ART Of Survival - Chapter 25

After killing all the monsters that were coming at him, Mal slowly opened his eyes. “Pheww…well that was one hell of an experience!” Mal smiled as he sheathed the Katana back.

“I am not even gonna try to understand what this skill is all about, atleast for now.” Mal closed the skill tab after reading it once. “Time for round two.” Mal unsheathed his katana after feeling the same earthquake he felt before.

*Pew* *Pew* *Pew* This time 10 more of the steel armadillos jumped out of the ground to attack Mal, but this time, Mal was reading as without wasting any time, Mal activated the constellation brushwork skill and attacked the group of monsters….”Hahahaha! get rekt pest!” Mal started laughing like a maniac on drugs as he looked at the monsters coming at him. The monsters appeared as shining yellow dots in front of Mal as he slashed all of them one by one.

(Auth:- This is only possible because of the plot…I mean the katana. If it was the high-ranked ether weapon that he was using, the skill wouldn’t have worked this smoothly.

“There shouldn’t be more monsters coming in this area for now…” Mal looked around to check the surroundings and after seeing that everything was fine, he saw down and took out his art supplies.

“I have a pretty good idea for a painting! Mal smiled as he started painting on the piece of paper.

After 15 minutes, Mal stood up staring at the painting, “Meh…it was just okay as not even the painter;’s domain skill activated this time.” Mal shook his head as he folded the painting and put it back inside the bag.

The next area Mal chose was that of wind hawks. This was not that good of a place for Mal to fight but, he came here to check out the potency of the painting he made. After walking for an hour, Mal finally arrived at the foot of a hill. This hill was known as the ‘Valley Of Wind’. The hill was not that steep according to the books Mal has read, but now looking from the bottom of the hill there were clouds covering the top.

“Let’s hope everything goes well.” Mal thought inwardly.

Mal tightened all his valuables to himself and started slowly climbing up. “It’s not that difficult for now atleast. If I continue with this speed, I will be at my destination in no time.” Mal calculated.

“I wonder why this comes under the B degree category of places difficult to visit?” Mal was somewhat confused upon experiencing how smooth his journey was going.

After the infiltration of the Mother Eye and mana in the Earth, along with humans, plants animals, and other living organisms, the world itself was changing day by day and because of this, some areas were marked as extreme zones by EASP. The grades were from E to S, where E being the least dangerous and S being the most dangerous. Some hotspots for monsters and other low-level areas were the areas that came under the E category.

Whereas the S tier areas where Beast Kings were residing and these places were dangerous even for the strongest man on the planet. Now one could imagine how dangerous was the area for Mal who was a level 1 noob.

After climbing for an hour, Mal started to feel strong winds.

“So this is why these hills were categorized as ‘B’ grade in terrain list. I choose the wrong place to test my new painting…” Mal sighed in dejection.

“I should be halfway there…backing out now would be a waste of time and effort.” Mal gazed at the path ahead and after a moment of hesitation, he started walking slowly.

-75% of climbing done-

“I knew it! coming here was a bad idea…!!!” Mal screamed, he had his arms and legs wrapped around a tree that was swaying violently because of the winds. If Mal by any chance, let go of the tree, he would roll to his death and that would be the world’s first death by rolling.

“I wouldn’t be able to last long like this…I have to find a shelter as soon as possible. I wouldn’t be able to hold on for long…” Mal panicked as he saw that his grip on the tree was getting weaker and weaker.

Mal quickly regained his cool and started looking around to see a cave or a shelter help him and luckily (Auth:- because of me) a few meters away from him, Mal saw a small cave whose entrance was blocked by a large boulder.

After thinking for a moment, Mal nodded, and with a quick push, he let go of the tree. After letting go of the tree, Mal started rolling down the same way he had thought he would before. “Fuck! this isn’t going how I imagined it to go.” The plan Mal had thought about before was that he would let go of the tree and then gracefully with the help of the wind, he will fall and catch the tree and by jumping around with the help of the air and the trees, he will be at his destination.

But unlike his expectations, Mal was rolling uncontrollably down. “At this rate, I will truly become a before who rolled out to his death.” Mal shook the thought of his head and started thinking of how to stop.

“Got it!” Mal smiled in delight and unsheathed the katana and held it with the help of the two hands. “I just have to stab a tree and because of the resistance I will face when I will stab it, it will stop!” With much difficulty, Mal aimed at a tree and stabbed the tree with the katana.

“Yes!” Mal’s eyes started shining. “I did it!” (Auth:- NOPE :)) Mal had planned well, but he had forgotten about the weapon he was using as the moment it stabbed inside the tree, the blade started surfing inside the tree as if the tree was made of tofu. this led to Mal getting slipped and he continued falling.

“Fuck! Too much sharpness is too much!” This was the first time Mal was displeased about the sharpness of his katana. If someone would have been here and have listened to what Mal was saying, they would have coughed up blood and cursed “It’s a fuckin katana that is used to fight monsters and not to cut trees!!”

Mal didn’t have time to waste on all these thoughts, so he quickly sheathed his sword back and took out another ether weapon from his bag. Mal had bought 3 different high-grade ether weapons from Natalia because he was scared of people finding out about the adamantium katana. These weapons were just to cover the Katana.

“Who would have thought that these weapons will come in handy in a situation like this.” Nal sighed and with a quick movement of the hand, he finally caught a tree by using the ether sword.

“Now that I am here, I should try entering the cave.” Mal was still planning to enter the cave, but this time it was going to be a lot more difficult because this time, The cave was in front of him and it was close to impossible for Mal to travel straight.

“I cannot even relax for a second.” Mal sighed as he started thinking of ways to travel to the cave somehow.