"A monster feeding on the stars of awakeners..." Lukas repeated these words, his gaze unconsciously moving toward the two stars on the back of his palm. They twinkled slightly under his gaze; he couldn't imagine how a monster could feed on these tiny things.
Considering that I only have two stars, the monster might not find me appealing at all... He joked inwardly with his lips curled upwards.
After this short conversation, they continued moving without any break. Lukas was not even surprised Nimo didn't ask for him to rest at all; after all, since when did a porter need to rest?
Without him realizing, it was already nighttime. The entire Iron Tree Forest descended into darkness; blood-chilling howls came from the distance. Lukas felt goosebumps run down his entire body.
After walking non-stop for dozens of kilometers, Lukas's entire body was drenched in sweat from head to toe, his shoulders feeling as if they were literally on fire.
Nimo spotted a highly elevated hill in the distance and said in a cold voice, "I meditate for some time, then we will continue..."
He didn't want to stop even for a moment, but there was just no choice. He needed to stop for a moment and rest; otherwise, he might not be able to continue the rest of his journey.
Lukas watched Nimo sit down cross-legged with his eyes tightly closed. A few moments later, a small river of flickering particles descended from the night sky, merging with Nimo's body. His face, which was pale as paper a few moments prior, finally turned a slight bit rosy.
"Low-grade Star Energy gathering technique..." he muttered in a low voice, a slightly envious look in his eyes. If he also had access to such techniques, he would have also started refining his body.
Lukas knew it was a low-grade technique because they could only be used during the night.
Gone were the days when humans just relied on using Star Crystals to absorb energy. After years of relentless advancement, humans had finally learned to absorb energy directly from the stars. But still, when compared to Star Beasts, all of these techniques were thousands of times behind.
While Nimo was absorbing energy, he had nothing better to do, so after placing the heavy bag on the ground he also sat down cross-legged, his breathing slightly heavy.
Looking at the darkness surrounding him, he suddenly had the idea to summon the Bonewalker and have it explore the darkness. Who knew, it might find the bone of some legendary creature?
This idea had barely popped into his mind when he shook his head to deny it. It would be really stupid. The chances of finding bones are really low. Last time I was just lucky...
It made sense; the forest was filled with all sorts of hungry creatures. There was no way anyone would leave a bone lying around; if there were any bones, they were already in the stomach of some creature.
Time continued to pass like this. Just then his nose suddenly twitched; a foul smell assaulted his nose.
"What is this disgusting smell?" Lukas muttered in annoyance. The smell came out of nowhere and was making it difficult for him to focus.
Just as he was looking for the source of the smell he noticed a slight crimson mark on his sleeve. Seeing this, a frown appeared on his face.
"Blood? When did I get injured...?"
Lukas didn't remember getting cut recently, nor did he touch anything bloody, so from where?
As he examined himself more his face turned slightly ugly. His entire body was filled with crimson marks, especially his lower body, as if it had rained blood.
Lukas wasn't some genius but he had common sense. His gaze instinctively moved to the bag that he had carried all this time. Step by step he moved close to it; with each step, the smell multiplied manyfold.
He had a very bad feeling about this. Without even realizing, Lukas stood on top of the bag, his hands moving to open the zip.
Zipp!
Once the zip opened, the bag opened automatically, revealing the contents inside.
Holy Mother of God! Lukas instinctively cursed, turning his head away, his face pale as paper.
Severed heads stacked on top of each other filled the bag. Some had their eyes gouged out, while some had all of their teeth missing; a few even had tribal symbols carved on their faces.
The sight was incredibly bloody. Just as he took one step backward to get away from the bag, a specially chilling voice reverberated beside his ear.
"Just why are all of you newbies like this? Why can't you be a little obedient for once? Why make things DIFFICULT FOR ME...?"
The voice was calm at first but by the end of it was practically the full-blown scream of a banshee.
At some point, Nimo had gotten up, looking even more thin and fragile. His eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets at any moment. If Lukas were to place the Basic Bonewalker beside him now, people might not even tell any difference.
"Not this again..." Lukas cursed out loud realizing he had fallen into a trap once more, this time facing a serial killer.
Not caring about Lukas, Nimo continued to murmur, "Why do you want to see me suffer? I just need one more skull and the Druid Tribe will finally treat me... Hey young man, can you please offer your head...?"
"Okay, I am done here..."
Lukas was already running as fast as his legs could carry him; he had no interest in staying here.
The effect of Traceless Steps that he was suppressing was done away with, allowing the skill to work in its full glory.
Immediately he felt his body becoming light as a feather, his figure difficult to notice.
"Hmm, for a noob you have quite a decent technique..."
This sudden change seemed to have made Nimo calm down, but by now Lukas was already too far away to notice anything.
"This noob is really strange… After carrying this heavy bag for so long, he is still full of energy..."
Nimo was slightly annoyed that his strategy didn't work this time. He used to attack his victims once they were incredibly tired, unable to resist at all.