Through a dark forest, where savageness and death was a daily theme, the figure of a man could be seen.
The man was walking methodically, like a robot, not caring for the several shining eyes that have been following for the past hours.
On the man's back, shockingly, there was an eye. With a dark sclera, and shining yellow iris, the eye stared disinterestedly at the back, keeping a tab at the creatures that were sneakily following behind, in the shadows.
The man had a poker face, as he kept moving toward a certain direction.
After a while, one of the lurking creatures was no longer able to contain his urge to attack, as hunger finally wore down his patience. Hence, it lunged itself in the air silently, with a brandished claws and wide open maw, as it leapt the back of the man.
Just as the creature was in the mid of his leap, a whip-like shadow slithered at him in an astonishing speed, like a snake. The shadow wrapped itself around the creatures' neck, and then violently twisted in a sudden movement.
Crack!
With a sickening sound, the glow disappeared from the creature's eyes, as it shuddered, before going still. The vigorous creature that had jumped in the air had landed only as a corpse.
The moment the creature landed, something shot out from its body, before darting toward the back of the man, who seemed oblivious to the looming threats around him.
However, the next moment, the man suddenly opens his left hand, as if anticipating something. Stunningly, the flying object changed course, heading right toward the open palm.
Grab!
The man simply grabbed the object, and threw it to his right arm, where many other similar objects could be seen, in a wrapped large plant's leaf.
Thorough the entire process, the man never turned, slowed down, or had any change of expression. This made it as though this was only norm for him, a simple matter.
Witnessing the sight, the other lurking creatures were discouraged, and after some hesitation, they simply scurried off, into the dark corners of the forest, to try their luck elsewhere.
'This sprouting spell could really be useful.' Ramie thought to himself.
In the past few hours, he had tried the three types of sprouts that he could bud. From that, he discovered that whistling flowers could be used to issue sounds, incoherent sounds. Apparently, it would take him time an effort to use it to form actual words.
The air vibration recipient was as expected, an ear. It could be used to pick up sounds. Ramie had sprouted few of them on his body, thinking that it would maximize his ability to hear. However, it turns out otherwise, as his hearing stayed the same, more or less.
As for the most useful sprout that Ramie tested out… it was undoubtedly the central-peripheral secondary eyes. After playing with this sprout for a while, ramie discovered that he could pretty much sprout eyes on any area on his body. Originally, he thought that he could bud multiple eyes, in a way that grants him 360 degree sight. However, the mind splitting headache he suffered as a result proved his thought wrong.
Apparently, the amount of information being sent to his brain was too much to handle, all on the same time. Nonetheless, he was unwilling to give up. Hence, after another while of testing, he learned that in addition to his two frontal eyes, he could only project another one.
The visual field of the human eye spans approximately 120 degrees of arc. However, most of that arc is peripheral vision. The human eye has much greater resolution in the macula, where there is a higher density of cone cells.
That is to say, that most of the human sight is considered peripheral vision (less resolution and less perception of details and colors), with only one true point of focus, where the resolution is the greatest. The field of view that is observed with the true focus to read text typically spans about 6 degrees of arc, which is wide enough to allow a clear view of about five words in a row when printed text at ordinary size is held about 50 centimeters from the eyes. The brain creates the illusion of having a greater visual span by automatically and unconsciously moving the center of vision (the true focus), into any area of interest in the field of view.
The third eye on Ramie's back didn't escape this rule. Hence, and since he discovered that his mind could only deal with one true focus point, without tasking itself, the third eye thus gave Ramie only peripheral vision.
Peripheral vision is weaker in humans, compared with other animals, especially at distinguishing color and shape. This is because the density of receptor cells on the retina is greatest at the center and lowest at the edges.
However, still, the third eyes still had great use. Ramie used it as a motion detector, to keep tabs on the weak creatures following him from behind. Of course, if ramie chose to, he could shift his true focus point at the third eyes at his back, or at the two frontal eyes, all depending on necessity. Over all, the third eye was complementing the two frontal eyes, with some independence.
Anyway, coupled with his ability to sense auras, and his innate spell, Ramie had an almost perfect detection system, nothing with a soul could sneak up on him anymore, even if it had its aura or visibility concealed.
As ramie walked on, he could sense a multitude of auras along his path… in real-time, there were projected in his mind like countless, variant-sized dots, depending on the strength of the beasts. The bigger the dot, the stronger the beast, and the smaller the dot, the weaker the beast….
