Just as Lia had predicted, our path along the river ended up taking us nearly a week. But after our peaceful trek up the river, we have finally reached the vicinity of the Lastro Forest. But this was a little out of my expectations.
"I thought you said it would be possible to move through the forest in a day if the conditions are good. So why is it that there is nothing but trees as far as the eye can see. To the left are trees, to the right are trees, and even with my high vantage point, I can't see past the trees, just what is with their absurd height!"
"One could certainly traverse through the forest in a single day if there were no monster encounters... twenty years ago that is. And I do believe I called this a large forest before, so it only makes sense that the trees are big."
"Oi!"
"How was I supposed to know that the forest expanded so much!? Stuff like this doesn't usually happen in just twenty years. While it is not impossible for the forest to expand in that time frame, the rate of expansion shouldn't be anywhere near this much. And people don't normally come here for no reason and since this area is outside the jurisdiction of the Khanate we don't hear too much about it."
I can never have it easy can I, but I guess it could have been worse, something good could have happened beforehand. It's either something bad happens, or something good happens then immediately after something really bad happens.
As it is almost nightfall, we maintain a safe distance away from the forest as Lia starts her nightly preparations. I confirm that the area we are resting in is indeed a relatively safe one, while Lia goes and prepares her nightwear, bed, and tent from the bag I have to swallow and cough up every day.
Just like every night up to this point, I end up watching over this make-shift campsite. But unlike the previous few nights, Lia wakes up after a few hours for me to get some rest as I both haven't slept and been continuously active.
After just three more hours I get up and find that the sky is still dark only being dimly lit with those unusual stars. As I have gotten the rest I need to remain active over the next couple of days, Lia returns to her former position and quickly falls asleep.
At the break of dawn Lia awake for good this time as she starts her usual morning routine of washing her face before putting away all her stuff and jump onto my back again. Our tedious journey to the forest is complete, but now we have to make way through this dense forest.
The distance between me and the forest did not do the trees any justice, as I approach I find that the trees are slightly taller than me when I slither with around 40% of my body on the ground. Trying to see further ahead I stand myself up as far as I can, but I still can't see anything but more trees.
With the river as our guide, we at long last get around to entering the Lastro Forest and not even a minute passes before I feel an oppressive aura. Something is here in this forest, watching me, the figurative alarms go off in my head, my gut feeling telling me that something dangerous, even to me, is lurking around deep within the forest.
Other than that ominous feeling from deep within the forest, there are a few more obvious observations. Like the monkeys that are hanging around the treetops, staring me down with a gaze that shows nothing but hostility. Unfortunately, none of them are particularly close as I can only see them in the distance from either the left or right of the river, so going after them is more than likely a wasted effort as I will probably lose my way after a fight with them. Combined with the density of the forest and the chance of a monster encounter also being high, I think that staying close to the river will be the best course of action.
Although the treetops block the view of the sun, allowing only a small portion of sunlight to shine through, we find that noon quickly approaches using Lia's stomach as an internal clock, indicating it to be lunchtime. But as we make a quick stop for some food, we are quick to find ourselves with some unwanted company.
A large boar comes to interrupt us. Large enough to contend for the title of the largest land monster since I first evolved atop Mount Dragspear. While it is nowhere as large as me at full length, it is still as large as a small tree. Using my Draconic Insight, I find out that it is called a Lastro Giant Boar, how simple.
Race: Adult Lastro Giant Boar
Tier: 7
Level: 10
HP: 3,353/3,353 MP: 1,031/1,031 SP: 3,095/3,095
STR: 3,199
VIT: 3,715
DEX: 1,651
INT: 1,083
WIS: 1,135
MND: 1,083
Details: A Large Boar native to the Lastro Forest. Aggressive in nature, it will attack anything it hasn't seen or lost to before. But at the same time, it is cowardly as it will run from any species it has not been able to beat and will run mid-fight when losing.
Since the boar has of course never seen a Spirit Dragon, much less an Elemental Spirit Dragon, it does what boars do and begins to charge headfirst at me. Being mindful of Lia who is still clinging to my back I try and dodge, but with all the trees in the way I can't manoeuvre very well, allowing the boar to get a strong hit in on me.
A normal version of my species would probably have taken severe damage from that, but thanks to all my bonus stats my VIT is nearly 200 points up the boars STR stat, allowing me to nearly shrug off the attack while only taking a couple of hundred points of damage.
Unfortunately, the boar no longer has any escape, as I coil my body around it while I whittle it down with my Toxic Scales and various Breath attacks. Unfortunately for the boar that is.
After all is said and done I receive a total of 1,770 EXP and only receive 100kg of biomatter since I only ate a portion of the monster, allowing for Lia to eat the rest to conserve food. Cutting off only a small portion, Lia has me put the rest in my stomach storage and begins to cook the meat she cut from the boar.
Finishing up her meal, Lia climbs back onto my back as we quickly make a run for it along the river before the scent of the cooked meat attracts more unwanted attention. But to be honest, I'm a little disappointed the fight with the boar ended the way it did, it was just so... anticlimactic. But I might be hoping too much from an oversized pig.