"Laaa…la…laaaaa...they fought, they sought, and now they got caught." Krune hummed a rhymeless tune, whistling as he dragged two bodies, each of which was twice his size. Currently, they were bound like a cocoon, unable to budge an inch.
To prevent them from trying anything sneaky, Krune used his body weight to dislocate their arms, barely managing to do so. That way, they wouldn't be able to escape.
He used a roundabout path, traversing along the foothills of the mountain range, dragging the two Mutant Monster Geckos towards one of the caves he had found recently. It was a relatively large cave, one that he had been using for a couple of days so far.
All he had done was give the blood of a Monster Gecko carcass to the bone tree branch inside. After pulling for an hour, he finally arrived at the cave, walking within to notice that the bone tree had grown to the standard height.
As he hadn't fed it the blood of a living Monster Gecko yet, it hadn't exploded in growth to reach twenty meters in height. It was only 3 meters tall currently.
Even though he had bound them completely, Krune hadn't relaxed at all. Instead, he moved as if he was pressed for time. After all, the moment the effects of the Blood Essence Crystal wore off, he would be incapacitated for a while. Without the pool of water, his body would be in an injured state. The longer he delayed the treatment, the greater his injuries would be.
So, the moment he dragged in the two Mutant Monster Geckos, Krune set one aside while making a small cut on the tail of the second, bringing it closer to the stem of the bone tree to make contact. He swiftly used the remainder of his rope to bind them together, watching the body of the Mutant Monster Gecko shrink at a visible rate.
He double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he stared at it with expectation. He wanted to see if killing the Mutant Monster Gecko in this manner would award him a Godly Point.
He wanted to condense a Blood Essence Crystal using the Mutants. Seeing how a normal Monster Gecko was able to produce a Blood Essence Crystal, Krune was hoping to see the potency of one produced by a Mutant, hoping it would be useful when he faced the Supreme Monster one day.
Moreover, he wasn't limiting himself to a Mutant. Since the ones before him were already Mutants, Krune was planning to use the fruit grown from a live Mutant's blood to feed the other Mutant, curious to see the extent of its growth.
Whether it failed or succeeded in its evolution, he was planning to feed it alive to the wilting bone tree. This way, he was hoping to see the Blood Essence Crystal that he would obtain. If it succeeded, he wondered if its passive ability would be condensed into the Blood Essence Crystal.
After he thought about it, the passive abilities he obtained were part of the creature's trait. Since he only obtained them by absorbing their blood, Krune wondered if he could do the same through the Blood Essence Crystal. Even though this was an expensive experiment, he was willing to see it to the end.
If it evolved into a King, his plan would be a success. Besides, now that he had a reserve of Blood Essence Crystals, Krune had enough incentive to target the Mutant Monster Geckos. He still had zero confidence in facing them alone, but it wasn't as if he needed to fight them head-on to kill them.
Krune planned to use his superior wit and intelligence to kill them. At the end of the day, killing them awarded him Godly Points. So, he wasn't willing to risk his life. The first time he did that, one side of his body had been destroyed. If not for the Water Essence, Krune wouldn't have survived.
Thirty minutes later, there was a small change in his tablet, causing Krune to beam in happiness. He was awarded a Godly Point for killing the Mutant. As for the Mutant before him, it shriveled up after losing all its blood, dying in the process.
Krune gazed at the other Mutant Monster Gecko that was bound, inspecting it for a moment to see that it had no hope of escaping the bindings, immediately sprinting out of the cave as it headed towards his cave.
He was running out of time, noticing the energy unleashed by the Blood Essence Crystal he had consumed begin to wane. He was short on time, but he still had to be careful so that his dwelling location wouldn't be disclosed to the Monster Gecko village.
Thankfully, in preparation for the war, they had closed their gates. So, there wasn't a chance there would be any Monster Geckos roaming this far out of their village. Soon, Krune reached his cave's entrance, climbing into it as he slid through the narrow path, almost losing consciousness as the effects of the Blood Essence Crystal wore off.
The intense exhaustion that came after caused him to tumble, making him scream in pain. After all, he had consumed a Blood Essence Crystal two days ago. He was only supposed to consume it the next day.
Though, since he was unwilling to miss the opportunity of getting the Mutant Monster Geckos, he had consumed one in advance. Now, the side effects impacted him harder than before, causing him to scream in pain as he dragged himself through the cave path, crawling closer and closer to the pool.
