The farm towers were the backbone of the food supply in the world. There were two types of farm towers, skyscrapers above ground and undercrofts below the earth. These farm towers provided all varieties of vegetables and meats. Each floor of the farm towers was filled with either crops or animals. Jac had visited a farm tower on a school trip once, and that was the most mother nature he had ever seen.

There were very few places where you could see actual live trees, and these places were so expensive that only rich people could enjoy them. So it was no surprise, that he was shocked to see an entire jungle. He had never seen so many trees together, or even a tree for that matter. Well, crops and bushes didn't count as a tree in his books anyway.

He came across a jungle just outside the perimeter of his housing complex. At the outset, he searched for any people or survivors around his residential block, but most of the houses were empty except for one with two dead bodies. Giving up on searching, he had followed the familiar road to exit the complex. But the road abruptly ended and a dirt floor with trees welcomed him. He had circled the block perimeter just to check if any of the previous roads still existed or not, but his house and the entire housing block seemed to have been taken out of the earth and thrown into a jungle.

'This must be the result of terraforming' Jac thought while looking at the trees, a Cadaga was hiding behind a bush near a particular tree. the damn creature had spotted him when he was circling the perimeter and had tried to sneak on him, but Jac had also detected the creature at one point in time. Strangely though it did not attack him, nor did it try to step inside the block. He was sure that the whole residential block was covered in some kind of invisible shield.

'It doesn't make sense though. if there was always a shield around here, then how did the first creature enter the block' Jac looked at the Cadaga skull still stuck in his leg. There was no way that the creature would be afraid of the skull on his leg. Instead, thinking about it more he concluded that either the shield was provided later on or there's a timing to it when the shield gets disabled.

Jac still had tried to move out of the perimeter as he believed he could handle a Cadaga now. It was then that another problem presented itself. A system screen has popped up in front of him, confirming the existence of the shield.

[Warning: You are stepping out of the safe zone]

[Please choose one of the quests presented to exit the shield]

[Choose a quest:]

[Option A: Kill Berith the ice terror.

If you choose this option, you won't be able to enter the safe zone until the ice terror gets killed.]

[Option B: Find the relic of the Lazy Factory

If you choose this option, you won't be able to enter the safe zone until the relic is found.]

[Markers will be provided to help reach the target location for both the quest options]

He was neither confident nor prepared to kill what sounded like a boss monster. He carefully thought about the options he had. He could stay back in the block, the system called it the safe zone, and kill low-level monsters to level up. There was no urgency for him to move out of the safe zone and be forced to choose the quests. Either way, he wouldn't be able to meet his friend soon since he didn't even know how to reach him with the system messing up all the roads.

But Jac felt excited at the thought of completing the quest. If he looked carefully at the quests, he needed to choose option B and find the relic first, and then he could go to kill the boss with the powerful relic. Getting to touch and feel a tree was a bonus; previously, only a few people had the opportunity to do so.

He was sure that finding the relic wouldn't be easy, but it definitely wouldn't be as dangerous as killing a boss monster. Making up his mind, he focused on option B on the system screen and selected option B.

[Choose Quest: Find the relic of the Lazy Factory]

[Yes] [No]

He selected yes.

[Quest assigned: Find the relic of the Lazy Factory]

[ One of the ancient relics of the Lazy god has found its way to your planet. Find the relic to get a special reward]

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

[A direction arrow will light your way if you move in the correct direction after stepping out of the shield]

He stepped out of the shield, taking out his gun in his right hand and the meat cleaver in his left hand. He didn't dare to look around for the direction arrow, instead, keeping his eyes trained on the spot near the tree where the Cadaga was hiding. He kept his gun

He took cover behind the tree and peeked at the creature's hiding position, but the monster kept hiding. Getting more nervous with time, he started walking towards the spot. He stopped some distance away and started firing the gun. Even though his gun had the default silencer, the sound of gunshots was loud enough to attract attention.

There was no response from the creature, maybe it moved out without him noticing. He moved forward, using the meat cleaver to hack at the bush where he assumed the thing was lurking, but all he saw behind them were strange footprints. The footprints confirmed the presence of the monster. The footprints were leading in a different direction than the quest's directional arrow. Suddenly very aware of his surroundings, he realized how easy it would be for the monster to ambush him. There were two choices here, either he followed the monster and finished it or go after the relic with the danger of getting ambushed. But there was a chance that it was a pack animal. Deciding to not take risks, he started moving in the quest arrow's direction.

