Pretty much all children were taught how to orient themselves in the jungle as soon as they were old enough to go on missions in the barrier. One of the primary means was something akin to celestial navigation. The crystals in the ceiling acted as fixed points of reference.
According to the map, the ruins were to the east of the village. In between us and the ruins was about a full day of running, a small valley, a river, and probably a lot of monsters. The barrier and scouts kept the populations in check near the village but the further you went, the more dangerous it got.
The map wasn't precise enough to plan a definitive route but we already had an idea of where we should go.
"Let's avoid the marked taratect grounds," Vel said, "I've seen enough of them for a while."
"Leaves us with the lizards," I said with a grimace.
The Yellow Jungle Lizards were territorial beasts. They fiercely protected their nests and had earth magic at their disposal. I had never seen one in person but from what I had heard, they were less of a pain to deal with than taratects due to their more direct approach to combat.
"If we go this way, there are cliffs with caverns according to the map," I pointed to a place at the center of the lizard's domain, "we can probably camp there for the night."
"Sounds good," Vel said.
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We found our first lizards only an hour or so later. Three of them inside a small clearing, a nest with pearly white eggs at the center. One of them was sleeping curled around the nest, another was resting on a nearby boulder, and the third was heading out.
[https://i.imgur.com/m34sicw.jpg]
> [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 45, Rank 3)]
> [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 43, Rank 3)]
> [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 44, Rank 3)]
Their levels were a lot higher than us but the difference was not always an absolute indicator. A high level but stupid monster could get killed by a weaker and smarter opponent, as long as they could dish out enough damage. The trio would make for a good test of our skills. If they proved too much, we had the option of retreating to the trees. The lizards were not good climbers.
"I'll set up trap runes to corral the one guarding the nest," I whispered to Vel, "and focus on the one on the boulder. You handle the one moving out."
Vel nodded and moved out with her stealth active. I readied three throwing needles and aimed for the lizard near the nest. I enabled Magic Combat and readied the spells. The magic circle appeared near the tip of the needles. I waited for a few seconds until I heard a cry. My first needle set a trap between the nest lizard and the one that had left. A second later I shot a second one to cut off the boulder lizard from the nest lizard. Finally, I placed one between me and the nest lizard who was now penned in.
The one on the boulder started to move. I prepared my bow and fired at it. I used Mystic Enhancement to increase the arrow's damage and Magic Strike to deliver a cold Arcane Strike. Lizards were cold blooded animals and consequently weak to ice magic. The arrow struck its flank and sunk deep, a patch of cold started to spread on the monster's scales. From the noises it made, it was not happy.
I took a glance at where Vel had trapped her own target in creeping vines. The plants were constricting around the lizard who had made several spikes of stone appear around it. I assumed that Vel was out of the line of fire.
The nest guardian had started to create a small mound of earth to hide itself and the eggs. I wanted to spare the eggs if possible, I was curious if they made for a good meal. I cast Wind Overture and sent a compressed air bullet towards it. The spell impacted the lizard and the burst of air shoved it over the earth it had been molding and into the open. I followed it up with Frozen Melody and formed an ice blade I launched at the Jagras. It was hit on the back and the ice left a large gash on my target. I avoided the use of earth magic as much as possible to avoid a contest of strength on that front.
With the traps around, I focused on the boulder lizard again. It had honed in on where I was hiding and I spotted the three spikes of earth it was charging just in time. I switched Mystic Enhancement to myself, the dark red runes of the lava enhancement lit up the surrounding foliage. I jumped down from my perch just in time and grabbed a branch a few meters down to slow down my fall before landing in a roll on the ground.
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It was somewhere I didn't want to be when two earth controlling lizards were focused on me. I quickly threw a bolt of fire their way with Flame Dance to keep them on the defensive. It worked and the nest lizard used its magic to raise an earth wall. Its friend fired two more spikes that I intercepted with my arcane barrier.
