Alexander awoke comfortably and slowly as the mana seeped into the walls of his cave, illuminating the body of the relaxed slime like rays of light through curtains on a Sunday morning. Today was the day that he was going to venture out of his hiding place for the first time in what seemed like forever!
Throughout the past three days, Alexander had spent every single moment training his slimy body to be strong and powerful enough to survive in this cutthroat forest. Now, he was finally ready to make his debut as a contender in the hierarchy of the dark forest.
Alexander rolled himself awake, doing a couple of laps around the cave to get his body acclimated to the world after his deep sleep. Soon, he was ready to go out. He broke down the wall of his cave and felt the fresh air slide against his skin. Such a refreshing feeling after being cooped up in a cave for so long. The world was particularly beautiful this morning; the sun glinting off the leaves of the numerous trees that surrounded Alexander's makeshift dwelling.
He observed the dark forest for the first time since he had obtained his farsense skill. When he had first gotten it, he had been so enamored by the titans fighting that he was unable to think of anything else.
Scanning over the seemingly endless treetops, he could tell that he was definitely not in any kind of dungeon. The trees in the dark forest consisted of every variety, and the ecosystem merged all of the kinds of habitats that Alexander could think of. It looked like there were small ecosystems all fighting for dominance in a cutthroat battle royale. Alexander could see a patch of marsh land, no more than 100 feet wide, and, right next to it, a patch of trees that were frozen with one small snow cloud hovering over it, raining down small flakes of pure white snow which directly contrasted the dark confines of the marshland. His ecosystem was situated atop a large hill overlooking a wide valley, dotted with hundreds of different weathers and trees. Some were hot and desert-like, some were dense and dark, and some were buffeted by hurricane force winds, seemingly coming from nowhere and disappearing the moment they left the area.
The scene was truly magical. It was like Alexander was looking at a beautiful mosaic spread across the entire valley. No wonder the races were unable to conquer this area! First the titans, now a mishmash of different biomes all condensed into one area. A normal human wouldn't be able to traverse half of the biomes, much less move an army through them.
To the west of the valley, judging by the position of the sun, Alexander could see a large mountain range obscuring his vision any farther. The mountains were huge and snow-capped and one of them would easily dwarf the valley, yet they were far away so they appeared small from that distance. To the east, Alexander observed a long, dark line of trees extending north and south for as far as he could see. That must be the border between the dark forest and the demon kingdom! He made a mental note to not go east. Alexander was not keen on meeting a demon with his current power; he was sure demons would be very strong.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Alexander spied a wisp of smoke emerging from the treetops. Was the forest on fire?! He focused his farsense on the spot from which the smoke was rising. Why were those trees so close together? Wait a minute, it's a wall! The wall was made of large trees closely packed together and sharp at the top. The smoke was rising from a village! Alexander had a ton of questions. What kind of people would be able to survive in this forest? Were they humans? Demons? Intelligent monsters? On the other side of the village wall, he could just make out the roofs of a few houses and chimneys with smoke billowing out of them.
It was probably not a good idea to go to the village, but his curiosity got the best of him. He had not seen another intelligent being on Isedor other than Leif, so he could not help just going to take a look. In addition, Alexander wanted to try out his newfound powers and see if he could hold up in the different biomes. Hopefully, the trip would not take too long.
---
Before he was to make his trek, Alexander needed to make sure no one invaded his cave while he was gone. Using his earth move spell a few times, he was able to pack enough dirt over the entrance of the cave to make it look like it had never been dug out in the first place. Now he could travel in peace, that is, as much peace as one can get in the dark forest.
Alexander set off on his new mission with excitement, he was finally going to meet intelligent creatures of this world! He hoped that they were human; it would be interesting to see how his own race functioned in this alternate world.
This time, he was able to traverse the forest without much difficulty, since he needn't be as cautious. He was much more powerful now and had his hearing and sensing abilities to aid him. He could sense around and see a few of the vampire rabbits grazing and also a couple adolescent vampire rabbits feasting on corpses or stalking a lizard for food. In this particular ecosystem, it seemed that the rabbits and lizards completely dominated the food chain. The other beings, if any, were all hidden away, avoiding these two voracious predators. Alexander, however, was not one of the creatures hidden away in fear. He was the invasive species.
