Carrion Rats, Ghostshadow Sword Orchid

Watching Zhang Rui leave, Lincon carried the stone back to his little courtyard and continued carving the Shrine.

After living alone for so long, his emotions had grown somewhat numb. Still, Zhang Rui's appearance had brought him a little hope and information.

So the outside world had changed so drastically.

Black Iron City.

Lincon committed that somewhat medieval-sounding city name to memory.

And those high-ranking ability users capable of resisting the Black Tide—they were probably people who possessed extraordinary powers.

As Lincon pondered these matters, he finished carving another Shrine.

[You have completed a Shrine. Shrine crafting experience +10, Longwind Fortress Guardian experience +5.]

Making two Shrines had taken Lincon an hour. Together with the hour Zhang Rui had delayed him, there was not much daylight left.

Under Dark Erosion, daytime had now been drastically shortened to five hours. It was extremely precious.

Zhang Rui's arrival today had made Lincon realize that order was beginning to be rebuilt outside. It was no longer the dark, chaotic era he had imagined.

If that was the case, then there was no need to search for those people who had left, was there?

After all, so much time had passed. If they were still alive, they would not have gone this long without coming back to see him.

Lincon walked out of the courtyard with a backpack slung over his shoulder. Inside were two Shrines and essential supplies, while he carried a pickaxe in his hand.

The food at home was nearly gone. He needed to go hunting during the day and stockpile some food.

After living alone for three years, Lincon had long developed his own survival methods.

But considering he had awakened the panel last night, perhaps his life could change from now on.

About a kilometer from the fortress stood a dense forest. Even during the day, it was rather dim inside, and at night it became a strange place no one could enter.

Lincon had originally come here to search for a creature called the Carrion Rat.

Carrion Rats were small creatures that reproduced rapidly during the Dark Age. They fed on decaying plants, and their meat was poisonous. However, after being roasted at high temperatures, the toxins in their flesh disappeared.

Lincon usually caught many of them, roasted them into dried rat meat, ate some directly, and stored the rest.

But today was an exception. Lincon set his sights on the fungi growing in the forest.

Normally, Lincon would not even spare these fungi a glance. Affected by the Dark Matter in the air, they had grown into bizarre shapes, making it impossible to tell whether they were poisonous.

To be safe, Lincon would never pick these mushrooms to eat, no matter how hungry he was.

But this time was different. He could use the Seed Mark to identify these fungi.

Before long, Lincon spotted a clump of mushrooms that were dark all over, with deep-purple blotches on their caps.

These Purple Mushrooms were the most common fungi in the forest, and also the most numerous.

Lincon gently reached out his hand. A phantom image of a Purple Mushroom and two arrows appeared before his eyes.

[Purple Mushroom]

[Advancement Path 1: Spore Shooter Mushroom]

[Sunlight Required: 10 points]

[A mushroom capable of continuously firing spores as weapons. Creatures contaminated by the spores will suffer spore infection, and their bodies will rapidly rot.]

[Advancement Path 2: Bewitching Mushroom]

[Sunlight Required: 20 points]

[Affected by its environment, the Purple Mushroom gradually extracts strange energy from the darkness and grows into a Bewitching Mushroom with the power to enthrall. If a creature consumes a Bewitching Mushroom, its body will be parasitized by the mushroom's mycelium.]

Lincon frowned slightly as he stared at the Purple Mushroom's two advancement paths.

Judging from those paths, Purple Mushrooms were probably inedible.

One path caused spore infection and rapid bodily decay, clearly enhancing the mushroom's toxins. The other involved enthralling parasitism, likewise strengthening its infectious properties.

"I'll have to keep looking."

Fungi possessed tremendous adaptability. Their spores could produce all kinds of mushrooms in different environments.

As long as there were enough varieties of fungi in the forest, he would eventually find a suitable strain. This dense forest was extremely damp, and fungi were the one thing it lacked least.

Lincon wandered along the edge of the forest, gradually making his way deeper inside.

Towering canopies blocked out the sky and sun, nearly shutting out the daylight and leaving only deep shadows below.

The smell of rotting branches and fallen leaves filled his nostrils, but Lincon's mind was exceptionally alert.

He sensed the plants in the forest constantly sending him affectionate thoughts. This came from the Plant Cultivator's Plant Affinity ability.

Suddenly, Lincon stopped and looked toward something.

It was a man-made rat trap, except it had been damaged. A huge hole had been gnawed through one side.

"Why is my rat trap here?"

Lincon crouched and examined it carefully. He discovered traces of its mechanism having been triggered, and judging by the extent of the trap's damage, it seemed to have been destroyed by a large creature.

"But why are there rodent bite marks? Since when did Carrion Rats have teeth this sharp?"

Lincon frowned, immediately becoming wary.

He had come to this dense forest so many times, yet he had never seen any large creatures here. Had one come from elsewhere?

As Lincon pondered this, he suddenly sensed a foul gust of wind coming at the back of his head.

The Plant Cultivator's powerful mental strength allowed him to sense the enemy's sneak attack behind him in advance. He reacted swiftly, raising his pickaxe and swinging it hard behind him.

Bang!!

The immense force sent the thing behind him flying, smashing it into a nearby tree trunk.

In the dim light, Lincon barely made out what it was.

