CHAPTER 91: TRACKS

Daru, since two hours ago, had been working hard to advance his level, fighting the same level 40, distorted, Vyrrkan-like swordspawns of the Somber Swamp.

He was only bored with their appearance, but never the battle.

The slightly mossy spawns had varying fighting styles and a dynamic moveset that always kept him guessing.

Fighting Veresvida Vashiras was definitely good training, as far as Daru was concerned.

His stamina was starting to run low, though, so he took a short rest, returning to the large Coneleaf Mangrove he had been using as his base of operations since yesterday night.

He would be in this area for quite some time, after all.

Climbing to the highest point to ensure that he would be able to recover his stamina without exposing himself to threats, Daru’s mind began to wander.

He couldn’t help but think about the Veshari bladeborns he had encountered in the area.

Halphar and his party, Akri — musing whether she had learned her lesson, and the SS-ranker Ae’shkar.

He hadn’t encountered any Veshari since then, and Daru couldn’t help but wonder why.

Around five minutes later, he descended the mangrove and continued hunting, not noticing he was advancing too much in a certain direction.

He was still in the territory of the Veresvida Vashiras. However, he hadn’t been to this part much, as it was quite far from his resting tree.

*CLANG!*

The ear-piercing sound of clashing metal echoed in the area like a thunderclap, followed by splashing swampwater.

Daru was once again in the middle of a battle against another Veresvida Vashira, this one slimmer and faster than the others of its kind.

His footwork would be called flawless by even swordsmanship instructors as he went for the offensive, slashing his tachi at well-timed intervals as he gave chase to the desperately backpedaling swordspawn, who was already bleeding quite heavily.

It gurgled hoarsely in an attempt to counter-attack, but the spawn’s forced action only cost it an arm.

Daru was one powerful charge away from ending the battle when, suddenly, he stumbled, stepping on a part of the muddy ground that was far deeper than usual.

He sank to hip-level, granting the Veresvida Vashira a moment of reprieve.

Daru frowned. He was naturally displeased, but he also wasn’t someone who would blame the landscape.

He should’ve been more aware of his surroundings.

’I focused too much on finishing my opponent off...’ Daru mused, taking a deep breath. ’Flow like water...fixation is the root of defeat...’

He reminded himself.

Victory was already his, and he shouldn’t have been impatient.

The battle resumed the next moment.

After fifteen more seconds, the Veresvida Vashira finally fell to his blade, its head separating from its body.

Daru took a deep breath, satisfied at having learned that he still wasn’t as patient as he had thought.

His curiosity soon returned to the uneven area, and he went to examine it.

"Hmm...it’s covered in murky waters..." Daru muttered, trying to think of a solution.

In the next moment, he figured one out, somersaulting in position and slashing at the area.

The swampwaters splashed and split for a moment as the red crescent struck, revealing what seemed to be a huge footprint.

A hoofprint, to be exact...

Daru’s brows rose slightly at the discovery.

The track wasn’t gigantic.

However, whatever the swordspawn was, it was larger than a Veresvida Vashira, which was already quite tall on average, towering over him by a few considerable inches.

His interest was piqued.

’An elite? Or...maybe a field boss?’ Daru wondered.

In any case, he was definitely going to follow its tracks and hunt it down if the gap in levels wasn’t too huge.

He would hunt it another day, otherwise.

The most important thing to do right now was to pinpoint the location of the mysterious swordspawn.

So, in the next moment, Daru proceeded towards the direction the hoofprint was facing with a slightly racing heart.

He soon found another one as his left leg sank only slightly deeper than the average surface level.

This one was far too narrow compared to the one he encountered earlier, and the space between them was rather odd.

Based on the rough size of the track he had glimpsed earlier, it would be impossible for the swordspawn to stride that widely unless its legs were as tall as electricity poles in Neo-Earth, which should be highly unlikely.

Thus, Daru decided to return to the first hoofprint, trying to investigate and confirm his discovery.

There were truly no other tracks in between the two...

He furrowed his brows for a moment, rubbing his temples. But then, just two seconds later, his expression eased, and he shrugged in a carefree manner.

He wasn’t a detective, so why solve mysteries?

It would be enough to just follow the prints, no?

So, from that moment of realization onwards, Daru stopped overthinking and simply followed the hoofprints.

He soon left the territory of the Veresvida Vashiras.

The next thing he knew, a plump yet muscular humanoid catfish stuck in a horrifyingly demonic smile stood in front of him with a butcher’s cleaver in hand.

Its soulless yellow eyes glowed in the somber surroundings as it blinked once.

In the next moment, Daru was locked in battle once more, this time against a level 41 swordspawn.

The Tahm Throssa brought him its fair share of a unique, slow yet dangerous fighting style.

The humanoid, monstrous catfish was clumsy, but it was tough and excelled in timing like no other swordspawn he had encountered.

It didn’t attack much and only kept on advancing and advancing as though it was ensuring that its strike would land.

But the moment Daru attacked, it also would — almost instantaneously.

The spawn never tried to dodge. It just attempted to deal damage the moment it took some. It was a tricky and annoying swordspawn to fight for sure.

However, Daru soon found that it couldn’t react to everything as long as he decisively invested stamina in the battle, utilized the speed gap, and used feints.

Lots of feints.

It wasn’t impossible to make the Tahm Throssa attack first, as long as he made it believe he was truly attacking too.

It soon turned out to be a boring opponent, but troublesome nonetheless.

Against Veresvida Vashiras, he would only have to rest after fighting eight or nine of them.

However, against the catfish-like swordspawns, he felt like he could only fight three of them at most before having to rest.

He continued advancing, nonetheless, and diligently tracked the hoofprints.

There were a few times he didn’t know what to do due to the spacing between each being too wide, but he would only continue roaming the area until he found the next one.

Finally, a total of a little over two and a half hours later, he arrived at a location with a dense concentration of Coneleaf Mangroves.