Avoiding a few beasts carrying around their burning branches I found myself back at the hill in no time. I managed to arrive just as the sky began to brighten. The morning sun and the chirping birds only helped my mood soar through the heavens as my mind were still processing all the interesting things I've seen during the night. With light steps I walked around the hill trying to find Father deity. But after glancing around it was clear that he had left at some point during the night. Maybe he had to go get some food. Or maybe he went back to check on Mother deity. Regardless I have something to do anyways...
My extremely well made disguise used quite a bit of my reserves when I made it. Combined with me eating a bit here and there meant that I needed to refill it very soon. The only problem was where would I find a good spot?... The part of the forest I passed through getting to and from the beasts' nest had mediocre mana at best. If I wanted to spend my time wisely and get back to work tonight. Then I would have to find a spot comparable to the one next to the waterfall.
Making a final check on my reserves I estimated around 6% in my core. That and whatever was left in my body could keep me going for quite a while. I felt that going in the opposite direction of the weirdly shaped tree would be counter productive as I would need to walk that much more after I've filled my core. So I picked the area above the weird beasts' nest.
As I made my way down the hill I kept my eyes peeled. The atmosphere around this part of the forest was actually quite good. But after walking for about 15 minutes I did not even manage to get a single % towards my goal. The amount were simply too little. The mana inside plants, rocks and other objects were actually quite decent. The only downside is that I have to stand still and focus to draw out the mana. And in the process I'll completely ruin the object or kill the plant. Rocks and other dead objects would simply crumble before I managed to drain out every last bit. Plants would quickly wither and rot away as the amount of mana inside them slowly drained out.
This was clearly a somewhat efficient method to gain mana... I did not quite understand myself. But withering the forest around me felt kinda weird. That usual feeling of warmth flowing through my veins was still there. But somehow it left an unsatisfied feeling running through me as well.
Thinking about it got me nowhere. So I decided to investigate this weird feeling later on. I should focus on the objective ahead and not get sidetracked so easily...
Walking for what felt like an hour I finally stumbled upon something really interesting.
I felt my eyes sparkle as I looked down at the object at my feet. I've seen this before! This is clearly a part of the flying trees leaves!
Picking it up I felt the texture with my fingers. It was quite smooth. I immediately tried to flush my mana through the object to figure out its secrets. But after a few tries I found it very weird. This plantfur was not really plantfur. Somewhat similar but also extremely different. I found myself unable to completely distinguish the different materials from each other. It somewhat reminded me of mana cores. But the structure was completely different compared to normal mana cores. Maybe the strange beasts did something to make it this way...
Smirking to myself as I grasped the leaf in my hand I looked out into the distance towards the strange beasts' nest.
"Don't think you'll be able to keep secrets from me!"
Completely forgetting my initial objective I started walking towards the strange beasts' nest as those words left my lips.
