[NR] Better Forget That - Chapter 431 (Patreon)

The first week of traveling through the birdless area was easy enough. Sure, there were still an absolute ton of snakes underneath the canopy, but even those had thinned out as the ones that got hungry would either leave or reduce the number of snakes more directly. Though this added a new consideration.

Below, the snakes are advancing in level and evolving as they are forced to fight or leave. Given how snakes normally deal with their children, this could actually be something purposefully set up by some sapient monster at the center of the area. Though the more Jason sees of the area, the more worried he gets.

Not about his situation, but rather for this area as a whole and what caused the dead area. Worried because Jason has begun to see a pattern. Not one of those patterns that end up warping a person’s mind or similar dangerous nonsense. Rather, the hills form a pattern he has seen elsewhere, but only from the greatest of distances.

While not perfectly lined up, the more Jason saw the clearer it was that all the hills were formed either a bunch of circles or his personal guess, a large spiral. It was hard to tell because large meant the size of the entire area that the forest covered. Also, while there was some variance, all the hills had the same shape.

They looked like the top of a scale. You know, like you would see on a dragon’s back. Not exactly, of course, they were covered with dirt, but it would explain being next to the swamp and not flooding. Would be kind of hard for the water to pass through when you have the body of a giant snake in the way.

In fact, the longer he thinks about it, the more things come to mind. Like how there weren’t any population centers nearby or how the area was a nearly perfect circle on the map. So there should be something here. After all, the rabbit plains was literally next to a tutorial town so they clearly don’t avoid every place like this.

That meant whatever was resting here wasn’t friendly. It should not matter. Jason is well below the notice of something this big, both by size and power. There was one problem with this. Since he had noticed what was up, a certain little fact clicked into place.

The area had felt dry. Not from the humidity or anything, just a feeling of dryness. That feeling was the aura of whatever was buried here. It is like one of those pictures that looks like two things at the same time and you didn’t notice that until someone pointed it out. Now there was no way to not notice it. So now instead of Jason’s mouth feeling a little dry, his whole body was breaking out in a sweat.

Oh, and he wasn’t going to take anymore breaks on the hills. Though it did make a lot more sense as to why did none of the snakes or birds went onto the things. Jason mentally pauses as he realizes that should have probably been his first clue.

After that, it took another week for Jason to leave the birdless region. Not because he traveled the same distance. Rather, it was because he just didn’t rest as much. In fact, the longer he stayed in the area, the worse it got. Nine days after leaving the birdless area, he was in an almost manic state, neglecting many things to keep up the pace.

The only thing he kept to a schedule was feeding Lily. Jason wasn’t even sleeping a full hour at a time before he would wake up as slight shifts in the aura field happened. Shifts that the longer he felt them, the more he was certain they were the monster breathing. Even later on, once feeling better, he would not be able to sort out if this was true or not.

This race to escape wasn’t like when he had run from the Demons. Instead, there was no plan, no goal except to leave. In fact, if Jason hadn’t stayed conscious enough, he might have instinctively tried to turn towards the nearest edge to the area.

It would have been quicker, but there was one thing that pushed him on. The fact that if he did that, he would have to follow the edge of the area for an even greater distance. Because once he was out, Jason wasn’t going to continue on straight. Rather, he needs to go off at an angle to the left. When planning, Jason had even thought to basically cut through the center of this area, which he thankfully did not do.

Two and a half weeks later Jason finally emerges from the forest, even in his mind Jason has taken to not noticing the hills in case it can sense his attention. In fact, just to be safe Jason continues his rapid pace for another half week. After that, he even took it one step further and used three more days to go through a technique he had learned in his last life.

Jason wasn’t certain if it would work, but thankfully it wasn’t some cultivation specific ability, rather using any sort of paranormal power. Plus, the process to use it and effect are simple enough that there isn’t as much for it to disagree with seeing as the mind works similar enough he hadn’t noticed a difference. The mind mattered because all the ability did was allow a person to basically box up a memory and throw it away.

The ability couldn’t remove things like core memories and even if you removed a memory of trauma, you would still feel the effects of it despite not remembering so it wasn’t some magical solution to traumatic memories. What it was good for was to make sure you didn’t remember things you shouldn’t. A very important thing to know so you can make sure you don’t know what you shouldn’t.

Though ironically that rarely meant forbidden knowledge, but rather if you happened upon some drama or another involving some powerful cultivator. This only worked because a living person without a memory tells fewer tales than a dead body. After all, a living person who knows they learned something they shouldn’t have but not what won’t be investigated. A dead body will have at least a cursory glance and you never know if someone might be important.