When Arthur opened his eyes, he was in a different place. The wooden walls of the stable no longer surrounded him and he could feel an artificial breeze blowing on his skin, the sort that you usually felt from a fan, not the natural air of the wind.
"What the fuck is with this second-rate locus." Alyssia cursed loudly from beside him.
Arthur couldn't help but agree with her. From the stories she'd told him, a locus was supposed to be a place of adventure and danger, where every trial was situated in a different terrain, sometimes an exotic jungle and at others a scorching desert. The place they were currently in was neither and if Arthur hadn't seen the system message telling him they'd advanced to the next layer, he would've thought they were still stuck in the grasslands of crystal water.
The land around him looked EXACTLY the same, from the monotonous green grass that coated everything and the occasional lakes that dotted the ground. The only difference was that there were no hills in sight, the entire layer blessedly flat. It did however detract from the charm the previous one possessed, the hills being the main reason why the grasslands hadn't looked completely artificial. This place looked as fake as a model's tits and was nowhere near as pleasant to look at.
Arthur sighed in resignation. He didn't want the locus to be extremely strange and complex per se, but he did want a little adventure, even if it meant he could only see a few exotic biomes that would never be found on Earth. This locus looked like it wasn't even trying to surprise them and he found himself agreeing with the continuous stream of filth Alyssia was spouting.
The tirade continued for an entire minute before the alverin woman managed to control herself. She sighed in disappointment, her shoulders drooping downwards.
"I guess it's our fault for barging into this place prematurely."
"It's had no time to develop it's terrain." She sighed again.
"Still, I didn't expect my first ever proper locus exploration to be so... dull."
"Hey, it's not so bad," Arthur tried cheering her up. "The main thing's the trials right, and our first one was pretty damn unique."
Arthur knew that their trip to a locus held so much more significance for Alyssia than it did for him. To her, it was a chance to partake in the wonders of the stories she had grown up with, to create and write her own. It probably felt much like visiting a holiday destination you'd wanted your entire life and finding the experience mediocre.
Alyssia simply snorted at his words of encouragement, mumbling something under her breath. She did, however, stand straighter, her head no longer lowered towards the ground and her frown of disappointment was no longer so harsh. Arthur shrugged. It would have to do and he knew that Alyssia definitely wouldn't welcome any coddling from him. Besides, he had a system notification clamouring for his attention.
Welcome to the grasslands of the Tree of Life!
A mediocre name if he'd ever heard one.
You have been tasked with the recovery of the Golden Apples of Hesperides which can be found on the tree of life at the centre of this land. Beware its guardian, for its fangs are sharp.
Arthur felt his heartbeat quicken when he saw how intrinsically their trial was linked with life and health. Since the previous one had assisted Alyssia's growth in agility, he hoped that this trial would expand his already absurd health pool. He still needed to reach a thousand vitality, and if he could gain any here, he wouldn't have to waste the stats from any of his limited level-ups on them.
Alyssia, however, didn't seem anywhere near as pleased as he was.
"What the hell is wrong with your planet? Your stories are so boring. Catch some horses. Retrieve some apples. Retrieve some FUCKING apples!"
She was getting louder and louder with every word.
"Why is every trial a bloody errand!"
Arthur didn't say anything. He didn't mind that everything was so straightforward and simple. In fact, he welcomed it. Adventure was all good and fun, but he'd much rather have a manageable task to accomplish than some long-winded quest. Alyssia had warned him about the negative effects of a prolonged stay here, and he didn't want to test his luck. Not if his headache was anything to go by. It was minor now, but how long would that last? Perhaps it was because of his lower level that he succumbed to the side effects earlier than Alyssia, or maybe she was simply hiding her own issues, but the sooner they completed the trials of Hercules, the happier he'd be. Or maybe it's just a placebo and nothing's wrong yet.
"Calm down Alyssia," Arthur said sharply.
His words did not affect the woman. He doubted she'd even heard him with how caught up she was in her insulting of Hercules and her vivid description of the sexual partners he must've kept amused even him. What buffalos had to do with the demigod, Arthur had no idea, but he didn't think he'd ever want to hear the explanation of Alyssia's thought processes.
"Hey, Alyssia, you never know. Fighting the guardian of the tree might prove to be pretty damn interesting. Who cares if our guest is a little boring."
This time, his words actually got through to the frustrated alverin woman and he saw her visibly calm down before his very eyes. Yep, she's definitely got a screw loose. There was no doubt about it now. No one's emotions switched up so fast and it was highly unlikely that all the alverin people were as hot-headed as Alyssia. No, she was unquestionably strange even by their standards and no one could persuade him otherwise.
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"C'mon, let's go and at least see what this guardian looks like. You might get your adventure after all."
Alyssia shook her head.
"Don't try and get my hopes up. The trial never said we were supposed to beat the guardian, only that we should be wary of it."
"You know what that means right? It's not supposed to be beatable."
"Not by people under level 200 at least. We might make a special pair, but we're not that great. Heck, by my world's standards, currently you're only above average. No, I'm not being fair there. You're a monster, or at least you will be, but your current mediocre ether usage prevents you from being counted amongst the prodigies."
"In the future, when you grow into your affinities, things will certainly change, but I doubt we're ready to kill whatever this guardian may be as we are now. The trial would have told us otherwise."
