Arcana

Chapter 11

Seth was baffled after viewing the 6th report transmitted by the mapping device.

The 6th scanning session started right after the sun had set, when the darkness began to take over.

"1056 scanned life forms and 354 moving entities during the night."

Such numbers weren't really that special, considering that a functioning forest of this size should contain at least a thousand or more animals in order to maintain the ecosystem.

"Majority of life forms were clustered around one of the scanned man made structure."

A recording of the session showed that about seventy five percent of scanned living entities were concentrated around one of the ruins during the dead of the night. Not a single one of them moved and just stood there as if on standby.

Nevertheless, it was only the first of all the reports that showed significant findings.

"The 12th scanning session showed only 102 lifeforms with only 54 actively moving."

Showing a decreased number of hits, the 12th session started when the sun had already risen. One would definitely conclude that nocturnal animals were the majority of those entities, explaining the fact that they were active at night, but not during the day.

But then, they didn't behave like animals at all.

"A discoloration?"

As soon as Seth viewed the current session which was already at the 14th, something else bothered him. The trees surrounding that structure, where the nocturnal entities stood by, started to wither.

Something dangerous must be residing there.

A shiver ran through his spine as he thought of the possibility of that.

"We need to first focus on surviving."

Overthinking wouldn't help at all, Seth reassured himself and decided to direct all of his focus on things that would increase their chances of survival.

Their first objective for today was to find a water reservoir and tap onto it for a continuous supply of water. Since the nearest body of water was only half a kilometer away from the facility, Seth's plan was to travel on foot with a kilometer long industrial hose in tow. Connected directly to a standard suction machine, it could easily siphon a day's worth of water.

While donning the 3D printed full body armor, he repeatedly checked his loadout for the mission, careful as to not forget anything vital.

"I should use the gun more discreetly."

As he recounted the remaining darts in his disposal, Seth had to conserve more since he didn't have the capacity of producing more ammos at the moment. Eight sedative, three paralytic and one comatosing dart were the only ones he could find. He would be bringing all twelve darts for an increased variety of offensive tactics.

It'll be more convenient if that plasma gun works.

That plasma gun was not overlooked at all, even if he didn't put much time on it. It was unfortunately, beyond broken. Seth repeatedly tried to charge it with high voltage electricity, nevertheless the current wasn't going where it was supposed to go.

Attached to his back, was the tower shield that was as light as a feather. With it being so light, Seth began to question it's blocking capabilities. Even so, he was sure that it was indestructible albeit theoretically. It was also modified so that the tranquilizer gun could be strapped inside it, as for its ammo, a pouch was simply tied to the armor's waist.