Jake truthfully had never expected to encounter a B-grade on the moon. Further away from Earth around Jupiter or something? Maybe, but not so close to Earth that it was practically within striking distance. It didn’t make much sense to him either how a B-grade had appeared on the moon of all places.
He was ninety-nine point nine percent certain there wasn’t a single B-grade on Earth. The World Council had spent years hunting down or making contact with all sorts of beasts, and Arnold had sent drones out scouting to scan much of the underground world, with satellites covering much of what was above ground.
More than that, though… Jake didn’t feel like there were any B-grades, and if he trusted one thing, it was his own intuition.
By all accounts, the moon was far more barren and less energy-dense, but it did have some things going for it. Due to the thin exosphere, it got a lot of energy from space, and generally, high-level concepts tended to propagate as many of the usual ones, like wind, water, and nature, weren’t anywhere to be seen.
However, even with all of these, Jake only really had one good theory of how a B-grade had appeared, one he quickly shared with Sandy.
“I detected a-“
“B-grade,” Sandy quickly said. “I felt it, too. It’s gone now, though, and considering the fact we’re still flying in the direction that we saw it and how we can’t see it yet, I would guess it went underground.”
“Right,” Jake agreed. “Just to make sure, you also think it’s odd that there is a B-grade here, right?”
“A bit,” Sandy said. “Not that much, though. This moon is large enough to have a pretty powerful core but not large enough to have a fully formed Planetary Core, so it’s probably unprotected and open to exploitation. So, if any creature managed to take advantage, that would explain it. The creature would have to be a rather specialized one, though. So my guess is that this B-grade is the one who controls the core, or at least found some way to siphon its energy.”
Jake was surprised at Sandy’s insight, though he probably shouldn’t be. The worm had spent a good while in the Order studying under S-grades and even gods based on what he’d heard, and being a creature predominately made for space exploration, it made sense Sandy knew a lot about space and what one might find there.
“Would it be an issue if a creature is siphoning the energy from this moon core?” Jake questioned.
“Big depends on that one, as it’s entirely up to the method, and there isn’t really any way of knowing unless we go check more closely. Something I would definitely not recommend doing. Better to stay on the surface and the upper layers of the crust, as diving too deep might provoke it and make it think we’re trying to contest the core. I say that, but I’m just guessing, so don’t blame me if we get attacked the second we get too close to the moon,” Sandy explained.
“Yeah, let’s stick topside for now,” Jake agreed. Even if he maybe wanted to give the B-grade a shot, he wasn’t in a rush. Besides: “I didn’t feel any hostility when it spotted us, so I don’t think it will attack us out of nowhere. However, if it does, how confident are you in escaping?”
“I’m gonna be fine no matter what,” Sandy said in a casual tone. “Better worry about yourself.”
“Sure, sure,” Jake smiled. Even if the worm was a tad overconfident, that confidence was well-earned.
The two of them kept flying for a good while, and soon, they reached further onto the dark side of the moon, which was actually pretty well-illuminated right now as it was daytime. Not that the time of day mattered much to Jake and Sandy. Sandy didn’t have eyes, so they didn’t care about light, and Jake had too high Perception to let something like bad lighting or even total darkness bother him.
As they traveled, Jake kept an eye on the surface and every one of the many holes he found leading into the moon. There were a lot of large craters everywhere, too, with some of them even having meteorites within. Around these meteorites, elementals tended to propagate, and Jake even began to see other variants of elementals.
No signs of any biological life yet, though. He wasn’t sure if he should expect to see any, either. The chances of any kind of life appearing on the moon were incredibly small as it was just one big rock without any water or the conditions to facilitate-
Is that a fucking tree?
Jake’s eyes opened wide, as far in the distance, above the horizon, he saw what looked like a treetop. Not some crystal tree or anything like that either, but what could be easily confused for a pine tree. Except for the color, as it wasn’t green, but had more a very light blue color.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Jake asked Sandy.
“I literally don’t have eyes, so no, but I’m going to assume you mean the dense life energy in the distance,” Sandy answered. “Yeah, not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting that either.”