"You might be right but who knows. We're pretty damn strong for our levels."
"No, Arthur, I know I'm right. This Locus would ordinarily be challenged by five people at level 199. But who knows, the locus has been such a letdown it might've actually given us a beatable monster. I don't want to get my hopes up but it won't hurt us to check."
She began to walk towards the centre of the land. That was where the system said the tree was located. Arthur had a feeling Alyssia was right, no matter how much he might want to reject it. Her explanation was blunt and did make sense. They weren't so great that they could challenge a creature that even the trial didn't ask them to beat.
Not when it was meant for a party of five whilst there were only two of them. Still, Arthur didn't want to give up hope quite yet. He still had one core to go before consuming the dragons. It'd been burning a hole in his backpack and controlling his desire to eat it was getting harder and harder. What would a core from a locus boss look like? He had to be selective with what he chose as his final core, but his gut told him he wouldn't find anything better outside. Not when the monster they were walking towards wasn't supposed to be beatable by five people just under level 200. Alyssia was dragging her feet, actually moving slower than Arthur for once and her unmotivated walk undermined his confidence a little. They were going towards a fight she didn't think they could win. Walking at a sedate pace beside her, Arthur took out some time to try and see if there were any differences between this layer and the last. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, he came to the conclusion that there were none.
Besides the lack of hills, this place was a mirror copy of the previous layer, except that it somehow lacked any charm and looked even more fake. I guess we really did come here too early.
They had literally forced their way into the locus and judging by the lacklustre design they'd seen so far, the place wasn't really ready for them. Alyssia hadn't said anything about receiving lacklustre rewards as a result, however, so Arthur didn't let it concern him. Life was interesting enough that he wasn't craving some extra adventure to spike it up.
"Arthur, stop." Alyssia abruptly shouted.
The words were said so suddenly he almost missed them, his foot already raised to take another step. The laws of inertia and his own anatomy dictated that he should have moved the half meter forward that he'd intended to, but he suddenly went sprawling backwards. It was only after he looked up that he realised Alyssia had dragged him backwards so fast that his shirt was completely ripped from where she'd grabbed it.
Alyssia's eyes were darting from side to side like a prey caught in a trap, and she took short shallow breaths as if she'd just run at a dead sprint and expended the entirety of her stamina pool. The expression on her face wasn't one Arthur had seen before, not even when her younger brother had been at death's door. Back then she'd been anxious and worried, now she was scared.
No. She was terrified.
It wasn't an expression he'd ever expected her to make.
That was when he heard it. To call it a roar would do it a disservice. It was so much more than that. In all honesty, it was hardly a transmission of sound, more a transference of primal emotion and power directly to the very essence of his being. He felt it in his soul. The arrogance and rage of a being so far beyond him it was almost funny in its absurdity.
The ground itself seemed to almost vibrate in fear but the part of Arthur's brain still capable of rational thought simply appreciated the volume of the creature's roar that it caused the very earth to shake. He still struggled to hear it properly, which either meant that his ears were blown to high heaven or the sound was at a frequency he couldn't entirely register even with his unlocked perception.
Arthur didn't know which of his two theories were correct, nor did he care. He had hit upon an epiphany of sorts, the sort of truth that somehow made the world clearer and let you see it with a different lens and it was that he need to GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!
He was in the process of taking a step back when he felt something stir up from the depths of his soul, the part that had conquered the shadow panther and made its power his own. The animalistic side to him, the defier and the confrontationist. It stopped him from taking a step back. It stopped him from retreating.
But it didn't take a step forward.
That was when Arthur realised what the problem was. Every other time his half-breed title had come into play, he'd barely had any control over it. He'd never truly known what was happening in those moments. It descended over him like a haze of rage that took away all his rational thought. But this time he could feel it and it was so much more subdued than he'd expected it to be. The fact that he could even feel it was a red flag in and of itself and he confirmed it when it only took a trickle of his willpower to control his primal self-destructive urges. The beast within him simply slunk away like a cat with its tail tucked between its legs.
It was afraid and so was he.
It was only a minute after the roar had passed that he trusted his legs to move again. Alyssia was still standing in front of him and for a second, he hoped she'd been unaffected by the call of the beast at the centre of the grasslands, that she'd stood unwavering in front of the challenge he'd wanted to run from. The hope died almost as soon as it formed. Alyssia's legs were rigid, not from control, but from terror. She couldn't run away even if she'd wanted to.
Unlike him, Alyssia had no half-breed title. Arthur had no doubt that without it he would have been in a far worse state than Alyssia. As it was, he regained control over his faculties in a minute whilst it took the woman five. He didn't say anything in the intervening time, simply standing beside her in silence to show that he was still there; that she wasn't alone. It looked like she needed that sort of support. It was only when her breathing returned to normal that he finally spoke.
"So, no fighting the guardian, I guess." He joked.
It was a weak stab at humour, the sort a soldier makes before entering no man's land. Alyssia didn't say anything.
"So what was that then?" He instead asked.
This time Alyssia responded, quietly at first, but her voice began to regain its original strength and confidence with every word she spoke.
"That- that was an apocalypse beast. What your shadow panther would've become if it'd been given enough time."
"You just stepped into it's domain."
"And your right. We're not gonna fight that fucker. I'm going to kill it."