His return journey went smoothly to his advanced base between the plains and the forest. When he got there, the sun was already setting and the last part of his journey would be in the dark. Since he had already made this journey several times in the last few days, it wouldn't be a problem for him.
— "This is a little different from what I remember," Edart said as he arrived and saw his advanced camp.
As he looked at his base, he noticed that the ground was disturbed, as if someone was looking for something. There were small broken branches scattered on the ground, which hadn't been there before.
— "Eris, can you see any animals or people nearby?" Although he was close to the 'Slime Plain', the slimes that lived there rarely left the plain. So, it would be difficult for them to mess up his camp. — ["I don't see any signs of mana nearby."]
Hearing this, Edart relaxed and put it aside, it was more important to return to his shelter, soon the last rivers of light would disappear and the world would fall into darkness.
Edart already knew this trail like the back of his hand, even so, he occasionally looked at the marks he made on the trees to make sure he was on the right path.
He just looked without stopping walking, just to have a confirmation of the path. In one of these glances at the mark on the tree, Edart noticed something different.
— "This wasn't here before." Getting closer, he ran his hand along the grooves carved into the tree. There were 3 deep grooves and on each side of these grooves there was another one, a little smaller and more superficial. Something had passed through here and also left its mark.
As he ran his hand along it, Edart felt the tree sap still wet and sticky, in addition, there was some kind of black oil next to the mark. Whatever had passed through here, could still be nearby.
— "Eris!" He didn't need to say anything else, she already knew what he wanted.
— ["There's nothing nearby, but be careful, I feel something strange coming from that stain on the tree."]
Edart nodded and walked away.
Since there was nothing nearby, he continued heading towards his shelter, however, now he was going more slowly and paying attention to everything that was happening around him.
He looked for more scratch marks on the trees, however it soon got dark and it became very difficult for him to see anything. With his 'Mana Perception', he managed to guide himself to his base.
…
Edart stood 30 meters away from his camp, hidden behind a tree. As he got closer to his base, he heard the sound of things being thrown and falling to the ground, sounds of scratching, breathing and gurgling.
He didn't know what animal it was, as it was very dark, but it seemed to be a large and ferocious animal.
Edart wanted to get a better look at the animal, but he wasn't stupid enough to approach the creature. Looking around, 10 meters ahead, he saw a tree, which he could climb and watch from afar.
Not wasting time, he advanced carefully so as not to be detected to the tree and began to climb. Since he got close to his base, his 'Camouflage' ability was active, decreasing his chances of being detected by whatever was messing with his things.
Sitting on the branch, he had a view of his base below, however, only darkness and noises could be seen and heard. Luckily for him or not, soon the moons of this planet rose on the stage and brought light to the world again.
Although this light could not compare to the sunlight, it was enough to be able to see things on the ground.
— "All my work has been thrown away..."
His camp was a mess, the spears that were organized and stacked previously were scattered everywhere, several of them had been broken. The firewood for the fire was in the same situation.
Edart looked around at the mess his base had become, looking for whoever was responsible. When he reached his earth shelter, a large black animal was trying to break the dome. He didn't understand what this animal wanted.
Confused, he continued to watch from afar. The creature kept trying to enter the shelter, occasionally changing its position and trying to enter from another place.
Seeing this, Edart was finally able to identify what it was.
— "A black bear..." Edart whispered to himself.
This bear was large, approximately 1.3 meters tall, its fur was dark as if all the light was sucked into it. Its blows were powerful and, if it hit, Edart would be deeply injured.
— ["Edart!!! This animal's mana..."]. Edart couldn't hear everything Eris wanted to say, because at that moment the bear turned its head towards him, and he could see its eyes. Red eyes, a blood red that exuded a feeling of madness and hatred. The moment their eyes met, Edart's world went quiet, a deep fear began to take over him and he couldn't speak or move even a millimeter.
Feelings of loss and destruction also settled in his heart and all he wanted to do was sit in the fetal position and cry, but he couldn't even do that.
The abyss was taking over his being again and he felt weak and powerless against this great gap of power that the abyss had.
Luckily for him, the bear had just gotten tired and was turning to leave, so their eye contact only lasted a few seconds.
