It didn't take long after Ash backed away from the darga to find a path up the cliff. A cluster of tangled vines and roots hung over the edge, which he used as handholds to hoist himself up.

  Once he reached the top he found himself at the base of a tree much larger than the average ones he'd been passing.

  Oh yeah, I remember now. Spotcaps like to grow on anything that has a high concentration of environmental mana, regardless of whether what they're growing on is organic or inorganic. I don't have anything that would let me measure the amount of mana in an area, but I'd bet a fair bit this tree has more than most.

  Ash walked around the base of the tree and almost immediately spotted a group of 2 shrooms growing between the roots. Gleefully, he picked them and threw them into his backpack.

  [Spotcap - Level 1] x2

  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised they're only level 1 considering the dargas were also pretty low-level.

  He was also surprised to see that this place didn't form a perfect ring. Only a few hundred feet beyond the tree the ground fell away, leaving a gap in the geometry of the world. The gap was at least a mile wide, far too large to even imagine crossing.

  A broken ring, huh? Kind of annoying that I barely got a mile out before I have to turn around, but oh well.

  Turning his attention away from the edge, Ash focused on the lands beyond the cliff. With his vantage point, he could see over most of the trees.

  The first thing he spotted was the clearing with the rift portal. Then beyond that he started to notice several other trees that were about the same size as the one he stood next to.

  If I ever come back I should be able to simply look along the ring from the starting point to find the trees.

  Ash jotted down a few things in his notebook before he climbed back down the cliff and followed it back to the edge of the ring. Then once he returned to the starting area he continued following the edge while trying his best to approximate distance as he referred to his notes.

  Let's see, the first was about half a mile along the edge from the starting point. Maybe about here? Then only about a quarter mile into the forest.

  Along the way to where he assumed the tree to be he found something else interesting.

  Is this… fireroot?

  He pulled the red fern out of the ground, careful to pull the surprisingly large roots out with it.

  [Fireroot - Level 2]

  It was a nice find, so he shoved it in his backpack with the mushrooms.

  He'd heard somewhere before that useful plants tended to be pretty uniform even across different planets. Something about the way mana and elemental energies naturally aligned, he'd probably zoned out for the details.

  It took him another 10 minutes of getting lost and trudging through the forest to find the tree and collect its solitary mushroom.

  Things only got more time-consuming from there. Between avoiding at least a dozen darga, messing up his distance calculations completely, and finding trees without any mushrooms on them, finding 6 more mushrooms took about 7 hours.

  Ash leaned against a tree and caught his breath.

  I should have brought some food in. Another thing to note for next time.

  The years of neglecting his body as a slave were seriously starting to show. Walking along the ring was like constantly walking up a small incline, and constantly switching between that and foraging through the forest was exhausting.

  But he'd been rewarded for his efforts. By now he had 4 other pieces of fireroot and once he'd started looking for other familiar herbs he'd discovered several patches of assorted medicinal herbs.

  These should probably fetch me at least something if I sold them all. Should I just save up money to buy the monster materials I need? No, I have no idea how much they're worth around here and I need to get a jumpstart on getting used to fighting monsters.

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  More than anything, I can't waste time. There's no telling when that damn beast will come after me again. And I can't let-

  A flash of pain pierced through his mind as he shoved that thought down. It was too much, too painful to remind himself of right now.

  One mushroom to go.

  20 minutes later he found the next large tree and smiled when he saw the two mushrooms nestled in its roots. He smiled even harder when he saw the two animals sitting between him and the tree.

  [Darga - Level 1]

  [Darga - Level 1]

  This is my chance.

  He set his pack down among the trees before readying his sword and shield. They were only level 1s, but Ash knew he couldn't underestimate them. Not only were there two of them, he was a crafter.

  Steadying his breathing, Ash charged out of the underbrush into the small clearing around the tree.

  He leaped forward with all the speed he could, but the Darga had clearly noticed his presence before he'd made his move. They both dashed to the side, avoiding his wild swing.

