8 Trails

Following the brightly lit foot prints on the ground for an hour , Nodus arrived at the base of a bigger mountain this times. Why can't it just stay in her cave.. The trail first led him into a dug underground cave , underneath a big dry tree , after going inside , he found out that it was empty , so he followed a new trail that led to a frozen lake and after a 5 hours trip , he reached a gigantic mountain.

The bottom of the mountain was covered in snow while the mountain itself was a green forest , all the way to the top. As Nodus enter the mountain , he felt like he stepped into a change of season , as he quickly arrived at the tropical jungle , animal cries and sudden sounds could be heard all around the jungle "Z1 , scan 1km of the area" Looking at the 3D hologram , Nodus could see some energy nodes with most of them marked as he already registered them. Hmmm..This times most the energy nodes are slightly below the surface...Nodus was walking carefully this times as he follow the trail of the leopard.

While the door and helmet costed him some energy ,with 9% left , Nodus wasn't in a hurry to find the beast since there was a decent amount of nodes around him. Like this I can keep my visor on for about 10 hours..Should be enough. Without making any sound , he arrived at the end of the trail without any encounter thanks to his map , he stood in front of a huge cave entrance.. about the size of 2 elephant.

Looking at his map , the cave was out of reach when he initiated the scan so he couldn't rely on the hologram. Should I scan...It cost 1% per Km...There should be energy nodes in here ,If not I'll just use that beast. "Scan 1 KM" A new area of the map was slowly being added onto his 3D map , with many dozen of energy nodes , this times , some of them was moving and quickly turned into a yellow color. So a few more beast this times huh.. Perfect. Nodus quietly made his way into the cave.

Inside a huge dome with many giant tunnels in the wall that was at the bottom of the cave , many beast could be seen laying on the ground , sleeping peacefully while at the center , a huge stone circular table with a dragon skull laying at the center , the table was surrounded by three beast with powerful aura. The biggest one was a green turtle that was standing on two legs with big eye brows and his brown shell had a magic graph drawn onto it.

"You all felt that?" Said a huge furry beast that looked like a bear who was carrying a big wooden gourd tied on his back. "Yes , it felt like a uncommon breeze of wind " Said the four legged beast with a snake tail as it look toward the entrance. Without paying any further attention to the breeze like feeling , the beast around the table looked at each other with a determined expression. " Every of our fighter has assembled , tomorrow at midnight , we shall invade the Deep Canyon tribe." The other two beast silently nodded and left the dome. "Return." With one words , the beast who were resting quickly sat up and followed the bigger ones as they each entered different tunnels , one of them was the white leopard and 2 of her cubs that followed the turtle beast.

"Register that as Normal mineral , Eldonium." As Nodus voice echoed through the tunnel , the yellow stone crumbled into dust as his battery percentage rose up.

Only after 20 minutes I am already at 30%.. Seems like I should prioritize the yellow and golden minerals for now.. "Mark Eldonium and Olgdonium with a yellow E Node"

Some of the remaining red node quickly transformed into a yellow one with an E imprinted inside the node. Good..I can probably get more than 50% and turn on my ether gate on the White Jade. Without focusing the moving nodes , Nodus went around the wall to excavate the minerals as he slowly approaches the bottom of the cave.

Inside a pitch black cave , many colored eyes were slowly becoming visible within the darkness. "A foreign smell , it seem we have a visitor."Said the tall shadow that belonged to the green turtle as he slowly walk out of the tunnel. Leading their mixed pack of beast into the dome , the 3 leader ordered them to find the intruder as they stay behind to guard the dragon skull. "Bring the intruder to me alive." Said the furry bear.

Noticing a group of yellow nodes moving toward him , Nodus quietly stood in the middle of the big tunnel. He could see more than 60 yellow nodes moving through the tunnel while half of them separated to surround Nodus from many different paths. Hmmm these primal creatures are not dumb after all. Knowing that he was about to get ambushed , Nodus revealed a evil grin instead.

