Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 378: A Dangerous Move

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Since the apocalypse, the one who was able to adapt could survive, and the stronger ones would be dominating the weaker ones. In this environment with such fierce competition, the creatures had to keep evolving for its survival. Not only should the predators evolve, but the various herbivores including plants would need to keep evolving to be stronger. The latter two would have to evolve even faster, as they face the harsh environment and was in more danger and pressure to survive.

In this forest, there were more mutated plants of a light green level and above, as compared to the various mutated insects. Even the higher level seven of mutated trees could be seen everywhere. As for the herbivores’ survival, they either had a faster reproduction system or were extraordinarily powerful. For example, to have a stronger defense, quicker speed or be larger in size. It was just like how it used to be before the apocalypse, where the king of the jungle was not the tiger, which was naturally at the top of the food chain, but instead, were tame elephants, merely as a result of natural selection.

...

Luo Yuan was quite lucky today, as most of the mutated herbivores were good tempered. As long as he did not instigate them, there would not be any danger even if he stood beside them. Of course, there was a risk of being stepped on them as well. It would not be the same if they were the predators. Although the size gap was huge, and they might not have noticed the existence of Luo Yuan, he still needed to suppress his power when they passed through.

In Luo Yuan’s sight, the super creature that was somewhere not too far away was like a shining sun, blazing with light. The power generated by its high-speed movement could easily make his injury even more serious.

Luo Yuan took a look at the two notifications in the system.

One was the notification telling him that he had successfully completed in killing the giant mutated frog, while another one was the task notification that appeared ten minutes ago.

The first one was nothing special, but in succession to complete a few grade D+ tasks, his experience had now been accumulated to 101,520/307,200 points.

The experience that was vital for the upgrade had been completed by one-third now. However, it could have been completed by half, if one of the level seven mutated beasts did not escape successfully. From that incident, not only did he fail to gain any experience points, but had to pay the penalty of deducted points as punishment.

When he thought of it in all seriousness, in just a few days, this area that stood far away from the Reconstruction Area was really dangerous. Though he could rapidly accumulate experience, every fight was very risky and brutal, so any carelessness would put his life in jeopardy, exactly like what had happened today.

As for the second notification, Luo Yuan canceled it immediately after reading it. This task would definitely take his life, so he did not want to take any risk by even trying.

"Level C task: Kill the Demonic Horseman. Period: Three days. Accept / Cancel."

...

The Demonic Horseman was standing beside the giant tree, raising its neck while it kept eating the leaves.

The giant tree was very huge. By visual estimation, it was 15 or 16 meters wide in diameter, and the branches that formed a canopy shape could envelop anything beneath it for few kilometers in radius. With the quantity of food intake required by the Demonic Horseman, it could probably eat all the leaves until the branches were bare.

It seemed like it would not be leaving anytime soon. Luo Yuan thought for a while and decided to stay on to continue healing his injury.

With the existence of the super mutated beast, this place became extra safe. By looking at the mutated beast which was still limping on the ground and struggling to get up again, he could determine how powerful and brutal a level eight mutated beast was. This was the place where the Reconstruction Area would need to use a large-scale attack with a nuclear bomb, in order to completely extinguish all the creatures here.

Ten minutes later, all the fine vines had been completely repaired by Luo Yuan. To accelerate the healing process, he stood up and entered the state of the earth in order to get support from its unlimited power.

Of course, this kind of healing was not perfect, but more likely to cause hidden ailments. However, he had too many visceral injuries, which were not able to be healed within a short time with his Will. As for the formation of capillary blockage due to self-healing, it could be slowly repaired when he had sufficient time to do so.

In just a short while, his pale face had blushed and turned lively, as his injured organs had been restored to its original state. The weakness of his body had gradually subsided, while a powerful force was bred in his body. He gripped his fist so tightly and fast, forming shockwaves in the air.

He turned to look at the Demonic Horseman, which was not far away from him. Even if it was just a fluctuation of unconscious energy, its body was surrounded by a turbulent airflow and countless whirlpools appeared in the air, before disappearing instantly. There were also a lot of electro optic-like snakes wandering about in the air.

Luo Yuan was in a rational mind and felt no fear. All these extra feelings were only to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses. Suddenly, a bold idea flashed through his mind.

The 15 points of Intelligence had helped Luo Yuan possess a great memory. He could still clearly remember the scene when he first saw the Demonic Horseman. It was so huge in size and naturally exuded a threatening vibe in the forest that absolutely could not be suppressed. The only thing that impressed him was that it could move at an incredible speed, although it could be due to his lack of attention at the time of the battle.

However, with his 16 points of Agility, it was faster than the speed of sound at the very least, since it had left such a visionary effect on Luo Yuan.

Of course, he would not be so concerned if was only about the speed, as a lot of level seven mutated beasts were faster than he was. After all, the size gap made a lot of difference, not to mention that this was a stronger version of a level eight mutated beast. He was more confused about how the Demonic Horseman was able to not emit any sounds when it ran at such a high speed. Other than the airflow surrounding its body, there was not a single trace of wind when it galloped at top speed.