After walking for a while, Ramie came across a large swamp. The area was quiet, without the slightest sound or movement. The place overall appeared very peaceful.
However, to Ramie's senses, this swarm the most dangerous area he had came across ever since waking up. Countless auras could be sensed sub-merged in the muddy water, lurking for a surface dweller felling for this peaceful atmosphere.
Looking right and left, ramie could see that the swamp was very large, as he was unable to see its end. He simply chose one direction, and walked along it. Ramie didn't want to step into the swamp, as he could sense many strong auras lying wait in ambush.
After a while of walking, Ramie suddenly stopped, before ducking down.
He had sensed the aura of two tier-2 beast. Judging by the intensity, the two beasts seemed to be stuck in a confrontation of some sort, a standoff.
Letting out a sigh, Ramie knew that he had to cross through the swamp.
He didn't go through the other side because he sensed a dozed of tier-1 beasts in that area.
Although, if he was to fight his way through, then he could definitely make it, however, he chose not to. As for the reason, it was because he didn't want to exhaust his magic energy, and conserve it at full capacity at all times, in case he's forced to fight a strong beast. More ever, unless he has absolutely no other choice, he didn't want to fight beasts, to avoid creating a commotion that could attract strong beasts over.
However, now, he knew that he had to either go through the swamp by using magic energy, or confront the dozed of beasts on the other side.
Eventually, he chose to spend some magic energy to go through the swamp. However, Ramie wasn't willing to go through it during nighttime, but to wait until daytime.
Thus, after sneaking away to a relatively safer place, he sat, leaning on one tree, between its large protruding roots. By doing so, and considering his appearance, he looked just like an extension of the tree. Not making any move at all, or any shift in his sitting posture, he was barely noticeable.
'Strange, I don't feel any impatient at all… could it be another psychological effect of the ghost tree's bloodline…?' ramie wondered in his heart, as the hours went on and on, without him feeling any discomfort or boredom of being utterly motionless.
'Hmm… resistance to boredom as side effect… not bad, not bad at all!'
As the time went on, scarce rays of light penetrated the dense tree's canopy, alleviating the pitch darkness of the forest. As a result, the glow of the plants gradually faded, before disappearing.
Green Vine!
Green Vine!
Standing up and injecting magic energy into the artifact and commanding the cast, two vines emerged from his back.
The swamp was filled with trees, like every place that Ramie had seen by now. However, the trees in the swamp were much scarcer.
Anyway, giving that he could stretch his vines for as far as he needs, ramie didn't feel anxious. Next, and just like Tarzan, ramie pulled himself up to a one of the nearby trees high branch, using the vine. Then, he threw the vine toward another tree that was 9 meters away, before pulling himself there. Next and repeating this pattern of movement, Ramie moved through the swamp, high up using the trees, away from the clutches of the luring beasts.
He wasn't willing to move this way from the beginning, as projecting and using the vines uses up magic energy. However, now, he had no other choice.
Splash!
After crossing halfway through the swamp, suddenly, there was a ripple of water moving toward the tree he was jumping to, then, the water surface exploded abruptly, as a fast moving shadow darted toward ramie, whom was midway in the air between two trees.
As Ramie was midway in air, pulling himself toward the next tree, a slight smile broke on his gloomy face: "Little fella, you couldn't hold yourself back.'
Next, the second vine that was curled behind his back abruptly struck out toward the darting shadow.
Boom!
The vine moved so fast that the leaping shadow had no time to do anything. Like a steep whip, it crushed at the silhouette with unstoppable momentum, slamming it at the close by tree.
As Ramie landed at the tree, he looked down at the thick tree trunk, where he slammed the attacking beast. It was a deep crater of demolished wood, depicting the violent power of the whip.
In the midst of the shattered wood, the smashed figure of a meter and half green snake could be seen, twitching.
The snake then fell to the water. However, before it could even touch the water, a large shadow emerged from the water surface, opened its large maw, which was filled with many rows of razor –sharp teeth, and engulfed the falling snake.
Ramie didn't pat an eye to the scene, nor did he show any reaction. With his perception, he already knew this was going to happen.
Turning his head, he sent the vine toward the next tree, before opening his hand.
A small object flew to his opened hand jest before he pulls himself to the other tree.
'Nice, another high tier-1 core…'
Ramie added the core to the cluster that he had already gathered from the attacking beasts. Of course, the core from the magical tire-2 that had died at the place where Ramie was rooted was also resting beside the other cores. Afterward, he simply continued his way, moving from one tree to another.
…