To think there was a time when I considered myself at the top of the food chain.
How stupidly naive of me.
I've been reminded of my place time and again by mutant rat tide, mutant bird flocks, the Giagadon and lastly, the mutant trees.
I looked the numerous tiny holes in my Defensive suit and wondered how the hell those mutant trees are able to push their small roots through the defensive suit so easily.
My last encounter with the mutant tree had been a short and dangerous one, with it being able to cover half of my body with it's roots before I snapped out of my stupor and took out my sword, cutting through it's roots and escaping in time before it could put me through another illusion and disrupt my thoughts.
I felt the weakness in my legs where the mutant tree had pushed it's roots inside my body and sat down on the top branch of a large Hybrid tree before I took out a slab of mutant meat and started gorging down at it and felt my strength returning to myself.
I wondered if the other evolutions gave their users such high regenerative abilities or if Fiends were special in that regard as well.
Although I can't say that Fiends were good at everything as I've felt jealous of Neha's 'Mente Reina' Evolution a lot of times.
After all, who would say no to a bunch of high tier abnormal slave who listen to your every whim.
If I had them then I would even need to fight at all. I could just point them to a abnormal horde and mutant beast tell them to bring me their crystals a cores.
But even though I was a bit envious of her, that doesn't mean I would give up my evolution for hers if given the chance. I was me and a close quarter combat evolution suited me more than anything else.
I looked at the tiny holes in my legs heal at a rapid rate after consuming the mutant meat and wondered about how my body worked before I shook my head and realized that such an information was irrelevant at the moment.
What was important was to know about my enemies.
And now that I think about it…
'Lily, you bought the information regarding Hybrid Trees right.'
'Yea. You want to see one right now?' she asked and I nodded upon which white light particles came out of the black watch and condensed into a white paper in front of me.
I caught the paper before it fell down or flew away with the wind, not that there was any wind in the forest.
I've not felt any wind blowing through the forest ever since I entered it.
I wondered if this was something done by the mutant trees as well. And if they did then how.
However they did it, without a wind, the pheromones they release must have stayed in the forest instead of be blown away, making a dense mist of pheromones in the surrounding, making this forest even more dangerous.
I unfolded the piece of paper in my hand and looked at the squiggly and ugly handwriting and sighed to myself.
'This Rose Valentine woman is really a careless person isn't she.'
Lily didn't reply to my words and I shook my head before reading the paper.
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Hybrid Trees:- When a lot of mutant trees exist in a small area, then they start influencing the trees around them, making them far thicker, taller and dense as a result.
The trees that has been influenced like this are known as Hybrid trees and every now and then, these Hybrid Trees go through a change and become Mutant Trees themselves.
No one knows why such a thing happens and what cause a tree to change into Hybrid tree which further allows it to change into Mutant tree, but it's known that even before a Hybrid tree changes into Mutant tree, they start releasing Pheromones that sends smaller and weaker creature around them in a stasis like state which allows the other mutant trees to consume the small creatures without any effort of their own.
Thus in places filled with Hybrid trees you'll not find any insects or smaller Mutant beasts and most definitely not any abnormals.
Be careful around these Hybrid trees and don't be near one of them for a long time if you're weak. But then again, if you're weak then you'll probably die before finishing this paper.
Don't die okay. And keep buying my notes, making me richer and richer kikiki….
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'Did she just write kikiki at the end of her letter…'
'She did.'
'If this is how she truly laughs in real life then I'll content with never meeting her in person.' I thought and felt a shudder pass through me as the image of a woman laughing in such a manner entered my mind before I shook it off quickly and cleared my mind once again, wary of the illusions and hallucinations ensued by these Hybrid trees and Mutant Trees.
Dying because I was too busy thinking about a creepy woman would be embarrassing.
'Well, at least we know why the forest is so quiet now.' Lily said and felt a chill go down my spine as I imagined the number of creature that must have lost their lives after going in a stasis like state.
'The forest ground must be littered with dead bodies.' I thought and smiled morosely at how Netra convinced me to come to this graveyard on my own violation.
'She must have a fox in her previous life.' I mused to myself before all thoughts left me as I saw some movement in the distance.
'Did you see that Lily?' I asked as I quickly went into an alert mode and heightened my senses for any dangerous element in the forest.
Rose Valentine said that all the weaker creatures will die in such a place, that means that any mutant beast that is able to survive in this place must be very powerful.
I took out my Camouflage Cloak and wore it around me, giving myself another safety barrier before I changed my position and looked around for the thing that I saw just a few moments ago.
And then, it came out of the forest and I felt my heart hammering in my chest at the sight.