Raz watches as the newly changed creature begins to use its humanoid claws to dig into the tree, slowly climbing and pulling itself up. Tendrons of muscle and strings of blood peel and drips off of it as it goes higher and higher. Raz looks around and sees a semi-injured branch, but on the crack of the branch has what looks to be green energy flowing through slowly but surely repairing the branch.
Raz reaches over and yanks at the branch till it snaps off, at the loud snap the skeletal creature starts to quicken its climb up towards Raz. It snaps off branches as it climbs, and green energy that acts similar to liquid begins to seep from the destroyed branches. The energy emits a soft glow, illuminating the entire area in soft green light.
At the sight of this Raz begins to climb up higher while spouting out explicitly at this terrible situation. As Raz nears the top he saw something that made his blood run cold, the skeleton creature being pushed away from his thoughts as he stares at the tree trunk. There, he saw a large knot on the tree, but in the center of the knot lay a sizeable wooden eye. The knot blinks and then stares into Raz’s eyes.
Sounds of bark scraping and destroying bring him back to the situation as the skeleton is now within ten feet. Raz aims the branch he tore off and threw it down at the skeleton like a spear, piercing one of the eyes and going throughout its entire body where it lays stuck, the skeleton looking utterly unbothered by the new limb it had. The tree then began to shake. Raz looked down past the skeleton to see the roots of the tree pulling itself out of the ground then started to flail about chaotically like an octopus. The branches started to swing every which way, slamming into both Raz and the skeleton. Then a loud screech echoed within the forest line. The tree itself split open vertically near the bottom and out came vines that reminded Raz of tongues.
“What is with everything not being what it seems, and WHY DOES EVERYTHING SPLIT ITSELF OPEN?! DID I NOT GET THE MEMO?!? SYSTEM, AM I SUDDENLY ABLE TO SPLIT OPEN?! HELP! ME!” The system window floated in front of him again but with new words.
[ To regenerate the sys--------------skeleton or find a source of mana.] The claw marks hid a substantial portion of the window.
“Something to do with the skel-” Raz was hit harshly once again by a branch, getting battered back and forth between them. He raises a foot and kicks the branches away, snapping a few of them. More green liquid poured out, seeing this he pulls the system window over and put it under one of the branches, and it began to absorb the green liquid. Raz suddenly yelped and shuddered as he felt a warm powerful grip on his ankle. The skeleton wolf had finally caught up to him and was gripping onto his ankle, attempting to pull him down into the awaiting maw. Raz kicked at the claw but couldn’t even budge it, he then gazed at the skeleton and saw that there wasn’t even a scratch on the creature from the tree’s attacks. With a shuddering sigh, he put in his last hope and plan.
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Raz leaped down towards the creature, grappling with its maw to avoid getting bit. With the force of his leap, he was able to knock it barely off balance and they both fell back to the ground. Breaking and slamming through branches where they promptly landed on the ground with Raz on top. Raz felt some of his bones break as pain shot through him. The creature begins to stand back up on its hind legs looking down at Raz. He pulls back his bony claws and as it was about to send them forward a single vine wrapped around the waist of the skeleton. The skeleton sliced the vine in half with its other hand but then three more vines whipped out, grabbing its arms and its waist again.
The skeleton screeched loudly even though he didn’t have vocal cords then began to shift forward and tried to walk against the vines, slowly snapping them. But the vines quickly overran it and cocooned the skeleton. Slowly pulling it into the giant opening within the tree, where Raz could now see hundreds of tiny branches that made up the inside as if they were its teeth. The skeleton made a last-ditch effort and bit past the vine around its head, and one of its arms. As it was being pulled back it reached out its extended arm towards Raz, and for the first time, Raz saw a hint of emotion in its last eye, a twinge of fear. The tree smashed around it, the claw and head of the skeleton falling off. Raz reaches forward with his hand to the skull and claw. His body protested any sort of movement.
Pain wracking his body as the adrenaline starts to go away, reminding him of how stupid it was to jump out of a tree. He puts the clawed hand into his pocket, and he realized he was in the same clothing as he was when he died. He reaches around and feels two holes in his shirt but no marks on his skin. Then, grabbing the skull Raz saw that there was light emitting through the nose as if someone put a light source into the skull. Raz sets the skull onto his head, using it like a helmet with a built-in small flashlight. He then heads over to the tree which currently has crunching sounds emitting from the trunk, and pushed the system window under the leaking tree. The window promptly began to absorb more of the energy, repairing it. The tree reached out a vine towards Raz as if he was about to grab him.
“Are you not full yet?! Get away from me!” Adrenaline courses through his veins again as he sprints away from the outstretched vines looking to grab him. He runs through the forest in reckless abandon when he sees a large mound within a clearing up ahead. Raz slowly walks towards it, the scent of death heavy in the wind, and more fog floats around. Raz climbs the hill to see a large gaping hole leading down into the earth at a slant. He quickly looks at his surroundings seeing no other creatures, then heads down.
“This place will probably be safer than being outside…” The feeling of mental and physical tiredness rushes through him, his bones and muscles aching for rest. After a couple more steps he falls onto the ground where he pulls himself against the wall of the tunnel. his thoughts began to drift away as he heard a gentle ding in the background followed by some words.
[Congratulations on saving the system and completing the training exercise! Quest completed! Moving on to the tutorial!]