The trees in the jungle were very tall with thick canopy, and green vines hanging from the branches of some trees. the jungle floor was full of grass, bushes and fallen leaves. As he moved into the jungle, he found some fresh monster remains as well. He steered clear of the areas with monster remains. Occasionally, there were flower plants of all colours and heights. Some barely rose above the height of his shoe, while some were taller than even him. he didn't touch any flowers or vines or grass or bush, everything except the trees gave him a very ominous feeling.

He moved stealthily and stayed very alert, but still got attacked by an enemy hidden in plain sight. He had passed by a green vine fallen on the jungle floor, it had coiled around his left leg at lightning speed, pulling him closer towards a pink-coloured flower. He chopped at the vine, but two more vines snaked forward from the stem of the flower and coiled around his torso. The vines started to crush his torso along with the backpack, while slowly dragging him towards the flower. He fell on the jungle floor but didn't stop hacking at the vines. He managed to cut off the vine around his leg and another one coiled around his torso, but new vines came out from the flower and started coiling around his body. The new ones had sharp thorns that penetrated his skin and drew blood.

Panicking, he shot at the flower bud and managed to hit it twice creating two holes in the flower bud, a purple-coloured liquid rushed out of the holes. The surface of the flower bud sizzled and boiled wherever the liquid slid on its surface, even the ground bubbled where the drops of the liquid fell on it. Jac was now covered in blood as the thorny vines grappled him. He left a bloody trail as he was dragged towards the flower bud. A vine coiled around his left hand and bent it at an unnatural angle, the meat cleaver fell from his hand. Seeing no way out, he kept shooting at the flower and managed to punch out more holes but eventually the the gun was emptied. The vines lifted Jac in the air, bringing him closer to the flower bud as it started to unfurl. Cursing furiously, he tried to struggle free but the vines just tightened their grip on him. The flower bud opened and he could see inside it, purple flesh pulsed on its inner walls and it was quickly getting emptied of the purple liquid. There was a monster carcass inside it as well. The vines threw him inside and the flower started to close. He fell into the stomach of the plant monster and the remaining purple liquid as well, most likely its stomach acid.

Jac screamed and hissed in pain as the stomach acid touched the skin on his legs, he quickly set up atop the bones of a dead monster inside the flower bud. He felt his legs burning and numbness seeped into his bones. Some light seeped inside through the thin veil of flower walls, taking a sinister purple shade. He could not see clearly, but the stomach acid was definitely draining out. It just wasn't happening as quickly as he would have liked it to though. His left hand was not moving at all, he held the gun with his mouth and with his right hand took the backpack off his back. Taking out the bullet pack from the bag, he tried loading the magazine of the gun. He cursed as it proved very difficult to load the bullets with just one hand, bullet by bullet he fully loaded the magazine. After loading the gun, he took out the kitchen knife and held it in his mouth. he tied the bag to his back again.

He expected a violent reaction from the plant monster on getting shot, so he carefully considered the spots where he should shoot. The best spot would be at the bottom of the stomach, to drain out all the acid as fast as possible. He clutched his gun tightly and aimed, quickly shooting at the bottom of the stomach. He was able to make three shots before the plant monster thrashed violently. it swayed side to side frantically. Unable to balance himself, he fell into the quickly draining acid pool and burned. Jac cried in pain, he tried his best to keep his head above acid as much as possible. He had fallen on his left hand and leg, he could feel his flesh dissolve in acid. Soon the acid was drained out, he noticed a small sphere undulating at the bottom of the stomach because it was shining very faintly. The sphere was made out of purple flesh and seemed to contain something. Suspecting it to be the weak spot of the monster, he quickly shot the sphere four or five times. The membrane of the flesh sphere got punctured but the plant monster still seemed to be kicking around. He switched the gun with the knife in his mouth and tore the membrane of the flesh sphere starting from a puncture in the membrane. But he only found a shining crystal inside.

'Damnit! A kidney stone. I am not dying here, there must be something around here to kill this monster or I will simply tear my way out' Jac thought to himself as he looked around, finding nothing he tried to stab at the bottom of the stomach. but before he could do that, he was thrown out of the flower. He rolled on the jungle floor and hit a tree. He tried his best to not lose consciousness as he struggled to sit up against the tree.

Jac got a system notification for killing the monster. Seeing the notification, he could not hold anymore and fell unconscious as the healing light shined upon his body.

Congratulations! You have killed a level 8 [Pink Auer (G)]. You have earned 193 XP! Levelled up to level 5. You have earned 8 free stat points.