Hours passed as he fought his way through the choking jungle. Every now and then he had to take a break to deal with a surprise attack from a Quilaxon, but with his new weapon and stats they were dealt with easily enough.
The day passed much like this, a dull exhausting trek through the dense foliage, interspersed with short shockingly violent bursts of activity. Quilaxons seemingly infested this part of the jungle.
“Hey ACAS, why is there so many of those snakes around? They seem to be the only thing attacking me.”
“This part of the jungle only has a limited variation of predators. The ones in the ruins along with the ruins themselves should not be here. Quilaxon Constrictors are the main predators found here, With Caticans and Scoruito, that makes up the different types of predators.”
“What are Scoruito? That’s a cool sounding name.”
“I suppose telling you now will make it easier for you to survive in the rare event that you will meet one. Scoruito are very very rare salamander like creatures the size of horses. They also have a random elemental affinity which has made them hunted to the point of extinction. As they grow bigger and live longer a condensed mana crystal forms with a specific elemental affinity. These can be sold for ridiculous amounts.”
“Wow they sound amazing, it’s a shame they are nearly extinct though, but I guess greedy people are the same the universe over.”
“If you see one. Run. You are nowhere near the level needed to fight them. You would get destroyed in an instant.”
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“That’s good to know, thanks.”
The time passed quickly, Noah making good progress towards the village, unfortunately for him, night fell quickly and before losing the last of the light he had to find somewhere that he wouldn’t die while sleeping.
After a frantic search he couldn’t find anything. The only promising feature in the landscape was a rocky hillside. He swung the Glavenius at the rock face and it carved easily through the stone. Rapidly Noah carved into the hillside finding it to be solid stone throughout. With the ease of carving he quickly made a slit in the rockface and carved out a small room beyond that. Dumping the excess rock on the ground outside.
“Now this is good, I might be able to get some sleep without fearing for my life now” Noah said as he set up his camping tent.
The next day Noah set off again. As he walked ever closer to the village, he started to find that navigating through the jungle was becoming easier. Occasionally even finding some game trails tracked into the earth.
“I must have been getting close to the village now, they must be keeping the jungle thinned out a bit”
Using the sun as a time piece, after about another hour of forging his way through the jungle, it stopped. Before him stood a wide strip of land cleared of any vegetation other than grass.
Cautiously, he walked forward, weapon at the ready. In the distance Noah could see the silhouette of a walled village. With more confidence he walked forwards. And fell through the ground into a pit trap.
The pit trap was filled with the desiccated remains of many Quilaxons and more than one Catican. His fall into the pit caused a rumbling through the corpses and a handful of starved looking Quilaxons moved towards him.
Noah quickly swung the Glavenius in a sharp arc around him, slicing easily through the mass of bodies and instantly killed 3 of the Quilaxons, injuring 2 more with vicious wounds in their necks.
Unheeding of their wounds the snakes lashed forwards trying to get a grip on Noah, through their immense struggle one of them managed to wrap itself tightly around his arm squeezing for all it was worth. Unfortunately for the snake, its time in the pit meant that its strength was so low that all Noah felt was a slight pressure. Quickly he stabbed forward at the unattached snake and stabbed through its skull, the blade of the Glavenius bursting through the back of its skull.
After spending days in the jungle fighting through Quilaxons, Noah felt no fear as he looked at the one attached to his arm. With his free hand he grabbed the snake just behind its head and flung it at the wall in front of him. With a sickening crunch the snake imploded bits of skull and brain flying everywhere.
As Noah flopped backwards looking up at sky, a head intruded on that vision.
“Well you look like you are in a bit ‘o trouble don’tcha.”