F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 369: Into The Abyss

Beneath the forgiving rays of the afternoon sky, a young man marked a tree with a simple X, then proceeded on his way deeper into the Hampered Forest.

After a quick, late lunch, the human trio rewarded themselves with a nice, two-hour nap before discussing what to do next.

There was little danger.

So, the three of them agreed to relocate closer to the stream, use that location as a base of operations, then spread out in different directions from there.

This would allow them to maximize their advantage.

It was highly probable that at least two — perhaps even all three — of the enemy races weren’t in this stage yet, so the dangers would be limited to only the environment, which turned out to resemble more of a normal forest.

There weren’t any Swordspawns, for some reason, and the flora were only slightly larger than those in Neo-Earth, not at all as tough and thriving as those in the first level.

Elara even called the Golden Sap Trees here malnourished, which was, to a degree, true.

Scouting straight ahead, Daru made sure to gather every resource he could.

This ensured that their enemies wouldn’t obtain them.

The berry bushes bore few fruits, and the Golden Sap Trees gave limited, Lesser Life Sap. The scarcity would work to their advantage.

Like so, he proceeded deeper and deeper in a straight line.

This was the task assigned to him, partly due to Elara’s worries about his rather faulty sense of direction.

His comrades would be the ones searching in circles and zigzags for the Sovereign Sapling or clues pointing to it. He was to see what was out there, deeper into the Hampered Forest.

Nonetheless, Daru continued placing X-marks, not expecting that he would suddenly find himself crossing a mystical boundary — one very similar to the Hidden Reprieve in Limbo.

Suddenly, the life energy was very thick, slapping hard on his entire being.

They were almost on par with those on the first level.

His brows furrowed as he returned to the other side to check, confirming things even though the difference was already extremely obvious.

’Why?’

Daru’s mind wandered.

The flora on the side they came from were hampered because the life energies were being monopolized on this side.

’The Sovereign Sapling? Is it the one causing this?’

But then, while he was lost in his thoughts, he felt it. Danger.

The Dark Sentry had detected that something nearby was trying to kill him.

He instinctively turned in the direction of the source, eyes narrowing at the familiar foe.

==

Oak Runebark Lv. 78

HP: 69,000 / 69,000

==

Then his brows curved.

These Runebarks are weaker than even those at the first level, and it automatically registered to him why.

The life energies here, while almost equal to those at the first level, were ultimately still inferior.

Daru drew his blade and dealt with the Oak Runebark easily.

With his current attributes, he didn’t even need to use a single consumable, though he was fairly spent by the time he defeated the Swordspawn.

[You have slain a Swordspawn of Life, Oak Runebark Lv. 78.] 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

[You’ve gained 160 Experience Points.]

[You’ve obtained (1) Lesser Vitality Seed.]

[You’ve obtained (1) Life Sap.]

A faint smile tugged at the corners of Daru’s lips at the Life Sap. He could never have too many.

The Lesser Vitality Seed, meanwhile, intrigued him, but it turned out exactly as he expected.

It was a mergeable miscellaneous item; two Lesser Vitality Seeds would be equivalent to one consumable Vitality Seed.

Daru shifted his attention back to the surroundings.

He could return now with this valuable information, but he decided to learn a bit more.

Now that Daru knew Swordspawns existed in this area, he raised his vigilance, though the Dark Sentry was there to back his senses up.

A few more Runebarks attacked him, but all of them were quite...pitiful.

They were slower, weaker, less tough, and overall less vigorous than the ones he fought in the first branch.

It was as though they weren’t getting enough nutrition to sustain themselves and were desperately attacking him for more life energy, only to end up as experience points and a few consumables for him.

It was as though these Runebarks were starving.

There was even one time he saw two level 77 Birch Runebarks killing each other.

The tree humanoids attacking one another wasn’t strange, but two of the same species doing so was wrong.

Daru felt like he was in the slums of this forest, like that one time his father showed him how the unfortunate lived their daily lives.

That experience majorly shaped him.

He didn’t feel like killing those two Swordspawns, who seemed like they only wanted to live. Fortunately, he felt something that he hadn’t in quite a while.

A pulse in his palm.

Baal’s Mark!

Daru instinctively turned and walked in that direction without hesitation.

The curse, to him, was a blessing, though he didn’t like how that Baal dude forced it upon him.

Nonetheless, he trusted the mark.

What he didn’t trust was his internal navigation, so he made sure to place many X marks, especially since he was straying from the straight path assigned to him.

Around half an hour later, he arrived at a horrifying chasm.

It was as if two godly beings fought here and wounded the branch permanently.

Daru had experienced for himself how hard that inner layer was.

To be able to create such an artificial abyss was both impressive and terrifying, though he mostly felt excitement at it.

’Will I be able to do the same thing in the future, too?’

Then a follow-up question out of pure wonder: ’Is Big Ed capable of such a thing?’

The mark was urging him to jump into the chasm, though. Whatever it was sensing was there in that chilling darkness.

The unsettling thing about the artificial abyss, however, was the strangeness of the life energies in there.

It was like they were there, but they were inactive.

Still, Daru took a deep breath, then jumped, a pair of Bloodscarlet wings emerging on his back.