Chapter 70 - Mantis Monster
Ning was feeling much better right now after grieving for the last couple of days. He still wasn't over the loss but didn't get held back by it. Once he was done collecting the energy in the night, he spent the rest of the day dealing with the sense of loss.
So, he was mostly fine now.
He had also spent the next month or so just staying there looking at the multitudes of animals that would walk by there, some with cultivation, some not. The strongest one with cultivation he had seen so far was at Qi condensation 3rd Realm.
However, most of the time was just spend sleeping.
During the time he also went over the different things he had and could improve upon. after acquiring 880 Million energy, he bought a basic All Language knowledge type skill. With that, he wouldn't need to worry about talking to anyone anymore.
Once he was absolutely sure that he would not be in danger, he brought out his human body and got into it.
Ning drooped down to grab the spear and walked in a random direction. The forest was the same everywhere, so he wasn't sure if he was even walking in a proper straight line. He met a few animals along the way, but they would either run away with him immediately or butt heads with him and then run away.
Ning didn't try to follow them to kill them so they got away safely.
"Urhhh… I'm starting to get hungry now,
" he thought. He looked around the forest, and although it looked similar to the one from the other island, there were no fruits here. Not even berries.
"Am I going deeper?
" he wondered. He decided to climb up a tall tree and see what was going on. From the top of the tree he looked all around, but it seemed like he was in a valley of some sort, so the most he could see was green tree-filled mountains.
"Aww, I can't see anything from here. At least, going opposite the beach should be a proper idea right? Hopefully, going along the beach wasn't the right call and I totally f*cked up,
" he thought.
He kept on walking for a few more days and finally saw some fruit up ahead.
"Arhh… finally. I was going to die of hunger soon,
" he exaggerated. He would've been perfectly fine for another 2 weeks without food, thanks to his body Cultivation and Qi Cultivation.
As he walked forward to grab the fruit, he saw something move behind him. He immediately ducked, as the attacking monster barely grazed the hair on his head.
"That was a close call,
" he said in relief.
"What is that?
" he thought as he looked at the assailant in front of him. It was a large green monster with crooked arms that looked like scythes.
'A praying mantis? ' He thought. He decided to check it's cultivation. He focused his attention on the Mantis and felt close to no pain as he effortlessly got the information.
Qi Condensation 3rd Realm.
'It's a realm higher than me, but with my body cultivation, it should be a fair battle. The only problem is…' his thoughts trailed off as he looked at the two sharp Scythe-like hands.
'If that catches me, I'm done,' he thought.
The monster once again jumped straight at him, slicing at him with its two scythes. Ning took the opportunity to block the scythes with his spear.
TING TING
Two metallic sounds rang out from the clashes of the scythe-like arms and the spear. Ning was surprised to see absolutely no scratches on the spear. 'System did say it was a really good spear,' he thought.
It was time for him to go on the offensive. He immediately used his Twin Step Movement technique to get a massive boost to his speed and used a normal thrust technique at the Mantis monster in front of him.
The Mantis saw him coming but barely managed to dodge him. While its speed was very fast, it was bad at reacting fast. Ning could use that to his advantage. He started skipping around the mantis with his movement technique, always trying to stay out of its sight.
"Yah!!
" he shouted as he attacked Mantis. The mantis heard him shout and moved back, but Ning still managed to cut its back a little.
'Sh*t. I shouldn't have shouted. I could've killed it there,' he thought. Once again, he started moving around. But the monster wasn't going to stand around again either. The mantis understood what he was doing, so it too ran around the vicinity of the fight, following Ning's footsteps.
Both man and monster were now going around in circles. 'This is pointless,' he thought. Then, he immediately turned around and charged at the mantis that was following him.
The mantis was caught off-guard. It didn't expect the human to turn around and attack it. Still, it once more twisted its body fast enough to survive with just a graze.
'Goddammit. How is it so good?' he wondered. He would have to bring out the big guns now. He once again used his movement technique to run around, and the mantis followed him too, except it was extra cautious.
Once more, Ning immediately turned around, but the mantis had expected this. It tried to move out of the way once again. Only this time, It was stuck. It tried to move, but it couldn't move its legs at all.
It then looked back at Ning, only to see a small sharp point right in front of its head.
One True Strike technique
At the last moment, Ning had employed his strongest technique and managed to blow off the mantis's head.
Huff Huff
'Finally,' he thought. 'I need to learn more on how to mix and match my different abilities,' he thought. He looked at the corpse of the mantis and wondered whether he should take it or not.
'Eh, might as well take the arms at least. Those look awesome,' he thought. Just then, two Mantis arrived at the scene, both of which looked a lot larger than the dead mantis.
He quickly checked their cultivation and was both shocked and surprised. 'Sh*t.'
The Mantises were both Qi Condensation 4th realm.