After the battle, the pair was collecting blood and absorbing it as much they could in as little time possible. The reason for that was the lack of knowledge on when the fallen bird lord would return and the fact that from their latest fights, they had gotten some much higher quality blood than with these mere danger leveled beasts.Jack was aware that he was almost at the 3 start awakened level. Thus, he tried gaining something with the creatures, but it felt as if the low-levelled energy the danger beasts could provide was only a drop in the ocean.When he was done, Jack went to Laura and asked:''Hey, ready to move on? I don't want to spend too long in here. This place gives me the creeps.''She nodded, and they left the monster corpses behind, resuming their ascent in the great tower.Jack kept the lighter on in one hand, despite his mistake in the previous fight, for Laura's vision was too good of a scouting tool to give up on. After all, it didn't matter if the beasts saw him if
The cave trembled, both Jack and Laura were sweating buckets as they saw what emerged from it, the fallen level bird monster.''This makes no sense!'' Jack thought. ''What the hell is it doing here? Is this cave its nest?'' He frowned deeper and deeper. Both were in no condition to fight it like this, Jack was able to kill the fungi fallen because he had the advantage of the environment.But with the bird, even if they managed to somehow lure it into the water, it could just kill them from the air.The ground was shaking with every step that it took as the crawling got nearer and nearer to the pair. Jack prayed it wouldn't notice them, as they were anything but well hidden, the simple act of the bird looking to the side would already spell doom for them.It was getting closer, both could feel it. Jack decided on a couple of plans in the few seconds of time left for them to think.They could see its enormous face peering out of the cave now, and Jack went into action, willing the surro
It was the equivalent of dusk in the small cave ecosystem, the red fungi had stopped glowing furiously, and the cave was somewhat in darkness as now both sides of the lake had nothing but the reflections of the far away mushroom luminescence to light it up.Just when the fight got to a point where neither Jack nor the scorpion could be seen by Laura due to both being completely submerged, it was over, an overwhelming pressure came from the water and all she could see were two blades of water shooting upward from the dark patch of water where the beast's body could be hazily seen.Then blood, massive amounts of it, spread through the surrounding water, and she prayed that it was over.Concurrently, Jack was just floating underwater, no strength left to move, pain was the only thing that could be felt, but only in the physical sense as in his mind he felt at ease. ''Somehow that was one third of my promise kept, Silva... Now I have to kill the other one and take care of your child, I gu
Everything seemed to happen so fast, basically none of the involved could have foreseen how it would've ended, even the Fungi Scorpion Fallen. Unbeknownst to all others, it was only a few steps away from becoming a Scorpion king or a true disaster as humans would classify it.It was so close to overcoming all the beings it knew of in this world, and when presented with an unusual snack in the form of some small humans, barely matured and perfect for the consuming.Hell, they might have even been that last step it was looking for. No it felt it, neither of the young in front of it were ordinary, yet it only came to this full realization after the fight had progressed.In the second, Jack yelled Laura to go on without him, all seemed bleak, yet he charged without thinking much as his objective was stalling for time, not killing the thing, he needed his partner to get as far away from them as possible thus he gambled.They were only 8 meters away from each other, the fungi fallen tore do
The creatures didn't go near the river, but to say the deadly stampede had no effect at all on their current situation was not true. As many beasts would pass by, making so, the floor and their hiding shroom would tremble with the massive force of dozens of monsters and destroying everything in their path. One of which hit the mushroom they were on full force, making it sway and shake from side to side.The pair used all of their forces to not fall off the unstable platform by using a weapon to dig deep into the fungi meat and keep their position safe and steady.Jack was undeniably having an easier time than Laura, despite her being a few stars above him, his strength was much higher due to the changes happening in his body and his status as a melee fighter.''This could almost be a theme park ride in the human world, if not for the risk of death underneath.'' He thought. ''Please just pass by before we fall and have to fight without necessity.''After a few minutes of instability, t
Laura couldn't help but feel astonished at Jack while they walked, and he spoke. Such a thing was only possible because her field of view had expanded, allowing her to read his lips even if she was behind or beside him.Yet what truly surprised her was that in a single night of hunting he had finally broken through to the two star awakened level and even scouted ahead, finding a somewhat hidden trail besides the river and below the canopy of trees. They kept on walking, surprisingly much fewer beasts could be seen on this path than the one further away from the river and the view of the large body of water was calming in a certain way, as if instead of attracting thirsty monsters it kept them away. The water was translucent and deep, and even Laura could barely see the other side of the river, which spoke in lengths on how big it was.''Seems like the forest is safer during the day.'' He said. ''Probably means that the plains are safer during the night, which explains how both of the
Many things were going on in Jack's mind. First, he thought of survival, how am I going to guarantee the great wolf's progenitor survival on this place if even his own was not a given. ''But if leave it here just to die, I would be cruel.'' And surprisingly that was something he had grown to despise in the modern world, needless cruelty. ''Plus, and again, Anna would hit me in the afterlife.''Also, if what the ancient wolf had told him was true, he would gain a companion who would stand side by side with him even in the battlefield. ''So it's decided... the problem is the two fallen level monsters I'll have to kill, even if on a lenient time limit.''The second thing he considered was actually something that he felt. That if he was to accept his hidden skill might not stand quiet. And that terrified Jack, but at the same time he thought about the unthinkable benefits he could attain.''Hurry on, pup. I feel the infection accelerating its spread. Either accept or scram!'' The wolf roa
Horror beyond compare was coursing through their veins. ''What have we just seen? This monster is capable of infecting other monsters with its spores?! What even is the level of that thing?!" Jack thought.Anna, like him, was convinced that this creature belonged on the fallen level. Not just that, it was of a pretty rare fungi type, this was for sure its main body, but even she was unsure if destroying it would kill all the others.She couldn't tell, but the forest had been plunged into a deadly silence, no monster sounds in the distance, no soft humming of the mushrooms around her. All life was holding its breath, and that included the pair, who had been doing so without even noticing. Only the tranquil, flowing sound of the great river besides them continued to pour over the environment as if in defiance of the horror in front of them.After what seemed like hours, the two monsters appeared to be having a private conversation.For a moment, Jack had the fleeting paranoia that the t
Back to the forest of mushrooms, Jack had just finished absorbing the blood and taking some meat off the bull's carcass, so they could later have something to eat, though he didn't know if it was edible. But it was better than risking it with the alternative that was the mushrooms themselves, still, he wanted to get some meat off the birds too as he didn't trust giving the fungi infected bull's meat to Laura. Who, noticing his movement, began doing the same with the bird carcass and absorbing as much blood as she could, this time with our hero as a lookout.Meanwhile, he took the chance to better scout their surroundings, as his instincts whispered to him that it was safe. He walked back to the battlefield of the beasts with extreme care, chancing upon their previous hiding space, still filled with blood. Since he was pretty fast in absorbing it, he went inside once more and stayed there for a few minutes, paying attention to the distance, the monster corpses were no more as he assume