Chapter 291 – Tree Hollow

Chapter 291 – Tree Hollow

Having encountered a deep lake like this—or any other deep-water area—Mo Lan wouldn’t dare fly low over the surface anymore. It was far too dangerous.

Even though aquatic beasts like that would have a hard time breaking through the three layers of protective magic on her body, and even though her water magic would be amplified while over water, making it easy enough to defeat them—

A sudden ambush would be nearly impossible to dodge on her completely unprotected broomstick.

Mo Lan had no intention of killing that Giant Water Python anyway.

The meat didn’t taste good, the skin wasn’t useful—all effort for no reward.

After steering clear of the airspace above the lake, Mo Lan retraced her route to find the spot where she’d encountered the flock of Red-Eyed Birds.

Earlier, while leading the Red-Eyed Birds on that wild chase, she hadn’t paid any attention to her bearings at all. Fortunately, the gray fog on her map had cleared from everywhere she’d passed through, making those areas quite conspicuous. Otherwise, she really might not have been able to find her way back so quickly.

When she reached the area near the Dewdrop Flowers, Mo Lan glanced toward the woods where the Red-Eyed Bird flock had been roosting. Sure enough, weren’t those ink-leaf trees right there at the outer edge?

Seeing that it was nearly dark, Mo Lan made her decision on the spot—she would rest here tonight.

Red-Eyed Birds had frequented this area, so other predatory beasts wouldn’t be coming around anytime soon.

She first went to the ink-leaf trees to collect some tree sap, then cut off the two wings from the only Red-Eyed Bird carcass she’d managed to retrieve. She plucked the feathers, washed the wings clean, and marinated them with the tree sap and other seasonings.

While waiting for the wings to finish marinating, Mo Lan went and harvested all the Dewdrop Flowers. Together with the five Vampire Vine blossoms she’d obtained from the Vampire Vines, she extracted the plant essences from all of them and stored them in crystal vials for safekeeping.

She didn’t forget to mark this location on her map as a Dewdrop Flower harvesting point.

When the next batch of Dewdrop Flowers ripened, she could come back to pick them.

Throughout her journey so far, Mo Lan had marked all the important resource collection points on her map.

The Red-Eyed Bird wings still needed a bit more time to finish marinating, so Mo Lan continued preparing her sleeping quarters for the night.

When spending the night in the forest, sleeping on the ground was certainly less safe than sleeping in a tree.

Especially in an ink-leaf tree—the kind Red-Eyed Birds favored.

These trees didn’t even have ants or mosquitoes on them.

Mo Lan rode her broomstick straight up and found the largest ink-leaf tree. Using Vine Sorcery, she controlled its branches, making them stretch and extend to form a large tree cocoon with only a tiny entrance left open.

She poured in extra mana to maintain the branches in their current state overnight without changing, then placed her tent inside. And just like that, she had a tree hollow brimming with a sense of security.

Finally, she sprinkled some beast-repelling potion around the base of the tree and the surrounding area, and the job was done.

By this time, the pale pink Red-Eyed Bird wings had been marinated to a dark brownish-black.

Late at night, without a magical lamp lit or a Light spell cast, relying solely on her darkvision, they looked like they’d been burned to a crisp.

If it weren’t for the recipe saying that this color meant they were properly marinated, Mo Lan would never have believed these things were still edible.

She didn’t bother looking for firewood either—the ground in this forest was too damp, and dry kindling was hard to find.

She took out the lamb-roasting rack from her Mobile Kitchen Card and skewered the two wings onto it.

Sitting right on the treetop, she used her Flame spell, burning mana as fuel, to roast the pair of wings.

Her Flame spell had reached Beginner level now, producing flames no smaller than a campfire’s.

And since she could freely control both the size and temperature of the flames, it was actually even more convenient.

Soon the wings were sizzling and dripping with oil.

“Just like the recipe said—you don’t need to add a single drop of oil!”

Mo Lan swallowed hard. The aroma of this oil was uniquely exotic, and its allure was no less powerful than walking past a barbecue restaurant after a month of eating nothing but vegetables.

Unfortunately, these wings had to be slow-roasted over low heat, all the way until the surface turned a glossy dark black and not a single drop of oil dripped off anymore—only then were they at the perfect moment for eating. Mo Lan somewhat regretted not having started a fire and used Culinary Magic to roast them instead. Having to face this aroma head-on while also watching the heat, with nothing else to do to distract herself—it was absolute torture.

By the time the oil finally stopped dripping and the wings were ready to eat, Mo Lan was brimming with desire for them.

Even though they were pitch-black, she found them utterly appetizing.

Relying on the body she’d strengthened with her Dietary Enhancement Card, Mo Lan didn’t even bother blowing on them—she bit right in.

The glossy dark skin of the wings was crispy like caramelized sugar, carrying a faint sweet fragrance.

Combined with the tender, juicy meat inside, the texture was absolutely divine.

“Truly worthy of a dish that Lady Traci strongly recommended!” Mo Lan instantly fell in love with the flavor.

The two wings were enormous—more than enough for a full meal given her appetite. But after just one bite, she already felt the urge to savor them slowly, reluctant to finish them too quickly.

Suddenly she felt a pang of regret over the Red-Eyed Birds that had fallen into the forest earlier, and the ones the Giant Water Python had eaten.

“I hope I run into more of these delicious little critters later on. I want to stock up a whole freezer full of bird wings!” Mo Lan silently prayed.

In a rare departure from her usual habits, she ignored the fullness signals from her stomach and forced down every last bit of the oversized meal, unwilling to waste even a morsel.

By the end, even sitting felt like it was squishing her belly. She crawled into the tent inside the tree cocoon, controlled the branches to seal the entrance shut, then sprawled out in a starfish pose on the soft, fluffy bedding.

She rubbed her belly over and over: “Tonight I can finally get a good night’s sleep.”

This tree cocoon was out of reach for beasts that couldn’t fly, couldn’t be broken into quickly by beasts that could, and had excellent ventilation.

Combined with the constant-temperature magic circle inside the tent, she was so comfortable that drowsiness washed over her in an instant.

In the middle of the night, Mo Lan groggily heard the pitter-patter of raindrops. She snapped awake and went to check: “It’s raining!”

Good thing she had a tent inside the tree cocoon.

The tree cocoon wasn’t waterproof, but the tent was.

Mo Lan sealed up the tent and went back to sleep. But when she slept all the way until dawn, the rain still showed no signs of stopping.

Though it wasn’t heavy, traveling in this kind of weather was definitely not ideal.

She used her Weather-Reading Spell to predict the weather, hoping to see when this rain would stop so she could wait it out before moving on.

When the results came back, Mo Lan couldn’t bring herself to feel happy.

This rain was going to last three whole days.

No wonder Senior Lilith had said this mountain forest got a lot of rainfall!

She only had seven days total for exploration. If she spent three of them stuck here, there’d be no point continuing deeper in—she’d have to turn back via the Greengrass Plains, and there simply wouldn’t be enough time.

“How is there not a single spell for wind and rain protection?” Mo Lan sighed.

There were rune combinations with wind-proofing and rain-proofing effects—she had just learned them last week and had even tried making a rain-repelling cloak and a wind-blocking cloak with materials from the Alchemy laboratory.

But the problem was, she didn’t have any magical materials on hand that could bear runes!

Wait—that wasn’t entirely true!

Mo Lan looked down at her broomstick.

It may have started as nothing more than a wild grass seed, but after being cultivated and attuned with her mana, it was now a magical material.

“What if… I gave it a try?”