“Xelgar said, the other camp was somewhere in this direction, ” Archie said while pushing a large jungle leaf to the side. The camp he was referring to was Oliver’s demonic cult.
He wanted to just check out their camp and see what was going on. Living on an island with demons who want to kidnap you and not knowing anything about them is most definitely a bad idea. Besides, if they’re weak enough I can just attack them all right now, Archie thought. Besides, how can you change your race into a demonic one?
Archie looked around the jungle taking note of the jungle creatures that hid in various bushes, atop trees just observing him from afar, and hell somewhere even various plants leaned away from him as he walked.
The average level of the creatures that observed him warily were below level 70. Which was weird to Archie considering how he was also below level 70 and normally they would just attack him.
Maybe they can tell that I killed a higher leveled beast; Archie thought as he looked at the blood that stained the entire right side of his body. Now thinking back on it, he had accidentally left a long bloody trail leading towards his base.
Whelp, it is what it is, Archie sighed.
Looking through his spatial storage, Archie suddenly realized that he had forgotten to do something that seemed very important.
“I forgot to grab some potions from the alchemists in the camp,” Archie complained. “Then again, it would be best for me to wait until they’re E-Grade at the very least.”
As Archie got further into the jungle, the level of the creatures around him grew. And a few caught his attention.
[Ironhide Crocodylidae Lv 85]
[Rotfang Basilisk Lv 84]
[Bloodthorn Dionaea Lv 82]
“Huh, I did not know that crocodiles were short for Crocodylidae,” Archie said. You learn something new every day.
The crocodiles lounged around a large pond a hundred meters to his right. They looked like normal crocodiles but much bigger than usual. These crocodiles looked to at least be the size of a bear, Archie thought.
Other than their increased height they had metallic sheens across their hides. Go figure.
To the far side of the pond were Bloodthorn Dionaea aka very large Venus flytraps. “Well, judging by the large monkey in one of their mouths, they’ve upped their diet.” Archie joked to himself.
Their ‘mouths’, for the lack of a better word, were caked in blood-red colored spikes. They had a sweet scent to them as well, not unsimilar to strawberry cake.
Like the crocodiles, they were grouped in fours and each group was distanced from the other.
To his left, however, were the Rotfang Basilisks. The basilisks stayed within a cave that was covered in shriveled and dead vines. The basilisks looked like snakes but with two front legs and two backward curving horns protruding above their eyes.
As one of them opened their maws, Archie saw their jet-black fangs and a silverish-grey fog come out from another’s nostrils.
Compared to the crocodiles, these were pretty small, around the size of a Golden Retriever.
From where Archie could see, only three of them stood in front of the cave, lazing around in front of the sun.
While the three races were at a similar level to the minotaur he faced in the dungeon, they did not seem as remotely dangerous as the minotaur had been. Definitely a difference in strengths between bosses and other creatures of a similar level, Archie thought. Probably some sort of bonus the system gives to them, I’ll ask Bralmir about it once I’m done.
Between the three creatures, Archie decided to head towards the basilisks.
Archie quickly made his way towards them, hiding behind a tree just in front of them, trying to get a closer look into their cave.
“Damn. I still can’t see anything inside the cave,” Archie complained. Upon getting closer, Archie noticed that the cave was filled with a dense fog. Not unsimilar to the fog one of the basilisks released.
Archie came out from behind the tree and charged at the basilisks, while quickly activating Adrenaline Rush and Thornscourge Expansion. Channeling nature mana into his thorns atop the vines, making them sharper.
Archie crushed the head of the closest basilisk into the ground, his thorns easily puncturing through its small frame, killing it instantly before it could react to his presence. However, the other two basilisks shot up from where they previously lay in hiding.
Dodging a lunge from the other basilisks, Archie set a jab, knocking it midair and deep into the cave in front of him.
The third basilisk similar to the previous basilisk lunged at him as well, but Archie quickly leaned to the side and grabbed it by its snake-like lower body midair.
Arche smashed the basilisk on the ground, cracking the ground beneath him slightly. The basilisk, however, still twitched slightly, causing Archie to stomp on its head, turning its suishy head into paste.
The basilisk that he punched into the cave emerged from it with a squeaky roar. The squeakiness of the roar completely caught Archie off guard, but he quickly jumped back from a barrage of lunges from the three other basilisks that emerged from the cave.
Archie activated Savage Charge mid-dodge towards the basilisk that squeaked. Stomping on its body and ripping off its lower half.
Just as Archie was about to turn around, he became covered in a silverish-black fog. He felt the fog seep into his body, barely giving him any time to react as he felt its effects. His lungs and eyes started to burn, and his limbs strained.
Archie felt his Pugilist’s Grit fight back against the rot, but it wasn’t enough to fight back against the strength of it. I guess all their stats went into making their rot strong as hell, Archie thought. He needed to end this fast and start manually fighting against the rot while in meditation.
Archie quickly jumped out of the fog and activated Savage Charge at the furthest basilisk, aiming to get as far away from the fog as possible. His back burning and spasming in pain.