It looked like a rat magnified many times over, with crimson eyes.

Lincon had eaten far too many of these creatures to mistake it. The creature before him, as large as a wolfhound, was a Carrion Rat.

This size far exceeded the Carrion Rats he had hunted before. Had it undergone a second mutation?

Before Lincon could think further, the Carrion Rat in front of him pounced again.

Pale-green saliva hung in strands from its teeth, sticky and disgusting. There was no doubt that being bitten would likely deal double damage.

Over the past three years, Lincon had faced many dangers alone. He had even beaten Dark Creatures to death, so although this Carrion Rat was strange, it did not make him nervous or afraid.

He raised the pickaxe high. The instant it reached him, the heavy pickaxe head came crashing down onto the Carrion Rat's skull.

A sound like a watermelon bursting rang out. The Carrion Rat that had looked so fierce moments ago collapsed to the ground.

[You have killed a mutated creature—Carrion Rat. Sunlight +1, main class experience +10, secondary class experience +10.]

An experience gain notification popped up on the panel.

Yet Lincon showed no joy. Instead, he surveyed the surroundings with an even more vigilant gaze.

Mottled sunlight filtered down through the forest, while the bloody stench in the air grew even stronger.

Rustling sounds rang out one after another, and pairs of crimson eyes emerged from all around him.

They were the same as the Carrion Rat he had just killed, except this time it was not one rat but a pack, closing in on him like wolves.

And behind those Carrion Rats stood a Carrion Rat King the size of a young buffalo, staring at Lincon as though he were prey.

"Guess I hunt geese all day, only to get pecked by one in the end?" Lincon tightened his grip on the pickaxe, unable to stop the thought from surfacing.

The next second, the pack of Carrion Rats charged.

If there had only been two or three Carrion Rats, Lincon might have handled them with ease.

But there were nearly twenty Carrion Rats now, with a Carrion Rat King commanding them from behind. One careless mistake, and he might truly die here.

Whoosh...

A Carrion Rat lunged at Lincon at high speed. Its fur stood upright like steel needles, and foul-smelling saliva dripped from its exposed incisors.

Lincon violently raised his pickaxe and knocked it back, but Carrion Rats kept swarming at him from every direction.

"Run!"

A step back opened up a wider world. Lincon had never considered running to be cowardly.

He cautiously weaved through the rat pack, found an opening, and tore through it. Just as he lifted his foot to flee the forest—

At that moment, the Carrion Rat King, which had remained still until now, suddenly moved with astonishing speed.

In almost the blink of an eye, the Carrion Rat King arrived before Lincon. Its massive body was like a small tank as it slammed viciously into his shoulder.

Then, with a bang, Lincon was sent flying and crashed into a patch of bushes.

The remaining Carrion Rats had no intention of giving Lincon any chance to react. They swarmed over him, opened their jaws, and gnawed at him like mad.

Faced with such a situation, Lincon knew it would be impossible to leave today without getting hurt.

"Hah—"

Lincon took a deep breath, his expression fiercer than ever.

But just as he prepared to risk everything, a notification suddenly popped up on the panel.

[Sword Orchid]

[Advancement Path 1: Iron Sword Orchid]

[Sunlight Required: 10 points]

[Abandons the Sword Orchid's ability to flower and bear fruit, focusing on strengthening the growth of its roots and stems. It possesses leaf blades sharper and harder than ordinary swords, plunders nutrients from other plants as it grows, and releases a unique sharp aura that kills all competing plants within range.]

[Hidden Advancement Path 2: Ghostshadow Sword Orchid]

[Sunlight Required: 70 points]

[Unlock Conditions: Iron +1, Dark Matter +1]

[A strange plant mutated by a trace of dark aura within its body. It possesses extremely tenacious vitality and can survive even after leaving the soil by absorbing Dark Matter drifting through the air. It releases powerful sword qi capable of killing Dark Creatures, ensuring its own growing environment.]

"???"

Lincon lowered his head and glanced at the wild grass beneath his palm, then immediately invested the points.

At a time like this, he could not afford to think too much. He directly chose the hidden advancement path that consumed the most Sunlight and required unlock conditions.

Because he happened to have enough Sunlight, as well as the items needed to unlock it.

The pickaxe in Lincon's hand vanished first, followed by a Dark Matter Crystal from his backpack.

After killing Dark Creatures, chunks of Dark Matter would occasionally appear in their corpses.

Lincon did not know what this material was used for, so whenever he killed a Dark Creature, he would occasionally toss it into his backpack.

He had not expected it to perfectly meet the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid's unlock conditions this time.

The seed-shaped mark in Lincon's right palm suddenly began to glow.

Buzz—

Beneath the glow, the wild orchid under Lincon's palm trembled violently, as though some strange soul had been injected into it.

In an instant, a black beam shot into the sky, and razor-sharp sword qi scattered in every direction.

The Carrion Rats pouncing at Lincon were the first to be caught in it. The chaotic sword qi merely brushed past them, yet their bodies were split in two.

As for Lincon, the person closest to the Ghostshadow Sword Orchid, he was not harmed by the sword qi at all.

Startled, he moved his hand away. A pure black gleam followed his hand, continuously gathering and stretching... until he pulled it from the ground.