Chapter 104: Realizing Too Late

Chapter 104

Realizing Too Late

"Run!! Quick, find a big tree like that man did earlier. Hurry!!"

"Argh!! Don’t push me! I want that tree. I saw it first!"

"No! Please, help me. I’m scared."

"Stay away!! Get lost. This is the tree I chose!"

Screams and chaos erupted for several seconds as the frantic sounds of various beasts echoed around. Ellie saw some beasts for the first time even. It was as if all the different species of the Green Forest had gathered there. There were Wild Boar Beasts, Fire-eyed Yellow Cats, and several other kinds of beasts. Ellie could tell that climbing trees wouldn’t help the 7 at all.

Especially the Fire-eyed Yellow Cats she had encountered earlier. Comparatively, their tree-climbing skills were far superior to humans. With a single leap, they could cling to a tree trunk and reach their prey instantly. Without the help of her purple mushroom powers, she would never have escaped those dangers.

"Screech!! They can climb trees. Help me, help!!"

"Earth wall! Damn it! Why is my earth wall so slow?"

"H-help! Don’t ram into me, you crazy boars!! Someone, please help. Sir Hunter, help!!"

"Yes! Sir Hunter, we were wrong. We’re sorry, Sir Hunter!!" The frantic screams of the humans continued. Ellie paid little attention to them. She focused on controlling the spores to infiltrate the bodies of the large beast herd.

Ellie’s first hunt was meant to gather valuable experience, teaching her that she needed to increase her physical strength as quickly as possible, and the rest was to improve her archery skills. Unfortunately, she couldn’t openly train with her bow and chain knife; or else, it would make other people understand that she, like Ellie, also had these abilities, which might lead to suspicion about her identity as Luke.

Ellie already had the ability to aim a bow from her previous experience. While further practice needed to be done privately during hunts, she took this opportunity to practice long-range shooting while watching the struggles of the 7 humans.

Hitting some beasts and missing others didn’t matter. The important part was that her hand-eye coordination was improving. She also let her spores root into many of the beasts. Once they consumed the luring bait, she would decompose them to feed her Purple Mushroom.

Of course, Ellie wouldn’t command the purple mushrooms to decompose all the beasts until the 7 humans, who could testify against her, were permanently gone. Otherwise, Luke’s identity might be exposed, and she couldn’t risk that.

Woosh, woosh, woosh!!

Arrow after arrow was released from her hand, but there were too many beasts around to take down all of them. Some beasts fell, while others trampled over the fallen without a second thought, focusing only on the luring bait. Amid this chaos, Ellie managed to kill several beasts before the potion’s effects wore off.

By the afternoon, Ellie had to take out more food for herself and her Nocturnal Rabbit. The little one loved eating wheat sprouts the most, even though it dreamed of eating carrots. However, due to its small size, it couldn’t gnaw on a whole carrot.

Ellie ate grilled mushrooms with seasoned grilled eggs and the same roasted potatoes she kept in her dimensional ring. Though the meal was a bit monotonous, she only had 2-3 days and didn’t have time to fuss over food.

After eating, Ellie felt her first round of hunting had gone well. The reason she decided to use the 10-silver-coin potion wasn’t just to deal with troublemakers but also to test its power as she wanted to know how strong it was. It turned out to be very effective, and she knew it would be a valuable weapon in the future.

The beasts around her that had been killed were decomposed by her purple mushrooms. Ellie wasn’t sure if they would leave any trace if she sold them, like finding flesh remnants in the beasts’ bodies. In an unfamiliar world like this, she felt it was best to be cautious.

Once she had taken care of herself, Ellie didn’t worry about anything else. She used the rocks as her resting place. If any beasts passed by in small numbers, she would easily kill them with her arrows and let the spores decompose them. But if there were a large number of beasts, she chose to remain hidden and let them become spores’ food.

It turned out that in this trip to the tower, the one who benefited the most was the "little Purple Mushroom"...

Ellie’s hard work concluded smoothly after that. The excellent hunting ground allowed her to practice her archery skills effectively. Although she regretted not being able to practice throwing knives, her archery had advanced to another level.

Using her muscles continuously over the past few days had significantly increased the strength in her arms. Within a 200-meter range and with quality arrows, she could shoot with precision. For distances farther than that, her accuracy decreased slightly following the distance.

Ellie brought out a wooden cart with wheels to load the butchered meat from 2 wild boars. The total weight was about 170 kilograms. Financially, this hunt would yield her 340 copper coins, or 3 silver coins and 40 copper coins. This wasn’t much compared to her overall expenses.

For instance, the cart alone cost 4 silver coins and 60 copper coins, as it was equipped with runes to reduce the weight for the user. This exceeded the income from the hunt, not to mention the 1 silver coin for travel expenses. If others had to return to the city to rest, they would also incur accommodation costs. These high expenses led many to conclude that hunting wild boars wasn’t worthwhile, even though 1 boar could bring in about 180 copper coins.

Thunk thunk, krr krr.

