The journey from California to Colorado was nearly a thousand miles. Shane and Olivia took a leisurely seven days to reach their destination.
Lost Creek, Blackwater Ridge.
In the best hotel in the nearby small town, Shane booked two of the most expensive rooms. The bellboy took several suitcases to their respective rooms and received a tip far exceeding the usual amount.
When they left California, they had traveled light—forget luggage, they didn't even bring a change of clothes. They stopped frequently along the way, and in every city or town they passed, Shane took Olivia on a massive spending spree.
At first, Olivia couldn't adapt to Shane's extravagant spending habits. Comparison shopping? Nonexistent. If he bought something, it had to be the most expensive one. Practicality didn't matter; if he liked it, he bought it. Sometimes, if Olivia just glanced at an item a few times, Shane would already be swiping his card to pay for it. She didn't even get the chance to refuse.
Their daily clothes, shoes, underwear, socks—none of it was ever washed. Once worn, it was discarded. For the first time, Olivia learned that these things could apparently be disposable goods.
The most expensive, latest-model phones? Shane bought over ten of them and tossed them in the car as spares.
The latest luxury handbags? Even after Olivia explicitly stated she didn't need them, Shane bought a huge pile anyway.
In short, one word.
Buy!
Buy, buy, buy!
To Olivia, it felt like Shane wasn't spending his own money. He didn't care about what he bought at all; he only cared about whether the money was spent and how much!
She tried to persuade him a few times, but Shane continued to do as he pleased.
Olivia didn't know where his money came from, but clearly, he had so much of it that he didn't know how to spend it. So why bother trying to stop him?
Shane really didn't know how to spend it all.
Over seven days, occasionally using shadow clones, he had accumulated over 1.3 million dollars. Even with his extravagant spending—buying the most expensive things rather than the right things—he had spent less than a fraction of it, barely thirty thousand.
Spending money was indeed a technical skill!
Spending money with a plan, spending money meaningfully—this was the skill Shane needed to master most right now. Spending aimlessly made him look too much like a nouveau riche upstart. He needed to work on his class!
The night grew deeper.
Poof!
Shane summoned a shadow clone and left it in the room to continue chakra control training. He walked to the window, used the cover of night to step onto the wall, and quietly descended to the ground.
"Earth Release: Underground Voyage!"
Hand seals. Release.
The originally solid ground beneath his feet turned into quicksand. Shane's body submerged into it, swimming underground toward the distant forest of Blackwater Ridge.
Pitch-black night. Silent forest.
Shane navigated underground and soon discovered an abandoned mine shaft. He surfaced, drilled out of the ground, and canceled the jutsu. Staring at the mine entrance, which looked like the gaping maw of a beast, his eyes widened.
"Byakugan, activate!"
In an instant, the dark, invisible environment turned snow-white. Everywhere his gaze landed became transparent and three-dimensional.
The environment inside the mine was clearly visible, everything within his grasp.
There should be a supernatural creature in this mine called a Wendigo. The name comes from ancient Indian lore—a gluttonous demon.
Every Wendigo was once human. They could be Native Americans, miners, pioneers, or hunters. When the harsh winter came and they ran out of supplies, starving and desperate, they began to cannibalize their own kind to survive—eating members of their own tribe or village. If they ate enough, consumed a certain amount of human flesh, they would transform into a Wendigo.
The Wendigo could mimic human voices, had razor-sharp claws, and moved incredibly fast. Hiding in such a dense primeval forest, even the best hunters would become its prey.
In terms of danger level, the Wendigo was more dangerous than a shapeshifter.
The shapeshifter's danger lay in its ability to become anyone and launch sneak attacks, making it hard to guard against and difficult to kill with conventional methods. The Wendigo, however, had speed and sharp claws. Conventional means were equally ineffective against it. Forget about this open environment with plenty of cover—even in a closed space, a one-on-one fight would be basically certain death.
Shane had originally planned to "coincidentally" meet the Winchester brothers and then deal with the Wendigo together. After all, the Wendigo's weakness was fire. With the Winchesters as support, finding an opportunity to blast it with Great Fire Annihilation would be game over.
The Wendigo was fast and agile. Shane didn't know taijutsu yet, and his reaction speed needed improvement. In a solo fight, the chances of failure were extremely high.
With Underground Voyage and explosive tags, he felt much more confident. Shane felt he could give it a try. As long as he wasn't instantly one-shotted, he could escape with Underground Voyage or counterattack with explosive tags.
"Found it!"
In the Byakugan's vision, a tall, gaunt figure appeared. The corners of Shane's mouth lifted slightly. Just as he was about to suppress his excitement, he suddenly realized there was more than one figure in his sight.
About a few hundred meters away from that creature, several figures were gathered together. Judging by their postures, they seemed to be hung up.
These figures were shorter, fitting the height of normal humans. Among them was a female, and several others had no life signs—they were already dead.
"Did I remember the timeline wrong? In the story, the Winchesters didn't come here until a week after Sam's girlfriend died. Then they went into the mountains with this episode's heroine, Haley, to find her missing brother. Calculating the time, it should be tomorrow? Why are they early?"
Although he wasn't sure of their identities, barring any accidents, it should be the Winchester brothers and Haley's group.
Shane was glad he had come early too. Otherwise, missing the chance to bump into the Winchester brothers was a small matter, but having the Wendigo taken care of by them would be a big loss. After all, if he missed this one, who knew when he'd encounter another?