The second platinum ring turned out to be easier for completely different reasons than expected.
Zhao had expected to have to dodge the mobile creatures of the vine forest, but soon realized the beasts were too busy fighting each other to pay him any attention.
The ecosystem was in an intense warfare.
The 'Dragon Egg', symbiotic fusions between trees, animals, and sprouts looked like mountains constantly crashing against each other, living structures fighting for some reason. The conflict was brutal, each representing a different strategy for dominating the new mana concentration place.
Zhao flew between epic battles, observing how they struck and confronted each other, affecting control over mana intersections.
Victory meant access to prime mana nodes; defeat meant stagnation and longer waits again.
"It's really like flying through a war zone," he murmured, dodging 'shrapnel' from a spine projection that had been aimed from one competitor to another.
