Even though Edrick was well aware of it at this point, seeing the snow melt and only fall in minuscule amounts right after days upon days of raging snowfall and turbulent winds was surprising, it was like a switch had been flicked and the weather could only oblige to unknown, unseen rules governing its very existence.
Standing upon a boulder sitting in the middle of a less forest portion of the forest, he looked around, bow in hand and ready to shoot at the first sign of a threat, he knew that he could not fire any arrow at bystanders since his quest concerning the entry of others had yet to finish, so, at such deepness into the forest, anything that showed up had been living in there for more nearly two weeks at this point, and was thus, free for him to kill without any chances of repercussions.
But there was nothing within sight, in fact, the forest felt strangely silent, like deathly silent, not the lull brought on by the season and low temperatures, but a silence formed unconsciously as all creatures held their breath in the presence of a predator.
'Mmh… I don't think that sensation I am feeling has anything to do with this though… Two mysteries to solve? Aren't I being spoiled today?'
As he continued to survey the surroundings, he thought back to a few days ago, moments after laying in bed with Jingyi and moulding her back into something he could appreciate fully, the system had told him that he had successfully shattered the minor script composed of solely three characters, a pitiful girl and her two successful suitors.
But Anoteros rejected the notion that he had done his job fully, his presence in this world was to bend and shatter the rigid stories that controlled certain fates, but one would have to be a fool to believe that he would just do it because he was asked to, Irandelle had had faith in him specifically because he was not the sort that could fall into a predetermined script, he was the arbiter of his own life.
As such, he denied being over with this story, certainly, breaking the 'female lead' and turning her into an obedient maid–Into one of his personal possessions–Was certainly enough to derail the entire story, as she now only had eyes and thoughts for a single man, one outside the bounds of the plot and far removed from the sort of man she was supposed to end up with, her entire being had been morphed.
To Edrick however, this was just the appetiser, Jingyi, Li, and Yi were ingredients for a meal, and the preparation had just begun, so sitting down and eating was simply ludicrous…
There are only three characters to account for, and he was planning on having all three of them be torn and ripped from their original fates.
The system, being the usual darling that it was, did not try to tell Anoteros off about that, and simply retracted the completion, saying that it would have to recalculate the rewards, which it had prepared with the belief that this would all be over with Jingyi's fall.
'Aah… Still nothing, huh?' hopping off the boulder, he walked into an area that he had already gone to before, where he had stalked and preyed upon a group of three, their bodies had taken a while to be recovered, and they had been greatly devoured by denizens of the woods, right now, the area was covered by a thin layer of snow, and no signs of the horrendous violence that had occurred lingered.
'The killer always returns to the scene of the crime, huh?' he turned to the cave that they had blocked off, the entire barricade had since long been broken down, whether it was the work of the people who had discovered the remains, or whatever they had tried to prevent from going in or out- Edrick did not really know, but since then, he had never encountered or found any traces of something special enough for those three to work so hard.
This place did not seem to be the source of anything either, so next, Anoteros moved toward the white sasquatch's old dwelling, which might technically be called his own territory now.
The beasts and monsters in the area had begun to move into the territory, but were still rather timid about it, the old lord had instilled deep fear into their very marrow, and the idea that such a frightening existence had been defeated made things even worse as although they could tell that the territory was empty, the possibility that something worse had taken residence was etched into their minds.
Coming closer to this place, the instinct earned through his technique got stronger and clearer, and then, the bloodline began to act up as well, seemingly for the same reasons, which soon became crystal clear to Edrick, like the bestial instinct fully fused with his human mind and became one and the same.
'Aah… I get it, breeding season is approaching? Some time after winter is fully over with' in other words, the sasquatches would start to want to mingle a little while after the start of spring.
The instincts of a sasquatch could feel it, and the bloodline had also realised it when getting closer to here, and having belonged to a beast that had quite literally claimed the right to mate with every female around, it was naturally urging for its new owner to do the same and assert dominance over the other male sasquatches, show them that the boss might have changed, but that they should not get too brave still.
'That should be a fun pastime, and an occasion to catch some sasquatches to eat as well…' the bloodline seemed to greatly approve of this mindset.
'Though, that indeed has nothing to do with the weird silence, although sasquatch mating season is probably a dangerous time as they get more active and more aggressive, it is still too far for such an ambience to settle in'
Not that the resident apes getting horny should warrant such a reaction either.
Edrick licked his teeth and glanced around, the trees around here were tall, their trunks thick, who knew what could be hiding behind them, even with his wide frame, Anoteros could disappear with their cover.
The small cape over his shoulder fluttered a bit in as a gust of wind softly blowed across the area, and then, he whistled, his voice echoing a bit into the quiet forest, right as he walked on the rocky platform where he had defeated and devoured the white sasquatch.
He had hoped that something would whistle back, but there was no such luck.
And even after staying around for a while, and throughout the trip out of the woods, nothing showed up, so he simply decided that he would check tomorrow if it persisted or not.