The sound of the cartwheels echoed through the Green Forest as the small figure and her boar meat finally emerged. After leaving the Green Forest, she had to pass through the Medicine Conservation Forest and then the Steep Bamboo Shoots Forest. While the Medicine Conservation Forest had surrounding dangers, the outer area was relatively safe and lacked herbs, making it a common place for people to cultivate herbs. This was the mission that a prince disguised as a hunter had once invited Ellie to do.

These herb plots were always at risk of being destroyed by beasts. Some would dig underground, while others would cause trouble at night. Regardless...frequent missions by hunters to this area were beneficial.

Unfortunately, finding herbs in the Green Zone of the Medicine Conservation Forest had become difficult, and the same applied to the Yellow Zone. This resulted in poorer harvests, leading many to prefer undertaking missions in other areas rather than collecting herbs to sell.

Ellie’s small figure quietly passed through both forests. However, the Green Zone had far more people than the Yellow Zone, including the area of the Green Forest she had just left. Therefore, many people saw Ellie working hard alone. Some eyes gleamed with greed, while others were simply curious. It was rare to see a hunter venture out alone, and Ellie’s solo hunting results were quite impressive.

"Is that a novice hunter? I’ve never seen this hunter before."

"I think so. I saw him take on a wild boar hunting mission the other day. At that time, I still wondered if he would return safely."

"This hunter shows only minor signs of battle. From what I can see, just a few scratches."

"I don’t think he’s ordinary at all. He must have quite a bit of money. Or maybe he’s actually a high-level hunter trying to hide his identity."

"That’s possible. The equipment he uses is quite expensive. It’s unlikely a novice could afford it. If he was from a big family, he would have followers."

"We should probably avoid getting too involved with him. What if he’s a killer trying to conceal his identity?"

"Have you ever seen any famous hunters with a build like this? I think he’s a real novice. Someone this small would be memorable if he was skilled."

"Well, whatever the case...I think we should steer clear of him."

Whispers continued to follow Ellie, who heard every conversation but chose to ignore them. Gossiping was a common human trait, even in the workplace, where the boss’s personal life would be discussed even though they knew this could get them in trouble if caught.

It’s fine if they just talked without bothering her, but some didn’t stop just talking—they blocked her path!

"Oh, today you’re quite lucky, aren’t you? You’ve got a lot of wild boar meat. Must be worth several silver coins, right?" A voice feigning familiarity sounded from ahead. 6 men appeared, blocking Ellie’s path. Each was large, with scarred faces and bodies, indicating they had seen many battles.

At a glance, the 6 might seem intimidating, but looking deeper, they were just trash! If they had accumulated so many injuries yet only managed to hunt on the 1st floor, they couldn’t be considered skilled.

Ellie didn’t want to pay attention to these people, but her cart was stopped by them. Her small stature became an immediate disadvantage against the strength of these large men.

“You’re blocking my way. Please move aside,” came the calm voice of the man. Her eyes showed displeasure, hoping they would realize and clear the path.

She had already killed 7 people with her own hands. Killing another 6 wouldn’t be ideal. It wasn’t that she feared killing fellow humans, but this place was crowded. If she used dirty tactics to fight and kill them, she might be reported, and Luke’s identity would be compromised. It would be better if they just let her pass.

But would kind words affect these scoundrels? Not only did they refuse to let her cart pass, but they also laughed loudly. The voice Ellie used was of a man around 24-25 years old, but compared to them, it was like a child to a father. They had no fear of a young man like her.

“Haha, young man, don’t be too greedy. Don’t you know that hunters should show some generosity to each other?”

“Exactly. We big brothers are trying to be nice. Are you going to be unfriendly?”

“Alright, let’s cut to the chase. For someone as capable as you, we hope you’ll give up both wild boars to us. And we’ll borrow your cart too. We’ll return it as soon as we’re done. Understand?”

The one who seemed to be the leader of the group spoke with a happy laugh, even reaching out to touch Ellie’s face to humiliate her. But as they moved, Ellie quickly dodged and pulled out a yellow potion bottle.

“I don’t want to do this, but if you continue to harass me, I will fight back with all my might.”

Seeing Ellie pull out an expensive potion, the 6 men laughed even louder instead of showing fear.

“Haha, young man, you have such a valuable potion? Good, good, hand it all over to us then.”

"That’s right, this potion could fetch several coins if sold. It would be better if you handed it over to your big brothers for resale."

"I think you must have quite a bit of money, young man. How about sharing some of it with us? We’re in need, so could you help us out this time?"

Their taunting voices continued, and Ellie felt that these people were truly shameless. Or no! Wasn’t everyone in this world quite shameless?

Facing too many dangers made them selfish, perhaps? Their logic seemed utterly twisted. It was astonishing that in just a few days, she had encountered so many despicable people!

Of course, these men remained cheerful because they didn’t believe Ellie would dare to splash the potion on them. If she did, she’d be caught immediately, given the many people around. They thought she was merely bluffing.

What they didn’t realize was that...if they wanted to cause trouble for Ellie, their end would be disintegration into dust. Even without the luring potion, did they not think they could still die from having their internal organs vanish?!!!