However, he had successfully looted the not-quite-adult hippo, obtaining an Earth Armor (Lv3) and an Earth Element Rune (Lv3) with an unknown effect. As for the Spiritual Dust Sand, he fed it to his Flame Burst Rune.
As for the massive bull hippo that had been the main damage dealer, in addition to a Gravity Skill (Lv5), it had also dropped an Earth Splitting Skill Rune (Lv4) and another Earth Element Rune (Lv3) with an unknown effect.
’The amount of exchangeable Rune resources has suddenly skyrocketed.’ Su Chen sighed inwardly. His blueprint for building up All Elements had just taken a huge leap forward.
Just then, seeming to hear a noise, Su Chen looked down below the canopy.
His Telekinesis followed, probing downwards.
High up on the ancient tree’s trunk, he saw a natural hollow. The rim of the opening was covered in scratch marks. Perhaps disturbed by the intense, repeated fluctuations of Rune Elements, the Night Monkeys sleeping inside were suddenly jolted awake.
Just as an adult Night Monkey poked its head out, a low-powered Strong Thought Burst was unleashed, silently blowing its head apart from a distance. A Dark Element essence from within it was pulled by gravity, flying swiftly into Su Chen’s palm.
Its death immediately caused the other Night Monkeys living in the hollow to let out sharp screeches.
Startled, the group of Night Monkeys scrambled out of the hollow to escape. But their bodies instantly collapsed, crushed into piles of flesh. Not a single drop of blood splashed outward; it was all accelerated downward by an intensified gravitational field, splattering onto the ground below.
As the gory sludge fell, Dark Element essences, invisibly stripped from the remains, floated gently into Su Chen’s hands. He then absorbed them one by one.
’I shouldn’t have forgotten about these monkeys.’
Su Chen had wanted to clear out these tree hollows for a while, but his own aerial mobility was severely lacking, making it difficult to climb the towering, hundred-meter-tall ancient trees.
Last night’s downpour and subsequent flooding hadn’t startled these high-dwelling Night Monkeys into migrating, which gave him a prime opportunity to harvest them.
Considering they were highly social magical beasts, he expected a bountiful harvest.
His invisible Telekinesis began performing Fault Scanning on the nearby tree trunks, accurately mapping out every hollow structure and marking every heat signature of life within his mind.
He summoned Xiaoye onto a branch. After being enchanted with Magic to reduce the effects of gravity, it zipped freely between the thick, horizontally growing branches, using its superior sense of smell while following its master’s instructions to clear out the hollows.
Previously, when clearing out burrows in the ground, Su Chen had been more of a hands-off manager, letting Xiaoye do as it pleased.
Now, clearing out the tree hollows, he was the one doing most of the work. Guided by his Telekinesis Fault Scanning, he cleared out six hollows in just twenty minutes. Some of the smaller monkeys dropped nothing, and a few even tried to escape by teleporting through the air.
But as soon as they reappeared on a branch ten meters away, their bodies would explode into a crimson mist.
With such a bountiful harvest, Su Chen naturally pressed on.
「By five o’clock,」
He had already lost count of how many Night Monkeys he and Xiaoye had slaughtered.
In any case, after collecting enough Dark Element essences to upgrade his various Runes, he still had eleven to spare. He also had five Wood Element essences, three Wind Element essences, and several Lv1 Dark Element Runes.
With this, his Lv4 Shadow Summoning Rune, after being filled with twenty-four Dark Element essences, would only need three portions of Spiritual Dust Sand to be upgraded.
The Shadow Jumping Skill, another Dark Element Rune, was bottlenecked by a need for four Light Element essences.
’Light Element essences, and Spiritual Dust Sand.’ Su Chen glanced at his watch. As the currents of Wind Fluff pulled him forward through the air, he realized that these two materials were significantly bottlenecking his progress.
And what’s more, they were the hardest materials to trade for on the market.
Oh well.
Unsure if anyone would be willing to trade for Light and Dark Element essences, he patiently continued the tedious search for another half hour.
Sure enough, perhaps because a drone had filmed his activities, or maybe because others had already had the same idea about clearing out tree hollows...
...by the time Su Chen returned to the base, the canopies above the surrounding waters were filled with figures using their flight abilities to clear out hollows. Droves of nocturnal magical beasts, sleeping soundly, were being caught completely off guard.
In a way, this method of hunting was rather simple and straightforward.
But as more and more people joined in, the competition inevitably grew fiercer.
"How can so many people fly?" someone on the shore complained, dumbfounded.
"Can’t be helped. The Flying Skill is just too popular."
A long-time radio listener explained, "Didn’t you hear? FM 99.6 just put out a little tidbit. They surveyed the combat division’s favorite Runes, and the Flying Skill was the undisputed number one."
Being able to fly is just too incredible.
It’s great for both daily life and combat, and the amazing feeling is something everyone yearns for.
"So what are the top three favorite Runes?" someone asked curiously.
"Wind Split and Flame Burst. The top five are pretty much dominated by Runes from the Damage Attachment Stream," the radio enthusiast explained.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t a very useful reference. The lethal method of using Enchanted Bullets with a rifle wasn’t something everyone could use.
As one of the six official stations, FM 99.6 had been formally renamed the "Rune Knowledge Radio." Its programming consisted of Rune guides and broadcasts that looped specific information and technical details about known Runes.
It also emphasized the significant help some Runes provided for everyday life, with segments like "How to Use the Water Creation Skill to Extract Clean Water from Nature," and "How to Use Molding Skills to Perfectly Forge a Brick or an Iron Plate."
As for the concern that this would arm lawless elements and further destabilize order...
...that was certainly a possibility, but the pros outweighed the cons.
The Security Council had always operated on the crucial principles of continuing human civilization and ensuring the survival of the species.
And survival is the first priority of civilization.
Since this knowledge could help the majority, they could tolerate a small minority of villains using it to get stronger.
Besides.
If you don’t seize the high ground of public opinion yourself, someone else will.
In fact, several private radio stations with their own antennas had already gained some traction in smaller circles. Those technically-capable civilian super-teams would also share their personal findings at specific times during the night.
In a post-apocalyptic world devoid of entertainment, listening to the radio was one of the primary ways to relieve boredom.
Faced with signs of these independent, high-level "guide" groups starting to poach their listenership, the officials naturally had to adapt to protect their own propaganda platform.
When Su Chen returned to the RV camp, he found that earthen ramparts and wooden walls now completely encircled the parking area, forming a simple but sturdy fortification.
After the brief turmoil that morning, the temporary RV parking area had been upgraded into a defensive fortress of a camp.
There were even wooden palisade gates at the front and back to allow the RVs to come and go.
A "Keep Out" sign hung on the gate to deter outsiders from entering the camp.
On either side of the gate, a watchtower had been erected for lookouts.
At that moment, Yuan Haotian was sitting in the watchtower, staring at the forest through a pair of binoculars. His mouth hung open in shock.
"Damn it, it’s about to become a mushroom forest."
Unbelievably, more and more mushrooms were sprouting up in the forest to the west, and their explosive growth showed no signs of slowing.
Not only that.
When Su Chen returned, he also overheard people talking about things like "fungal creep" and "parasitic mantises."
When he heard that a Forest Wolf was suspected of being infested with mycelium, he thought he must have misheard. This was not good news at all.

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