Chapter 205: Delay

Chapter 205: Delay

“Finally, everything was gathered.” In a canyon that gave off an eerie feeling, Dan Marina cautiously observed her surroundings. After confirming that the Guardian who had been lingering there was truly gone, she grabbed a black vine nearby, pulled hard, and quickly moved away from the spot. Within less than three seconds, a strange roar followed.

Dan Marina, now far away, glanced back with lingering fear. Several tentacles hundreds of meters long were wildly wreaking havoc in the canyon. Under their violent rage, the entire canyon was soon whipped into pieces. Since the most important thing had already been taken, there was no remaining value in this canyon.

“What a troublesome thing…” Dan Marina slightly pursed her lips. The tentacled creature wasn’t one she had intended to provoke directly. However, its intelligence was rather low, so she easily tricked it away from its original position, allowing herself to smoothly obtain what she wanted.

Just as she was secretly rejoicing, her expression suddenly changed. She saw the terrifying tentacled creature in the canyon actually charge out and directly chase toward her direction. “Uh oh…”

She waved her hand behind her. The space immediately twisted in a strange way. Then, Dan Marina involuntarily quickened her pace. That tentacled creature was an extremely troublesome thing, not only possessing super resistance but also terrifying regenerative abilities. Additionally, it had a property called ‘Mana Fade.’ Any magical being near it would have their Mana rapidly draining away.

This draining Mana could even lose control as it drained, creating a burning effect that directly harmed the affected being’s body. Even Witches could not escape this draining. As Zheng Yichen once explained, this drain wasn’t a fixed amount but was percentage-based! The more power ful you were, the faster you lost Mana. That wasn’t even the worst part. The worst was this creature’s resistance…

Other beings’ resistance could be pierced, but its resistance was directly reflected in ‘damage reduction.’ Piercing? That would simply be reduced too. Its damage reduction resistance applied to both physical and magical aspects equally. To truly inflict any substantial damage on it, some special anomalous damage was needed.

A Curse… well, that could work. But the tentacled creature’s base resistance was inherently top-tier. Common Curses were almost useless against it, getting dispelled the moment they touched it. Powerful ones might have some effect, but it was such a thick-skinned, robust creature that any damage caused was probably outmatched by its own regeneration.

In short, it was a particularly troublesome and unsolvable thing. Fortunately, these things had extremely lazy habits. Often, they wouldn’t move from their spot for decades. They would either sleep soundly or lie in wait in places with special items, like a Guardian, though the price of guarding was that the item would become its meal once it matured.

A Wild Boar ruining a patch of Chinese cabbage—that was roughly the idea. As Dan Marina knew, the tentacled creature chasing her had devoured quite a few special treasures. A significant portion of these could promote changes in an individual’s constitution. For example, Dragon’s Blood Grass. That plant had stubbornly survived after adapting to the power of Dragon Blood.

After absorbing the Dragon Blood, they had changed dramatically and their nature had become extremely mild. Even if an ordinary person ate one by accident, there was no life danger. In fact, by consuming it, they could even gain a tiny trace of a dragon’s power… As for Bloodline and such, that required special refining. The Secret Method was held in the hands of a select few, so ordinary people could forget about it.

That particular Dragon’s Blood Grass was growing perfectly at the time, coveted by many. In the end, they all became backup food for this tentacled creature.

Not long after Dan Marina left again, a heavy crushing sound suddenly erupted behind her. The barrier of weirdly twisted space she had left was forcibly torn apart by the pursuing tentacled creature. As it approached, Dan Marina could feel her power beginning to drain again. It felt like a fire had been lit inside her body, constantly burning and eroding her.

“Oh… If she were here, maybe she could turn around and fight it, right? Me? Forget it.” Dan Marina shook her head, having no intention of confronting the creature behind her. Most of her powers worked subtly and intangibly against people. Against such a troublesome creature, they would be hard-pressed to be effective. The influence of the Power of Fate?

It seemed very effective, true.

But this creature was the kind that just charged ahead brainlessly. The effects produced by using Prophecy Art were already minimal, because its power could ignore most of the negative impacts brought by prophecy magic.

Dan Marina spent nearly half a month to completely shake off this tentacled creature, showing just how persistent it was. The reason she managed to fully lose it ultimately came down to some past accumulation. Now, she was soaking in a colorless, strange pond.

The water in this pond was extremely clear… almost like air. If not for the slight ripples caused by her movements, one might think at a glance that it was just a pit dozens of meters deep. Hmm… Because of the water’s nature, she could clearly see the bottom of the pond. Yet, at the moment, she was completely naked here. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to wear something; everything on her body unrelated to her physical self had been decomposed by the pond.

The pond’s effect was completely masking all of Dan Marina’s presence. Unless someone directly saw her, even if they stood right in front of her, they wouldn’t sense the slightest bit of her existence. Of course, the drawback of this pond was that it was colorless. Anyone who wasn’t blind could take in everything inside the pond the moment they arrived!

“Hmm… According to some Legend story tropes, while hiding here, there would definitely be some weak, lucky soul stumbling upon this place by accident, seeing some indescribable sights, and I would feel they should take responsibility. Then that lucky one would embark on a Legendary path. Hmph, are the authors of those stories out of their minds?” Dan Marina let out a light hum. In any case, the pond couldn’t provide any visual cover. However, it was particularly effective against that tentacled creature. That thing had no eyes.

Its ability to see things was merely a special kind of ‘lock-on,’ not based on sight. So the pond’s effect was perfect. Once it lost her scent, it was like a blind creature, utterly unable to find this place. At most, it would wander nearby for a while… As long as it wasn’t startled awake after falling asleep, she could easily leave here.