I've Got A Mana Processor In A Magic World - Chapter 173: Base of Operation

Chapter 173: Base of Operation

“What the hell! This place is teeming with life!” Zephyr panted heavily, standing on a dry, red-colored, hard-earthen plateau.

He had reached the far western border… and just in time too.

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon in the far distance when he reached the top of the plateau.

His journey here had been tension-filled and very eye opening.

This hard-earthen region had not been his first choice to settle, but circumstances had made him choose otherwise.

Coupled with Aegis’ suggestion, he had chosen to stop here finally.

Immediately after all the perks had been chosen, Zephyr immediately continued his journey toward the western border. He kicked into full gear, sprinting as fast as his enhanced body could carry him through the ankle-deep sandy desert.

He had set a goal to reach the border before daybreak. Something that looked very feasible based on his insane speed.

Because of his nano-enhanced body, he was still able to cover ground at 60 miles per hour speeds (100km/h), even with the ankle-deep sands. So reaching the border wasn’t a problem, there were still more than six hours before the break of dawn at that point, so even while factoring any slow-downs to rest, it was still a feasible goal.

But that was considering a smooth-sailing journey…

Reality proved to be different from that.

The first hour of running was uneventful. Zephyr had spotted a couple of champions here and there, but he hadn’t stopped for any one of them.

One champion had spotted Zephyr from afar and wanted to engage, but when he saw the speed with which Zephyr was moving, he stopped in his tracks and could only watch Zephyr zoom by.

Zephyr didn’t know it, but he had already been given another alias by those who saw him “Speed Demon!”

It wasn’t like there weren’t other champions that had naturally evolved a body constitution tailored to their home planet’s environment, one that enabled them to nearly, or even probably reach Zephyr’s levels of speed.

There were some that could, but that kind of speed would be in short bursts. The fact that Zephyr could sustain his speed, even in the ankle-deep sand that wore one out even faster, was what shocked the few champions that spotted him.

They had watched him charge from the distance with the same unchanging pace, and also watched him zoom past and disappear past the horizon while maintaining the same pace…

It was crazy.

But for Zephyr, it was leisurely. He was only slightly taxed, like a regular athlete running a marathon race.

He even had time to think of other things, like what he wanted to do immediately when he got to the border.

First, he needed to find out exactly what this ’food source’ entailed. Then also sort out habitation.

Somehow, he needed to build a place he could call home. Somewhere that had basic necessities. Somewhere that was safe, where he could relax and confidently do his own thing… like delve into his mana core space without any worry…

The ’food source’ he was headed towards seemed to fit the bill for what he wanted.

Based on the topographical map, it was one of the closest to his current position, close to the western border, but not as extreme west as some other food sources in that area. It was located on an elevated terrain, and best of all, the monster lair was actually far from the food source itself — the farthest of all the food sources on the western border.

These combined with the fact that it was a prime location that offered a good vantage point to look in any direction made it Zephyr’s first choice.

Besides this ’food source’, the others looked the same to him. They each had some benefit compared to the other, but none stood out like this one.

The first hour had nearly passed and Zephyr was still going.

In fact he had put in more effort.

His current course put him in the path of another ’food source’, so he was eager to satisfy his curiosity as to what the food sources entailed.

While this food source wasn’t in the border area he was headed, he still diverted slightly towards its path.

His knowledge of all resources locations was proving useful already.

Immediately he reached the point where he was supposed to be able to see the ’food source’ on the horizon, he started to squint his eyes searchingly. Though the dim moonlit darkness did not offer much help with this.

’Where is it…?’ he wondered, expecting to see something that would scream ’food source’…

But there wasn’t anything of the sort. Everything looked normal…

It was just desert and more desert.

The only thing different was the silhouette of a few lonely trees he could spot in the distance.

“Wait… Is this what food source means?” Zephyr muttered as he covered more ground and the trees became more visible to him.

“What’s that?” He suddenly noticed a few dots in the distance.

It seemed a few champions had already found this place before him and were fighting over it.

“Tch…” Zephyr hissed. Even though some others had found this place, he wasn’t willing to let them have it just like that.

