Crow Hag

After resting for a while, Evan did not linger in the danger-filled swamp. He chose to return the way he had come.

"Going out now and then to gather potion ingredients as a diversion is fine, but if I had to spend every day running all over the world for rare medicines that grow in different places, the time and effort involved would be far from worth it.

"Maybe the path of seizing wealth from the sea, then converting that wealth into all kinds of cultivation resources, suits me better."

Although he had just completed a successful hunt without so much as a scratch, Evan was already considering staying away from this sort of routine in the future.

The ancients said that cultivation required "wealth, companions, methods, and land," but for Evan, a Wizard Apprentice, at this stage of his training, everything but "wealth" was something that could only be encountered by chance.

Evan was in no hurry.

As a Naval Officer with a bright future ahead of him, his destiny lay upon the vast sea, where he would obtain wealth, secret treasures, and power.

That was also the charm of the sea, drawing generation after generation to explore it without pause.

"Milk will come, and bread will come too."

Whoosh—

Using a fallen dead tree for a light foothold, Evan moved like an agile cheetah, swiftly crossing between the land islets scattered close together. A journey that might take an ordinary person an entire day only took him an hour.

And he was much faster on the way back than he had been coming here.

To Evan, a path he had traveled once no longer held any secrets. Where he could step, where dangers might be lurking—it was all clear at a glance.

But Evan's luck was clearly not very good today. The weather changed faster than he could make his return journey.

Just as he left the chain of land islets and stepped onto solid ground, an inexplicable thick fog swept across the entire swamp in a short time, and the sky suddenly darkened.

It was not yet dark enough that he could not see his hand in front of his face, but it greatly affected his vision.

After all, Data Vision was based on Evan's senses, but it could not enhance his eyesight. In weather like this, he did not dare rush onward recklessly.

To be safe, Evan halted, chopped down some oil-rich branches, made a torch, and continued at a slower pace.

Hunting the crocodile had already cost Evan quite a bit of time. He had no desire whatsoever to spend the night in this godforsaken place.

The time displayed in Data Vision was 2:54 in the afternoon.

He had to make it out of the swamp before five o'clock. Otherwise, in weather like this, it might be completely dark before five, bringing him even more unpredictable dangers.

Unlike the ghost stories and monster legends that had existed only in fantasies or tales in his previous life, this was a world where Extraordinary Power manifested. Knights and wizards had already appeared; could those strange and terrifying things be far behind?

Evan had no wish to witness the horrors and monstrosities that surely existed in this fantasy world!

Unfortunately, events did not unfold according to Evan's will.

Second by second, time passed. The tracks he had left on his way in were still plainly visible, yet Evan felt that the path beneath his feet had become noticeably longer.

It was not that the spatial distance had literally stretched. Rather, judging by his normal walking pace, he should have already left this stretch of woodland bordering the swamp.

Yet by the torchlight, all he could see was the same gloomy, chaotic forest stretching endlessly before him. No birds chirped, no insects sang. It was silent and sinister.

Slowly coming to a stop, Evan had no choice but to admit that something beyond his understanding had happened.

"A ghost wall?"

Even with his nerve, his scalp began to tingle. Venomous insects and fierce beasts were nothing; fear of the unknown was the most terrifying thing of all.

And perhaps it was merely an illusion, but the instant Evan stopped, he felt as though countless pairs of eyes in the surrounding treetops had suddenly opened and were staring at him without blinking.

Evan's face darkened.

This area was clearly marked as non-dangerous on the map. At the very least, no extraordinary creature capable of threatening him should have been active here. Right now, though, Evan only wanted to curse out the crooked merchant who had sold him that map!

But that was a matter for later.

The crisis before him had already arrived!

"Flap, flap, flap..."

A vast black mass of birds took flight from the forest.

Crows!

Nothing but crows!

Each was as large as a small hawk. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, rose into the air at once, their wings joining together to blot out the sky and obscure even the last faint trace of light.

Night had fallen.

The sight before him was too bizarre, utterly beyond Evan's understanding. He involuntarily retreated two steps, and even the torch in his hand seemed affected by his unsettled emotions, flickering several times.

At the same time.

Whoosh—

Gusts of cold, damp wind, laced with a strange fragrance, passed through the treetops and gathered from every direction.

"Caw, caw, caw..."

Evan spun around, only to stagger back another two steps in an instant.

He even lost control of the strength in his feet, leaving several deep footprints in the mud.

Because on the tree directly behind him, close enough to touch, a "monster" was quietly crouching on a branch.

It had an abstractly warped human face, with wrinkled, withered yellow skin. Its protruding nose resembled a bird's beak, and its cloudy eyes, glimmering with faint flecks of blood-red light, shone with cruelty and indifference!

Its hands and feet had almost mutated into claws, and black feathers covered its entire body. Yet around its neck was an exquisite flower wreath.

Crouched in the tree, it looked exactly like a crow spirit mutated into human form. One glance was enough to cause intense discomfort.

"Caw, caw...!"

A red-eyed crow perched on its shoulder tilted its head toward Evan in an eerily human manner and let out two strange caws, sending an even deeper chill through his heart.

Crow Hag!!!

Though Evan had only just entered the Extraordinary world, he had heard of this creature's formidable reputation.

Leon's notes contained a detailed description of Crow Hags. However, what Evan cared more about was what Leon himself had experienced at the time, and that had not been recorded in detail. In any case, it certainly could not have been a pleasant experience.

Unlike Demonic Creatures, which had already formed stable populations, and Ferocious Creatures, which evolved from ordinary animals.

Crow Hags were not monsters by nature. Their former selves were actually human Witches!

Unlike the cultivation path of orthodox wizards, who gradually transformed from nothing into something, they were like Demonic Creatures: as they grew older after birth, they could naturally awaken certain supernatural powers.

In a sense, they were all natural Spellcasters favored by the gods.

But.

But... without systematic guidance and learning to fully master this talent, they would face an extremely terrifying risk of losing control even as they rapidly grew stronger.

Like a skyscraper built on a crooked foundation, the stronger they became, the greater the risk of losing control!

Until one day.

When their magic ran out of control, or when they died consumed by resentment, if they were not promptly dealt with and purified, they might mutate together with their pet crows into these ugly, terrifying monsters—Crow Hags.

More importantly, their staple food was... humans!