Almighty Summoner System

Chapter 248 - Zombats On The Flower Field

Ban looked ahead and saw a flower field under some huge and sparsely packed trees, enough to cover some parts of the flower field with their shadow. 

The Zombats favorite meals are normal insects, or insects with lower rank than them. They also loved eating fruits, especially the specialls ones, if there were any. 

The flower field ahead of Ban was packed with purple colored flowers. These flowers were also favorite food by other insects, hence the reason why Zombats are frequently seen here, as they already made this part their territory, according to the information and list given by Mr. Nian. 

Ban inhaled a deep breath to savour the aroma of the flowers but contrary to his expectations, instead of smelling only a flower's fragrance, there was actually a hint of rot mixed on them. Smelling that rot-like smell, Ban further confirmed that the area ahead was indeed the home of the Zombats. The rot-like smell was indeed a unique characteristic of the Zombats. 

Zombats are active, and would usually hunt during the night. Their hearing would improve during the night, as anyone could testify that the night was indeed more quiet than during the day. Even a big city such as the Eagle City would also enter a still-night state everyday. 

Ban endured the smell and proceeded to walk slowly towards the field of flowers. The purple flowers were only on a knee-height so Ban was pretty sure that the Zombats would only be hiding on one of the large trees. 

He narrowed them down from afar while walking stealthily towards them to determine the possible tree they were perching on. Zombats always grouped up together, so that when one of them heard a commotion, they could immediately alert the others. That was why they are very hard to deal with, hence Summoners and other Beasts would usually not bother to hunt them.

A few minutes later, Ban finally arrived at the edge of the flower field, making sure he did not make any kind of sound. 

The Zombats have good hearing, but they won't be able to hear very clearly, as long as they don't use their Skill, Echo Hearing. And for them to use the Echo Hearing, they need to 'hear' if there was something that needed them to use the Skill first. They won't use the Skill Echo Hearing that easily as it has long cooldown, and it was their trump card in another sense. 

Ban arrived at the first tree but he didn't bother to look up to see if there were any Zombats perched on there. 

The reason was simple, he didn't see any poop around the root of the tree, having poop on the ground below them was another sign that a Zombat was around. And with their poop on the ground, the flowers could only dream of growing there. Earlier, he narrowed the trees by sorting them from those who still have flowers below them and those who haven't. 

Obviously, his target were those trees who didn't have flowers beneath them as they were the most likely to contain the Zombats underneath their leaves. 

He skipped the first tree and proceeded to walk forward slowly and stealthily. He made sure to look at where he was stepping at, to avoid making noise from stepping into something unnecessary, dried twigs for example. 

After a while, Ban arrived at the fourth tree. It was the first tree he encountered that didn't have any flowers beneath it, however, he observed and noticed that there wasn't any strange smell, nor any poop on the empty land. 

He already doubted if there were still any Zombats above, but he still looked up just to make sure. And to his disappointment, there was really nothing there aside from the tree's thick branches and leaves. 

He just shook his head and proceeded ahead. The trees are sparsely packed coupled with his careful advance, it took him five minutes before he reached the next tree that doesn't have any flowers below it. Ban directly looked up to observe if there was any Zombat above but unfortunately, there wasn't. 

Ban sighed and thought that his luck was pretty bad recently, was it because he had been lucky the previous days so he was now experiencing bad luck to neutralize everything? That must be it. 

But Ban did not become disheartened and was even more eager than before. He increased his pace and checked the marked trees one by one. 

All came out negative, not until he came at the seventh marked tree. 

Even from afar, he could already tell that the tree was housing the Zombats. It was because he could definitely tell that a rancid and rotten-like smell was coming from that area, a clear indication that the Zombats were there. 

Ban immediately became elated after seeing that, but he did not go overboard and decided to calm himself, afraid that he might alert them prematurely. 

He checked his body one more time, and then the dagger that was still on the scabbard on his lower back, and then finally the path that he should take to arrive near them smoothly. 

After making sure that everything was in place, he slowly and carefully crept under the tree while making sure not to step on their poop or urine, to take a clear look of the Zombats' precise position. 

He arrived underneath the tree without alerting the Zombats, to his delight. He then looked up and saw a colony of Zombats, hanging upside down on the tree's branches. The Zombats were not that big so the over 24 meters tree had no problem carrying them all on the same branch. The Zombats, hanging upside down on the nearest branch, were at most 9 meters above ground. 

The Zombats were all sleeping soundly at the moment, clearly unaware of Ban below them. 

Ban observed their appearance carefully and could not help but frown in disgust. They were truly worthy of their names of being Zombats. Their sleeping face looked rotten, their mouth and nose were split like a cross while their hide was green in color, with bits of unhealed wounds here and there, making their body smell like a rotting corpse. 

Ban no longer thought about their appearance as he gathered his strength on his foot, before he jumped like a spring towards the nearest Zombats with the dagger on his hand.