Archie pushed more mana and stamina into Adrenaline Rush, raising its boost to 30%. Archie slammed his foot into the basilisk’s body while channeling nature-mana into the thorns to make them shred its body.
Pivoting, Archie kicked another basilisk’s body against a tree, dodging a lunge at his neck from the other basilisk, ignoring the burning sensation across his body.
Similar to the third basilisk he killed, he grabbed its tail as it passed by him before slamming it to the ground. Archie then stomped on its head, crushing it. His sight was starting to get woozy, so he had to end this quickly before the rot could get any worse.
Archie then ran towards the last basilisk and curb-stomped its dazed head into the tree. He stomped its head so hard that the tree loudly creaked before crashing down.
Backstepping away, Archie quickly scaled the nearest tree and found a thick enough branch to meditate on to recover from the rot infection.
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Quickly activating Nature’s Meditation, Archie felt his vital energy fight back against the rot that seeped into his body. Archie could see how, unlike the poison from the Magma Spider which slowly paved its way from his neck and towards his heart, the rot just wanted to spread wildly and cause as much damage as it could.
Archie grabbed control of his vital energy and funneled it towards the more rotted parts of his body, specifically his fingers and back; willing his vital energy to ignore the minorly rotted parts of his body.
After an hour of controlling his vital energy and constantly attacking the rot within his body, he felt its strength lessen and his control over his vital energy improve ever so slightly. The weakening of the rot allowed him to funnel his vital energy toward the minorly rotten parts of his body and push them out.
Archie exited from Nature’s Meditation, fully recovered from being rotted, but instead of finding himself on a branch, he was on the ground. Everything around him within a radius of ten meters was completely rotten; the grass, the trees, and even a creature that tried to sneak up on him.
“Fuck,” Archie said. I’m such a dumbass; I can’t believe I got too entranced in my meditation. This is survival skill number 1…
Another thing on my list of things I need to improve, Archie thought while berating himself.
Looking at his notifications he noticed that he hadn’t leveled up sadly.
*[Rotfang Basilisk Lv 84] has been slain – XP has been given. 1092 Tutorial Points given*
***
*[Rotfang Basilisk Lv 84] has been slain – XP has been given. 1092 Tutorial Points given*
*[Shadowstalker Lv 80] has been slain – XP has been given. 1040 Tutorial Points given*
Archie got up and grabbed each of the basilisks. Tossing them in a pile, Archie took out a dagger and carefully cut out their cores before storing them away.
Might be useful, Archie thought. Could make something with their cores later, maybe some sort of rot weapon; either a bomb or dagger probably.
Archie now fully recovered from his fight headed towards the large pond, intent on killing the crocodiles. Because who wouldn’t want to fight a crocodile?
Archie stood 40 meters away from the nearest crocodile, activating Adrenaline Rush at 30% and Thorns. Just as Archie was about to activate Savage Charge, one of the crocodiles latched onto another’s leg and did a death roll. Ripping off its leg before eating it and the crocodile that got mutilated, didn’t even react.
Nah, Archie thought. I can’t sneak attack them after seeing that…My pride as a man wouldn’t accept that.
Archie walked in front of the nearest crocodile, grabbing its attention and the attention of the others around it.
Once he gained their attention, Archie pushed Adrenaline Rush to 45% and activated Savage Charge. Archie released a devastating blow on the crocodile’s jaw knocking to the side before releasing a flurry of punches on its Ironhide chest, activating Relentless Flurry.
Each punch deeply puncturing and tearing through its hide and flesh.
Archie was then forced to jump backwards, avoiding a scurrying lunge from another crocodile who smelt blood.
Archie’s awareness skyrocketed, knowing that the moment he got caught within their jaws, he would be losing a limb at the very least.
Archie kicked off the ground to spartan kick the crocodile away from him. The crocodile skidded back a meter before it charged towards him with another right behind.
Archie dodged under another lunge from the crocodile, sent a left hook from under it, and jumped back from a lunge from the other crocodile.
Archie skidded backwards, staring at the two crocodiles who lunged at him and getting into a defensive boxer stance waiting for them to lunge at him once more.
Not a moment later they lunged at him, one coming from the right and the other straight at him. Archie slightly jumped back, avoiding their lunges but then pivoted to his left, getting on their sides, perfectly aligned and close enough to get a whiff of their disgusting smell.
Archie steeled his body before jabbing one in its side with his right arm and activating Impact Dynamo while his head curved forward, dodging a snap of the crocodile’s jaws
The 30% full Impact Dynamo tore a fist-sized hole through both crocodile’s sides. Their hearts and lungs missing entirely, causing the closest one to freeze mid-lunge before both of them flopped onto the ground, bleeding profusely from their gaping holes.
Archie's right arm was still thankfully in its socket, but nevertheless, it ached in pain. Archie saw the last crocodile ignoring him and choosing to take a dip in the pond.
Walking towards the pond, Archie had a thought. Are there more in the pond?
