Chapter 1354 1354 King Crab

Chapter 1354 Chapter 1354 King Crab

The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

?--- Lily ---

Good news bad news time.

Good news, after heading deeper into the forest Lily had found another treasure chest and confirmed a few things. The deeper in, the more unique the scenery got. By the time Lily reached the grove at the centre, the kelp stalks had become more like kelp willow trees, with the kelp hanging off a bunch of branches, with the centre trunk looking like some weird hybrid of a normal tree and bamboo. It had obvious 'rings' that stuck out and a very green colour... but the texture was exactly like that of bark instead of the smoothness of bamboo.

Now comes the bad news. The thing she'd Lily had confirmed was that Thyme WOULD give one of the crabs a treasure chest to guard. Worse news, the crabs had been getting larger and larger as she got closer to the centre of the kelp forest. The crab she assumed was the boss crab was easily the size of a small house.

Worst news was that its little grove consisted of four trees, one in each corner, and a little bonsai in the middle that was clearly still being watched carefully. The problem? Lily, even with her comparatively new mana sensing abilities could feel the mana practically pouring off those trees. Each one had their own 'flavour' of mana. Two were obviously water based, with one a slightly paler shade of blue, perhaps edging towards ice type mana into of sticking with just water.

What are my options here? I can try to send out my shadow but if I get caught I might be in trouble. Can it even notice something like that though? And if I DO want to use my shadow should I try it close to the shadow tree or further away? I would guess close by but my instincts are telling me that's a bad idea. So... maybe try and send my shadow down from above? I guess we can see how it goes.

With the decision made Lily started to swim upwards, making sure not to disturb the nearby trees on her way. She kept as far as she could from the shadow tree, though of course Lily couldn't get too far away lest the crab be out of range. Once in position Lily slowly started to extend her shadow downwards in a thin stream towards the crab. She didn't think it was possible to take the chest, so the plan was to open it and nick what was inside without the crab noticing.

Slight problem with that? Before Lily's shadow had made it half of the distance there, it dissipated. Simply snapping back to its position in her shadow. Lily frowned and poured more mana into her shadow and tried again. Same result. A third time, with nearly half of her entire mana pool actively maintaining the shadow. This time she got closer, when the crab paused in its motions and looked at the string of shadow. It smacked the ground twice near the shadow tree and then all of a sudden Lily felt all of the mana in her shadow get ripped away.

She watched in surprise, and slight horror as a black blob of shadow was absorbed into the kelp tree the crab was tending. It wacked the ground lightly two more times while looking, quite obviously, at Lily. Lily was too shocked to really do anything for a while. Though when the crab tapped the ground twice more while looking up and her and then down at the ground then back up at her.

*Um... what do I do?* Another two taps, this time with the largest set of claws. Lily could feel the shockwaves from them moving all the way up where she was swimming and she couldn't help but shiver a little. What the crab wanted was obvious... what Lily should do was getting less so.

* I guess... I guess I just say a quick prayer to Thyme and head down? If the crab can somehow control the trees, and they, or at least, the shadow tree, can affect me all the way up here... I'm not sure I can escape. I guess I know why there isn't any fish around that it doesn't want. It can just control the magical kelp trees and use their power to force things away. It makes me wonder if there even IS any competition. It's at a much higher level then I'd imagined.*

With it all laid out like that, Lily decided she didn't like her chances at running away from the crab so without any other options she calmly swam down to the spot on the ground it had been tapping. Lily was surprised when she saw the crab back up slightly away from the mark on the ground, giving her a bit of space. Not much. She was still certainly within grabbing range, but it was something.