++++++++++++++
DAILY MISSIONS:
Eat 30,000 kcal (0/30,000)
Eat 7,000 kg of wood (0/7,000)
++++++++++++++
Hugh woke up to the bright light hitting his eyes. He was lying on a soft and smooth surface that he recognized to be the floor of clouds. He opened his eyes and confirmed his suspicions.
He was back at the place where he had started before. It seemed like every reset of the dungeon takes him back to the same site every time.
He remembered what had happened the day before, and it seemed like he had finished his mission on time. The last time he had finished his daily missions, he had gotten a reward of a longer time with the armor.
From three seconds, it turned into a staggering ten seconds. That was a seven-second difference. This had never happened before, so Hugh started to think about why it happened.
He traced his steps back and realized that he had eaten a lot of wood from the giant tree. Back then, he did not think about the amount of wood he had eaten because he just focused on digging his way down.
He hypothesized that he had gotten a longer time with his armor because of the amount of wood he had eaten. Yesterday, he also ate a ton of wood to finish his daily missions and then some.
If his guesses were correct, he should have a reward that would elongate his time with the armor. To test out this hypothesis, he raised his hand and focused on it.
He activated his armor; brown and silver liquid flowed out from his skin and solidified into his armor. The silver liquid became a layer of skin, and the brown liquid became wooden muscles that gave him explosive strength.
He counted and waited for the seconds that his armor would be available.
1...2...3...10...13...16
After the 16th second, Hugh felt the strength in his hands disappear. His armor turned back into its liquid stare and flowed back into his body.
He planted, but his face had a smile. He had discovered that his armor could now last for 16 seconds. This was a tremendous amount of time that he could use his armor.
Back then, he was always struggling to regulate his armor's use because it only had three seconds of activation. Now, he was able to improve his armor fivefold in just two days.
This discovery also proved his hypothesis to be true. He had improved his armor due to the wood that he ate from the giant tree.
The day before yesterday, he earned seven seconds of armor time from three seconds to ten seconds. Now, the ten seconds became sixteen seconds.
The amount it increased had lessened. He did not know if that was just the natural limit for improving or that he did not eat enough wood yesterday.
To answer the question, he would have to go to the giant tree again and test it out for himself. He would try to eat a lot more wood than he ate before and compare the results later.
To do that, he would have to find a way to get to the giant tree. From the times he had traveled there, he gathered that it was a long way to get there. If he walked there, it would probably take him a whole day, which is not good since he wanted to eat more wood for his daily missions.
The only feasible way to get to the giant tree was to fly there with the eagle. That was what he had always done, but it was still a life-or-death situation for him.
With one wrong move, he would plummet thousands of meters to his death. He would immediately be liquified and be fed on by the caterpillars.
Since that was the only way he was going to the giant tree, he decided to risk it. He would not gain anything if he did not at least try to get there.
The problem was that he did not know how to summon the eagle. It would only just appear as he was eating his caterpillars. Then, like a flash of lightning, he got a guess on how to summon the eagle.
Since the eagle always appeared in the middle of his meal in the caterpillars, he would just have to use that as bait. First, he needed to summon the caterpillars and lay their carcasses into the ground.
He remembered that the caterpillars appeared after he had stripped the floor of clouds. He bent down and started to munch on the clouds as fast as possible. It was not a guaranteed chance that the caterpillars would appear, so Hugh decided to eat a lot of the clouds.
After thirty minutes, Hugh felt a tremor in the ground. He looked up and saw mounds of clouds appeaser near him. A smile formed on his face as the caterpillars slowly emerged from the ground.
This time, there were five caterpillars in the group. Hugh did not hesitate and activated his armor and charged towards them.
With sixteen seconds of use on the armor, he did not have trouble defeating the five caterpillars. With three strikes, he was able to kill them without a problem.
As he saw the juicy inside of the caterpillar, he started to get hungry and greedy to eat the caterpillar carcasses for himself. He opened his jaws wide as if he was about to take a bite, but he stopped himself on time.
These caterpillars were bait, and he would have to spend more minutes trying to find caterpillars if he ate the carcasses right now.
He had to remind himself that he was doing this to improve his armor further. He resolved to fast and ignore the juicy insides of the caterpillar.
The thought of eating eagle meat was the only thing that stopped him from eating the caterpillar juices. The eagle would taste so much better than the caterpillars, so he waited.
He tapped his foot onto the ground as he waited impatiently for the eagle to come. He was starting to get hungrier, and the smell of the caterpillar juices wafted over his nose.
Looking down at the carcasses, he could not help but cheat on his diet. Thinking to himself that he would just take one bite, he bent down and munched on a caterpillar.
The juices flowed out of his mouth and stained the ground. The meat immediately melted in his mouth in savory fireworks that made him crave for more.
His promise of only taking one bite seemed to be extended until he ate every piece of the caterpillar. The juices were pooled up in the ground, and the distinct smell of the caterpillar wafted in the air.
Hugh's hunger seemed to bury out like a dam gate and let out all of his greed onto the caterpillar. He eyes the second caterpillar with no intention of holding himself back.
The second caterpillar was finished, as well as the third and the fourth until there was only one caterpillar left. Since he had already gotten this far, Hugh decided to just hunt for more caterpillars later.
As he was about to bite the caterpillar, a muffled sound of wings beating was heard above him. Hugh looked up and saw the familiar face of an eagle.
It was soaring through the sky while looking down at the caterpillar in Hugh's hands. It circled the air and screamed in the air.
*KYAOO!!!*
It seemed to warn Hugh to let the caterpillar go or else it would attack. Hugh stared at the eagle above him with a smile on his face.
The caterpillar was delicious, but eagle meat was better. He stared at the eagle and took a bite out of the caterpillar, making sure that he locked eyes with the eagle.
*KYAAAAAAOOOOOOO!!!!!*
The eagle was angry at the disrespect it saw from Hugh. With its sharp beak ready, the eagle dove down and went straight for Hugh.
Hugh took another bite out of the caterpillar as he waited patiently for the eagle to come to him. He was not anxious like he was before because he already knew the eagle's attack patterns.
With the eagle only a few meters away from him, Hugh activated his armor on his leg and jumped up. With his upwards momentum, Hugh released his armor on his leg and transferred it into his hand.
With his exceptional grip, Hugh grabbed onto the eagle's body and rode its back like riding a bull. The eagle was irritated at Hugh and wanted to throw him off, but Hugh already knew it would do this.
Like an exceptional bull rider, Hugh balanced his body by going with the flow of the eagle's movements. He smiled as the eagle continued to soar through the skies as it gave up on throwing Hugh off.
Its destination now was the giant tree that Hugh wanted to go to.