  Ash scowled as he found himself with one on each side of him. They both snarled before rushing him from either side.

  Instead of allowing them to pincer him, Ash ran toward the tree before throwing his back against it. The darga were still coming at him from two sides, but now they couldn't attack his exposed back so easily.

  The darga reached him at the same time, and Ash desperately held out his shield to block one of them while he made a wild swing toward the other.

  His blade landed a slash against the darga on the right, scoring a grisly cut across its eye and blinding it as it yelped and flinched backwards.

  But his lapse in attention let the darga on the left swerve its head around Ash's shield and clamp down on his arm with its large fangs. It pulled on Ash and shook its head around violently, further damaging his arm.

  Ash screamed out in pain. His vision ran red as he saw the health displayed in the system drop to 259/300. It was shocking how little health he'd lost in comparison to how much pain he felt, but this wasn't the time for that.

  With the darga on the left latched onto his left arm, Ash momentarily shoved the darga on the right from his mind and focused only on getting this accursed beast off his arm.

  He screamed in pain and rage as he pulled his arm and the darga attached to it closer to himself and thrust his sword into the beast's neck.

  The darga gave a gurgling yelp of pain as it released Ash's arm and leapt backward on instinct. Of course, Ash's sword was still in its neck. So as it leapt back it pulled the sword from Ash's hand while also causing it to cut through more of the beast's flesh.

  Ash took a step toward the beast as it collapsed two meters from him, intent on reclaiming his sword. But as he was distracted the other darga chose to strike.

  He felt a force ram into his side, pushing him back against the tree as a piercing pain shot through his insides.

  Looking to his side, he saw the darga's head against the side of his abdomen, the solitary horn upon its head now buried deep within Ash's gut.

  The darga backed up, pulling its horn from his gut with a wet squelch. Pain and fear jumbled together in Ash's mind as the darga prepared to once again impale him with its horn. It was obvious he wouldn't survive a second hole in his torso, but the haze of panic and hyperventilation prevented rational thought.

  Then an image cut through the red haze of his thoughts. A memory from long ago, the sight of a black dragon with seven eyes burning the world around him to ashes as a figure with a broad back stood in its way, defending him.

  A primal rage welled up within him.

  I can't allow this stupid nothing to get the better of me!

  With a roar of pain and fury he balled up his left fist and threw out a punch with all the strength he could muster. The shield attached to his arm collided with the darga's head, and Ash heard a sharp crack as the horn was broken and the beast was sent sprawling.

  Ash fell to the ground from his own momentum, the pain from twisting his abdomen blocking almost everything out. With unsteady hands, he pulled a potion out and drank it.

  His health went from the lethal 13/300 it had been at to a still critical but better 63/300.

  Ah, that's right. Level 1 potions only restore 50 health.

  Without any hesitation, he downed the other two he had with him. He felt the magical energy of the concoction stitching his insides back together as he went back up to 163/300.

  Ash stood back up at the same time the darga seemed to recover.

  He glanced over to his sword, but he discarded the idea of retrieving it. He wouldn't make the mistake of letting these things get the better of him again.

  Besides, while their agility and attack power is relatively high, their defenses and vitality are extremely weak.

  Ash readied his shield as the darga once again came charging at him.

  With its horn destroyed the darga chose to attack him with its claws, leaping up and raking them across his iron shield.

  Once again summoning his strength, Ash pushed back against the beast, shoving his shield right into its body as its front feet were off the ground. Without proper footing, it toppled to the ground.

  Ash jumped on top of it before slamming his shield down on its head repeatedly. After several blows it shuddered and died.

  Gasping for breath, Ash stumbled backwards. He registered the first slain darga bursting into azure motes of light in his peripheral vision, but didn't pay any attention to the loot the thing dropped.

  He was still bleeding and at half health. Without a spare thought for his equipment or the bag of mushrooms, he dashed back through the forest to the edge of the ring before turning and running toward the entrance.