Chapter 119: Vacation (2)

Passing through the forests in this region was an interesting experience. The trees were a lot closer, and Rino swore he never saw such a wide variety in his previous life. The air was denser, and although there were not many mana particles, it felt heavy. 

More interestingly, there were at least a few hundred species of wildlife that Rino never saw before. He wasn't familiar with anything here, although many of them looked interesting. If Kragami was here, Rino would have interrogated the old man for details about the strange animals. He knew what lizards were, and honestly, they should be a lot smaller than wyverns or dragons. Most lizards should fit in the palm of his hand, but the ones Mutt avoided were at least until Rino's knee and walked on two legs.

The poor fellow did not run for long because Rino and Mutt saw how it was picked off by a seemingly innocent flower as quick as a flash. Staring at the murder scene with disbelief, Rino urged Mutt to travel by the river banks instead of trying to cut through the dense jungle. There was simply too much at stake, and Rino did not want to end up getting delayed by trying a dangerous shortcut.

Ten days of vacation wasn't very long. Rino had a lot of land and maybe even sea to cover before his vacation ended.

Or he could just urge for more spuds to be grown for extending his vacation. In fact, Rino had just enough to extend his vacation by a day or two with the remaining GF credits he had in the wallet. This loophole made Rino very proud of himself. He did not have to work on day-offs, and if the gods kept this price constant, it would be a battle against time to grow and turn in spuds for unlimited vacation time. He could spend his eternity farming potatoes and not doing those dumb daily quests, but Rino had a feeling abuse of the system's good nature will result in an ugly punishment of some sort.

He did not want to plot another world destruction because planning one for over two decades was quite enough for a lifetime's accomplishment. However, the gods should not take him for granted, running their useless errands for the sake of gaining power.

Yes, Rino figured it out eventually why these Gods were insistent on kingdom building. His scouts reported many settlements on his land, but none of them was doing well. Someone needed to unite these people, but everyone was too unintelligent and weak to accomplish anything. It wouldn't be long before humanity became extinct, so the legend of a king who could make the dead rise again was to give the common folk hope.

It was all a huge play of words. Rino wanted to smack the god who came up with this legend. It took him a while to understand the origins of the legend and the intention behind it because even Kragami was fooled into studying necromancy because of the story.

The act of making the dead rise again wasn't literal. It was metaphorical, and all that meant was to bring humanity's former glory back. Rino wasn't too sure what counted as humanity's former glory in a world with such backward technology, but he hoped to find out a little more about this strange world in his ten-day trip.

Mutt enjoyed hopping from stone to stone in the river. The river that they followed twisted and bent a lot. It flowed and ebbed while the current fluctuated, from trying to drown them to lulling them to a peaceful nap. The sabre tooth wolf tried to snatch a few fish along the way, and Rino merely sat back to watch.

His mount made a terrible boat, but the scenery made up for the bumpy experience as Mutt pawed at another school of carps with razor-sharp teeth. This place was teeming with dangerous creatures, deadlier than king toads, and Rino wondered why the animals here evolved to such hostility. In his previous world, the most dangerous plant he knew was a mandrake, and while it could cause a person to faint from the sheer volume of its screams, it did not eat anyone. Here, an innocent poppy-like flower grew thorny vines that would whip unsuspecting fishes from the river for lunch. Mutt barely dodged that thorny vine whip and quickly jumped further down the river.

River horses that have bloated bellies swam beside Mutt, who trod carefully by the banks. Rino tried to determine if they were friend or foe when the school of carps from earlier jumped on them, reducing them to bones in less than a minute. The only thing Rino saw was the colour of the water turning red before it faded into pink from the constant flow of water behind them and the sinking bones of what used to be a fat river horse.

As the sun went down, Rino decided to let Mutt rest. He would walk the rest of his journey in search of a place to rest for the night. The mountains were slightly closer than before, with the range peeking past the treetops about the size of his pinky now. They travelled rather quickly but were still nowhere near where Rino wanted to be.

At night, this deadly jungle became somewhat magical. There were no wisps to light the way, but the hundreds of flying silk-like web creatures that invaded the air space reminded Rino of jellyfishes in the air. They were so numerous as they swayed in the wind while landing on glowing flowers that bloomed only at night. Rino had no idea what these land jellyfish lanterns were, but he tried not to get in their way. There was no way to tell if they were deadly or friendly.

Going by the experiences during the day, Rino was more inclined to think they were after his life. He kept his distance and trudged a little deeper into the cover of trees, keeping an eye on where the mountains were so that he would not stray too far from the river.

After many close calls, a few water slicer magic spells and a lot of stumbling on tripping roots, Rino found a cave that looked relatively safe to spend the night in.

It was simply too dangerous to travel during the night compared to the day, with too many dangers lurking at every step. Rino would love to travel without the sun beating down on him, but for the sake of convenience and safety, he would travel during the day when things were easier to spot and avoid.

Setting up a temporary earth wall to block the entrance of this shallow cave, Rino checked his sleep wallet and withdrew eight hours of sleep. Hopefully, he would still be in one piece by the time morning arrived.