Chapter 15: Changes to the Land

It was early morning several days later, the birds were chirping.

The sun shone bright and its light passed through the small gaps in the canopy, piercing through the light mist that filled the forest.

A young couple stood side by side and looked at the cave with complex emotions.

The blond and fair skinned teenager appeared to be healthy, alert, and full of vigor.

The girl wore a purple hooded robe, her black hair curling out from it. She had wheat-coloured skin, a delicate appearance, and her purple eyes were especially attractive, seeming to glimmer like gemstones.

They were Zhen Jin and Zi Di.

A few days ago these two had been chased by the fire-poison bees and fled here.

After grappling with death, they were lucky to be alive.

Afterwards, they stayed in the cave to heal and rest. This cave became their temporary camp and let them take a breath.

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However, while the cave was warm, it was not home.

“Let’s go.” Zhen Jin looked at the cave one last time before stepping into the woods.

Zi Di followed behind.

Their circumstances were different from when they fled here. Both now carried large bags on their backs.

These bags contained a large amount of beast bones, rousong, and ore.

In addition it also had some spears and short javelins.1

Zhen Jin had lost his sword at the campfire. His remaining dagger broke when he fought the monkey-bear.

So, for the past few days, Zi Di and Zhen Jin worked together to build some spears and short javelin.

The spears were roughly 1.8 meters long while the shorter javelins were 1.5 meters long. The spears were meant to be held while the short javelins were meant to be thrown. These weapons were made from the trees near the cave. These trees resembled iron wood and were as hard as iron.

It would take too much time and strength for Zhen Jin to build these sharp spears alone. As such, Zi Di’s use of corrosive potions held a huge role in making them.

Compared to genuine steel swords, the value of these sharp spears were low. Regardless of how sharp or durable they were, they would still be inferior to a steel sword.

But there was no other way.

Right now, Zhen Jin seriously lacked weapons. There was only one intact dagger which was in Zi Di’s hand.

Before leaving, Zi Di wanted to hand over the dagger to Zhen Jin but he refused. Zi Di’s dagger was special as it was used to process materials. Zi Di had to use it to create potions.

During a crisis Zi Di could also use it to protect herself.

In this wilderness, even if Zhen Jin wanted to, he could not protect her completely. So Zi Di needed a way to protect herself.

Another reason was that this short dagger wasn’t very useful to Zhen Jin.

Speaking of which, the monkey bear’s claws could be used as a weapon. But they strangely crumbled into ash when the claws were broken off the bear.

Not only did they lack weapons, but they also lacked defensive gear.

Zi Di wore an apprentice robe that only had weak defensive enchantments. When attacked by ferocious beasts, they were fragile.

Zhen Jin had discarded his arm guards after the battle with the monkey bear. They played a crucial role in defending him when he fought the monkey bear. Without them, Zhen Jin might have lost his arms.

In short, the arm guards were severely deformed, and one was nearly split open and could only be melted down to be reforged.

Zhen Jin also lacked a helmet. He only had his chainmail to console him.

Zhen Jin took the lead to scout a path.

Zi Di brought up the rear.

The two gradually entered the forest.

Their first goal was to find the campfire where the fire-poison bees attacked them.

This decision was made after careful deliberations.

Zhen Jin lost his long sword there. Even if the long sword was not easy to use, it still had irreplaceable value.

Even more importantly, only by returning to the campfire could Zi Di find the path the guards and the exploration team took.

This path had many campsites with few supplies hidden in each of them.

Because of Zhen Jin’s and Zi Di’s efforts in rationing, they had plenty of food but little water.

In the journey after Zhen Jin regained consciousness, besides finding a few water canteens, they never found any drinkable water.

Although they crossed rivers, the waters concealed dreadful python vines. Drinking water from there was too great of a risk.

Water was even more scarce near the cave.

There was little water left in their canteens. This was the one of the main reasons the couple rushed to leave the cave.