Through a connected tunnel , the first beast appeared above him , without any warning the brown lion looking beast extended it's claws with his jaw open. Before the lion could even fall half way , Nodus , leaving a dust on the ground , Nodus disappeared and reappeared beside the lion in mid air. With a quick punch on the face before the lion could even react , sending it crashing into the walls. The lion eyes turned white with tooth missing from his jaw. Seems like I won't get a good warm up from this.. After scanning the beast , Nodus attained his first goal.

Hmmp they are just a weaker version of those star beast.. "Deactivate enhanced night vision" With this , it will more fun. Said Nodus as he ran toward the tunnel and quickly approached the first wave of beast.

"It got suddenly quiet." The big turtle who could barely cross his huge arms stood in front of the 2 other beast , staring at the main entrance of the dome and right as he said those words , he could see a tiny human figure emerging from the shadow of the hole. "Oh.. you can talk? It must mean you are far stronger than those ones right?" Said Nodus as he sat on the stone table behind them. F...FAST! The 3 beast turned around a unease expression , Nodus suddenly appeared behind the 2 beast , right in front of the turtle who was now further and with a small palm in between the turtle's eyes , Nodus pushed with all of his might , sending the heavy beast flying into the wall.

Booooom!

Before the bear and and four legged beast could react , Nodus spun in mid air , kicking the furry bear neck , sending him into nose diving the ground ,turned around with his arm crossed , the snake hit him with a slap , sending Nodus onto the wall. Unlike what the four legged beast imagined , Nodus spun around the air with acrobatics movement , he weakened the impact and gently landed on the edge of the dome. "W..what.. you can magic..? No.. there was no mana influx an-"

Before the four legged beast could finish speaking , Nodus appeared behind the beast, grabbed the snake tail by the neck and lifted the entire beast , smashing it onto the ground , leaving a small pit on the floor.

Standing on the side of the beast , Nodus stepped on the snake's neck as he scanned with his device. "You were alright , I didn't expect your reaction to be that fast.. but not fast enough." With a grin on his face , he stomped on the snake head and the four legged beast that looked like a giant lion howled in pain and fainted. A connected awareness.. as I expected , It's a low life form of an star chimera."Tiny Human .. You already took out that damned mutant.. You are good, good enough for me to get serious." The voice sounded from the wall that was covered in earth dust , revealing a big shadow and with a single step , it arrived infront of Nodus. This turtle is fast!.

Booooom!!!

The big fist collided onto the tiny human fist , making the pit into a small crater as the rocks rose upward , the turtle felt like it just punched a mountain made out of iron while Nodus felt the same , he revealed a happy expression. "Good weird turtle! Good!" They both disappeared at the same times. With flashing sparks around the dome , the gust of wind created by their clash shook the entire cave while the bear sat with a dumbfounded expression.

It couldn't be that tiny human is a pinnacle ultimate warrior..

After the hundredth exchange , they stood apart from each other , while Nodus was perfectly fine , the turtle had a big single black eye . " Very good human! Show me your true face and I will use my ultimate technique!" Nodus nodded and his helmet disappeared as it melted away into his watch. The turtle and bear revealed a horrifying expression as their jaw hit the ground. With his short trembling finger , the turtle pointed at Nodus." W..WHAT! I thought you were a midget old man!"

Nodus who only heard the word man as he filtered the rest of the words , nodded with a pleased expression. Correct , I am a man!. The turtle slowly staggered backward until he felt something stopping him , the big furry bear was patting the turtle's shell , leaving a trail of blood onto it. "This is our last chance.. this human is too strong..." The furry bear crashed on the ground as the turtle felt the power on his back. He gave me some blood essence... The magic graph on the shell suddenly glowed in green as the blood began to boil and creep toward the magic graph lines , merging into it fully the green light shun even more revealing millions of green shiny dots in the air.

A big magic circle appeared in mid air behind the turtle as he crouched on all fours while millions of green particle began to seemingly being sucked into the center of the of the magic circle and with a minute later , the turtle opened his mouth. " You are a honorable warrior , I thank you for waiting , take my strongest attack!" A bright green beam flew out from his mouth and expanded onto a huge tunnel of light , when it came in contact with the ground , instantly turning it into sand, as the beam quickly approached Nodus , the young man in his black uniform stood there with his arm crossed , revealing a grin. I shall spare you , for entertaining me.