I fired a second cold arrow at my attacker. The projectile being much faster than a spell was not intercepted and I saw my target slow down again. It seemed that the cold did a lot of damage to them. I saw the magic activate under my feet thanks to mana perception and jumped to grab a low branch. Below me, a mud pit had started to form.
I flipped myself on top of the branch and fired another arrow, this one loaded with a scorching Arcane Strike. Being cold blooded did not provide them with an immunity to fire it seemed. The arrow scratched the scales of the nest lizard but delivered its payload nonetheless.
The system chimed in my mind, a quick glance with my second partition told me Vel had dealt with her target. I jumped to another branch to avoid more stone projectiles and switched to stealth. The runes on my body became black and seemed to absorb the pale light around me. The change managed to confuse them. Vel took advantage of it and started to entangle the nest lizard, who was still on the ground.
The boulder lizard tried to slice the thorny vines apart with stone but I stepped in. I fired yet another cold arrow and followed it up with a blade of ice from Frozen Melody. The razor sharp icicle sliced open the lizard's throat, its breath slowed and, after a few seconds, the notification rang in my mind. Its brethren expired soon after.
> Your group has defeated [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 45, Rank 3)]
> Your group has defeated [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 43, Rank 3)]
> Your group has defeated [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 44, Rank 3)]
> Experience gain reduced by 20% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 20% for fighting a strong enemy
> Experience gain increased by 20% for fighting a group
> Experience gain increased by 50% for defeating a monster above your rank
> Essence Absorption collected 9 ES
>
> Skill Magic Combat has reached rank 1, level 5 (+2 levels)
> Skill Magic Strike has reached rank 1, level 7 (+2 levels)
> Skill Mystic Enhancement has reached rank 1, level 8 (+2 levels)
> Skill Metamagic has reached rank 2, level 4 (+2 level)
> Skill Multicast has reached rank 2, level 4 (+2 level)
>
> Reached Level 25 (Rank 2, +4 levels)
> Gained: 18 ES
Vel walked out from behind a tree on the other side of the clearing. Behind her, some animated branches were dragging her prey towards the rest of the corpses.
"I think we found our meal," she said.
I picked up some of the fist sized eggs from the nest and placed them in one of my pouches.
"You want to make a lizard omelet?"
"Why not, an egg is an egg," I shrugged.
I pulled out my dagger and started to skin the largest lizard.
----------------------------------------
In the end, we decided to leave most of the dead Jagras behind. It was entirely impractical to transport the corpses while remaining stealthy. I took some choice cuts of meat from the female, who had been guarding the eggs, and wrapped them safely in cloth for transport.
"Let's get going," I said, "this is bound to attract attention."
Vel nodded and we took off towards the cliff where we planned to rest. We avoided a few more nests on the way as they were populated with more than three individuals. I needed more crowd control spells and Vel needed better mastery of her magic to make this kind of fight viable.
Finally, we found a nest with only two Jagras guarding it.
> [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 47, Rank 3)]
> [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 45, Rank 3)]
This time, Vel managed to catch both of them at the same time in her vines. This gave me a good opening to fire more precise arrows. The first lizard died from two arrows to the neck, one puncturing the jugular and the other hitting the spine. The second I felled with spells, ice blades were almost as good as arrows when properly aimed and controlled.
> Your group has defeated [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 47, Rank 3)]
> Your group has defeated [Adult Yellow Jagras (Level 45, Rank 3)]
> Experience gain reduced by 20% for fighting with a group
> Experience gain increased by 50% for defeating a monster above your rank
> Essence Absorption collected 6 ES
>
> Skill Magic Combat has reached rank 1, level 6 (+1 level)
> Skill Magic Strike has reached rank 1, level 8 (+1 level)
>
> Reached Level 27 (Rank 2, +2 levels)
> Gained: 6 ES
We took a few lizard legs from our kills and left the rest for the scavengers.