When its speed had reached a certain limit, air resistance had become the biggest obstacle. Even one meter faster would not only increase the resistance but also cause some buoyancy to the target of the run. It consumed physical strength and had a large impact on its running speed.

If he could weaken or even eliminate the air resistance, his speed would be enhanced again. Also, he would also be able to kill with a much faster speed during a battle.

After the clothing which aided him in air flow balance got scraped off, he had always been looking for a replacement but his efforts were in vain, until today, when he met this Demonic Horseman.

Unfortunately, his abilities proved incapable of fighting against this super mutated beast. It was totally impossible to get such a material by first killing the Demonic Horseman. Although it was just a gap of one level between level seven and level eight, this gap was akin to the distance between the sky and the earth. nature and quality were completely different between both levels.

However, the fortunate thing was that this mutated beast had a mild temper. So, as long as he was careful enough, making dangerous moves will not be pointless. In addition, he still had the ability to predict the future, which he could stop in time if he sensed any imminent danger.

His mind was spinning fast, under this rational state and without any weakness, he immediately made a decision after weighing the risks and rewards. He took his Zhanmadao and cautiously, slowly walked towards the Demonic Horseman.

At this point of time, the Demonic Horseman’s horses were enjoying themselves, while nibbling the leaves. It neighed with glee while eating the leaves, seeming like it was in a pleasant mood and failed to notice that Luo Yuan was actually hatching a plan against them.

Luo Yuan successfully went closer, to all the way to the front of Demonic Horseman. This mutated beast had a shocking size! It had a four or five to a six-meter length of legs exuding a blurred glow. Its body was like a thick layer of the wall that could frighten people. Any human being who stood in front of it was as small as an ant. The closer he went, the more tension he could feel from the Demonic Horseman.

This kind of creature had a very strong Will, even if it was just a drop of its blood. The strong genetic erosion made every other creature stay away from it.

Luo Yuan was now developing his ability in this aspect, however, it was still incomparable to the strength of its level. His Will, which was more unified, could not be compared to that creature’s Will, which was developed by nature; chaotic and full of wildness.

Even so, the breath it exuded was still extremely menacing. If Luo Yuan did not have a strong Will and was not in a state where he was connected to the earth, he would have been frightened and end up collapsing in fear, like the other fragile mutated beasts in the area.

He stopped at a place five meters away from the Demonic Horseman and floated towards its back. The Demonic Horseman sensed something and turned around to look at him before it continued to eat the leaves without a care in the world.

In his prediction, there was no imminent danger. Thus, Luo Yuan did as planned and continued to fly all the way to the horse’s back. There was a strong static electricity seemingly attracted by the Demonic Horseman and surrounded its body. Suddenly, a spark burst onto Luo Yuan’s body too.

Fortunately, these geomagnetic disturbances that were automatically generated by the Demonic Horseman might seem scary but in actual fact, its attack power was not a strong one. Luo Yuan only felt some numbness on his skin and experienced no pain. Instead, the turbulent airflow lingering around the Demonic Horseman posed a bigger challenge to him.

The airflow was as complex as a rapidly flowing river, as it had unpredictable patterns and could generate hidden whirlpools. When he came into contact with the airflow, he felt it was hard to be handled. The airflow kept pulling in and out, sometimes softer and sometimes harder. At times when he wanted to move forward, he was blown away, and was flung backward. Sometimes when he wanted to fly to the left but was dragged to the opposite side.

His flying speed was not fast at all, only at a maximum of 20 meters per second. The thrust from his Will was not strong enough when in contact with gravity; it could only retain at 20 meters per second, at most. With such a resistance, any strong wind could have easily blown him away in the sky.

Within its ever-changing, unprovoked airflow, this flight was a considerable challenge. With a mere distance of less than 100 meters, he needed to fly for several minutes before landing on its back safely.

But alas, something strange happened when Luo Yuan landed on its back. The very second he did, all the air turbulence disappeared – to his relief! The back of the Demonic Horseman was fairly broad, almost 18 to 19 meters in width and more than 100 meters long, which was bigger than the size of three standard basketball courts.

This mutated beast was simply a miracle of evolution. If it existed before the apocalypse, it could have starved to death. Only the current environment and ecosystem could sustain and nurture such a giant creature.

It was rather slippery under his foot, so he had to rely on his Will to stay afloat. He looked down and found that his feet were not exactly stepping onto the beast’s back. The soles of his feet were at least an inch away from the scales. There was an invisible force in between that lifted his body up.

He stepped into this force field. It was quite elastic but the stronger the force, the greater the power of resistance. It was extremely slippery so he was not able to stand still. To prevent any uncertainties, Luo Yuan did not dare delay any further. He turned towards the one meter wide green translucent scales and analyzed:

"Demonic Horseman scales"

"Purpose: Material"

"Rarity: Light Purple."

