'I assumed I would be protected if I mentioned wanting to head out but this is ridiculous!' Alex complained mentally as he walked out of astera with the admiral himself walking alongside him. How this had happened was that the next day after Alex planned his hunting trip he had gone to the fleet commander to try and convince the to allow him to head into the ancient forest. The admiral happened to be there when Alex did this and rather than have some other hunter there to make sure Alex remains safe the monstrous man volunteered himself.
Alex knew that hunters could be considered superhuman thanks to the fact they could actually wield several hundred pound weapons without any real issue. To put this into perspective this was the same as picking up a person three times your weight and swinging them around using mostly your wrist and arms. The admiral however was some sort of freak of nature however as alex had once stubbled across the man working out by carrying cannons around in a jog with various swings and squats. Each of the standard cannons weighed up to a ton and the man was using them as exercise equipment , a downright terrifying thing to witness.
'On one hand I at least know i have nothing to fear , but on the other it's kinda disconcerting to be so close to someone who I am sure could crush me like i was made of marshmallow' Alex thought as the man in question yawned lazily. "Well you ready to go?" the man asked casually when he noticed Alex looking at him. Alex nodded and started walking along the worn down path that headed away from astera. thanks to the location of astera this would be a very short trip but an important one none the less.
The ancient forest was called such thanks not to the many trees are the area but rather to the massive tree so big that it's lowest branches are just below the clouds. the roots of this tree were so big that other normal trees grew out of them as well as whatever parts of the ground itself were available. Add on the dense foliage and wildlife and you basically had a huge forest biome that was completely self-sustaining. To be honest the majority of everything known about the forest was only to do with the area around the roots of the big tree as no one had ever climbed the massive thing.
Astera was built at the south eastern edge of the forest in a natural cove that was dug out over time by the water. This resulted in the town being right next to the aptanoths favorite place to graze in the area. aptanoths were docile timid herbivorous creatures that seemed very similar to the ankylosaurs of earths fossil record but with slightly longer and thicker legs. there often found with the parasaur-like aptceros that were used in place of horses in the old world.
Alex didn't care about any of that however as he was trying to calculate what sort of traits he may be able to get from both of the species. Shaking his head Alex cleared out any thoughts of attacking the things as they out power and size him considerably , for now. "A hunter through and through it seems." the admiral said after seeing the look Alex gave the two prey species grazing ahead. Alex merely huffed at the man before walking off towards the actual forest based off of his fuzzy recollection of where the wing drakes usually are.
"Hey don't clam up on me now , unless things go south you are the only interesting thing out here at the moment." the admiral complained childishly. Alex made a "focus on the trip" gesture which the admiral could only sigh at and go quiet for all of five seconds. "So bagged any nice chicks recently?" the man asked awkwardly. Alex stopped and gave the man a "are you serious right now" look. The admiral chuckled and scratched his head in embarrassment " I'm not very good with small talk" he admitted with a defeated sigh.
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I'm back peoples! had a great birthday and even got a switch to treat myself so that's a fun new toy. i will be updating as per usual unless some un foreseen incident happens. I will also only show the trait list if it changes from now on.
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my patrons can read an extra two chapters ahead along with using the site as a way to directly contact myself rather than needing to hope i respond to your comments.
pa treon.com/user?u=81578854