Both Erik and the clone had a poor night. Not only were their beds not exactly comfortable, but also the fear of being attacked during their sleep and the thought of what could have happened to the others gnawed at them both in the sa way.
Erik did his best to make the shelter as inconspicuous and sturdy as possible, yet being on Mur, nothing ensured that had been achieved.
The two prepared to hunt monsters for at and return to the shelter to make neural links. With luck, they would grow strong enough to survive in this hellish place.
It was also their chance to get accustod to the place, explore the surroundings, set so traps, and rest as much as they could.
"We should set a eting ti," Erik said, adjusting his belt.
The clone nodded. "What about noon? It would give us enough ti to scout and engage if necessary, leaving a lot of daylight to head back if we go too far from the shelter."
"Seems fine to . I don't know when you will end up outside of my Instability brain crystal power's range, so make sure to mark the direction in which you go. Also, keep in mind anything about the thaids. Their territories, behavior patterns, everything. We will review them once you are here; we will do the sa about what I find out."
"Yes, Master. "
They both left the shelter and went out into the cool morning air. The massive tree Erik had grown towered above them.
Erik's gaze swept across the forest, taking in his towering creation that stood like a giant among re mortals.
The countless other trees stretched into the sky like nature's skyscrapers, and though smaller than his own, they still soared like ancient pillars fifty ters or more into the air.
Their massive trunks were enough to make everyone uneasy, especially because their canopy hung overhead like a ceiling that blotted out the sun and created an oppressive atmosphere that pressed down on him like a heavy blanket.
Every shadow between the massive trunks could hide a thaid. Every rustle in the branches above might signal one of those insectoid thaids that made their nests in the treetops.
That and the sheer scale of everything made Erik feel impossibly small, vulnerable in a way that stirred sothing primal in his gut.
The towering trees with their massive girth reminded him of his encounter with the Leviathan Serpent—the sa feeling of hopelessness and fear left his mouth bone-dry.
Erik couldn't shake the sensation of being trapped, as if the forest itself was slowly constricting around him.
Erik thought as he realized Amber, Mira, Emily, and June might feel the sa as him.
Without further words, Erik and the clone separated—the clone heading northeast while Erik turned southwest.
Erik kept close to the beach, exactly like the clone was supposed to do, but remained within the forest's cover.
That ant he could keep an eye on the beach for landing signs while still being covered from the thaids' sight.
Flying thaids were a problem on Mur as much as they were on Mannard. It was just that, here they were all as powerful as weak wyverns, while on Mannard they were no more than kittens, at least for Erik.
The coastline offered the highest chance of finding Amber and the others. Given how recently he arrived in Mur and how long he and the clone spent on the sea, it was likely they didn't stray too much from their path, aning they must have been close.
Thaids were the problem, because if the group saw the trees, there were very few chances they could get there fast. That was why Erik was hell-bent on clearing the way for them.
Mur was not much different from Mannard. The forest floor told its own story—deep gouges in the earth, broken branches thick as tree trunks, strange markings that spoke of territorial disputes between massive creatures—and all those signs could be used by Erik to navigate his way around or to avoid what looked too dangerous to fight.
The situation was similar to when he left New Alexandria and then went to Mur. Back then, the situation was much simpler since the thaids weren't as powerful as those here. What was instead the sa was the difference in strength between him and the monsters.
However, it was also true that Erik now had many powers, and a lot of these gave him utility, and not only raw power. He could turn invisible, could read minds and perceive emotions, he could fly, and he could shapeshift to hide.
All in all, while the situation wasn't as simple as before, it was also not as problematic as it had been years before.
The problem was that here there would be no one helping him in case he ssed up, because there was no person alive that would actually be able to help him.
Erik moved through the forest, studying each track and broken branch. He kept his invisibility active while following the signs, maintaining a low crouch and checking his surroundings every few steps.
But it made sense. So of the thaids on Mur were also present on Mannard, but the majority was a species that only the blackguards knew, and there were many they didn't even know about.
Erik followed the path of destruction and prints, which led him to a clearing. It was very large, and he couldn't expect less, given where he was. However, seeing the creatures grazing in the clearing, he couldn't stop wondering if the clearing was made by the creatures.
Erik could do nothing but freeze at the sight. The beasts were enormous, with black scales catching the morning light. However, despite what Erik assud before arriving here, there were few of the creatures, albeit the herd was larger than he would have expected from a creature this large.
It made sense. Mur had large vegetation, but if there were too many thaids of this size, not even a continent 10 tis as large as Mur would have been enough to sustain them.
The creatures had bull-like heads with massive, spiraling horns—so of them broken—but they had lizard-like bodies and moved more like predators than cattle.
[I know what the powers do, but their actual usage depends on the thaids themselves. We have no information about them beyond what I can observe with my powers. The good news is that they aren't very intelligent, so they likely use their powers crudely—at a primitive level.]
Their Eclipse Field could make it hard for him to fight lee and to attack from a distance since he wouldn't even know where to aim, while Shadow Rend would make attacks in close quarters dangerous.
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