Chapter 112 The Forest Tail
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Lily went on the maze with her shoulders slagged behind her. She was in a poor mood due to the mimics earlier. She has never seen a non-hostile monster before. Moreover, they were hungry. If they didn’t find the others soon, they might be starved to death.
“Those mimic sure are something. I wonder why they didn’t attack us. I would understand if it was ordinary animals, but these are monsters created by mana, right?” Nora commented.
“Some monsters do not attack us directly. This is just something I read in libraries, but I heard some monsters preferred traps. We should be wary. Those guys tend to be the type to lead us to traps and flee if at a disadvantage. They probably wanted to run but have nowhere to run because the other side is not their designated spot or have a more dangerous enemy, which is why they have such odd behavior.” Lhorne coldly spoke of their behavior.
Juvenile Hydra
A hydra that will one day become the king and, at last, will become the guardian deity of them all. This one’s weakness is not the head but the tail. Cut the tail.
Unlike the towering giant from before, this one barely reached Lily’s height and only had two heads. Lily prepared her trusted saber. Nora dashed with an opening slash and decapitated one head. Lily followed in tow to behead another. But it regenerated back its head even after we cut it almost simultaneously. I was glad it didn’t multiply its head like in the myth.
I used a fire spear and burned its body to ashes, which worked fine in killing it. I was testing appraisal by disobeying it, and we managed to kill it just fine. When another one popped up, we killed it according to the appraisal, and the hydra bled out from its tail. However, it still took longer to die than incineration or stab wounds.
Lily ventured more to the depth and came across the next biome. The forest biome. Lily was no longer surprised at the bizarre scene before her right now. She has seen a crystal room, dark caves, oily caves, boiling lakes, and lava lakes with moving platforms or narrow pathways. She only considers the jungle to be a potential food source for her.
The jungle biome was vast. She could not even see the end of the room. The ceiling was glowing like stars, and some rocks were glowing with various colors. It was bizarre enough that the only normal thing Lily saw was the tree and green leaves. The jungle was dense with foliage and bushes, with trees every few steps crowding the area. After just a few seconds of walking, Lily saw a banana tree hanging in front of her.
I used appraisal, and it showed me a typical banana. Lily was about to leave it alone before I told her it was safe to eat. She looked at me in a daze before turning her attention to the tree and back again to me. I swung my tail up and down as a gesture that I nodded. She sighed while baffled and walked toward the banana.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Let’s pick that banana….” Lily said weakly. She climbed the tree, grabbed some banana and their blossoms, and dropped it. Lhorne and Nora didn’t protest much because they were also hungry. They have been starving for a few days without food and only sustain themselves with Lily’s water magic. They were hesitant, but as Lily blankly ate the banana without a care, they followed her, throwing any sense of danger out of the window.
After they had their fill, Lhorne regained his sense, “Wait, are we going to be fine eating some random things in the dungeon?”
“I checked with appraisal….” Lily said. She was baffled, but she trusted me.
“Thank god. That’s odd. Why would they leave a banana tree here?”
“Well, some dungeons also mimicked its surrounding. We could find similar edible plants inside a dungeon in Edenthal…. but it certainly was bizarre that we found this kind of dungeon inside a cave. Moreover, after boiling hot lakes and dark, creepy caves.” Lhorne replied while clapping his hands and thanking the gods for giving him such luck.
They soon leaned on the nearby tree and slept without a care in the world. After fasting for nearly three days, they finally had food and relaxed. I could not sleep, though, so I just watched over them tenderly. I was glad that the group tension finally relaxed after a long time. They smiled in their dreams. The ruffling sound of the leaves and the breezing winds were soothing.
“LILY!!!” I screamed, and it jolted her awake. I made fireballs with haste, and explosions shook the others awake. Multiple spiders swarmed us. There were hundreds of them.
“Huh?” Lily stood in a daze before it finally registered that she was ambushed. She grabbed her saber, slashed at the jumping spider, and sliced it open. Lhorne and Nora followed two beats later with their sword and scimitar.
“Ambush! Gather up and protect each other back!” Lhorne organized our formations, and we formed an outward triangle formation at once.
“Lily! Watched out. Do not get bitten at all costs. They are weak individually, Not unlike spiders in Edenthal Region, but they carry a paralyzing toxin,” I advised her after appraising those spiders. If we let any spider bite us, we will be downed for about a day, and with our numbers, that will be devastating.
Lily and I got two level-ups two hours later, and the spiders fled.
You have leveled up to level 28
You have leveled up to level 29
“Thank god for your quick response Lord Lily. I am ashamed for such stupid negligence.” Lhorne kowtowed after we secured the perimeter.
“Sorry, Lily. We even forgot to set up a night routine.”
“It’s fine! Even I slept so soundly. If not for my tail sensing something, we would be goners!” Lily waved her hand, and she thanked me profusely in her mind.
“Let me stand guard.” Lhorne then volunteered himself
“No, let me. I am better now. You guys can sleep.”
“I am fine with staying watch, too,” Lily said.
“No!” Both of them refused Lily, and she was sent to her bed while they discussed the night rotation. They said preserving the strongest fighter for the worst-case scenario was paramount in battle. A heartless, cold logic was taught even to the rangers of the elves.
We spent the night now with renewed vigor and vigilance.