BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

After Judith's hounds ensured that for the next 2 kilometers, there was no Wiangrine in sight, Erik decided to head east with the rest of his team.

They were currently heading deep into the forest, close to a small cliff from which a small waterfall flowed. Erik knew this waterfall was the source of a nearby river, probably the one where Gwen was some time before, and that close to water sources, there was a high possibility of finding thaids.

He was right in his assessment since the hounds also reported a couple of thousand Noks in the surroundings. For this reason, the group sped through the forest, hoping they would arrive at the group before the others.

"Are you sure we can do this, Erik?" Anderson asked.

"Why shouldn't we? If anything goes bad, we can simply use your power..." the young man replied.

However, a look of reluctance appeared on Anderson's face.

"I don't know... I'm not so sure about using my power." The big guy said while shaking his head. "It might be too dangerous. What if I'm unable to control the radius and kill you all?" he added worriedly.

Erik nodded, understanding what the boy meant. However, Erik felt like this wasn't something to worry over just yet: after all, his plan A didn't involve using Anderson's power but his own. He only told that to the young man in an attempt to make him calm down.

"Ok, look. We can do this. I have everything under control. Besides, even if the Noks overwhelm us, we can simply run away. They are slow..."

Anderson looked at Erik dubiously. It seemed as though he had doubts regarding how well things could go. But then again, it made sense. After all, Erik planned to hunt a two-thousand-strong group of Noks.

Still, the fake awakener remained confident in his plan. Of course, what the young man wanted to do was an already tested strategy on the Lomalin group a week ago.

Besides, Erik did level up during this hunt and was close to doing it again. After all, they killed 2500 thaids; they were even ranked first, with Nathaniel's team behind by 149 monsters. It was impressive how strong that guy was.

As they walked through the forest, they arrived at the cliff, there was no trace of the Noks around here, but Erik knew that they were on top of the cliff, so they either had to climb it or go around it. Both plans and their pro and cons, and Erik decided that the best thing to do was climb, so the group started doing so in earnest. It wasn't hard, considering they were strong individuals.

After they climbed up, they saw a terrifying scene; countless Noks roamed around, eating everything there was around and devastating the surroundings. There was nothing left alive except for some trees. In fact, everything that tried to flee found themselves hunted down by these beasts.

"They are very nasty in numerous groups..." Anderson exclaimed when he finally reached the edge of the cliff.

"Indeed," Erik said. "But to be honest, this is a common trait to every thaid. Even the Lomalins, which have similar strength to these beasts, destroy the environment so much," he added.

"Are you sure we can kill them? They are around two thousand..."

"We can. I have enough cones..." Erik said.

"The cones?" Robyn replied.

"Yeah... the cones... You know what? Just watch. I know what I'm doing..."

"If you say so," Robyn replied.

Erik then started sneaking his way up to the Noks. He wanted to hit the bulk of creatures, creating the highest amount of casualties possible.

He took the pine cones from his backpack and laid them on the ground. He decided to use ten of them since the trees would grow enough to kill much more beasts than the apple seeds he previously used.

However, contrary to before, he didn't have a bag with which he could throw all the seeds simultaneously, but it was also true that a pine cone had much more seeds than an apple.

"Ok guys, whenever I tell you, you have to throw the pine cones to the Noks, ok?" Erik asked.

"Ok."

"Ok..."

"Yes."

"All right..."

Erik then started channeling mana through his birth power's neural links into his body. As expected, the surroundings started to change. The air started becoming moist as soon as he released the mana. Still, Erik tried to keep his power in check and targeted only the cones in his comrades' hands.

"Alright! Here we go, throw them!"

His voice alerted the Noks; however, it was too late for them to do anything. The seeds started sprouting as soon as the items were in the air. Since Erik injected a lot of mana, they grew fast and became huge trees at least 90 meters long in a matter of seconds.

But that was not all; a pine cone had, on average, 150 seeds, and he planned to use 10 of them, meaning that he would produce 1500 giant trees to kill the creatures. To be honest, even Erik and his team had to pay attention since the trees could end up rolling their way.

The sky darkened at that moment since the trees clouded the sun, creating a terrifying view for whoever observed the scene. Erik's team members shivered, especially Anderson. He knew Erik's power was useless, but the young man proved it wasn't.

He didn't know if they would be enough to kill all the Noks; however, it was true that he would kill many of them. His evaluation of the young man suddenly spiked a lot as he believed that the ability to make huge trees rain down upon his enemy was hella scary. This was true especially if one considered that pine so big weighed, on average, three tonnes.

Erik's teammates looked at the trees crushing the bugs like ants leaving bits of brain matter, legs, and blood everywhere. It was disgusting enough for them, having to kill the beasts with weapons and powers, but that didn't leave a mess around. However, this did.

The result of Erik's attack was devastating; basically, only a hundred Noks were left alive, and the cliff on which they were started trembling. The sound of the trees hitting the heart produced a heavy rumble that was heard at kilometers, alerting Gwen's and Floyd's team, the closest one to them.

Once everything ended, Erik received multiple notifications.

[MULTIPLE HOSTILE NOKS KILLED: MANA ABSORBING PROCESS STARTING.]

[0%...1%....5%...30%...70%...100%]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED, STARTING CONVERTING PROCEDURE.]

[3...2...1...0]

[MANA SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED INTO EXPERIENCE. 8000 EXPERIENCE POINTS AWARDED TO THE HOST.]

[LEVEL UP.]

[LEVEL UP.]

Erik internally jumped for joy. He had just jumped from level 16 to level 18 and had already gained a level a couple of hours earlier.

His only regret was that he couldn't get the brain crystal nor the blood of the Noks, and he couldn't gain another transformation for Conal's power since he couldn't possibly start sucking the creature's blood in front of them.

To be honest, this wasn't the only time he had to leave behind valuable resources today, but he could do nothing about it. Of course, the others didn't know what had just gone through the young man's mind.

They only knew that Erik killed more than 2000 thaids with a single attack. That was scary. The students, including Anderson, decided not to step on the young man's foot in the future and to try to build good relations with him.

"Let's go..." Erik said. "We must see if more beasts are alive," he added. The students walked toward the carnage with cautious steps and their weapons drawn; Judith even summoned his hounds to see if thaids were trying to run away. Unluckily for Erik, no beasts were alive anymore. They all perished instantly when the trees fell on them.

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A.N: Do not forget to vote with power stones! :D