Chapter 39: Chapter 39-[Volume 2 Chapter 11] Dangerous Escape

Rodney and his men ran through the jungle, following the sounds of rustling leaves and cracking branches ahead of them. Their hearts pounded in anticipation, eager to see what was spying on them. 

However, suddenly, those distinct noises stopped, and all they could hear was the wind rustling through the trees and the birds chirping. But that didn’t stop them. They were experienced hunters and knew sentient beings generally don’t up vanish into thin air. 

Therefore, Rodney’s group kept moving toward the entity, and within 10 seconds, they caught up to where the trail ended.

“What the heck? Where’d it go?” The young man asked, looking around for any signs of life. The other men followed suit but didn’t find anything on the ground. 

“Did it climb the tree?” Ben, the bald man, asked, looking up into the tree, but with the constant overcast and multi-layered canopies above, it was hard to make out any traces of life from where they were standing. 

“Looks like it. I don’t sense anything nearby or see tracks of anything on the ground,” Rodney shook his head in slight disappointment, “Alright! Who wants to climb the tree?” Rodney ordered in the form of a question, but nobody volunteered. 

“Boss, can’t we just cut down the tree?” The young man asked, and his teammates gave him numerous thumbs up, internally thanking him. 

Rodney pondered for a second, “Hmmm… I guess that’d be more efficient. I don’t think any of us are tree climbers, anyway. Good thinking, kid.” He said while patting the young man’s head, causing the latter to smile in satisfaction.

“Alright! Let’s knock down this tree!” Rodney ordered, then stood next to the tree and lowered his stance.

“Yeah!!”

The others followed suit by surrounding the tree. Hitting it with weapons might dull them, so instead, they covered their fists in mana and punched!

*Boom!**Crack!*

The tree shook, leaves and loose branches falling around them, but it didn’t fall.

“One more time!” Rodney yelled.

“OHHH!!”

The men’s muscles and veins bulged, and the ground beneath them shook slightly from the force of their legs. They glanced at each other. Seeing everybody ready, they simultaneously released a flurry of punches!

*Boom!*

*Crack!*

The tree stood straight, immovable in the face of such power. Yet, a small crack couldn’t help but form near its base.

*Boom!*

*Crack!*

The crack widened, and the tree could no longer stand completely straight.

*Boom!*

*Crack!*

After the last flurry of attacks, the crack near the base went all the way through. The tree wobbled for a moment before leaning toward the heaviest side, beginning its descent. 

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

As the tree fell, it picked up momentum, crushing all the branches blocking its path. The nearby trees shook as their destroyed branches came crashing down along with the tree. Within seconds, the tree slammed into the ground, flinging dust, dirt, and rocks all over the place, covering the surrounding area!

*Booooooom!*

Rodney’s group covered their head as the debris pelted them, but soon the dust settled, and they could finally see what sort of prey they had caught this time!

“Let’s go see what we caught! Hahahaha~!”

***

Going back in time, right before Rodney’s group caught up to Mika.

‘That might work! No, it’s the only thing that could work!’ Mika thought while looking up at the top of the tree trunk.

‘If I can’t outrun them and I can’t hide underground, then the only way left for me is to go up!’ Mika concluded, ‘Let’s climb the tree!’

She didn’t hesitate to put this plan in motion. Wrapping her densely powerful childlike arms and legs around the damp bark, Mika gripped the tree and began ascending, with flames of determination shining in her eyes.

Thanks to her Body Cultivation and all her time spent in the jungle, Mika had no problem quickly rising above the sub-canopy, completely hidden from anyone at ground level. 

However, Mika didn’t intend to stop there! She could hear footsteps beneath her and knew they were about to catch up. Thus, she continued climbing as high as she could go.

Suddenly…

*Boom!**Crack!*

…the tree cracked and shook. Mika’s grip loosed at the unexpected commotion; if not for her strong body, she would’ve lost her footing on the moist bark and fallen.

