Archaian Leaves

After slaying the monster (fox) both of them started searching for a safe place to cook and rest.

"Darren, what grade level is this dagger? " Nile asked. He had been curious right from the time he heard it was a grade weapon.

"Currently it is Grade level 1, but it can evolve to Grade level-2" Darren said while looking around, searching for a safe place.

"Huh, how? And what is its special skill, I heard every grade weapon has one skill of its own? Will the skill evolve too when the dagger reaches Grade level 2 ?" Nile asked 3 questions in a single breath.

"You see the red shaft of this dagger, it absorbs the blood on the blade of the dagger. Once it had consumed enough blood, it would evolve into Grade-2. As for the skill of the dagger, well I do not remember much description of the dagger skill but it is something related to telekinesis." Darren said with a guilty smile. Darren continued further answering Nile's 3rd question.

" I don't know what will happen to it, once it upgrades to Grade-2."

Nile was far from satisfied from Darren's answer- "Where did you even find this dagger." Nile asked with a curious look. The dagger was strange in its own way, and he has not read about any grade weapon that could evolve by drinking blood.

Darren replied-"A mysterious man gave it to me as a gift when I saved his life from a beast. He did not say much just bowed and gave me this dagger and a description about it which I do not remember as I don't fancy dagger's much."

'As expected from him. He could have sold it to earn a fortune for himself.' Nile sighed.

"Darren you said that man was mysterious. why did you say so?" Nile asked with narrowed eyes.

"That man was a non-cultivator but was at the densest part of the forest. I know what you must be thinking how he even survived to reach the inner parts? The answer is I don't know, even his clothes were fully intact and it seems like he just dropped down in the middle of the forest. When I saved him from the monster, he handed me this dagger to thank me, he then walked away on his own." Darren said trying hard to remember as much as he could.

'That is really strange. There are too many question marks in Darren's story. That person is really a mysterious one.'

"Hey Nile I could sense bat monsters in that direction. ." Darren said while pointing towards a cave a few hundred meters away. Darren had a Warrior-6 cultivation level so his enhanced senses were far better than Nile, who just had a cultivation level of Human-3.

"How many bat monsters can you sense in there,and what are their cultivation level? And how deep is that cave?" Nile questioned

"There are around fifty bats in there, average cultivation level of Human-6. The cave hmm.... It is just 20 meters deep and 5 meters (around 16 feet) wide. " Darren replied while trying to formulate a plan. The size of the cave was too small and the number of monsters was too great.

Nile-"Fighting so many bat monsters in such an enclosed space will be bothersome,"

Nile paused for a while and looked around "Darren I have a plan, can you pluck out the leaves of those Archaian trees. The more the better." Nile said while pointing towards a group of thin but long trees.

Darren did not even think twice before agreeing. He already knew Nile was intelligent so he immediately agreed. Thanks to Darren's cultivation level and speed, he collected thousands of leaves within just a few minutes.

In the meantime, Nile was busy searching for something.

"This one looks perfect" Nile looked at the huge boulder and started carving a thin line with his dagger, on that boulder.

"Nile it's done." Darren said as soon as he was done collecting the leaves.

"Darren I need your help." Nile said.

As soon as Darren came close, Nile spoke "I want you to cut the rock in the exact shape of the marking I had made on it. The shape should be perfect."

"Hmm, Okay" Darren replied, it was not much of a hassle for him, it just took 10 minutes for Darren to cut that boulder in the exact same shape as Nile had marked.

"Done." Darren said while stretching his arms.

"So what I am planning is to burn those leaves which will suffocate and poison those bats in the cave." Nile explained.

"But what is the use of burning these leaves they are pretty much useless and I don't get how you plan on poisoning them. Suffocating seems fine, but it will be time-taking."

Human rank Cultivators could easily survive for 8-9 hours without any oxygen, the time period increases as the cultivation level increases and the same goes for Monsters.

'Huh.... He has spent a lot of time in the wild, so why is he not aware of the properties of archaian leaves.' Nile looked at Darren with a confused look.

'I was wondering why there was not much mentioned about different uses of trees, plants and monsters in the books I read. Maybe they have not yet fully discovered the uses of different species of plants, trees ,and monsters. Better for me.' Nile smiled

"Darren, listen carefully" Once he got Darren's attention he continued-" I want you to place that boulder you just carved at the entrance of the cave, after I signal you. Trust me you will be amazed." Nile said smiling.

Darren agreed and stood beside the entrance of the cave holding the huge boulder.

It took Nile a couple of minutes to gather the pile of leaves. Once the pile of leaves was placed just a few feet inside the cave, Nile created a small fire and lit up the pile, he then quickly exited the cave and signaled Darren to place the perfectly carved boulder at the entrance.

A small piece of rock broke down from the cave as Darren placed the heavy boulder. A small space of less than half a foot was created because of the broken rock.

'That was not supposed to happen.' Nile looked at the small space with narrowed eyes

'I can use that' Nile thought and without wasting even a second he jumped up and stood upon the huge boulder, facing the small gap he took out a water container (from his storage pouch). He slowly started pouring the water from one of his hands, and with the other

he used his skill ice manipulation and froze that pouring water, covering up the small space perfectly.

'This will cover up the space and will not let the smoke escape' he thought while jumping off the boulder and stood beside Darren who had no clue what was going on.

"Darren remove the boulder from the entrance." Nile said after waiting 5 minutes. Darren followed what Nile said, even though he was not sure what Nile was up to.

"Now step aside from the entrance and let's wait for a couple of minutes." Nile instructed further.

Within just a few seconds of removing the boulder, smoke could be seen exiting the cave. Once the poisonous smoke in the cave was replaced with air, Nile gestured Darren to follow.

Darren eyes widened seeing the corpses of bats lying on the ground, there was not even a single bat that survived.

"Howwww?" Darren looked at Nile for an explanation.

"Archaian leaves emit a poisonous gas when oxygen is cut short, the poison can even kill a peak human rank cultivator." Nile said while smiling.

"It is the first time I am hearing such use of these archaian leaves, I think my knowledge is outdated." Darren said while smiling and scratching his head.

'Even a day has not passed with him and I have already learned something new, he perfectly improvised his plan. Drake you should be proud to have such a son.' Darren thought while glancing at Nile. He was impressed with Nile's quick thinking when he covered the gap with his skill.

They then searched those monsters for cores and just found 2 cores. Later they cooked the fox meat Nile had slain earlier. Darren then covered the entrance of the cave with the boulder just leaving enough space for air to pass. Nile then took a nap while Darren cultivated for the rest of the night.