Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 35: Mocha Forest 6

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Mocha Forest 6

Moira Lynch made it back to the creek before dark. She set up her fish traps, then found a spot nearby to rest.

She had thought today would be as uneventful as the past two, but in the middle of the night, Moira felt a creature enter the range of her spiritual power.

Moira’s eyes shot open, her heart racing. She could feel it getting closer and closer.

She hadn’t found a tree hollow this time, so she was forced to rest in the canopy of a large tree.

Through the dense canopy, illuminated by the faint glow of the Water-cooling Stones and Water Wood Stones, Moira saw a massive figure slowly approaching her.

One step, two steps, it drew nearer and nearer.

Moira didn’t know what the creature was, but its silhouette resembled a gorilla from Caelus, only several times larger.

She held her breath, her eyes locked on the figure. She resolved to hide in her space the moment it got any closer.

Fortunately, the enormous figure didn’t seem to have noticed her. It appeared to just be thirsty and had come for a drink of water.

Only after the giant creature had left did Moira let out a breath she’d been holding, gasping for air. It felt like she had just cheated death. It was only then that she realized her clothes were soaked with sweat.

’That creature probably could have crushed me with a single finger.’

Moira had once thought this game was great, with treasures everywhere. Now, she had no such illusions.

’In front of a creature like that, we players are probably no different from bugs.’

Moira didn’t sleep well for the rest of the night. She didn’t dare close her eyes until the sky began to lighten at dawn, at which point she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Based on her experience over the past few days, the creatures of Mocha Forest didn’t come out to roam during the day.

After climbing down from the tree, the first thing Moira did was check her traps.

She had set a total of five fish traps yesterday, three of which were very close to where the giant creature had stopped to drink.

Of those three, two of the nets had been destroyed. It was a shame, but thankfully, the remaining nets had all caught Silvermoon Fish.

As usual, she kept a third for herself and tossed the rest into her basket. Her rank instantly jumped from ninth to seventh.

Today was the fourth day. Not counting today, there were still three days until the game ended.

She continued upstream along the creek, not forgetting to collect Water-cooling Stones and Water Wood Stones along the way. ’These are all good things.’

Watching her space fill with more and more Water Wood Stones and seeing the pond slowly being filled with Water-cooling Stones gave Moira an immense sense of satisfaction. It even washed away much of the fear from the previous night.

She didn’t leave the creekside and enter the forest until the sky was completely bright. However, she walked for the entire morning without running into a single player.

Although Moira had rarely encountered people before, it was because she would actively avoid them after detecting them with her spiritual power.

But today was different. Even when she stretched her spiritual power to its absolute limit, she didn’t sense any other players.

Suddenly, Moira sidestepped just as a dark shadow fell from the sky, smashing into the spot where she had just been standing with a dull THUD.

Looking up, she saw a brown figure flash through the treetops. When she looked back at what had fallen, it was a pinecone the size of a football.

She glanced at the surrounding trees but saw no signs of pine trees. ’But just because there aren’t any here doesn’t mean there aren’t any elsewhere.’

She tossed the pinecone into her basket, and her score increased by five.

Mocha Forest was simply too large. ’If I search all by myself, who knows how long it will take?’

So, Moira brought out her secret weapon: her parrots.

After a period of training, she could now communicate with them flawlessly, and they could understand her commands perfectly.

So, Moira searched for a picture of the "red pine pinecone" on her Learning Machine and showed it to the parrots.

At first, she only planned to have the parrots look for red pine trees. But after thinking about it, she decided to also search for other similar nuts and fruits in Mocha Forest for the parrots to find.

Moira released over twenty parrots at once, sending them flying in all directions. Meanwhile, she continued to search for other ingredients and the Energy Ores hidden underground.

Moira had discovered that these Energy Ores were often found under the root systems of particularly lush plants.

This was especially true for combat-heavy plants like the Glazed Thorny Grass she’d encountered before; there was an eighty percent chance of finding Energy Ores among their roots.

Moreover, the larger the plant, the more Energy Ores there would be, and the more Crystal Fruits as well.

Moira, wearing her weed cloak, hid in a patch of tall grass. In the clearing ahead of her stood a giant red mushroom.

She roughly estimated the red mushroom to be about two meters tall.

Common knowledge dictated that the more vibrant the mushroom’s color, the more toxic it was. As the saying goes, ’Red cap, white stalk, eat it and you’ll never walk.’

However, this wasn’t Caelus. To be safe, Moira took out her Learning Machine and scanned the red mushroom.

Red Flame Mushroom: meaty and thick, with a spicy flavor. Often dried and ground into a seasoning. Consumption causes the entire body to heat up involuntarily. Not suitable for excessive consumption.

’It’s a seasoning!’

’This Red Flame Mushroom is a lot like the chili peppers on Caelus.’

’It makes your whole body heat up after eating it. It should be very popular if there’s extreme cold weather later on.’

After confirming that the Red Flame Mushroom wouldn’t attack people like the Glazed Thorny Grass, Moira boldly walked forward and collected the entire giant mushroom into her space.

There were also many smaller Red Flame Mushrooms nearby, and she didn’t miss them either.

Just as she was about to leave, a familiar fluctuation suddenly appeared, originating right where the giant Red Flame Mushroom had been growing.

Moira pushed her spiritual power underground and discovered that the earth beneath the clearing where the mushroom had grown was full of Energy Ores—a rough estimate put the number at nearly a hundred.

The spot where the giant Red Flame Mushroom had been was especially dense with them.

Moira made a circuit of the area, and only after confirming she had collected every last Energy Ore did she finally leave.

’It’s a good thing my spiritual power lets me retrieve things from a distance. Otherwise, getting all those underground Energy Ores wouldn’t have been so easy. I’d have had to work my shovel until it smoked.’

However, she hadn’t detected any sign of the Energy Ores at first. Even when she probed underground with her spiritual power, she hadn’t found anything unusual. It was only after she collected the Red Flame Mushroom that the fluctuations of the Energy Ores were exposed.

’It seems some plants can mask the fluctuations of Energy Ores. I’ll have to be more careful when I’m searching from now on.’

Just then, her spiritual power suddenly sent out a warning: a group of players, about seven or eight of them, had entered her detection range.