With an incredibly confused expression on his face, Jake picked up speed as he flew even faster than before. All throughout their flight, Sandy had passively helped by creating what was almost a tunnel in space, making them travel faster than expected by making it more of a vacuum, thus removing much of the usual friction that would slow them down.
After some time, they finally got close enough for Jake to have a proper look, and he saw it wasn’t just a single tree or even just a small gathering of trees. No, it was an entirely damn forest, and not a small one, either.
The further they got, the more forest they saw. Far below, Jake even saw the edge of the forest off to the side. Grass-like blue growths spread out to a certain point before it began to wilt and disappear. He also saw the curvature of how the grass grew, as he quickly understood that this forest was shaped like a circle, which had a pretty obvious implication.
“There is something at the core of this forest that caused the growth,” Jake said in a confident tone.
“Yeah, and I feel it,” Sandy said. “It’s… big. Not of super-duper high quality, but very big.”
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Jake frowned as he wondered what it could be. An asteroid that had slammed into the moon filled with life-attuned energy? That did sound very sci-fi and very possible, if not probable. It could also just be that the system had decided to make a moon forest, but Jake doubted it.
As Jake was stuck in thought, something suddenly grabbed his attention below. Movement. With no wind, thus no swaying trees, any movement was notable, and after scanning more closely, he saw it. Between two trees, he could barely spot a creature moving about. It looked almost like a dog but had six limbs and a tail that was more than twice its entire body length, looking a lot like a whip.
Its entire body wasn’t made of flesh and blood but a mix of vines, bark, and stone. Like the trees and grass, it had a blueish color, and some of the vines running through its body had a slight glow to them. The creature’s entire body was around fifteen meters long, with the majority of that length coming from the tail. It moved rapidly through the land, and when Jake used Identify, he felt a tinge of excitement.
[Lunewood Stalker – lvl 316]
Whatever was going on here had led to the birth of some powerful creatures, as there was a good chance this random plant lifeform was at a higher level than nearly anything on Earth. As he kept scouting, he even noticed some more of them, proving this wasn’t just a rare creature but a staple of this biome.
“How big is the life-place?” Sandy asked after a bit.
“I can’t be sure,” Jake shook his head. “But it’s pretty fucking big. I would guess it covers nearly a third of this side of the moon based on what we’ve seen so far, and we’re only in the outer edges of the forest.”
“You know, I pretty much expected the moon to just be a big rock with some elementals on it, so this is a pleasant surprise,” Sandy said after a bit. “A lot more fun than moons without anything on it. Which is the majority.”
“For sure, for sure,” Jake nodded as he considered what their next move should be. They could keep flying deeper into the forest and aim for the center, or they could take a pitstop here in the outer area and get a better feel for the region. He had to remember that he wasn’t on this little adventure alone, though.
“What do you think we should do?” he decided to ask Sandy. “Stay here for a bit, or keep moving inwards?”
“I wouldn’t say no to taste-test whatever Lifecore those weird plant creatures got,” Sandy simply answered, which was enough for Jake as he smiled.
“Then let’s see how tough they are,” Jake said, pulling out his bow. Now, he did have the choice to shoot a Protean Arrow with all his usual bells and whistles, and chances are that would kill one of those Lunewood Stalkers outright, and even if it didn’t, it would cripple the thing.
But, rather than do that, Jake wanted to learn more about these odd creatures, so he decided to go for a more prolonged approach. One that did still include a powerful opening attack, but he wouldn’t use everything he had. Shit, to give the poor thing a chance, he wouldn’t even do his opening attack from stealth.
Taking a second to summon one, he nocked a Penetrating Arrow. Jake took aim for a lone Lunewood Stalker as he made sure he had a free line of sight. Arcane Powershot charged for a few seconds before Jake let go of the string, and an arcane explosion erupted in the sky above the moon. Sandy had already retreated away to give Jake space to have his fun.
Below, the Lunewood Stalker reacted the second it noticed the incoming attack. The ground around it erupted as a barrier of stone and vines shot up in defense, proving Jake’s decision to use a Penetrating Arrow the right choice as it pierced straight through and struck the creature, slamming it into the ground and sending a torrent of odd liquid flying up.
