cultivators can go along this path, and since the Spirits of the Forest are afraid to get caught in their eyes, it means they are quite strong, and the presence of the artifact will only attract attention …

Trying to assess the threat, Blank was horrified. And in order not to create unnecessary tracks, he jumped into a swampy ravine not nearby, covering himself with moss. He felt his heartbeat weaken and slowed down, breathing also became barely noticeable, his body temperature dropped, and he began to faint. He quickly realized that BLAC was consuming small accumulated reserves of energy in order to hide it from various possible detection methods, and his consciousness fell into darkness.

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The convoy moved slowly through the forest. Convoy leader Jared was on pins and needles. Oracle foreshadowed the possibility of many difficulties along the way, but only an opportunity, which means there is a high probability of meeting with a particularly strong creature. And meeting with him will be very dangerous.

A few days ago, dangerous and not very forest monsters began to come across especially often, as if being driven to a meeting to the convoy.

The guide to the forest, laughed, that apparently the forest spirits are not happy with something, or are very hungry.

Assembled three times larger than usual. And given the rumors about the incident, the convoy was increased fivefold. A ghost that preys on cultivators, causing death by reason of horror and disgust for mortals. Something not visible and not tangible. The head of the colony was an acquaintance of the Leader of the convoy, and he knew that he could already make a breakthrough to a level higher than him. And even if he died, the situation is very dangerous if they meet this ghost.

Do the starving spirits of the forest really drive monsters on them? After all, the more monsters will devour, less will they get? Or are they hoping to scare off the caravan and have a feast? Does not look like it. If this is the result of the actions of the spirits, then they are trying to delay us so that an unknown mighty creature overtook us? Or, on the contrary, these monsters run away from his presence, and if we rush, we will stumble upon him. Sometimes oracles bring only uncertainty. Jared has cursed his decision to get a prediction over and over again.

For cultivators and events far below the Oracle level, predictions are usually very accurate. This prediction was blurred, which means that the threat level is either at the same level as Oracle or slightly higher. And who asked me to get a prediction from the hierophant. Who am I compared to him? Ant! Of course, thanks to his prediction, we hired high-level hunters in the convoy, but who are they compared to the hierophant? Sparrows! They can drive him away in a crowd, but they will not cause serious damage.

And what we can meet is most likely stronger, for someone stronger we do not have a budget. I didn’t want to die because of the crowd of slaves. And Jared periodically thought to spit on everything and run away. But suddenly the threat is on the heels? Or is she ahead? Devoured by doubts, Jared ordered the convoy to move at its usual pace, constantly straining the scouts, to watch around for anything unusual.

Of the anomalies, only a low population of hares, and the sudden absence of forest monsters, at the moment. It hit Jared’s nerves especially hard. Thoughts in my head were spinning between two possibilities, either it was no longer necessary to slow us down, or we came to the place of death.

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Nerves bursted, and Jared commanded to double the movement at any cost, withdrawing the scouts so as not to attract unwanted attention from the area.

— New chapter is coming soon —
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