At first glance the forest looked to be comprised of normal looking trees but you you truly paid attention you would notice that the leaves and bark of the trees was covered in a shiny translucent substance. leon noticed this detail and swiped a small amount of the stuff off and put it on the tip of his tongue. "ptui!" he immediately spat it out with a frown as he lost all feeling in the tip of his tongue. "so what's the verdict?" opal asked seriously. "poison seems like a neurotoxin as well , how valuable." leon said as he started carefully peeling off a square of bark with his weapon to place in a jar.
Leon knew all about the unknown plants discovered by the explorers and had made sure to bring at least a hundred sample jars with him precisely for when he came across an unknown plant. it quickly became apparent however that this wasn't going to be enough as the two traveled further into the islands forest. everywhere you looked there was a different highly toxic plant or animal so that the entire forest was quickly labeled as not safe for human inhabitance.
"This forest alone is a veritable treasure trove of poison , to the point in fact that i am pretty sure everything here is lethal to some degree , how fascinating." leon said while idly handling a bright yellow and black frog that had mistaken him for a tree. poison dart frogs were quick well known back on earth but leon was surprised at the fact a similar creature existed here in remnant. unlike earth however it was clear this type of frog was not at all special on this island that was it's natural habitat.
"If you are done showing off i would like to continue our exploration now." opal said from under her full hazmat suit. this precaution was found to be necessary when she accidentally brushed against a fern with her left hand and had it swell up and turn purple within two minutes. leon was quick to cast a detox spell on her from his healing series to fix the problem. still rather than having her wait in the car as it were leon broke out the hazard suit he had stashed in his bag. the reason he packed it to begin with was incase he found and area that was acidic and he didn't want to constantly burn through his life force reserves.
Ironically since the hazmat suit was brown in color opal had become a sort of moving perch for various animals that mistook her for a tree. leon's favorite was by far the small mouse that had dendrotoxic purple fur that had nested up in the shoulder pocket of the suit. it was an incredibly friendly species for some reason as it had no problem at all accepting food from leon. for leon himself however he tended to interest the more mobile of creatures like frogs and even a huge viper the size of an anaconda.
Opal had no problem with normal snakes and had eaten some of them before , but the massive highly venomous yellow reptile unnerved her greatly , especially when it coiled up around leon and casually ate the frogs that seemed to land on him. 'leon's probably the only person in the world who wouldn't be shitting bricks in his current position.' she thought idly as leon basically ignored the huge serpent and even seemed to take pleasure in stroking the things spine like it was a cat.
"I do suppose we should head into the deeper regions for a more in depth survey of the island." leon said before gently coaxing the viper onto a nearby tree and heading towards the center of the island. ominously the creatures that had flocked to the two of them started to leave as they approached the center of the island and it became clear why as the trees started to be covered in thick webs the further they traveled. leon had even started to torch the ground they walked on because it was covered in the sticky substance. the owners of the webs however did not appreciate this action of his and quickly made themselves known. "of course it just HAD to be giant fucking spiders!" leon said in exasperation as he saw the meter wide arachnid with a purple and green body approaching.
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