Inspection:

Beast: Hopstriker mother

Level: 11

Stat: Perception/Strength

It was now almost a reflexive habit for Barry to inspect a beast before entering battle. And he was happy he did, because this monstrosity in front of him was a full six levels higher than him, more than double his current power level and almost three times the level of the hulking ratbear that had come close to killing him mere hours ago. Despite Barry’s recent gains he instinctively knew it would not be nearly enough against this creature. It was also the first beast he had come across that had two dominant stats. He wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing but in Barry’s mind it made the creature even more intimidating. The beast was partly hidden behind some of the taller fern trees but it’s three heads still stretched about a metre above these plants, meaning the hopstriker was around five metres in height, and just as wide. It had the same shimmering green scales covering its body in addition to a collection of gross round warts on its heads and shoulders. Its overall makeup was much the same as its smaller brethren, with the exception of the two additional heads and its sheer size.

Without warning a massive metre wide tongue propelled through the green plant life from the centre head, straight towards Barry. The force of the attack tore up the taller ferns that separated the two beings as splinters and leaves sprayed out in all directions. Barry’s only way of dodging the attack was to immediately lean backwards and fall down onto his back. The moment his head touched the ground he looked up and saw the blue tongue of the creature fly directly overhead, the booming sound of the attack causing his ears to ring. Barry heard a second boom and he instinctively rolled to his side as another tongue slammed into the spot where he had just been a fraction of a second earlier. The force of the strike created a one-metre-deep crater in the ground, and a cloud of dust formed above the spot that had been hit.

Without many options at this stage and having to think quickly Barry rapidly formed an illusionary chain and threw it up into the air above him. The moment he did so the third and final tongue shot forward, piercing the illusion directly in the centre of the chain before Barry’s creation vanished. Seeing this, Barry stood back up and glanced at the beast that he now had a much clearer view of through the cleared-out section of forest. It had started retracting its tongues which were now dragging along the ground back towards it mouth. As the third tongue was about to pass him by Barry swung his aura chain down with as much force as he could muster, feeling the improvement in force since increasing his strength level. The chain seemed to simply ricochet off the tongue, not creating as much as a scratch. For Barry, this simply confirmed the futility of the fight and instead he turned and ran.

Barry sprinted through the forest as fast as his legs could carry him. He retracted his aura chain, freeing his hands up to allow him to create two illusionary chains at once. He repeatedly launched the chains into the air as he ran and thankfully the beast continually fell for his trick, its tongues striking at the illusionary projectiles before retracting and firing again. The creature was quite slow, but its tongue attacks seemed capable of striking a mind boggling seventy metres, meaning Barry couldn’t relax even for a second.

The moment Barry cleared its area of attack he heard the beasts bellowing roar echo through the forest. As if summoned by the hopstriker mother, Barry soon found himself under attack from multiple smaller hopstrikers that continued to appear from the fernery. Barry initially paid them no mind until he had around seven of the creatures attached to his body. The compounding weight of the frogs was starting to significantly slow down his running speed and he could hear the crashing of trees as the hopstriker mother was beginning to close the gap. Soon he would be within range of its tongue attack and with all this baggage, Barry was uncertain if he would be able to dodge the strikes. As he trudged on, Barry continued throwing his illusionary chains into the air as a distraction for the ongoing assaults of the smaller hopstrikers. The strategy was somewhat successful, with many of the creatures missing him with their strikes, their tongues instead flying through the air at the illusionary targets. But However, despite his best efforts, more and more frogs continued to attach on to his body, slowing him down to a frustrating walk.

Finally, Barry burst through a thick area of greenery and suddenly found himself standing near the top of a steep hill. Around fifty metres below him he could see running water as rushing rapids were careering down the hill to a point where the stream disappeared. Barry’s attention was momentarily directed towards his dry mouth, as the sight of the water made him realise that he hadn’t consumed any fluids since he arrived in the training grounds. The berries he’d eaten were juicy, but nothing compared to real water.

Fernery was still present between him and the stream, but only the smaller, ground covering type. There would be no true cover between here and the water and should he decide to head in that direction, he would be fully exposed. As Barry’s mind swirled trying to decide what to do his attention was suddenly caught by two things. Firstly, the crashing sound of the hopstriker mother toppling anything in its way as it closed the distance behind him. Secondly, by the strike of a smaller hopstriker that he hadn’t noticed was hiding in the low ferns in front of him. The pesky beast had managed to hit him directly in the head and was now ferociously scratching at one side of Barry’s face. Reaching his frog covered arms up to try and remove the beast Barry lost his footing and suddenly found himself tumbling down the hill towards the rapids.

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Barry rolled and spun as he rocketed down the hill towards the water. He didn’t experience much pain, probably due to the frogs taking the brunt of the impact in combination with his high vitality level. What he did feel was fear. Barry had experienced very little exposure to water growing up, and he wasn’t even sure he could swim. It also didn’t help that all these dumb frogs were stuck to him, restricting his ability to move even if he could swim. Panic set in and his mind raced until all of a sudden, his whole body was soaked as he landed into the rushing stream with a heavy splash.