His heart thumped loudly as if his blood vessels were about to rupture from the strain. His body began to burn, preventing him from seeing clearly. It was unknown how he was able to maintain consciousness until he plopped into the pool.
Thankfully for him, it didn't have enough depth to drown him. So, even though he fell haphazardly into it, his impact caused the water to form waves that eventually aligned him correctly, making his head peek out of the water.
His mouth opened unconsciously as the water streamed in, healing his body. He only woke up a day later, feeling pain all over his body as he felt weak. After staying in the water for some more time, Krune got up slowly and exited the pool, walking a bit before figuring out that his condition was less than optimal.
He needed to rest for at least a week before he could heal completely. Even then, Krune exited the cave and dragged himself, walking slowly alongside the mountain range, eventually arriving at the cave with the Mutant Monster Gecko, noticing that it was still bound in the same position as before.
He approached it and inspected its condition, noticing that it was in a similar state to himself. It, too, was reeling from the after-effects of consuming a Blood Essence Crystal. Though, considering its robust body, it was bound to heal within a week.
Then again, that was only in the case it ate something. Krune didn't have any plans to do that, intending to keep it weak for the time being. Otherwise, it was bound to escape one way or another. Without being fed, it wouldn't have enough energy to heal itself.
As for the bone tree, it had already reached eight meters in height. Considering its growth speed, it seemed like it would grow even bigger than the other bone trees. Thankfully for him, the cave he had selected was high enough for that, being situated in a crack in the mountain range.
The cave reached a height of 60 meters, more than enough for him. This was why Krune chose this particular cave. Thanks to his scouting, he had memoried a lot of places, knowing the terrain clearly. As he didn't have anything else to do, memorizing the layout of the place became his favorite pastime.
That was why he did it every three days.
During the week he recovered from the damage, Krune visited the cave daily, looking at the growth of the bone tree and inspected the Mutant Monster Gecko's condition. It had become a tad weaker due to hunger and wasn't able to garner enough strength to heal itself.
So even after a week had passed, it was still reeling from the after-effects of the Blood Essence crystal. After three more days had passed, Krune carefully fed it a fruit taken from a normal bone tree. He didn't wish to see it die from hunger.
It seemed the Mutant Monster Gecko needed to eat at least two fruits per day to satiate its hunger. As for Krune, he only provided it one every day, watching its physique grow thinner day by day. After another week passed in such a fashion, he began to feed it two fruits per day.
This way, it wouldn't grow any weaker. In any case, it would need at least another month to recover to its peak. Before that happened, it was susceptible to him. To keep an eye on it, Krune spent most of his free time in the cave with it, observing its recovery.
From time to time, he checked its shoulders to see that they were still in a dislocated state, only relaxing after that. Krune still maintained his activities, training in his cave once every three days. In the remaining time, he stayed in the cave with the Mutant Monster Gecko.
But, even after a month had passed, the fruit growing on the bone tree hadn't ripened. As for its size, it had reached a height of 40 meters, double the bone trees that grew the massive fruit. As for the fruit it nurtured, it was colossal, reaching twice the size of Krune's body.
"This would definitely yield a King Monster Gecko," Krune smirked as he glanced at the Mutant Monster Gecko on the floor.
After tying two ropes on the thin branch connected to the colossal fruit, Krune carefully descended from the bone tree.
Of the two ropes, one was to sever the branch. The other was wound from over one of the large branches, using it as a lever so that he could lower the fruit slowly when it ripened. Krune waited in patience as he continued in his training. As for the situation in the Monster Gecko villages, the scene seemed to have caused a state of unrest in all the five villages due to the prior clash between the first two villages.
Conflicts happened every day, but it hadn't escalated to their elites yet. The only fight among the elites was between the two Mutant Monster Geckos at the start. After they had lost the two elites, the first two villages didn't go overboard.
Only the regular Monster Geckos fought on a daily basis while strolling through the forest in search of ripened fruits. After all, for some strange reason, the number of fruits had dwindled sharply, causing a wave of hunger throughout the Monster Gecko populace.
Unexpectedly, this further caused the Monster Geckos to fight more, using the blood of their enemies to water the bone trees and grow more fruits. Of course, this action further incited hatred between the different villages.
As for Krune, he instigated them whenever presented with an opportunity while waiting for the colossal fruit to mature. Over time, he had lost all the hesitation he had harbored in him about causing an unneeded loss of life. After all, mortals had a different mindset compared to cultivators, even if they were the same individual.
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