F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 322: Where Is Safe?

A shaking hand pierced the clouds, grasping tightly at the bouncy ground surface.

"Argh!"

Daru pulled himself up, his entire upper body numb.

There were several times his muscles would involuntarily relax, but he quickly switched to the other arm, barely reaching the surface before the muscles in his torso gave out completely.

He would’ve surely perished if the slope hadn’t gradually become gentler.

Daru didn’t even have the capacity to worry about whether his pursuers had already left.

Thankfully, they had. A wooden cleaver would’ve already bisected him otherwise.

After all, he could only lie on his back helplessly, breathing heavily while staring at the clouds right now.

A minute passed.

Daru had recovered some of his stamina back, enough for him to sit up, groaning as he did.

He looked around and sighed.

It seemed the coast was indeed clear. For now, at least, he had the luxury to think of his next course of action without the unsettling thought of being in his last life.

"Alright...first, calm down..." Daru murmured, taking a few deep breaths.

This was paramount.

It wasn’t easy, especially after being killed once and suffering a scare of a second death less than an hour after the first.

Still, the deep breaths did the job.

He was somewhat clear-headed another minute later, his heart rate settling.

"I still have two lives, which is good..."

Based on what happened after his first death, there was a good chance they would be stuck here until the event ended, which meant they would run through all their lives and return to Neo-Earth as cold corpses if they failed to survive.

"And we have to race each other to that Sovereign Sapling?" he sighed, shaking his head.

Shouldn’t this event be called "Yggdrasil Survival" instead?

’It’s probably better to organize everything I learned about this place next...’

So, that’s what Daru did, sitting with his back facing the sloping fall while diving deep into his mind.

"So, aside from those environmental hazards I’ve encountered earlier, I’ve already met four types of spawns. The Verdant Runebark, lesser versions of it, that swarm of Sabre Aphids, and a weird, tall flower Swordspawn moving with its roots..."

He then turned to the spire-like growth a few dozen meters east of him.

"Also, mirages like that one...I have to be careful of lands without plants..."

The flora is deadly, but somehow, a path with none also leads towards death...

"Sigh...what to do..."

Daru was genuinely uncertain about how to proceed.

"One step at a time, I guess..."

First, he had to know how to even traverse these perilous lands.

How to differentiate Swordspawns, predatory trees, and standard ones; where and why do certain traps exist in certain places, and maybe even catch patterns and routines.

Daru’s brows rose.

Contrary to the event’s title, he realized that not rushing things and taking his sweet time — at least in this early stage — would be the best course of action.

Otherwise, they would be racing to see who would run out of lives first.

He was certain of his prowess and competence. If he was struggling, then surely, the others were, too.

"Hmm...becoming stronger would also help." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Naturally, the stronger he was, the larger his margin of error could be.

"I wouldn’t be able to defeat that Verdant Runebark the way I am now, so maybe I should start with the lesser ones?"

The oddness of the flower Swordspawn gave him mild creeps, as well.

"Alright, I’ll recover first, then try to hunt one of those things..."

It would be best to look in an area where there are fewer trees, not a forest-like cluster like the one he just passed through.

Taking a few more minutes to recover to almost peak condition, Daru stood up, walking along the edges of the strange land.

Here, he would have ample time to react to threats, plus he was far from those horrifying, predatory evergreens.

It was safer here.

The moment Daru finished thinking that, a dark, vacuum-like tear suddenly appeared in the clouds above him, from which a three-meter-tall bird with a human torso, raven-black feathers, two pairs of wings, and a black greatsword clutched in its talons, emerged, diving down to the clouds beneath.

Its hollow eyes stared at him as it passed, disappearing into yet another black rift that opened before the tear repaired itself.

Daru’s body instinctively froze, remaining that way for a dozen seconds before he was able to move, breathing heavily, hands shaking.

"W-What in the Limb– Yggdrasil was that?" he muttered, half-complaining. "Where exactly is safe, then?"

Traversing the forest clusters is dangerous, and now, even just walking along the edges turned out to not be as safe as he thought, too...

Daru sighed.

There was still a lot he didn’t know, and to learn more, he had to take risks. The problem was that he could only sacrifice one more life.

"Well, shivering in fear wouldn’t help..."

That he was certain of, and so, he decided to take a calculated risk for a time.

At the very least, the sinister-looking bird chose to ignore him, so Daru planned to continue traveling along the edges of the strange land, observing the nearby forest while he was at it.

He would try to learn more through observation, perhaps occasionally reacting and dealing with threats that would make an attempt on his life in the most efficient and appropriate way.

Then, once he’s confident enough, he would travel in the cover of the lethal flora to ensure those hollow eyes wouldn’t gaze upon him again.

Daru stuck to his plan...nerve-wracking as it was.

The Rift Birdy, as he’d like to call it, was far beyond his capabilities, and he would surely lose a life if it decided to casually take one.

He was betting on the fact that he would either not encounter another such Swordspawn again or, if he did, it would simply ignore him again.

At least until he was confident of surviving in the midst of the evergreens.

He continued walking eastward until, finally, a dozen minutes later, he noticed something.

The standard-looking trees seemed to all have trunk hollows, varying as their sizes may be...and those hollows were all facing a certain direction.