“What the fuck?! Are they trying to knock the tree down or something?!” Mika’s pace paled at such a thought! She didn’t expect those assholes to be so persistent that they’d even knock down the whole damn tree!

“What do I do? If I stay on this tree and fall, I’ll surely die,” Mika looked around, hoping to find a solution, and within a split second, she came up with a few, “It seems I have two options. Either I stay on this tree and die, or I hop to another tree.”

The choice was obvious, but it hardly made Mika feel any better. Due to the constant rain, the trees, especially near the top, are soaking wet. The only reason she can stay latched onto her current tree is because of her strength and the fact that she already had her body wrapped around the trunk when she ascended. 

However, jumping to another tree is a completely different story! It’s impossible for her to jump from one soaking wet tree trunk to another! In fact, it’s nearly impossible for her to leap off her current tree trunk without falling to her death, much less trying to make it to another tree. 

Fortunately, she had one saving grace that made the impossible jump nearly impossible.

*Boom!**Crack!*

Another loud crack resounded throughout the jungle as the tree swayed. Mika stopped hesitating, pulled out her sword, and jammed it into the tree.

“Can you do it, System?” Mika transmitted her thoughts to the System and asked. 

[Yes.]

Mika said nothing else, climbed up to stand on her sword, and then waited for the right moment. 

“I’m counting on you, Chigatana.” 

Her chest heaved as she took in deep, heavy breaths. Her heart thumped loudly, pumping her body full of adrenaline. Her peripherals blacked out as the only thing in her vision was the tree ahead of her. 

*Boom!**Crack!*

The tree swayed from side to side, and when it neared the tree in Mika’s vision, ‘Now!’ She screamed internally. 

Step

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Step

She took two steps, balancing herself on the shinogi (blade ridge), then used her right foot to push herself off the pommel!

*Fwoosh!*

As soon as her foot left the blade, ‘Recall!’ she recalled Chigatana into the System Space. She didn’t have the time or energy to check if her sword was there and trusted the System’s words. 

‘Appear!’ 

She commanded, and just like the System said, her katana appeared in her right hand. While mid-air, Mika grasped the sword with both hands and raised it horizontally above her head, with the blade facing outward. 

Halfway before she reached the nearest tree, Mika began plummeting to the ground. Fortunately, she had gotten enough momentum from running on her sword that she was still closing in on the tree despite falling. 

Her hair and kimono fluttered wildly as she continuously dropped.

1 meter

5 meters

10 meters 

20 meters

Finally, after dropping a full 25 meters, Mika was close enough to the tree to jam her sword into it. 

*Krrrrrrrrr*

Due to its sharpness, the sword entered about halfway into the tree, but with the momentum she carried, her sword sliced through the tree, causing her to fall another two meters.

“Ku-ugh!” Mika’s body collided with the tree trunk, causing her fingers to loosen and jolt out of place.

‘NOO!’ Mika screamed internally.

‘Don’t! Let! Go!’ Using every bit of willpower she had, Mika forced her fingers to curl around the blade's handle. The veins on her forearms burst open from the power she was exerting, but eventually, she managed to wrap her hands around the handle tightly.

“Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…” Sweat dripped down Mika’s face, and her chest heaved up on down, but she wasn’t out of the woods yet. 

“Let’s go see what we caught! Hahahaha~!”

She could hear their voices below her, causing her heart to drop. 

‘It seems like I dropped further down than I would’ve liked.’ She took a few deep breaths to calm her beating heart, then looked up, ‘I need to climb back up just in case they try and chop this tree down as well.’

After deciding her next action, she slowly wrapped her body around the tree trunk, recalled her sword, and began making her way up the tree. 

“Boss! It looks like nothing fell with the tree!”

Mika lent one ear to listen to them but continued climbing.

“It seems we either cut down the wrong tree, or it jumped to another before this one fell,” Rodney concluded. 