It’s not blood… but it seems to have a similar function. Interesting to see that in a plant-creature.
Jake quickly shot another arrow, not giving the monster any more time to rest than he needed to. Besides, it quickly recovered and managed to avoid the second arrow, seemingly on accident, though it did struggle when a rain of exploding arrows descended upon it a moment later.
Nevertheless, it broke through as it shot upward toward Jake. He was flying just inside the exosphere of the moon, many, many kilometers up, but the creature displayed some impressive speed as Jake felt another affinity at play.
Got some space magic in there, too, but seems to only be for movement.
While it flew for Jake, he kept bombarding the creature with arrows, dealing significant damage to it as parts of it exploded off left and right. Root-wrapped stone bullets also shot up toward him, and with the moon’s lower gravity, they easily made it all the way to him, even if he effortlessly dodged.
Jake smiled as the creature just tanked pretty much every arrow, as he had pretty high expectations of it… that’s until he noticed something. He had just put blood on his arrows so as to not overdo it with the poison, and with the creature poisoned, he could feel its internals, and to put it bluntly…
This is the shittiest late-tier C-grade I’ve ever seen.
Before the Lunewood Stalker even fully reached Jake, its momentum stopped, and it began falling down toward the moon before getting blasted by an arrow sending it tumbling down, with Jake getting a notification.
You have slain [Lunewood Stalker – lvl 316] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level
“Well, that was disappointing,” Sandy said as the worm appeared beside Jake. “I can also feel the Lifecore now, and I don’t even need anyone to tell me it sucks, though it does have an odd flavor to it. So, you good with me eating it, right?”
“Sure,” Jake muttered as Sandy shot down, disappeared for a moment, and then reappeared to suck in the still-falling corpse of the Lunewood Stalker.
To say Jake was disappointed would be… pretty accurate, actually. It wasn’t as if he had super high expectations, but he still found the outcome worse than he thought it would be, even if he, after only one “fight,” understood why it was so weak.
The creature had no sapience at all. Shit, Jake wasn’t even sure it had enough to qualify as being called sentient. It had just charged toward him without making any defensive moves outside of trying to defend against the opening attack. It was full-aggro from the moment it noticed Jake till it died, in a death that didn’t accomplish anything.
A few moments later, Sandy reappeared beside him. “Hey, Jake, I noticed something about the corpse.”
“What is it?” Jake asked with interest.
“You see this?” Sandy said, spitting out what looked like a weird rock that he recognized as a Lifecore of sorts, though it looked… wrong. He tried to use Identify, but the answer didn’t really tell him anything of value.
[Lunewood Meteorite Fragment (Uncommon)] – A small fragment of a Lunewood Meteorite. Contains a polluted form of life energy. Unknown alchemical uses.
“Yeah, it looks thoroughly unimpressive, outside of the part about the polluted form of life energy, and that something being both wood and a meteorite at the same time doesn’t really make any sense,” Jake answered. At least he was pretty sure meteorites were made of rock and metals.
“It’s from a wood meteor,” Sandy said.
“I learned just now those are even a thing,” Jake muttered.
“Oh, alright, fair, that explains a lot. Anyway, I heard about these. Pretty much, they are meteors made of wood and filled with life that slowly morphs and changes as it flies through space until they crash into anything big and then spread whatever form of life energy was inside. I didn’t really listen during the part where the lady talked about where they come from; all I know is that this is definitely what we got here,” Sandy said.
“You learn something new every day, huh,” Jake muttered as he looked more closely at the core. “But what do you mean by the “that explains a lot,” part?”
“Just that it explains why you’re still so calm,” Sandy answered.
“… do I have a reason not to be calm?”
“Well, this Lunewood Stalker wasn’t really its own thing, but more just one branch of a big ecosystem that’s all connected, so when you kill one-”
Below, Jake saw more movement than ever before as more than thirty Lunewood Stalkers shot out of the forest, charging straight at Jake.
“- they all know and move to defend their territory and reclaim the meteorite fragment.”