An hour or so later finds us crossing over the highest point of the valley itself, the opposite side falling away swiftly toward the ground, revealing the vast tableau spread out below us.
Stretching as far as I can see is a truly massive forest, larger even than the Great Forest back home by several orders of magnitude!
But the size isn’t the most obvious difference…..
No, that is reserved for the sheer amount of rain being dumped on it!
From our vantage, it seems like hundreds of clouds are dropping their payloads all over the crystalline greenery below, leading me to only one possible conclusion:
We have ourselves a rainforest!
As we begin our descent, a notification enters my vision and confirms my observation regarding the biome below:
--Entering Rainforest Zone II—
Hmm, with the number after the Zone having gone up, I have to consider the likelihood that there is other Zones with the same environments, maybe even more hostile ones as the numbers rise? Only time will tell though.
A new treasure chest icon appears on my mini map on my PAID, marking a spot deep into the heart of forest, naturally. I pause for several moments, waiting to see if the chest will move, meaning someone had picked it up already, but it remains undisturbed and unmoving.
Thanks to the downhill aspect of our walk, we reach the ground well before high noon, coming to a short stop just before the tree line begins and the rainforest swallows us whole.
“Well, I know you hate it but we are going to have to deal with it. I’ll dry you off right after we’re through, I swear. Okay?” I try to reassure Artemis about the rain to come, her most hated foe before the apocalypse now a more rational feeling of dislike, but to say she finds it distasteful would be a slight understatement.
Looking askance at the dripping trees and dozens of active rainclouds, she just sighs in a very human manner and trudges dejectedly into the moistly decaying undergrowth, Horus and I sharing a bemused look before following.
We muscle our way through the dense foliage, my Huntsman’s Athleticism and Wild Aura suitable to shift the limbs of bushes and trees enough for us to slip through without needing to cut our trail nor making any loud noises, thankfully.
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With this stealthy fashion of trailblazing, we soon surprise a Beast during its unfortunate meal as we stumble into a clearing.
Now, given my Class, Style and Path, I can understand on a conscious level the cycle of life and death, of killing those you can to survive on.
But that understanding fails me in the face of this particular menu option..
The Beast, mouth full of a grisly half chewed leg with a boot still on its foot, just looks at us in surprise for a moment while we return the gesture, though with a fair bit more disgust and for my part, indignation at the casual eating of my fellow Earthling…
Just as quick as the frozen moment began, it ends, the Beast quickly standing up and beginning to growl, human flesh still stuck, unfortunately enough, between its large front teeth.
{Crystalline Crawler, Rogue, Lv. 33}
With a frown down at the human remains, I realize that the poor guy must have been snuck up on given the Beast’s Class which probably made it fairly easy to remain undetected until it drew close enough to strike.
Its body, not too dissimilar to the Stalker’s truthfully, bears long, lean limbs with clawed hands and lightly armored with crystal growths in strategic, or rather, vulnerable, locations.
Darting towards us in a blur, it attempts to circle around us with some camouflage ability but my Wild Aura shows me just where it is, allowing me to turn us to face its approach head-on!
Artemis, taking initiative, breathes out an icy fog onto the trampled undergrowth of the clearing floor ahead of the speeding attacker while Horus launches at it, his talons flashing brilliantly as they stun our opponent briefly.
Crystal eyes blinking as it continues its charge unabated, it misses the icy patch of ground, slipping ass over teakettle onto the dirt, only sliding to a stop about 10 feet from us!
“Perfect.” I tell my Companions in praise as the Beast’s momentum leaves it before hurling myself into motion.
Leaping into the air, I channel my Style through me, my Wild Aura causing the power of nature’s wrath to flow through me like never before, the sheer volume I can now control and direct a massive improvement.
At the apex of my jump, my hatchet head begins to grow, stone layering and layering over and over until the head becomes nearly boulder sized and as I come back to earth, I slam the full weight of a veritable avalanche down upon the still fallen Beast.
BOOM!
The ground shakes, the trees tremble and the very air itself shockwaves on impact as I obliterate the crystal body of the Beast and turn it into nothing more than tiny bits of crystal sand and splintered shards.
Congratulations! You have killed a Crystalline Crawler for a total of 15,000,000 XP!
Crystal Shards: 3/10 for Martial Style Upgrade
By rote I glance and dismiss the XP notification and almost do it again for the Crystal Shard update before the change catches my eye, ‘What??” I utter stupidly in surprise.
So, should I take this to mean that the method of killing the creatures here will cause a specific result in what part of my build can be upgraded?
Or is it by Zone somehow?
Too many questions and too few answers leaves me scratching my head for an embarrassing amount of time over the body of our fallen foe. Forcing myself to turn to the remains of our former peer, I shrug and hope to find a few of those elusive answers somewhere over the horizon.
After all, there is so very much left to explore, to discover, to hunt and I cannot wait to do so.
For Earth.
For Belina.