Master of Myths

While the hardworking Ellis fell asleep YuJu finished cleaning his body quickly, he also gave Anput a wipe down before coming out the water

Putting his clothes back on he gave his limbs one last stretch and moved toward the scattered bone arrows

"Time is of the essence"

Since he would have to wait until she recovered her strength he might make use of this opportunity to stock up on supplies

Bending down he started picking up the warm bones but instead of storing them they ended up being thrown on one specific tree

The place he threw these bones at was an egg-shaped entanglement resultant from five different tree branches coming together, they were tightly wrapped around each other forming the enclosed egg that was barely hidden by the blue leaves

The bones he threw always hit that entanglement, and it hit the exact same place every time except it came from many angels, different from one would expect though he didn't manage to lodge these bones that were arguably stronger than most metal daggers on earth into the branches, instead it barely made a scratch

He continued on throwing the bones though without being discouraged, his actions were that of a river slowly carving its way out the mountain, it required quite some time and effort, both of which he could spare right now

While his body moved restlessly his mind wasn't having it any better, new thoughts and plans formed while others were discarded without hesitation, a new route needed to be taken now that his original one would be cut off due to his delay

'Even if we go at max speed we would still be three hours behind the time the hoard of worm tooth pass by, going to the west where he Capi Waterfall would cut off the worm tooths advance and grant us safe passage, but then the Capi would definitely know we are a new species with their spiritual eyes, we would then end up as specimen instead of guests'

Since the west was out of the question, and to continue north was also a no go he could only go east after making sure the worm tooth has already passed

Of course, that also caused some problems, he would miss out on some of the opportunities and treasures he'd hoped to get his hands on, one of which was very useful to him, still he learned not to get hung up on materialistic items after seeing multiple worlds go to ruin with their people losing everything from their homes to their lives, it was already good enough to be alive, wanting everything to go smoothly was a greedy wish

While his mind mapped out new routes and combed through his memory seeking some of the events that might prove useful to him on the way the hole on the tree was starting to take shape and it has only been one hour since he started this boring routine

Right now he didn't have to move around collecting bones left and right, he merely shot them at the hole and they fall to him who was standing under it, each time the bones came back they were chipped further than before

It wasn't a waste though, every bone here had a different shape and weight than the other, that's because the creatures they belonged to were different and the Giba that made them were different so this made these throwables worse to him than the gutting knives that had a uniform weight, precision outdid sharpness and durability when the difference scale wasn't that large

Another ten minutes pass by and he could already make out a white grainy wooden layer that proved to be the final line of defence to whatever these vines were trying to hide, that's when he stopped though and allowed the object to stay inside, for now

Walking over the bones around him he produced a cracking sound with each step, as if he was constantly breaking someone's bones, the jarring sound didn't bother him though as his mind was occupied with the next move that would make his wasted time more efficient

'Since we will be going through the areas the worm tooth pass then we will definitely encounter scavengers on the hunt from some lone worms, that would be for the best'

He needed both a sharpening pedestal to hone Ellis's skills and some stuff to trade, a group of scavengers were the perfect target for that

But to look for them he needed more time of which he had none, only by baiting the to himself would there be a chance for him to loot a lot and save time

'The only treasure of real value I have that isn't related to space elements are those three burial gems, but using those would be out of the question since they would attract all the nearby...actually, that might be a good idea'

A sinister thought came to his mind and he couldn't help but entertain it, the more he thought about it and planned for it the more achievable it seemed making him decide to go with it

'It's going to get dicey'

He wasn't worried they would lose since all the stronger ones headed to invade the newly opened lands, which would be his home, what he was worried about were the swarm and his burial gems

'If it's just the swarm I could turn tail and run with those two, abandoning the loot, but if I lose the burial gems then it would be bothersome'

Those three were a hard treasure to come by, among the three treasures he had gotten from his encounter with the three swarms a single burial gem was better than the other two combines, much less three of them

He had time though and his knowledge filled mind would definitely come up with a solution.....

Five hours later the sleeping beauty woke up from her slumber, her body feeling rejuvenated, she took in a deep breath from the forests fresh air and stretched her limbs, standing up from the shallow waters

Her feet didn't like the act of her moving them and retaliated with a stinging pain, it wasn't enough to make her grunt or furrow her brows but it was definitely enough to ruin her good mood

"A stinging or burning feeling?"

She turned around to face the source of the voice and saw her master sitting atop a weird collection of vines that had a hole punctured in them

"It's a stinging pain"

She answered while picking up her clothes and putting them on

"That's good, if it was burning then the poison is still active and spreading, if it is stinging then it dormant and being contained by your body"

That was a good thing to hear, and he had even better news

"On our way we will pass by a few tribes and beasts that have a keen sense of smell, one in particular could sniff out the type of poison you have right now, and since we will be dealing with that tribe I will need to remove this weak smell of poison from you"

"How will that be done, Master?"

She asked with a little anticipation, not only because her pain will probably cease but also due to her curiosity on how to remove poison

"These trees are called the Kabatugi, they are pretty common around this region and can be useful for the right people as they have a unique aspect to them"

Knocking on the grainy wooden wall he made quite apparent that the unique part was in there

"Aside from this part of the tree that is very hard, every other part is normal wood, well as normal as you would get among the Infidome's normal flora, anyway this part houses the seed of the tree"

Looking around Ellis spotted a few similar shapes among the various trees, this tree alone also had many other egg-like vine entanglements, all of which though weren't as big as the one that had a hole in it, the few that came close to its size we're less than five

"Are they rare?"

"If they were rare do you think they would still be here? No, the seeds merely generate at random times since it takes at least five trees to make a seed and while some trees choose to generate multiple seeds at a time they would only give them as little nutrients and energy as possible until the main seed came to be"

Seeing their talk derailing into unimportant things he quickly cut Ellis before she could ask anything else and handed her a hollowed-out bone arrows

"Cover it with your aura so you can puncture a hole in this wood, once you do use the liquid that came out to smear your feet and then don't move"

Doing as she was told she punctured the poor seed allowing a sticky brown liquid that had any blue swirls twisting inside it, the mere look of it made her uncountable but she learned to swallow her feelings down and do what was needed in these harsh times

As she smeared the gross liquid on her poisoned feet she couldn't help but ask what their use was for

"They will affect the poison of course, with their root energy they would seep into your feet at once, from there they would feed whatever substance they meet first, which would be the poison, allowing it to grow stronger and stronger with time"

Nodding at his earlier words she listened tentatively but when he got to the middle her hands stopped and gave him a puzzled look, her face seemed a little plate as well

"Don't worry, this particular poison would stay in a dormant state when it evolving, thus it probably won't act up before I get the chance to remove it from you"

That wasn't what she wanted to hear, nor did it make anything better, still she could tell he wasn't in a sharing mood right now so she smeared the 'Poison enhancer' with a sour face and then put her boots back on, waiting for his next command

Nodding at her he jumped off the branches and walked toward the pond, picking up the sleeping Anput in his arms and heading northeast

With a sigh she followed along, hoping the pain wouldn't be too harsh