The trees stood tall around them, and Zi Di found that the deeper they ventured into the forest, the taller and thicker the trees grew with some even reaching fifty to sixty meters high. They were literally piercing into the sky.

Sunlight could not penetrate here, deep within the forest mist. It scattered and diffused into the white mist that permeated the forest..

The mist was filled with the fresh scent of flora, and a flock of birds soared through the canopy. Occasionally, a woodpecker could be seen three meters up on a tree branch. The noise of the bird’s pecking, however, actually made the forest seem more tranquil.

Before long the two ventured deep into the forest and were surrounded by trees in all directions.

Zhen Jin and Zi Di stopped walking and made marks.

Zi Di approached a tree and used the dagger to cut a mark. Zhen Jin also took out an animal skin and wrote with charcoal to create a map.

This was to prevent them from getting lost.

It was easy to get lost in the forest because all the trees looked the same. Elves were exceptionally talented in this respect and it was said that any child elf that wandered into the forest would not get lost as if the forest was their home.

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The consequences of getting lost were severe. The wilderness was not friendly to humans, so getting lost would be the start of death.

This was the fourteenth time he marked the map.

In the center of the hide were a few small words written roughly.

As Zhen Jin set off once more, his expression was slightly hesitant.

After such a long walk, according to logic he should have already found traces of when he fled through here with Zi Di.

But there was nothing.

The surroundings looked like undisturbed nature with no trace of their travels..

Zhen Jin was grim as he kept thinking back. That night he had held Zi Di and ran frantically, Since it was an emergency, he did not pay much attention to his surroundings. But according to his intuition, it didn’t take long for them to find the cave.

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Based on the time and speed, he didn’t run far and the campfire should be nearby.

“Lets go this way.” Zhen Jin said as he made his way ahead.

He chose to go left.

He used a strategy that was conservative and cautious. He used the cave as the center as he looked for traces. The benefits were obvious because the chances of missing traces were unlikely

By noon, the sun was shining warmly and the forest mist gradually dissipated.

Although the forest was much clearer, the teenager’s complexion grew more ugly.

He looked at the map. At every interval of distance, he made a record of the forest. The map had formed a circle around the cave.

Such an intensive search that unexpectedly turned up no traces!

“Something is very suspicious about this place!” Zi Di was bewildered. “The extent of this forest is too big.”

The place where they were before was clearly a rainforest. It was moist, hot, and stuffy. The forest floor had been filled with short shrubs and numerous intertwined vines.

But now this area was a forest.

Although there were still trees, these trees were perfectly straight. Tree vines were rare and there were not as many shrubs or ferns as the rainforest.

Zhen Jin had discovered this.

He originally thought the range of this forest was small because it was located near the cave. The cave’s scorching veins of ore should have created an environment different from the surroundings.

But the forest was extremely vast, greatly exceeding the couple’s estimation.

According to the route, the biome of this island should be a rainforest, it was only normal. At the time, Zhen Jin obviously remembered that the rainforest surrounded them as they fled into the night.

The supposed black panther was clearly hit by a rainforest branch.

But soon after, Zi Di found the cave and called attention to it.

“When I found the cave, I adjusted the direction I was running. It should be at that time I entered the forest from the rainforest.” Zhen Jin was sure his memory wasn't wrong.

Because Zi Di also remembered the same.

Based on their memory, the forest was only a small part surrounded by rainforest. But after a morning of exploration, the strange fact was before the two’s eyes which left them baffled.

“This island is so strange! The beasts seem to breed like flies

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and appear as randomly as patchwork. The plants are also extremely dangerous and the land itself can also change in strange and bizzare ways.” Zi Di was speaking when suddenly a shadow leapt down from the towering canopy and attacked.

An extremely fast and thin shadow penetrated the air with a whoosh.

But Zhen Jin was faster than it.

In an instant, the spear thrust forward!

The shadow’s charge was abruptly stopped, its neck pierced and it’s body was suspended on the spear.

