Level 2 Stealth

"Because you remained still for more than three seconds, you activated Level 1 Passive Stealth. Most insects will turn a blind eye to you unless you appear directly before them."

"You passively activated Level 1 Danger Sense. You can observe the area within a radius of ten meters, but the dense wild grass poses a tremendous obstacle."

Wang Wu lay prone in the grass, feeling as though every cell in his body was rebelling. Then they turned into surging heat currents that flowed through him, while his wounds recovered at a rapid pace. Reflected in the Attribute Bar, his Health Points increased by 0.1 every so often.

But he also noticed that recovering Stamina consumed Satiety.

What delighted him most was that, in the Attribute Bar, tiny plus signs had appeared beside most of the attributes from top to bottom.

Did that mean they could be upgraded?

Wang Wu thought for a second. Right now, he could not beat anyone, so hiding himself well was important.

The other attributes could be considered in the long run.

With a thought, a warm current naturally formed inside him. Like a tornado, it expanded without end, continuously upgrading until it finally covered his entire body. At the same time, a full 20 points of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy were consumed.

At that moment, every plus sign in the Attribute Bar vanished. It seemed 20 points of Spiritual Qi was the basic standard for an upgrade.

At the same time, he felt as if he had merged with his surroundings. Even his breathing, heartbeat, and the flow of blood seemed to blend into some kind of rhythm. It was simply indescribably marvelous.

Three seconds later, a message silently flashed past.

"Because you remained still for more than three seconds, you activated Level 2 Passive Stealth. The vast majority of insects and some wild beasts will turn a blind eye to you unless you appear directly before them."

"Some wild beasts?"

Wang Wu was a little worried. Level 2 Passive Stealth still was not quite safe enough.

The only thing that reassured him was that his Level 1 Self-Healing was constantly at work. Moreover, he had enough Satiety—roughly speaking, he expended a little Satiety each minute in exchange for his Health Points slowly recovering.

Automatic health regeneration. Excellent.

Otherwise, under normal circumstances, once a wild beast was injured, it practically meant a dead end.

Thus, after lying low in constant fear for nearly five hours, Wang Wu paid the price of 240 Satiety and successfully restored his Health Points. The wounds all over his body rapidly scabbed over, as if he had never been injured.

Besides that, there was another piece of good news: this area seemed to be very safe. Of course, it might also have been the effect of his Level 2 Stealth.

Wang Wu truly wanted to keep hiding here forever, but by noon, the remaining Satiety in his body had been completely depleted. The shadow of hunger descended once more.

And as his Satiety fell, his Stamina was also slowly declining.

"So having digestion that is too good is also a huge problem!"

Wang Wu looked up at the blazing sun. After hesitating for a moment, he still decided not to take the risk.

Yesterday, he had dared to go out and scour for food because of that rock crevice. A short distance outside it was a patch of grassland, and at the slightest disturbance, he could immediately retreat into the crevice.

But today, he had circled around to this side of the cliff. There was no rock crevice here for him to hide in. Once discovered, the consequences would be disastrous.

Otherwise, why had those Gray Rat Heavy Cavalry in the bushes remained so quiet?

In fact, the entire valley had been quiet all along.

He could not see the Flame Scorpions on the second hill, the White-Haired Rats on the third hill, or those Crimson Birds. He could not even see the Mantis Swordsmen or Black Snake Sentinels.

It seemed like a land of death, but only someone who had seen that scene at sunrise would understand just how brimming with life and hidden dragons and crouching tigers this valley truly was.

Therefore, he absolutely could not move, even if he starved to death!

He had to be ruthless with himself.

Thus, Wang Wu endured his gnawing hunger, the scorching sun, and his thirst, stubbornly holding out in the grass through the long afternoon. As the sun sank westward, the valley seemed plated with a layer of golden light, breathtakingly beautiful. Only then did Crimson Birds finally emerge from somewhere in midair, hopping and fluttering among several large trees.

There actually were not many trees in this valley. At a glance, they were sparse and scattered, no more than thirty or fifty in all.

But the trees where these Crimson Birds roosted were one of a kind.

Their leaves were broad and their trunks thick, each at least fifty meters tall. There were six such trees in total, and for now, all appeared to have been occupied by the Crimson Bird flock.

The other trees in the valley, meanwhile, looked especially malnourished. The tallest were only around ten meters high. The one Wang Wu relied on for shelter was probably not even ten meters tall.

Other than that, the most abundant thing in the valley was stretches of bushes.

These bushes, a little over two meters tall, were practically independent little worlds. Their dense branches and leaves, along with their sharp thorny spikes, shut out most natural enemies. If there were also a stream inside the bushes, it would simply be a paradise beyond the world.

But these bushes were not easy to enter, because this was Gray Rat territory.

As he was pondering this, Wang Wu suddenly saw a squad of Gray Rats appear at the edge of a bush dozens of meters away. They looked chubby and round, almost adorable, but only those who had faced their frontal charge would know how vicious they truly were.

"Wait, what are they doing?"

Wang Wu blinked hard and saw that this squad of Gray Rats was actually working together to drag an enormous leaf resembling a banana leaf. The leaf was piled high with Red Berries, and even from this far away, he could smell the fruit's sweet fragrance.

Oh, damn it, he could not take it. He absolutely could not take it!

At that moment, Wang Wu truly could not help wanting to rush out and rob them.

But he still held back, because two more squads of Gray Rats charged out in formation. These two squads were especially strong. Each one was as large as more than half a small teddy dog, with bulging muscles and powerful builds. Not only that, they wore tiny vests—no, armor. Damn!

The two squads of Gray Rats came pattering out like two units of Heavy Cavalry, guarding both sides and escorting the squad transporting the Red Berries.

"Chirp chirp!"

Several Crimson Birds flew down and cried out arrogantly, but the Gray Rats acted as if they could not hear them and ignored them. Before long, more Crimson Birds descended and began diving without restraint, snatching away the Red Berries one by one. In no time, the Red Berries on the banana leaf had been swept clean.

Yet those Gray Rats still did not react.

Only after the Crimson Birds returned to the great trees, looking like clusters of red flames beneath the setting sun, did another two squads of Gray Rats charge out of the bushes carrying more Red Berries. This time, however, no Crimson Birds intercepted them. It seemed that once they had received their share of benefits, they would let them pass.

This batch of Gray Rats moved swiftly, heading straight for the second hill behind the cliff—the territory of the five White-Haired Rats.

And when they passed the first hill, the territory of the Flame Scorpions, just as expected, dozens of little scorpions rushed out. They apparently wanted to play mountain king too, but the two squads of Gray Rat Heavy Cavalry were not to be outdone. Both sides left behind several corpses, and that was considered the end of it. The Red Berries on the banana leaf were delivered to the nest of the five White-Haired Rats.

Wang Wu watched from the grass, deeply shaken. At the same time, he became exceptionally eager for those Red Berries.

But he also understood clearly that although the valley did not seem large, everything truly had its own ecological niche. If he tried to force a savage start, he would not get a good ending.

Therefore, he could only outwit them!