“Then, should we start knocking down the other trees?” One of the men asked. 

“...”

“There’s no need for us to waste our time doing this. We might have to chop down this whole damn forest to catch whatever was spying on us. So, unless you’d like to do that, then forget about it.” Rodney said indifferently. 

“Are we really going to let this go? What if it was one of our competitors spying on us? Wouldn’t we have just given them valuable information about our success in The Noxious Jungle?” The young man asked. 

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s not like it matters much either way. When we return, everyone will know where we’ve been. It’s not like we can hide it, though it’s doubtful whether those other teams would dare to enter this place. You said so yourself. This jungle sucks, and there’s a reason nobody comes here.” Rodney explained calmly. 

“Well… If you say so.”

“Anyways, let’s go back. We’ve wasted enough time here today.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Hearing this, Mika let out a huge sigh of relief that they were finally going to leave, but she still didn’t dare let her guard down, nor did she descend the tree. While most of the team were assholes who enjoyed capturing and tormenting caged beasts, Rodney was an intelligent and calm man. 

Who knows if he might be waiting down there for her despite saying all that? That whole conversation could’ve been a ruse to get her to lower her guard, descend the tree, and fall right into his trap!

Although it was only a slight possibility, it was a possibility nonetheless. If life in this jungle taught her anything over the past year, it’s that if something is possible, it will inevitably happen. 

Therefore, Mika continued climbing and eventually found a nice, small branch about two-thirds of the way up to sit on. 

***

Mika wasn’t wrong to think like that, as eight men quietly crouched behind a few large bushes at the base of the tree. However, after staying in that position for about 15 minutes, they stood up. 

Rodney frowned and looked upwards as he clicked his tongue, “Damn! I was about 60% certain someone was still up in the trees.”

“Well, at least now we can confirm that it was most likely a beast following us.” One of the men chimed in. 

“Or whoever was spying on us was just really smart and figured we might do something like this.” Another added. 

Rodney shook his head, “It doesn’t matter because we really can’t afford to waste our time any more than this. Let’s just head back to camp and call it a day.”

“Sounds good, Boss!”

Rodney turned around, but before he left, he gave the trees one last glance, sighed, and walked back to their campsite. The others followed suit, with their heads lowered slightly, dejected that they didn’t catch anything.

***

After two hours of sitting up in a tree, Mika felt she could safely descend without worrying about being captured. 

She fully relaxed when she noticed nobody was waiting for her near the bottom, knowing they weren’t still after her.  

She wiped the sweat off her forehead and muttered, “Phew! It seems even those bastards aren’t willing to wait around at the bottom of some random tree for two hours for potentially nothing.” 

Unconsciously, she gripped the small, inconspicuous necklace that hung around her neck, “Thanks, for protecting me again, Mom and Dad. This necklace you gave me is quite amazing.”

That’s right! Part of the reason why Mira could survive this encounter with Rodney and his team is because of this necklace. Not only does it have the ability to conceal her Mana Pathways and Mana Core from prying eyes, but due to her low Mana Cultivation, it can even conceal most of her mana fluctuations. 

When Mika had first teleported to the jungle, she had mostly forgotten about this necklace. It wasn’t until a few months in did Mika realize that some beasts had a harder time detecting her presence. This wasn’t the case for all beasts, but she was fighting and hunting enough to notice something unusual. 

It was then that the System informed her that it was the work of the necklace her parents had given her the day she was born. 

“I’ll have to thank them for this treasure when I get back!” Mika declared, then began walking in the opposite direction that Rodney’s team chased her in. She obviously couldn’t go back the way she came, lest she gets caught by them again. So, she could only walk in a different direction.

Therefore, as she walked through the jungle, she began making a note of the trees, the ground, and the branches above her, looking for any sign that could point her in the direction back home, but after a few hours of walking, she halted, coming to a dangerous realization. 

“I think I’m lost!”

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