“I’ll just let them fight it out first. When they’re done I’ll—” his muttering was cut short as he noticed something enter his view in the distance on the right…

No. Not some-thing…

But rather, some-things!

Lots of things!

“What are those?!” Zephyr’s eyes widened before it clicked. “Monsters!”

“These clowns have somehow managed to trigger the monsters in the lair here!”

“The one food source with the farthest monster lair!” Zephyr seethed. “The monster lair is more than thirty miles away! (48km) How did they bring them all the way here?!”

He cursed, debating whether to continue and attack. With his mana node, he knew he could handle the incoming mass of monsters.

He could even use them to farm for points!

His previous frustration started to morph into excitement.

It was the perfect scenario. It would help him maintain his lead on the ranking ladder without having to kill other people without cause…

He charged onward with more ferocity as the figures in the distance, who had finally noticed the incoming mass, were running for their lives in the opposite direction.

As Zephyr got closer, he finally had a clearer picture of what was happening, and what triggered the monster lair.

A tall, dot-like figure was running towards the patches of trees like there was no tomorrow, the mass of monsters hot on his tail.

It seemed the champions fighting for ownership of the resource point had no idea about this newcomer at all.

In fact, it seemed like even the newcomer had no idea where he was headed. He had simply seen a patch of scattered trees that stood out against the featureless desert and headed towards it.

Him stumbling on the monster lair and getting here was purely by chance!

“He’s really fast though…!” Zephyr looked on in alarm.

The monsters behind the guy were also very fast, moving like one unified mass. Like a rapidly encroaching wave of water.

Yet the guy was still confidently ahead. He wasn’t as fast as Zephyr, but he had to be nearly as fast to maintain such a lead. And with great stamina too.

“Hounds?” Zephyr finally made out individual details of the monsters pursuing the guy. “…No. They’re too chubby. Hyenas?”

“Doesn’t matter anyway. I can still handle them. I’ll just have to go all ou—” he had barely finished his sentence when he noticed a hair-raising detail…

The hyena monsters… they were still coming…

They were getting closer, yet the mass of them still stretched to the horizon, looking like an ever growing black patch.

“Hey… Hey… When do they stop?!” Zephyr frowned.

It only got worse from there.

Instead of stopping, their numbers continued to grow larger and they even started to spread wider on the horizon, like an unending stream coming from the very depths of hell.

Even Zephyr had to stop his charge.

Forget about farming points! He was only one man!

This was an army… A massive army that, regardless of how confident he was in his spell processing capabilities, even with the added spells saved in memory, he wasn’t willing to face at all.

The risk was too much.

What these monsters might not have in individual deadliness to him, they would make up for with the bombardment of their numbers.

There wasn’t even any natural choke-point in sight that he could take advantage of to reduce the number of monsters he would face at a time. It was just a gradual slope upwards, with the food source situated at the highest point.

Zephyr changed his direction immediately, heading in the opposite direction diagonally.

His only option now was to head further west to the other food sources. But he had to evade this horde of monsters too.

.

.

Zephyr had spent nearly fifteen minutes before he finally shook off the horde.

But that was just the start of his eye-opening experience.

If the first day of the trial was about establishing factions. Purely champions against champions.

Then this second day was like an introduction to the monsters that dwelled in this sector along with them.

Zephyr had crossed paths with three different hordes of monsters, all unleashed in their full numbers. And each time he had needed to adjust his path to evade them.

It wasn’t until the break of dawn that he finally reached a monster-free area. His current location. A hard-earthed expanse not far from the border.

In reality it wasn’t a bad location. It was a plateau, not too high up, but enough that it provided a steep climb up from the sandy desert.

Zephyr could see himself digging into the sides of the hard earth structures around here to build a home for himself — A troglodyte home, as Aegis had called it.

The fruit trees that were the food source were located a short distance away.

There was even a towering, table-top slab of red rock a few miles away. He could use that to see even further than what he could now.

And most importantly, the monster lair here was thirteen miles away (21km).

At the end of the day, things had actually worked out well for Zephyr.

Now it was time to build his base of operation!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by AiKurou