He turned the corner and saw Nurgle and a strange looking cat locked in a violent staring contest. The feline looked like a blown up house cat and had fluorescent eyes that locked the pair in place. It had scavenged the frog carcasses that they had left when they rushed into the dungeon and appeared to be mid meal when they confronted it.

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It stared back at them and the last frog before turning away and jumping down the side of the cliff. Now that they had been freed from its hypnotizing gaze, they rushed to the cliff and watched the dark creature slink into the night. They had gained a shield and fanny pack, but lost half of their remaining food.

The possibility that the monster would return and kill them in their sleep was another thought that Drew did not want to humor. With the monster gone, they sat around unsure of what to do given the darkness that had taken over the landscape.

He lounged near the entrance of the dungeon and stuffed his new fanny pack with a water bottle. Once the entire bottle entered the pouch, it seemed to disappear from view. Drew’ tilted the bag over and attempted to shake the contents out.

“Where did it go? Did it eat it or something?” In his frustrations, he reached into the pouch and saw his arm go much further inside than he thought possible. He felt the leather on the inside once his arm was up to the elbow and felt around for the missing bottle. Once he had it in his grasp, he withdrew it and inspected the opening closer.

The volume had to be about that of a normal back back from the emptiness that he felt earlier but it didn't feel any heavier with the addition of the new water bottle. Another strange mystery for the fantasy world that Drew had no source to get a better understanding of. It was just fantastic.

He gave up on trying to understand every phenomenon and threw the frog into the waterfall after eating the remaining meat on it. Now that he was probably the most blind thing in the jungle, he was not so enthused to go exploring till the sun arose next morning.

After hours of sitting in the relative silence of a nighttime jungle, the pair drifted in and out of sleep, passing hours at a time only to be startled awake by a particularly loud crash or call. The sun eventually welcomed them into the new day and offered them new adventures in the form of game trails, monsters, and mysteries.

Drew stretched his muscles and inspected his body. His hand was almost completely fine with only two days of rest. The fantasy world finally did something right for him after screwing him over and over again. Beyond the pain associated with injuries, no other points of concern bothered him too greatly.

The socks he had won from the dungeon kept him very comfortable considering the relative humidity and heat that plagued the jungle they had found themselves in. It was so much so that when he took them off, copious amounts of sweat poured from him, but when he put them back on he was able to fully relax. He was confident they were actually magic socks, as dumb as that sounded.

The discomfort had just been part of the experience before, but now that he had the magical comfort socks, he was not turning back. No sweat meant less water he needed to drink and clothes he had to change.

With the morning in full swing and the sun fully illuminating much of the pond banks, it seemed the best time to get moving and cover ground while laying the smack down.

The pair marched along the trail down the waterfall cliff. The raw frog carcass that Nugle had left the other day had been picked clean and chewed on by things in the nights and appeared strewn about. Under Drew’s watchful eye, they walked the river banks looking for monsters to kill and adventure to be had.

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The other side of the pond tributary was hard to get to as the tightest place between each side was still fifteen feet across. The waterfall never led to the other side beyond a possibly rough fall and undoable climb back up.

The only other enemies that the pair knew of were the crocodile-like things that sit below the water's surface and the tall tortoises with bushy camouflage.

“If I swim as fast as possible and start with a running jump then I should only be in the water for more than a few seconds, hopefully not long enough to be smacked by some predatory creature.” the little cyclops stared up at his master waiting for his que to go ahead.

Instead of having Nurgle do it alone, Drew launched the creature with a light underhand toss. He landed with the grace of a newborn penguin and came to a rolling stop in his newly dirtied fur. Drew stripped himself of anything important or absorbent and shoved what he could into the fanny pack before throwing that over to Nurgle.

With a running start, he took off from the shore in one large leap and felt the air flying by him as the duration of jump extended far more than normal. The fear of landing in the water was proven true, but not to the degree that he was afraid of.

The jump carried him almost the entire way. Aided by the power strength ring and newer physical fitness allowed him to essentially bypass the exposure to horrific leach monsters that would have been certainly attracted to his alien flesh.

After walking the last foot out of the water and equipping his gear, Drew was ready to explore. Nurgle, on the other hand, was a dirty mess that was now stubbornly walking along with his rude master.

They followed the bank to where they had last seen the turtles on stilts and looked around for any traces of them as they were nowhere to be seen since they arrived. They might have moved on or changed positions on the bank?

That thought was cut short as Nurgle kicked what he thought was a tree, but the woody structure quickly retaliated in anger. The camouflage they used was much more effective when you couldn’t see what was going on from above. It did not help that they, like the frogs, were much larger than they appeared to be from their vantage point.

It kicked right back at the small creature which only made him more angry Why they were camouflaging to begin with was a mystery that they now paid the consequences for.

Nurgle took immense offense to the retaliation and proceeded to hack into the monster leg like a lumberjack. The moss covered leg did not hold up well to the metal weapons and the top heavy creature failed to maintain its balance under his assault.

What was once a 3 foot tall turtle from above was now 10 foot tall and standing on verifiable stilts. With the deletion of one of the creature's legs, it slammed into the ground with its full weight. It had to have been a few hundred pounds. The monster made horrific noises as it struggled to stand up from its current beat down.

It swiped its legs around, making an obstacle course environment in the process. Nurlge hopped over the leg swipes and made its way to the wide shell. He slammed his dual axes into the hard dome repeatedly to no avail. The blow did little beyond brushing aside the moss that had grown attached to the shell.

“Go to its head Nurlge!” The shout egged the little cyclops on and sent him scrambling to its head.

It had withdrawn its head behind a hinge like that of a box turtle and left the smaller creature slowly prying it open with his weapons. Drew finished chopping off the injured leg with his ax in the hope that it would allow him to relax during the struggle.

The amount of blood that began pooling below the monster was astounding. The frogs had very little to deal with compared to this behemoth. The puddle of thickening dark red goo was up to Nurgle's small ankles when he cracked the hinge with his assault. A large head snapped out at his attack like a snake striking at his prey.

Nurgle bashed the lightning fast strike away with his broken ax and cleaved its head off with his kitchen knife. Despite the decapitated creaures state of death, its legs flailed around in its final vestiges of life.

+70 xp for defeating Shell Stilter [Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 10/1600 xp Level Up! Nurgle gains significantly more strength. Additional summon slot gained.

“Aw hell yeah!”