Kenji's POV:
*Clink**Clank*
So, after dealing with those jerks who tried to kill me earlier, I began the tedious task of collecting all the valuables the boss told me to throw into the spatial ring he gave me. As for why I say it's tedious…
"How many is that now?" I groaned after throwing the umpteenth treasure nest into the storage ring.
Normally, collecting the treasure would be the easy part of treasure hunting, especially when you've got a spatial storage ring. You just walk up to whatever you want to store, hold your hand up to it, run some mana into the ring and everything gets sucked into storage, but the thing is, all the treasure has been divided amongst the thousands of nests inside this valley. Since the spatial ring doesn't work long range, I've been stuck going to each nest one by one. At first, I thought I'd just fill the ring to its limits and head back, I mean, most storage rings have a limited storage space, and I'm pretty sure your average storage ring would be full after only one or two of these giant nests, but I've been up for two nights, thinking it surely must be nearing its limits, but nope.
"Okay, that's it! I'm done!" I said, having reached the end of my patience for the third time today.
*Caw**Caw*
Unfortunately, just like all the other times I've tried to quit, there was a big feathery obstacle in my way. The giant crow the boss had tamed which flew me here has been a royal pain in my ass since I got here. Not only did this ball of useless feathers not do anything to help when I was attacked earlier, but it won't let me rest as it starts screeching into my ears if I try, and if I attempt to leave, it will give chase and throw tornadoes at me until I go back.
"You're so lucky you're the boss's pet, otherwise I'd have used you to test out my new sword!" I said to that dumb bird.
Though I have gotten to test it out a bit on some rocks at the cost of whatever damage that obnoxious screeching did to my ears, there is only so much you can do without an opponent to practice on. Though I had used it back when those guys attacked me, I never got to properly test out my new sword on them. I just swung it once and it was over.
*Caw**Caw*
"Ugh! I GET IT ALREADY SO SHUT UP! Frigging bird!" I said as I went back to work.
Looking inside the next cave for the next nest I'd be putting into storage, I noticed there were some large eggs inside the nest.
"Sweet, another pass!"
I get to hop over the nests with eggs in them, since it seems this bird at least has a conscience when it comes to other bird's I guess, seeing as it doesn't mind me skipping over these.
"Please have eggs, please have eggs, please have eggs!" I prayed as I looked inside the next cave.
This one, however, was apparently different from the other holes in this wall. Not only was there no shiny nest in sight, but the cave was much deeper and well-made than the others.
"At least it's different!" I said as I wandered into the cave.
*Caw*
"Huh? What the?"
Not long after I entered the cave, I suddenly found myself in complete darkness. Though I could still kind of see everything with my sixth sense, I'm still more used to using my eyes to survey my surroundings. Hence, I used my qi to create a tiny flame on my finger to light up my surroundings, and what I saw as I turned around to see what happened from the light shining in from the cave's entrance was the funniest thing I've seen all week.
"…!"
"…!"
*Frantic continues cawing*
"Pft! HAHAHAHAHA!"
That dumb bird had tried to enter the cave after me, but apparently the entrance was a bit smaller than the other ones and so that fat ball of feathers was now stuck half-way through.
"Now, I wonder if there is another way out of here?"
Since the bird is too fat to follow me in here, it means it won't be able to follow me out the other end, assuming there is another exit way, but even if can't find another way out, at least it will give me a break from all that constant screeching.
"Freedom here I come!" I said as I walked further into this dark cave with a spring in my step.
…
Sometime later, a group of people appeared in the sky above the Giant Bandit Murder Crow's nesting grounds.
"This is it?" The elderly man leading the group asked, stroking his long beard with a frown on his face.
"Yes sir! This is where that bastard killed Asahi and Kazuo!" A bulky, purple-haired figure answered.
"Hm?"
Noticing something down below, the elder descended to a certain cave covered in claw marks.