Chapter 2132: The Hollow Forest

If someone was a bit less alert, this monster could eat random things that just landed on it, thinking it was a simple hill. Who’d be able to guess that there were an endless number of teeth underneath its rocky exterior?

Garan knew that this level of monster couldn’t be easy to deal with.

SLASH!

He summoned a large metallic whip in the shape of a flexible tube. He controlled it like how Althea controlled her vines, but with less control, which was why Garan rarely used it.

Althea could control her vine well because it wasn’t conjured out of nothing. It was grown from an actual thing with its own fiber lines and strength.

In contrast, his metal was manifested from scratch, and each bit needed his control, so he naturally couldn’t make it as flexible or react as quickly as Althea’s vine.

For now, however, it’d have to do.

The momentum wrapped around the head of a monster that managed to climb up to him. He pulled himself up and, using his own momentum, kicked the level 20 monster down into the serrated mouth.

This mouth closed very quickly, and for a moment, people would wonder whether the giant mouth was just an illusion. However, it was only for a moment.

CRUNCH!

Garan watched as the level 20 monster was crushed as if it were a persimmon, splattering ’juice’ all over.

CRUNCH!

One could hear the monster inside being crushed into pieces, which easily gave rise to goosebumps.

KKKKRRRRHHH!

The giant beast didn’t seem particularly satisfied with eating the monster, targeting him specifically, even if the monster was a few times bigger than him if one looked at meat.

This was consistent with what they knew. These monsters universally yearned for the ’clean’ aether in the bodies of intelligent beings, so he would always be a target.

This was nothing new; it was just that the mob was far more troublesome than he was used to.

KRRRRHHHHKKK!

It did not help that he avoided its mouth once. He quickly realized that its mouth seemed to be able to appear anywhere!

For example, this serrated mouth, even if the body itself was still (and it wasn’t), could appear in any part of its body. Because the rocky surface was stable, it was difficult to determine where the mouth would appear next.

This made it difficult for him to make focused shots. He wondered if it had many mouths underneath this rocky shell, or could the mouth move underneath it?

But considering there was a few-second delay between each attack, he leaned more towards the latter.

ROAAARRR!

At this moment, another monster jumped over, appearing in his blind side.

His eyes sharpened. He jumped up just in time, body rotating mid-air, and he landed on top of the monster. It was another level 20 monster, but stronger than the one before.

While holding on to the beast shaking around, trying to shake him off, Garan was watching the surface of the rock giant.

Sure enough, something shifted on the ground below, and Garan immediately jumped up.

The giant monster once again opened its serrated mouth to eat the meat beast. As he jumped in the air, he took out one of the bombs from his space and dropped it into the mouth, just before it closed.

Boom!

KKKHRHRHRHHRRKK!!!

It successfully exploded inside the monster’s mouth, angering it even more. He could tell because the serrated mouth widened and the teeth looked sharper than before, before it abruptly closed again.

It was a level 40 beast, so naturally the bomb wouldn’t cause significant damage to it. However, it would still hurt it. Most importantly, the explosion would give rise to smoke, which ultimately betrayed where its openings were heading.

He saw how the smoke emerged from the rock cracks that were the monster’s shell.

Its mouth indeed moved a lot underneath the stone surface, as if there was a more flexible layer underneath the rocky skin. Garan stepped in different places and obviously confused the beast.

Unexpectedly, before he could make any more moves, the hill lunged forward, dashing in a direction in anger.

He watched as they headed to a much denser forest not far away, filled with larger trees with darker trunks and leaves, and the thick canopies that made it seem like it was dusk underneath it.

Was this the so-called Hollow Forest?

...

"I wonder if he’s close by now..." she mumbled, looking up at the light shaft that provided them with light and ventilation. He had yet to respond to her letters. Since he had already received it once, shouldn’t he receive it again? She was starting to worry about his current state.

Tsk. Just an hour ago, she was excitedly preparing a surprise for him. She had already harvested a few space stones, after all.

The deposit really wasn’t big, which made her wonder what the condition for forming space stones was at all. They were ultra rare, and she was unbelievably lucky to have encountered a mine in her lifetime, regardless of how tiny it was.

After a bit of pondering, Althea went to the main community area in the largest chamber they found so far in the cave. The plants were there at the side, and there was a hole above, but at an angle. It was a long light shaft, so the monsters couldn’t use it to enter.

The downdraft from above also kept the scent from below from rising up, so they were relatively safe until now. From what they saw, the winds should pick up soon, and they’d be able to get out again.

The crops that Althea donated were here, and they experienced some sunlight at certain times of the day. Ohara and a few other ’herbivores’ had been trained by her to handle the plants, so they were the ones almost always there.

After meditation, she would go to this place to hasten the growth process a bit. But after that, she left it to the orcs; the extra growth she caused was visible to the naked eye, making it very magical.

As she approached, Ohara and the others lifted their heads from the small farm.

"Miss Althea," they said, looking at her with reverence. When the other orcs around heard her name, they also looked over.

After Althea showed her ability before, she was respected. But when she saved so many lives, helped clear out a new temporary home, and then even grew food for them, she was treated like a goddess.

As for meat, they did not lack this. Aside from the ones they had in their spaces, they had also lured in a bit of meat from outside today, when the wind movements had begun to recover. By this time, days after the mob, many of the monsters had relaxed and slightly dispersed.

Later, they’d even find out that some were attracted elsewhere, i.e., to Garan. As the wind picked up again, they would disperse even more.

Althea used her vines to pull in a weak monster, pulling it inside the new hole before covering it up with her earth ability again.

The show of two elements, especially associated with feeding the tribe, made people revere her even more.

If there was such a thing as personal prestige, would her status spike up every day in orc territory?

Althea cleared her throat. "It should be safe to get a beast here and there, and the main cave might be okay in a few days."

The group led her near the bonfire and started respectfully cooking for her.

She had been in isolation most of the past few days, but it seemed like her prestige had only increased. They also learned to add some tomato and mushrooms in the skewers. Though the meat might be a bit charred at times and the flavor a bit bland, it was much better than what they had before.

As for the smoke, they added nets of sorts near the holes to dissipate the smoke. It wasn’t a long hole, a shaft, so the smoke dissipates even more en route to the outside.

Althea ate the skewers offered to her and silently studied the energy in the meat.

She thought how good it would be if the humans also learned to absorb meat nutrients to turn them into healing potions as the orcs did. The orcs might have specific organs, glands, or unique enzymes in their bodies that would digest the beast’s protein in such a way.

Potions were consumables that could run out at any time. Not to mention, there was such a thing as potion fatigue.

To be able to study this, she’d have to invite orcs to Alterra too. But those could just be the ones from Quo Town. She probably would trust this research to a handful of morally sound characters, lest they started experimenting on live orcs in the future.

If humans could start healing just by eating meat, the number of lives saved in the long term would be immeasurable.