exploring the forest 2

Zach spent the whole night refining the materials.

At dawn,he packed everything up and ventured past the one kilometer mark.

For every a hundred kilometer radius Zach explored,he came across a couple of spirit herbs,some were in batched while some were alone, though all of them were low ranked herbs.

He was careful in harvesting these herbs as he did not want to damage them.

Each herb was kept in its own small wooden box.Currently,Zach had four satchels strapped on him. To others,the weight may have been much but for him,it was as if he was carrying nothing,but still,he felt uncomfortable and the satchels limited his movement speed, that's why he was refining materials to forge his first spirit tool,thanks to his mysterious knowledge.

He had most of the materials needed,all that was left was a hundred year old ebony tree. The a hundred year old ebony tree was a low ranked spirit plant that was used in construction and forging of spirit tools. Its roots,leaves and bark were also used in pill refinement,as well as its sap,that was also used as ink by formation masters.

If only he could come across this tree,he would have gathered all the materials needed for forging a spirit boat,the rank would depend on his level of skills and efficiency. But since all materials are from low stage spirit gathering realm beasts,the spirit boat rank could not surpassed mid rank.

Zach had also come across spirit beasts, though most were low stage spirit gathering realm beast,there were dozens of mid stage spirit gathering realm beast and an occasional mid stage spirit gathering realm,but he did not bother them as he only eyes for the spirit herbs.

Most spirit herbs in this region could be refined into low ranked healing pills, spirit rejuvenating pills and best of all,the spirit qi gathering pills. He currently had six of these.

There were also spirit herbs that could be used to refine low ranked toxic cleaning pills and a some poisonous pills.

Zach carried out a microscopic search of all the herbs,he also came across a colony of silk worms,he marked the area on the map he was sketching before storing a dozen of the silk worms into a box and hung it on his waist.

The map he was sketching was to be used later by the scavenging parties.

Seven days later,Zach, stumbled along a low ranked settlement. He was shocked as he did not expect there to be another developed territory close to his. The settlement had quite a lot of residents in it. He counted a total of fifty aged residents and about three dozen children.

Women could be seen tending for the kids,their gardens or gossiping,as the men were busy with their task.

There was a two metre wooden fence round the camp,the gate was maned by four guards. The cabins were made of wood and there were animal sheds and several gardens within the settlement.

"This is a surprise..."

"If only I could convince some of these people to relocate to my camp..."

He needed to hit a population of a hundred and sixty residents and sixteen guards as to upgrade his camp into a settlement.

He hid among the canopy of trees as he observed the settlement for two days and nights. From his observation,he discovered that the settlement had around a hundred and forty-five residents and twelve guards,none of them had embarked on the path of cultivation.

Since the settlement was low ranked,they only needed to hit a population of two hundred residents and twenty guards for them to upgrade into a low ranked village.

They already practised two minor speciality under farming.

Zach also realized that the settlement was run by a council of twelve elders.

On the dawn of the tenth day,Zach decided to live the settlement alone,for the moment and explore the remaining area.

It was not until night time when he was about to give up,and end his search when he spotted a thirty metre tall oak tree, with the width of four fully grown men holding hands, outside his territory boundary.

"Hahaha...."

Zach's laughter echoed in forest...

"Damn you fate!"

He could only curse at his rotten luck,what he needed was just there,staring at him,so close yet so far. He had to upgrade his camp to a settlement if he wished to acquire the a hundred year old low ranked spirit oak.

He needed a ninety-six more residents and ten more guards.

"Guess I will have to pay that settlement a visit..."

There was a reason why he had opted not to interfere with the settlement,as one needed to have three other settlement under their jurisdiction,for their settlement to be upgraded into a town.

For Zach,it would have been best to let the settlement develope as it were.

At dawn,Zach was hidden among the canopy of trees,looking at the settlement in wonder. Smoldering fires,smoke, broken down fences,ruined cabins, slaughtered animals and a few corpses filled the settlement.

There was nobody left alive in the settlement.

"What happened here?"

Zach jumped from the tree tops and landed close to settlement gate. He walked in as he put out the still burning fires.

"It doesn't look like a beast attack but rather a raid..."

The cabins had been ransacked,the warehouse had burnt down to ashesh,and only the guards corpses could be found.

"I wonder how strong the raiders were..."

Zach froze for a couple of seconds as he received a system notification...

"Huh..."

"Just what I needed..."

Zach rushed out of the settlement,he followed the tracks left behind by the bandits. The fact that the system had set a one hour limit,was a clear indication that the bandits had not left the two kilometer boundary,but he had to hurry if he was to catch up to them.

Zach coated his legs with spirit qi, tripling his speed,if it were not for the trees on his path,his speed would have quadrupled.

Five minutes was all it took him to catch up with the bandits and their captives,who were used to carry the spoils of war.