It was a strange bird.

It was about the size of an adult’s fist and its body was covered in black feathers. Its feathers were very hard as if it were made of iron. Its heavy feathers made it incapable of flight but this tempered its muscles.

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This bird usually hid in the treetops and upon finding animals walking in the forest, it would jump down and use its legs and wings to go as fast as possible along with utilizing gravity to penetrate through the animal’s skull.

After the animal died, it would suck out the brains, blood, eyes, and so on until finally the flesh.

After encountering it many times, Zi Di named it the iron feather bird.

The iron feather bird had almost no weak points except one on its neck. Here the feathers were very fine and the defense was at its weakest.

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Presently, the sharp tip of Zhen Jin’s spear accurately pierced the iron feather bird’s neck.

This was a fatal strike.

The struggling iron feather bird soon turned motionless.

Zhen Jin pointed the spear to the ground and thrusted, immobilizing the iron feather bird’s corpse.

Zi Di took a step forward and took out her dagger to dissect it. The iron feathers were very hard and were an outstanding material. In addition, the girl also gathered some of its blood.

As for the iron feather bird’s flesh, Zi Di didn’t bother as the bird’s body was small and its value was low.

As the girl gathered the materials, Zhen Jin was at her side guarding against any other attacking beasts with a javelin.

The first time they ran across this iron feather bird, the youngster was somewhat flustered.

He first used his spear like a broom and swept the bird to the ground. Although the iron feather bird couldn’t fly it was very fast on the ground. Zhen Jin then threw three javelins that slowed down the iron feather bird. Finally Zhen Jin used his spear to skewer the iron feather bird’s belly——as a result the spear tip was destroyed.

But now, Zhen Jin’s technique was more experienced.

He discovered that the iron feather bird was most dangerous when it leapt from the trees. However when in the air, it exposed its neck making that its most vulnerable time.

With this discovery, the iron feather bird was no longer a threat and became a gift instead.

Besides the iron feather bird, the forest had plenty of other dangers.

Venomous snakes were often hiding in tree trunks and decaying leaves.

One could not let their guard down even near motionless plants.

For example, Zhen Jin had been poisoned when he brushed his skin on some unassuming moss!

Some small green spots began unknowingly to grow on Zhen Jin’s face. When Zi Di found this she immediately gave Zhen Jin some detoxification potion. The potion unexpectedly could only alleviate but not cure the poison.

The two were forced to search for the culprit. Zi Di then used the moss to make an antidote potion and used it to eradicate the poison within Zhen Jin’s body.

There were all kinds of hidden dangers that greatly slowed the pace of the couple’s exploration.

Zhen Jin looked up at the gradually fading sky and had to make a helpless decision: “Let’s return to the cave and rest.” 

Notes

Welcome to Man vs. Wild. In this episode we will be teaching you how to survive on this whacky island with more biomes per square meter than minecraft. Here we have an iron feather bird because the author can’t be arsed to use another metal for hardness comparisons. All you gotta do is stab its neck in midair before it stabs you, simple? Next you need to pluck its feathers for whatever random asspull Zi Di pulls out of her bag and finally suck its blood. There you have it, the fantasy version of a predatory dodo or something.

Translation Notes

(the past few sentences are so unnecessary. There have been only these two characters introduced in present time so far mr author and it's only been 15 chapters have a little faith in your readers… on second thought) [I honestly don’t mind stuff like this if it’s only occasionally. It’s a nice change in pace from action => description]

(BOOOOOOO we got wood elves, the worst elves. I demand snooty elves or emo elves, just not wood elves please.)

(层出不穷: breeding like flies (idiom) )

(yea everything is as hard as iron. plz we need more things to compare these animals to. It's like the comparison “tastes like chicken)

Editor Notes

(javelin meant to be thrown, while spears for stabbing)

(this is really bad, i thought of changing it but that would be slightly different to the raw)

(i'm pretty sure this is the weak point for most organisms)