The next day, we went to the market and sold everything we had, earning only three hundred and forty thousand, quite a lot for a day, considering our previous earnings at Lake Taihu. After a short conversation, we decided that we would go hunting once every four days; this time was enough for me to go hunting and rest before our joint venture.
After the market trip, Xu Zhaoting returned to the apartment and began cultivating. According to him, in another month, a month and a half, or at most two, he would break through to the intermediate level of magic. I wished him luck and headed to the border of the safe zone, and from there further into the forest. However, I wasn't going hunting; finding a relatively safe place, I also began cultivating. At night, I had the same nightmare again.
The next day I went hunting, but I wasn't going to hunt red-eyed newts or even alligators; my goal was to check the giant spiders mentioned by Xu Zhaoting the day before yesterday. These are arachnid-type monsters; they look like ordinary spiders, only about two meters tall and completely black. Their chitinous shell is comparable in strength to alligator skin. These monsters are only considered mid-level servants, but only in terms of magical energy. Their poison, which they release into their prey, is incredibly dangerous and can kill a person within a day if an antidote is not found. Of course, mid-level and higher mages are more resistant to their poison, and peak high-level mages may not fear it at all.
However, this is not their only danger; their webs are stronger than steel and can be released at high speed directly at the spider's enemies, sometimes piercing the victim through. I was not afraid of the webs; they can be dodged, but the poison, even with a small wound, can greatly weaken me, and I would die without ever leaving the jungle, so I bought a couple of dozen portions of antidote in advance. They are quite expensive, five thousand per portion, so all the money I earned went into this. Of course, they are only mid-level servants, and if not for the poison, webs, and chitin, they would be quite weak opponents, but caution is not out of place.
I was heading towards a den that had caught my eye the day before yesterday. There were only about a dozen spiders there, so the danger was small, considering mid-level magic. Approaching the den, which can be recognized by its strong and thick web, about two to three centimeters in diameter. The further path required me to proceed very cautiously and try not to get stuck in this web. Taking out my daggers, I moved on in search of spiders.
I found the first one quite quickly; it was near one of the cocoons, apparently containing some unlucky beast. I dealt with it very quickly, took out its legs with two wind blades, and pierced its head with lightning wrath; it had no chance of survival. After that, I quickly cut out its venom glands along with the gland that generates webs. For all this, one can earn about fifty to seventy thousand; if you cut the chitinous shell into rectangles and sell them, you can earn another one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand yuan, but this is very difficult.
Then a couple more spiders met their end, but after that, I was surrounded by five giant spiders at once! Damn, did they trap me in an ambush? I need to be more careful. However, I didn't panic; before the spiders attacked, there were about two seconds. I don't know what they were waiting for, perhaps preparing for an attack. After that, it took them about another second to approach me. During this time, I finished building the wind star map; a whirlwind of wind blades spun around me, slicing through the chitinous shells of all the approaching spiders. How can they survive an attack of mid-level magic that is stronger than the second stage?
However, unfortunately, I can't use this magic much yet. As the encounter with the leader after the death of Bao Qing Che's team showed, I can cast no more than two spells in a row. If you count, then I should be able to create about eight to ten spells within an hour without problems, provided I don't use other magic, otherwise less.
Unfortunately, due to the excessively high power of mid-level magic and the low level of control, and therefore accuracy, the venom glands of several spiders were damaged. Fortunately, the web glands of all of them are intact. After dealing with the spiders, I wandered further through the jungle, exercising caution. During this time, I killed a couple more alligators; it was a young pair, probably, resting in the rays of the evening sun. Killing them was difficult, but I managed; I didn't use mid-level magic to kill them, it would have been too easy.
After that, I returned to the city and sold all my findings at the still-operating market, earning about five hundred thousand yuan. I didn't skin the crocodiles; I was too lazy. But at night, I had another nightmare, damn it, if it continues like this, I won't be able to sleep! Only this time, instead of a joint hunt for alligators, it was my personal hunt for spiders and alligators. The pseudo-me, with a devilish smile, calmly and carefully killed spiders, showing absolutely no emotion except pleasure. It looked quite creepy. Meanwhile, Bao Qing Che's team and that man from Yueyang were saying something like: "Look at yourself, you're a real monster!" "People don't hunt like that; monsters hunt like that!" and so on. It wasn't very hurtful, but for some reason, it was very unpleasant to hear this from them. The nightmare ended the same way as usual; the pseudo-me stood opposite me with his arms folded on his chest.
The next day began with watching the news; it was quite spontaneous. Xu Zhaoting woke up earlier, turned on the TV, and started watching the news. I joined him; it was interesting to see what was happening, but there was nothing special. However, at the end of the program, they talked about a monster attack on Yueyang city, about four days ago. They also said that the main suspect was a man-hunter torn to shreds, who carelessly opened a forbidden bait in the city and could not cope with the monsters on his own. They also said that there might have been another person, but the investigation is ongoing. During this attack, several ordinary people were injured, and a couple of them died.
