Chapter 61: Beast-war

Shane's premonition saved his life as he noticed the wild stage purple furred wolf attacking him from behind with a rather exhausted pounce.

By jumping above the dying elite stage wolf, Shane arrived straight in front of the second elite stage wolf and he couldn't even evade the second purple furred wolf's claws, as he pulled up his dagger to deflect the slash, preventing them from piercing into his flesh.

The only problem was, that Shane was now in a patt-situation or rather at a disadvantage as the elite stage purple furred wolf was still physically stronger than him, even though the [Berserk] skill enhanced his strength by 10%

Fortunately, Umbra came to his help as he shot multiple shadow needles in a row straight at the wolf's eyes which were pierced by two needles before the wolf could even close its eyes to deflect the remaining shadow needles.

With that, a faint dizziness, without any real effect overcame the elite stage wolf while its eyeball had been pierced.

Right at this moment, Shane used the moment of distraction to adjust his daggers angle in order to deflect the claw and push it away while piercing his shiolite dagger straight into the elite stage purple furred wolf's chest.

Now, Shane didn't dare to ignore the existence of the wild stage wild purple furred wolf behind him as he predicted another pounce from his back.

Pulling the dagger out of the dead elite stage beast corpse in a hectic manner, Shane leaned backward with his dagger held high straight into the assumed direction of the already heavily injured wild stage purple furred wolf.

Shane's prediction was on point and the wolf pounced straight into his dagger, causing his arm to bend due to the heavy weight falling straight onto it.

With the heavy wild stage wolf body on him and Umbra, Shane pushed it away with all his might, only to notice that he was even more exhausted as he was when he mined for dozens of hours.

The concentration, observance, and tension he had to endure within this short battle were released in an instance and Shane's head ached painfully as if a hammer hit him with the might of a few tons.

Taking out a few aqueous scales, Shane gulped down their content, which was only partially useful for him anymore, as he drank too many of it within the last few hours without giving his body time to regenerate his energy by itself.

Shane only stimulated himself without caring about anything except solving his [Mythic] mission.

Only now with the exhaustion overwhelming him, Shane noticed that it was naive and stupid to venture into the lion's den only to observe two awakened beasts fighting for the rights of the elemental crystal cave.

As such, Shane decided to change his plans, and looking around, he began to notice how vast the cave was.

The second layer was already a few times larger than the first layer Shane had not cleared yet.

If he had to estimate it, Shane thought that he had most likely mined less than 10% elemental crystals of the first layer.

Shane wanted to have all of it for himself but it was hardly possible because humans would begin to venture through the Radiant Mountain-ring dimension soon enough.

It would most likely only take a week before more inns were built within the shelter to accommodate more hunters and adventurers

He wanted to form a plan to obtain even more wealth from this heavenly sent elemental crystal cave, but Shane couldn't even think straight anymore.

The only thing he could think of right now, was a soft bed that was still more than four hours away from his current location, as the elemental crystal cave was rather secluded and difficult to reach without knowing where exactly to go.

As such, Shane decided to do two things, while he disregarded his previous idea of observing two awakened stage beings fighting.

First, Shane wanted to gather all corpses within the cave's second floor, and the second point he wanted to figure out the fastest way back to the shelter because his eyelids almost closed by themselves.

Fortunately for the exhausted Shane was that not a single wolf or lizard ventured into the second layer he was in while picking up the corpses.

There were more beast corpses than he expected and in the end, Shane's spatial storage increased by more than 300 corpses, which shocked him a little bit.

Unfortunately, however, that it took him more than one hour which three notifications popping up on his system, indicating that the last three parcels had been bought from the Elus merchant.

But oddly enough the [Mythic] mission was still not done.

Even though Shane was extremely tired, he took a glance at the mission progress only to see a number that annoyed him extremely.

[999/1000]

There were still 17 hours left, but Shane didn't want to wait for any second longer, as he would just fall onto his bed once he entered the shelter.

As such, he placed a bunch of mana crystals within his shop up with a lower price compared to other shops while it was still higher compared to the price Shane would receive from the system because the system would give him a handful of silver at most.

After he finished placing some mana crystals within his shop, he immediately closed it, not minding the system anymore.

Shane was barely able to take a step after another when he reached the cave entrance once again and Umbra looked at him worriedly.

It was also tiring but Shane worked hard to mine mana and elemental crystals while it only observed the surroundings while shooting a few shadow needles.

Shane's mind was almost blank and he could barely get the hang of himself, as he staggered back to the shelter.

Fortunately, he took the right path but Shane still had to feed himself with an aqueous scale in order to prevent collapse on the ground within the lush forest that was filled with all kinds of beasts.

Weirdly enough, Shane who was littered with scaled lizard and purple furred wolf blood did not meet a single beast at the outskirts of the forest and if his mind wasn't blanked out and working on its finest, he would probably ask himself why that was the case.

How could Shane know that the purple furred wolves and the scaled lizards he fought against were two overlords of the outer part of the forest he ventured through, while they fought against each other for the cave's control?

If Shane knew that the territory fight for the elemental crystal cave was only one small playground of these two beast races, while more devastating battlefields took place in other caves and even on the surface, he would definitely be scared and wouldn't be able to walk around without caring about anything like he did right now.

Once a purple furred wolf or scaled lizard smelled their own brethren blood in addition to the disgusting stench of their arch-enemies, they would immediately search for his location and attack him, without caring about anything else.

It was as if the two races were playing kingdom build and Shane entered their board game as the third player without any troops, only to kill all lower staged comrades.

And it was not only him who joined this game, rather than that, but it was also mankind that would most likely surprise these beasts in their small war between purple furred wolves against the scaled lizards, creating a three-sided battlefield.

Finally, after hours passed, Shane could see the outline of the shelter walls with a weak smile blossomed on his face that was smeared with dirt and blood.