Edart was trembling on top of the branch, looking into the void, luckily he didn't fall from up there. In his ears, he could hear Eris shouting worriedly at him.
— ["Edart!!!!, Edart!!!! …"].
Coming to his senses, he answered her.
— "Calm down, I'm fine now, calm down." It wasn't true, he was still shaking with fear.
— ["You came back, I was so worried. That bear, he was touched by the…"]
— "By the Abyss… Yes, I felt that fear again…"
He finished what she was going to say and, for a while, a silence settled over them.
Ever since he had that dream, Edart had forgotten about the Abyss, besides the curse he suffered, he didn't find anything else related to it, so feeling that fear again made him worried.
That little rabbit touched by the abyss wasn't strong, and even with its strength cut in half, he could face it, but this bear was on a completely different level, even with his full strength, he was sure he couldn't win.
What should he do when facing this with his strength at half?
Knowing that he was on a possible island, it was a matter of time until he encountered this bear again and, when that happened, he would probably end up dead.
Edart was thinking about what to do next, when Eris interrupted his thoughts.
— ["The bear went north, if we avoid that area, we can be safe."] Eris realized how bad he was and tried to shift his attention elsewhere, so she continued.
— ["We can go further south. Maybe near the orchard. From there, we can hunt more slimes and become twice as strong as this bear, then we won't have any problems when facing it."]
Realizing that Eris was saying something, Edart focused on her.
— "He's very strong, I don't know if we'll have time for that until he finds us." He wasn't confident that he could win.
— ["It doesn't matter, just do your best until he shows up again. He went north, let's go south, killing slimes is getting easier and easier, we can get strong quickly, I believe in you, we don't need to beat him, just stay alive to live another day."]
Edart knew his strength, and killing a bear wasn't something he could do, but surviving, that he could do, he had a title with that name. So if he had to run away, he didn't mind doing it.
All he wanted was to live a peaceful life and didn't want to have to fight, if running away gave him the life he wanted, that's what he would do.
Having gotten a little better and thought about what to do next, Edart made a decision. He would run away for now, get strong and one day come back to settle accounts with this bear, who had bullied him and forced him to leave his newly built home.
— "Thank you Eris, tomorrow we'll start again and this time, nothing will stop us."
— ["I'll always be here for you, Edart."]
— "Yes, me too, I'll try to sleep, wake me up if anything happens. Good night!"
There wasn't much he could do now, he didn't want to risk going down. If that bear came back, he didn't want to be down there and be its dinner.
Getting comfortable as best he could, Edart tried to sleep, but sleep was slow in coming.
…
His night was difficult, every little sound in the forest woke him up and made him alert. It would take a long time for him to sleep again. All of this made his rest horrible.
Edart watched the sky for a while. The sun was already shining high and bright, there were a few stray clouds, however, everything led him to believe that today would be a beautiful day.
Looking down he saw his devastated camp, it was time to see what was left, he quickly reached the ground.
Everything was a mess and few of his spears could be recovered, at least everything could be turned into firewood for the fire he had to make.
Arriving at his shelter, which apart from several scratches from the bear's claws, cracks that spread across the dome and some broken windows, inside everything looked like the place he had left before leaving.
Looking inside, Edart tried to figure out what the bear wanted, here there was only food and its cores. After a while, he realized what it was that the bear wanted.
He couldn't say why, but the bear was after his cores, all the cracks and scratches were close to the slime cores, making it obvious what he wanted.
— "Eris, do you think we can absorb the slime cores?"
— ["I don't think it's possible, but since my knowledge is limited by what you know, I can't say for sure. Maybe the animals have some way, but I don't think you can."]
Intrigued, he asked her.
— "Why do you think that?"
— ["When you were messing with the cores, they didn't react at all and you didn't absorb them, I could be wrong, we have to research more in the future."]
— "Yes, we'll have more time in the future." Edart didn't want to try to absorb the cores now, if he managed to and had any reaction, it could be dangerous with the bear around. It was better to try to do this when he was in a safe place.
— "Very well, let's not waste any more time here." Saying that, Edart began to gather his things and set off in search of a new home. He didn't want to lose all the investment he had put in here, but he didn't want to stay and watch this bear come back. Leaving was the best thing he could think of.