"Jiaxing Yun, is this not because of you?" Xu Zhaoting asked me when the report ended.
"No, I just dragged his body to the border of the safe zone and slightly disfigured his face, but I didn't leave the bait, where would I get it from?" I chuckled, and a cold sweat ran down my spine. Although I don't care about the lives of ordinary people, the fact that people died because of me is not very pleasant, you know.
I didn't watch any further and, grabbing my things, I went deep into the forest to the safe place I found the day before yesterday. There, I took out my wind-lightning rod and began to absorb its energy, pouring it into my two seeds. There was indeed a lot of energy; I finished extracting all the energy only when the sun had already set, after which the rod crumbled to dust. However, the effect was quite significant; I could literally feel the vibrations of my seeds, as if they wanted to turn into something more, but were not yet fully ready for it. Trying to cast magic, I didn't notice any significant increase in power, but I think my magic is now about two and six-tenths times stronger than standard.
Returning to the city was not difficult, although it was quite hard not to fall prey to nocturnal predators. When I arrived, Xu Zhaoting was still awake and cultivating. I received a mountain of complaints from him about where I had been and what I had been doing, as well as why I came back so late. In response, I teased him a little and said I was walking around the city. He doesn't need to know what I'm doing, but I'm glad he's worried about me; after all, he's a good friend. I lay down and quickly fell asleep.
I had the same nightmare again, only this time it was strikingly different. I stood in the middle of a street in Yueyang, where I killed the last guardian mage. Yes, he lay on his back and smiled. I walked up to him and stood next to him; his eyes suddenly opened, and he began to look at me without looking away.
"Look what you've done," he said with a smile, closed his eyes, and continued to smile.
Immediately, the pseudo-me appeared before me and, waving his hand, beckoned me to follow him. I followed him, as I had no idea what to do. We went out onto another street; there sat a couple in love, chatting peacefully about something. There was a rather nice peaceful idyll. Nearby, an old man with a dog walked down the street, smiling; a couple of students were returning from school; someone was in a hurry.
But suddenly, monsters appeared from the direction of the safe zone border: giant varans. People tried to escape, but the monsters were faster; they knocked people down and began to devour them, tearing them to pieces. No one on the street could escape; everyone met their death. Goosebumps ran down my spine from everything I saw, my knees trembled, my head spun, and I leaned against the wall, but that wasn't all.
A moment later, as the varans rushed further, only a couple remained. The people who had been torn to pieces appeared before me in a row. They stood and looked at me with sad eyes; there was no hatred in them, only sadness.
"You killed us," they said in unison in an otherworldly voice. All their movements were perfectly synchronized, which instilled even greater fear in me, but they didn't stop there. "You killed us. You killed us. You killed us." They began to repeat, gradually accelerating, and soon the speed at which they spoke reached the level where I stopped understanding them.
Immediately after that, they fell silent, and a moment later, they began to talk about what they had lost, what they could have achieved if they had stayed alive, and they also began to say that they would kill me, avenging their deaths. Suddenly, knives appeared in their hands, and they headed towards me. I was stunned by everything that was happening and couldn't even move.
When the people were five meters away from me, a pseudo-me with daggers in his hands emerged from behind me and lunged at them. He killed them by piercing their chests; none of them could even react, he was so fast. But the pseudo-me didn't stop there; when the last one had a hole in his chest, he went to the first one, cut off his head, and then pierced him through, after which he threw him aside. He did the same to the others, while I stood aside with bulging eyes, watching what was happening. The laughter of the guardian, whose corpse lay nearby on the next street, echoed in my ears.
When everything was finished, the pseudo-me turned to me and folded his arms across his chest. The blood of the slain spread throughout the city, creating a bloody sea, and the buildings themselves sank in the blood. The pseudo-me had the same devilish smile as always, only this time it was happier, perhaps? He seemed to derive incredible pleasure from killing ordinary people.
"They are just people; if they don't accept that they died for my benefit, then they must be killed one more time." A voice, similar to mine but filled with power, authority, and a detached, otherworldly quality that chilled me to the bone, rang out.
Startled, I began to back away, stumbled, and fell, hitting myself hard. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was lying on the floor in the room we were renting with Xu Zhaoting. Looking around, I realized that my partner was still asleep, and I had fallen off the bed in my dream. I was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. After catching my breath, I went to wash up and eat.
This time, during the hunt, we killed about a dozen spiders. I had to get close to them to cut off their legs; it was difficult and dangerous, but it provided an interesting experience, so I didn't mind. We also killed about three red foxes and one alligator that we stumbled upon. We returned to the city quite exhausted, but it was worth it; we each earned about four hundred thousand!
However, all day long, I was tormented by memories of the nightmare. I almost died once, so I had to put all my strength into pushing them aside, but it was very difficult. At night, there was another nightmare related to our hunt, and the nightmare with the people from Yueyang repeated itself. I woke up on the floor again, all wet and breathing heavily. If this continues, I might go crazy!