Archie took a deep breath before releasing a guttural roar, activating Taunt. Silencing every creature in a three-hundred-meter radius and making the water atop the pond ripple.
Archie stared into the pond waiting for any sign of life. Moments later he could see a small shadow from beneath the pond rush towards him, increasing in size.
Suddenly the shadow exploded from the pond, revealing a large, open maw filled with sharp teeth lunging at him.
Archie dodged away from the snap of its jaws and quickly made distance between them. That’s one big-ass crocodile!
[Alpha Ironhide Crocodylidae Lv 86]
Archie activated Savage Charge, and released a flurry of blows at the crocodile, activating Relentless Flurry.
Each punch punctured its hide, but not as easily as it did to the other crocodiles. Makes sense considering this is supposed to be an Alpha one, Archie thought.
Suddenly it snapped its face towards Archie and snapped onto Archie’s right arm before he could react.
Archie’s eyes widened as he saw it latch onto his right arm and slowly about to start a death roll.
Within seconds of it kicking off the ground and twisting its body, Archie reacted.
Archie downward punched with his left arm into the maw of the crocodile that gripped onto his right arm and activated Impact Dynamo.
The explosion launched both Archie and the crocodile in two different directions.
The crocodile was sent flying across the pond and crashed into a tree, its head completely missing and blood gushing out from its neck.
Archie similarly crashed into a tree and his vision went dark.
As quickly as Archie blacked out, he came too. Gasping for air, but unable to breathe any.
Smashing his head back against the tree, Archie got himself out of the shock and took in a breath of air.
Fuck me, Archie gasped. What the fuck just happened?
His body screamed in pain from the recoil of the Impact Dynamo. Trying to push himself off of the ground, Archie’s eyes went wide in pain. Both Adrenaline Rush and Thorns deactivated themselves as the constant flow of mana and stamina he would channel into them abruptly halted from his blackout.
Nausea filled his mind and exhaustion flooded his body, his mind felt like a swamp. Looking down he saw his right arm, ending at his elbow, completely missing and his left arm was just as bad; bones jutting out from every direction.
Archie saw movement come from the water once more, making him grit his teeth and force himself up with the tree acting as support for his legs.
Standing up, Archie saw another crocodile lunge at him, Archie barely dodged to the side before reactivating Adrenaline Rush at 20% and Thornscourge Expansion once more.
Archie then spartan kicked the crocodile away, giving him more time to gather his thoughts and focus his mind.
“Ok,” Archie said, trying to calm himself. “I just need to kill this croc and get away to recover.”
Archie channeled a large amount of nature mana into his right foot, growing the thorns greatly.
Archie ran towards the crocodile that was charging at him, dodging before it could snap onto him. Raising his right leg he spartan kicked the crocodile once more, but before it could fly away, he channeled more nature mana into the vines on his leg, sharpening the thorns atop it.
The thorny vines sunk deep inside the crocodile’s puncture wound and quickly exploded in motion, expanding within its body, and tearing through every knick of untouched flesh it could find.
Just as it was about to snap onto his right leg, Archie kicked off the ground with his left leg; yanking back his right leg, and the vines extended from it.
The crocodile’s innards were pulled along with Archie’s right leg; the crocodile froze mid-snap before falling in the direction Archie kicked off. It's large head splattered mud across the bottom of Archie’s pants and boots as it landed by his feet.
Deactivating Adrenaline Rush, Archie closed his eyes for a second before pushing himself off the ground and going towards the nearest tree. Raising his left arm towards the farthest tree branch, Archie sent a burst of nature-mana, flinging out vines to wrap around the branch and pulling himself up towards it.
Flipping himself upside down, Archie wrapped his legs around the branch and latched onto the tree with the thorny vines around his legs. Twisting himself around, so that he was sitting on the branch right side up.
Archie then scooted back until he was against the tree’s torso and wrapped himself against it with the vines extending from his legs, locking himself in place. Archie then created a mana string to take out a few pieces of leather straps from his spatial storage and placed them in between his jaws.
Looking down at the bones jutting out from his left arm, Archie closed his eyes for a second before steeling himself. He then generated a couple of mana strings and intertwined them with each other, creating a mana rope. Channeling more mana into the rope, Archie made it more dense and solid.
Archie then used the mana rope to push against the bones that jutted out from his arm and push them back into his arm.
Fuck! Archie shouted mentally, his teeth grinding against the boiled leather straps, stopping himself from shouting from the pain.
Archie then took quick short breaths, psyching himself up for what he was going to do next.
Archie made the mana rope wrap around his arm and pulled; forcing the bones to stay in and try to get them back into their original position.
Archie locked up from the pain that was exploding from his hand, but after a few minutes, he released the breath he had held. While not all the bones were properly in place, the two major ones were, so in Archie’s opinion; that was good enough.
Activating Nature’s Meditation, Archie channeled his vital energy around both his arms, splitting his focus between regenerating his pools and making sure he wasn’t disturbed.