"Weight: 18 kilograms"

"Additional Abilities: Able to resist the interference of geomagnetic force field with flexibility"

"Remarks: The Demonic Horseman was the perambulator of the forest. As a vegetarian, it usually seems quite harmless, but do not try to provoke it. The vengeful Demonic Horseman will fight with until the enemy is dead. Only the corpse of the enemy can calm its anger."

All information flashed through his mind. Luo Yuan looked calm, and in the state of the earth, he could not care less about the evaluation of the vengeful Demonic Horseman.

Seems like this scale is not the right one. Luo Yuan thought.

He had no interest in this scale. Although the scale was also extremely rare and could be synthesized as bullet-proof vests, the hard texture had made its value limited to a fighter like Luo Yuan.

He looked away and laid his eyes onto other parts. He noticed that its mane that was about 100 meters long, extending from its head to its tail and was much easier to be retrieved as compared to its scale. The mane was quite fluffy and colorful, which kept swishing along with the movements of its body. It looked just like a magnificent dragon.

Luo Yuan could sense an indescribable unknown power exuding from its mane onto its body. His eyes flashed, as he immediately carried the Zhanmadao and headed towards that chunk of mane, which was swirling gracefully in the wind.

The mane was quite long, with each of them about five to six meters long, but they were very fine, several times finer than those on a human head. He got closer only to find that the mane was not as colorful from afar; it was completely black instead. The ethereal colors were actually an illusion created by light.

Luo Yuan gently touched its mane and he could feel a weak air flow between his fingers as if its hair was not actually tangible, but made of air. By feeling this unusual form, he could confirm his thoughts. He immediately used his Analysis skill.

"Demonic Horseman’s mane"

"Function: Material"

"Rarity: Light Purple."

"Weight: 0.2 grams"

"Additional Abilities: To offset powers of a force field"

To offset powers of a force field. It seemed like this was the one he had been looking for! A thought flashed through Luo Yuan’s mind. Despite being in the state of the earth, a mild sense of joy lingered in his heart.

In particular, this mane was extremely light; almost weightless! After synthetic, this would certainly not restrict his movements. It was simply the perfect material for a synthetic coat.

He took a deep breath, and immediately restrained the mood swings in his heart. When he was about to brandish his Zhanmadao, his face suddenly changed and he quickly stopped moving.

The result from his prediction was not a good one. Once he chopped off its mane, whether or not it was small or big in quantity, the Demonic Horseman would immediately unleash its wrath.

Fortunately, however, it had not happened. He hesitated for a while and used his prediction to test it again and again. Through the imagery in his foresight, Luo Yuan found that no matter which part he chose, even if it was the Demonic Horseman’s tail where it could not see him, the horse would throw a huge fit. It seemed like as long as he touched the mane, it would immediately trigger its anger.

Luo Yuan was in doubt and repeatedly looked at the imagery again. Finally, he saw a clue. He did the trial again, this time only brandishing his weapon but the result was still the same. He finally came to the realization that the Demonic Horseman was not triggered by its mane being cut off, but rather, the Zhanmadao itself. It was his carelessness for disregarding the fact that his Zhanmadao was a level eight weapon. When put in its scabbard, it could slightly shield its power, but once he brandished it, it was undoubtedly a huge threat to the Demonic Horseman.

He then quickly gave up using his Zhanmadao, and discovered that his Will could not be used too. The level eight creatures seemed to be very sensitive to threat. Any potential harm could stir its attention and keep it extra vigilant to its surroundings.

After excluding all other options, Luo Yuan found that pulling the mane off with his bare hands was the safest way.

The mane was too thin, but the amount of hair the Demonic Horseman had was innumerable. It was very dense too, thus no matter how sensitive the horse was, this slight pain would not spark its attention too quickly.

Luo Yuan immediately started his course of action. The mane was very tough and extremely strong. With every pull, he had to exert an excessive amount of power. He was smart enough not to pull from the same spot, but a different spot after a few pulls to avoid the Demonic Horseman from taking notice.

The process was quite smooth, and after half an hour, he managed to pluck out a significant amount of its mane. The mane collected was about the size of one’s wrist and weighed about four to five kilograms. With this quantity, it was more than enough to synthesize a brand new set of clothes.

He bundled the mane into a cord and tied it in front of his chest inside his underwear. This underwear had a protective layer made of plasma, one that could isolate the fluctuation generated by the mane, and avoid piquing the attention from the Demonic Horseman when he left.

After completing his plan, he did not dare to stay on its back any longer. He gently leaped into the air rapidly and passed through the air turbulence. He made a few jumps upon landing and immediately reached his speed limit to escape from this place.

The Demonic Horseman turned to look at Luo Yuan, it tilted its head and seemed to harbor some suspicious thoughts. However, the temptation of food in front of it quickly expelled all suspicions, and it continued to enjoy devouring its leaves.