Over the next few hours, the forest biome that Alexander occupied became a blood bath. The moment he locked his mana sense onto a being was the moment its life had ended. Alexander did not need to hunt; he only needed to kill. Staying in the exact same spot, Alexander ruled out four of his first prey: two infant vampire rabbits, an adolescent vampire rabbit, and a small lizard.
Drawing up large amounts of mana from his core, he fashioned four burning fireballs which rotated around him menacingly. His training was now starting to show its usefulness! He could now draw out all of the mana in his core at once which was a whooping 8! That means he could use the fire lance twice with a full tank! He let the four fireballs fly towards the unsuspecting monsters. The fireballs were bigger now because of his element affinity level up, and they were much more deadly.
Upon contact, the two infant vampire rabbits and the small lizard died instantly. The adolescent vampire rabbit however, was still alive, yet severely wounded. As usual, the mindless rage of an injured monster manifested in its eyes, and it charged at Alexander.
Alexander sighed; if only he could find an intelligent monster, he could gain some experience for the inevitable clash against the sentient races. Obviously, he had planned for this to happen. An injured adolescent rabbit was the perfect test dummy to try out his new physical stats on.
The large rabbit was close now, and it towered over the meek-looking slime, about three feet tall compared to Alexander's 15 inches. Finally, it reached him and brought its claw down on the top of Alexander's body, throwing its entire weight into the blow. It did not expect its crushing blow to merely bounce off of the slime. Its momentum sent it tumbling back onto its butt. Even though it was thrown back, it smiled. The rabbit was sure that he greatly injured the slime, but was downtrodden when it saw the slime sitting in the same spot with not even a scrape.
Alexander chuckled inside and assessed the damage. The full strength blow of the rabbit was only able to tickle him.
"Bucephalus, check HP Bar."
[HP: 4/5]
Alexander smiled. Only 1 HP lost! He could still take three more of those hits, but it's not like the rabbit would ever get the chance.
He played around with the rabbit for a bit, easily dodging its attacks and regaining some mana at the same time. Eventually, playtime was over. Alexander readied himself for the rabbits charge and met it head on. He used his newfound agility to shoot his small body up towards the rabbit and collide with its chest.
The rabbit shot backwards from the squish of the slime and collided with a tree, where it slumped into a nearly lifeless heap. Alexander ambled up to the rabbit and conjured a down-sized fire lance and pierced the rabbit directly between the eyes, mercifully ending its life. He would call this new spell fire needle. It only took about half of a mana point to cast, so it would be useful against a large amount of small creatures!
Now, it was time to feast. He devoured the adolescent rabbit, the two infant rabbits, and the small lizard. Then he observed his spoils.
[You have slain the adolescent vampire rabbit. You have gained 20 Exp.]
[You have gained 2 stat points from the adolescent vampire rabbit.]
[You have slain the infant vampire rabbit. You have gained 10 Exp.]
[You have gained 1 stat point from the infant vampire rabbit.]
[You have slain the infant vampire rabbit. You have gained 10 Exp.]
[You have gained 1 stat point from the infant vampire rabbit.]
[You have slain the infant thick-skinned lizard. You have gained 10 Exp.]
[You have gained 1 stat point from the infant thick-skinned lizard.]
[You have consumed a new specimen: +1 stat points.]
[You have leveled up 1 -> 2. You have received 5 stat points.]
Alexander laughed maniacally. He had finally reached level two! He was now the top of the food chain in this biome!
But he spoke too soon. Just then, he heard a low rumbling growl behind him. Alexander turned slowly and came face to slime with a giant ball of white fur, shivering with fury at the sight of the cleaned corpses of its kin. The rabbit gave off an immense pressure and was about the size of a full grown human with thick, muscular arms and long canines. Alexander had finally met the dreaded adult vampire rabbit.