I Level Up By Making Enemies

The light in the swamp got weaker until everything looked gray. Lin Feng noticed it while he was still sitting on that root platform, forcing another round of qi through his body.

Hunger was getting unbearable too. He got down from the platform and started walking, sticking to the thicker roots so he wouldn’t sink. The movement skill helped. He kept his eyes open for anything glowing and stayed far away from those pale blue fruits. One bad experience was enough.

After a while he found normal looking stuff. Dark green fruits on a low vine and some thick pale roots sticking out of the mud. He bit a small piece of the fruit first and waited. Bitter as hell, but nothing happened. He ate a few more, then dug up the roots, rinsed them, and chewed them down. They tasted like wet wood, but they filled his stomach.

”Great,” he muttered. ”Living the dream.”

He kept moving until the fog got heavier and the air turned cold. The sounds changed too. Earlier it had been normal swamp noise. Now the calls dragged out longer and came from nowhere clear. Sometimes it almost sounded like voices.

Lin Feng pulled his robe tighter and started looking for somewhere to hide for the night.

Most places were too open or already occupied by animals or other things. Eventually he found an old fallen trunk leaning against a wall of living roots. The space underneath was low and but it blocked the wind and cut down some of the weird noises.

He crawled in, sat with his back against the wood. Night came down fully and the cold got worse. Lin Feng ran qi in short bursts just to stay warm. Every time he tried to empty his mind and meditate the proper way, the temperature seemed to drop harder.

He was in the middle of one of those cycles when a soft wet sound came from just outside. Then another. Lin Feng opened one eye and saw a fist sized blob of dirtynlooking jelly had pulled itself up onto the root near his feet. It looked about as dangerous as a lost dumpling.

He stared at it and the thing stared back, sort of.

Then it jumped and landed on his left boot with a wet splat. Lin Feng shook his foot but the blob held on. He shook harder and it made a tiny offended noise and refused to let go.

”You’ve got to be kidding me,” he whispered. I’m not losing to swamp snot.”

He pinched it, peeled it off, and set it on the ground outside. The second he let go, it turned around and started climbing back toward him.

Lin Feng watched it for a few seconds.Then he picked it up, crawled out just far enough, and flicked it into the nearest dark pool. The plop was very satisfying. He waited but nothing came back out.

”Yeah, that’s right,” he told the water. ”Go bother someone else.”

He wiped his fingers on some moss and crawled back under the trunk. The drifting voices seemed closer for a while, sliding through the fog like they were looking for something.

Lin Feng slept in short pieces. Twenty minutes, then a qi cycle. Another twenty minutes. Every time a sound got too close he woke up ready to move. By the time the fog started turning from dark gray to a slightly lighter gray, he was stiff, still cold, and more tired than when the night started.

He crawled out, stretched until his back cracked, and looked around. Lin Feng fixed his robe and started walking toward thicker fog and higher ground.

He ahad seventy seven days left. He did the math in his head again. Even if he pushed every day, going deeper right now without a clear way out, without real food, and without knowing how the swamp shifted at night was just flirting with the death.

”Not yet,” he said under his breath. ”I need to mark the tracks first.”

He turned around and started looking for the way out. It should have been simple but it wasn’t.The fog were playing with his mind . Everywhere looked the same. Twice he found himself back at the same leaning trunk he had slept under. The third time it happened he stopped, stared at the trunk, and let out a long breath.

”Congratulations,” he muttered. ”You’re getting lost in a swamp.”

He forced himself to slow down. Instead of rushing, he paid attention to the feel of the ground and the direction the colder air was coming from. Bit by bit the fog thinned. The roots became less tangled.

When he finally stepped out of the main swamp boundary, the air felt different. There were wo figures were already waiting near the path. The blonde chick and the muscular one. The muscular one saw him first. She raised her eyebrows.

”Well,” she said. ”Look at that.”

The blonde one glanced over and gave a short, smile. ”Our guest cultivator. Had enough of the swamp already?”

”Running away after a single day,” the muscular one added. ”Impressive.”

Lin Feng stopped a few steps away and brushed some dried mud off his sleeve. ”Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but I’m not running away yet.

The muscular one snorted. ”Funny. Yet here you are.”

”Well i can admit that i rushed into the swamp without enough preparation. So i need drinking water and non poisonous food, that’s why I’m going out.” Lin Feng said.

The blonde one’s expression cooled a little. ”The token tracks you inside the swamp. That’s the only place you’re cleared for. You don’t get to wander wherever you feel like.”

”I’m not trying to walk into your sect,” Lin Feng replied. ”I’m not that stupid. Or that optimistic. I just want a stream to wash off, and to look for something edible in the trees nearby. Then I’ll go back in.”

The two women exchanged a glance.

”This area is still Orchid Veil territory,” the blonde one said. ”But it’s far enough from the main grounds. We can allow it but under watch.”

The muscular one cracked her neck. ”I’ll watch him. If he stumbles around and gets mauled by something in the forest, we don’t have to drag the body back. And if he tries anything troublesome...” She looked Lin Feng up and down. ”I’ll handle it myself.”

Lin Feng met her eyes. ”Clear enough.”

They started walking. The muscular disciple fell in a few steps behind him, close enough that he could hear her boots on the dirt. The blonde one stayed near the boundary path, watching them leave.

For a while neither of them spoke. The forest around the swamp was denser than the outer sect woods, but it felt normal unlike inside the swamp. Lin Feng broke the silence first.

”I’m not going to run you know,” he said. ”And I’m not going to do anything stupid. This chance matters too much for me to mess it up.”

Behind him, the muscular disciple made a short sound. ”Tsk. Can’t trust a male.”

He glanced back. ”You got a name?”

”My name,” she said, is the person who will beat your ass if you keep asking useless questions. Walk.” She said with some danger in ber voice.

Lin Feng faced forward again. ”Got it. Very charming name.”

They walked in silence for a longer stretch. The path sloped gently downward. After a while she spoke again, like the quiet had started to annoy her.

”You really planning to go back in after this?”

”Yeah.”

”Most outsiders who get permission don’t last more than a day or two. The ones who come out early usually stay out and refuse to go back in or go insane.”

”I’m not most outsiders though.”

She made another sound. ”We’ll see. The forest isn’t free of danger either. There are animals that’s more fearsome than some beasts. If you get yourself killed that’s on you.”

”I’ll keep that in mind.” Lin Feng said.

They kept walking. The sound of water grew clearer. Lin Feng could already picture finding a stream, scrubbing the swamp off his skin, and maybe even catching something worth eating. His body still felt heavy from the cold night and the earlier fights, but the simple fact of being outside the fog made everything feel a little more manageable.

Seventy seven days remaining and he wasn’t going to waste them getting lost in circles or eating poisonous fruit again. Behind him, the muscular disciple’s footsteps stayed steady. She wasn’t chatty, but she also hadn’t told him to shut up completely. That was probably as close to friendly as things were going to get for now.

Lin Feng adjusted the strap of his robe and kept moving toward the forest.

One thing at a time, he told himself. For now lets just focus on finding resources that will keep me alive in the deeper zones of that swamp.