Gasping for breath, Barry felt himself being taken by the powerful force of the water. His body bobbed up and down as he flew down the rapids, smashing into rocks as he went. Each time his head appeared above the water he heaved for air, oftentimes taking in mouthfuls of water that caused him to choke and cough. One small positive in the situation was that it seemed the frogs mostly floated, meaning he was currently covered in makeshift buoyancy devices. He was occasionally able to grab a hold of one of the many rocks for a moment but as he looked back up the hill, he saw the monstrous figure of the hopstriker mother that had also emerged from the forest. Its eyes remained fixed on him, and Barry had the feeling that if he stayed still for more than a second it would launch a deadly tongue strike straight at him.

Barry knew from seeing the beasts attack first-hand that a direct hit from the tongue would lead to certain death, regardless of how high his vitality was currently. But the alternative wasn’t much better. Barry had watched enough action movies to know that river rapids equalled waterfall. If he let go of the rocks he would likely drown or tumble down what Barry assumed was an approaching waterfall where the stream disappeared from view. With much uncertainty, and no more time available to think through his decision, Barry let go of the rocks. He heard a crashing sound as the beast had fired off another tongue strike that smashed the rock behind him to pieces.

“Possible death sounds better than certain death I guess,” Barry reluctantly thought to himself as his body continued to swirl in the rough waters, until all of a sudden he was falling. “I knew it, a fucking waterfall” Barry thought as his guts lurched, and fear gripped his heart.

He immediately activated his new skill heavy fortification, hoping it would provide enough defence to save him from his impending doom. With that done he closed his eyes, protected his head with his arms, and tumbled violently down the waterfall. It was a horrible feeling, being helpless and heavy, similar in a way to how he had felt in his previous life.

“Maybe this is a fitting way to go out?” he thought.

All of this happened within a matter of seconds until suddenly Barry slammed into something solid, stopping still far sooner than he had expected. Shocked, Barry felt around with his hands, touching the cold, wet surface he was lying on, as the water continued to fall onto and around him. Even more surprisingly he realised he hadn’t suffered too much damage from the drop, and he opened his eyes to see what it was he was stuck on. However, Barry could only see a blur of green as he tried to take in what he was looking at. After a few moments of confusion Barry realised he was staring point blank at the stomach of the small hopstriker that had latched on to his face earlier and had now repositioned itself to completely block his vision. Gathering all his strength Barry lifted his aura chain up to his face and looped it around the throat of the still kicking and scratching frog. Tightening the noose Barry pulled his arms apart and strangled the creature until it finally fell off and died, allowing Barry to look around properly.

After a few moments of coughing up the copious amounts of water he had inhaled, Barry gathered his senses and found that he was lying on a flat, stone platform that stuck out of the side of the hill, completely hidden by the rushing torrent of the waterfall. Directly in front of him Barry could see the majority of the flowing water from the waterfall continuing to fall past the edge of the platform. Despite swallowing large amounts of water whilst thrashing around in the rapids, Barry’s dry throat still begged for some relief. He immediately took this opportunity to fill his hands repeatedly with water and gulped it down. His severe thirst making the simple water taste heavenly. Once he had drank his fill Barry peered over the edge of the ledge and saw he was still a good thirty metres or so from the bottom of the waterfall that formed a rippling lake at the base of the cliff. Looking up he saw he had only fallen around ten metres, a drop that a few days ago would have been likely to kill him, but clearly his high vitality was paying off once again.

Next Barry turned around and looked towards the hill. Where he expected there to be nothing but a stony wall, he instead found what looked to be a small tunnel with a faint blue light glowing from its depths. Intrigued, Barry crawled forward into the opening towards the light. Every metre forward he crept the tunnel grew taller and wider until soon he was able to stand up. To his surprise, at the end of the ten or so metre long cave Barry found a large wooden door etched into the mountainside that was glowing a bright blue, and Barry sensed a mystical presence from within. Smiling, Barry inspected the door before placing his hand on it.

Inspection:

Hidden dungeon discovered: Eternal drip cavern

Barry wanted to jump right into the mysterious dungeon but his better judgement took over. Firstly, he had to get rid of these frogs. The annoying beasts had been stuck to his body for quite a while now and although a few had fallen off from the fall, most were still clinging on and scratching away at his body. With the boosts to his vitality their attacks were completely useless by now, but the constant wriggling and additional weight still caused a problem, especially with how many of the pests Barry still had on him. One by one Barry began strangling the beasts with his chain. However, a few remained locked on to his back or other spots that Barry couldn’t reach, so his only option was to wait for them to drop off once they ran out of stamina. Finally, after some time, he was free of their annoying grasp.

Barry didn’t gain any soul item levels this time from the low-level frog kills, but he had obtained a soul magic level during his escape of the hopstriker mother after summoning so many illusionary chains, bringing him up to level four, and propelling him to a power level of six. He had completely missed these messages at the time due to the distraction of being chased by the three headed monster. He decided that for the moment he would continue putting a chunk of his points into vitality, as it just felt right. The other points he would invest into the stats that seemed the most useful until he could come up with a better strategy. With that he threw one point into strength and one more into vitality, bringing his levels to four and twenty-one (plus five) respectively. Checking his stat screen Barry saw that his health was around eighty percent full, meanwhile his mana and stamina were both sitting at around half. Having no idea what challenges the dungeon might contain, Barry decided to patiently wait it out until his three key stat bars fully restored, and he had fully dried out. After an hour or two he stood up and turned the handle on the wooden door as it opened with an ominous creak, and the illuminating blue light flashed out before him.