Seed of Titan-Chapter 146: Disrupted Prowling

Drai was stunned, realizing that he had been a fool for neglecting a crucial detail—Madeleine must have arrived here deliberately through a planned route, unlike them.

"Sorry! I’ll make sure to ask about it when I meet her again," he quickly said.

Max nodded. He actually had a few plans in mind regarding this matter, but Drai had told him about Madeleine’s fog screen, so he decided to keep them to himself for now.

"Looks like we’ll have to stay around here for now," Max continued, "at least until you manage to contact your family."

"You can leave if you want, Max. Just tell me where you’re staying so I can visit you."

"Nah, it’ll be boring," Max flatly refused. "I’ll still be going out to hunt and whatnot, but I’ll return here for the night."

Drai didn’t press the issue. He also preferred to have Max stay— the man was a solid companion and mentor.

Soon, the pair had arrived at the edge of the forest, not too far from where they first entered.

"Sorry I can’t accompany you," Max mentioned. "I don’t think it would be wise for me to meddle in your task, and I need to set up our new base."

"No worries. So, will you set up the base here?" Drai asked, inspecting his surroundings.

"I think so. There’s a decent clearing, and being at the periphery makes it easy to enter and leave the forest—just in case, you know?" Max said, glancing back in the direction they had come from.

Drai silently nodded, getting what Max was implying. Madeleine’s standpoint was still questionable; they might need to make a quick escape if things went south.

"Then I’ll get going. See you later," he said as he headed out. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Gazing at Drai’s departing figure, Max muttered, "I didn’t know you could safely drink those beasts’ milk—how did she even find out about it? Don’t tell me she tried suckling every mammal here...

"But if I recall correctly, they’re not really aggressive or dangerous, so Drai should be fine. I hope she doesn’t give him harsh assignments, though—he’s my potential grand-nephew in law after all. I just need to convince Rudiger’s daughter to get jacked..."

Eventually, Drai’s figure left his sight, so Max put away his thoughts and started formulating a blueprint of their new base.

At the same time, Madeleine, who was sitting in her house, dispelled her observation fog.

’Looks like I’ll have to prepare for contingencies...’

Leaving her seat, she opened a secret chamber and immediately went inside, disappearing from view.

***

Drai stood amidst the meadow’s tall grass, silently observing a herd of beasts.

’They do look a bit like horses, but she didn’t tell me they’re this huge. No wonder just milking one of them is enough to fill the jerrycan.’

His targets were apparently more than 5-meter tall. They looked like overfed brown horses with dark manes that stretched along their spine to their tails, flowing down and covering the entire upper half of their bodies.

’What’s the deal with all these large animals? Is it caused by the food and water here? Then maybe humans would end up around that size too if they grew up here. Imagine if my height were five meters—if I used Colossal Augmentation to the max, I’d be around forty-five meters. Damn... That’s like a fifteen-story building. Wouldn’t other people be the size of my toenails then?’

While Drai was lost in his imagination, the herd started to move. Perhaps due to their size or weight, they didn’t gallop like a horse. Instead, they slowly trotted, leaving a massive trail of flattened grass behind them.

Drai snapped back to reality and quickly followed the herd, making sure to stay hidden in the grass. He wasn’t sure how the beasts would react if they spotted him.

The herd kept moving for a while, and Drai had to run lightly to match their giant strides.

Moments later, the herd finally stopped at a lush, humongous thicket. Half of them immediately started grazing while the others stood in a circle around the leafy buffet, seemingly keeping watch.

Once again, Drai observed the herd from a distance.

’Looks like I either have to transform and snatch the one with milk, or sneak in and secretly milk the nursing female. Hmm...’

After deliberating for a few minutes, Drai finally made up his mind.

He crouched and slowly made his way to the herd, trying his best not to disturb the grass too much lest his approach be noticed.

’This is a good chance to practice my stealth. I can always transform if needed, but I don’t know if they can run away fast like a horse, which will make this task a hassle. I’d rather they all attack me instead—at least I don’t have to pursue them.’

As Drai came closer to the herd, he lowered his body more. Eventually, he lay prone on the ground, dragging his body forward using his arms.

Drai’s method of approach seemed to be effective, as the giant horses hadn’t noticed him at all. Perhaps they didn’t have a reason to fear creatures of Drai’s size and completely ignored his mild rustling, focusing their guards on their true predators instead.

However, Drai was having a totally different thought.

’Am I secretly a sneaking genius?’ he inwardly questioned while slipping under a horse’s oval belly. His pace was extremely slow, as he was keeping his noise to a minimum.

Eventually, he managed to reach halfway to the center of the herd undetected, his confidence soaring.

Just then, a few of the horses neighed loudly. Then the ground trembled as the whole herd trotted away at a much faster pace.

Drai slowly rose, his face visibly annoyed. He had spent nearly twenty minutes dirtying his clothes for nothing.

’Why the hell did they run away?’

His question was immediately answered, as a series of neighs and growls could be heard from ahead. Squinting his eyes, Drai could see a light brown figure attacking the rearmost horses.

He immediately sprinted forward, and soon, he arrived near the scuffle.

A feline, slightly smaller than the horses, was repeatedly dashing in and out, clawing at its prey that were frantically kicking with their hind legs in retaliation.

’A tiger? No... the coat is different, and those black tufts on its ears... a lynx.’