Entering the forest was not a big issue but getting lost in that forest was relatively easy. Dave had no idea how far has he walked into the forest because every place almost looked the same. The trees were similar in size and shape, fortunately, he had a map that indicated where he was at the moment and where he was heading.
The reason why he brought John with him was that the location of his living beings was not shown on the map. He needed someone who can guide him about where the beasts are usually found. At first, he thought about bringing Mark with him but he had gone into hiding and is hard to find nowadays.
" The Glorious days of my youth have all been spent in this forest, I remember when I was a part of the Abyssal Hunters Party. There were several monsters that we had slain together and I was always the vanguard who faced the most deadly situations." John kept on blabbering about his old days but Dave doubted that they might be lost in the forest.
Dave wasn't even interested in listening to those stories but he didn't tell him to stop, because John seems to enjoy telling the stories. He just ignored whatever he was saying instead of telling him to 'do that' or 'not do that'. John walked into the front, guiding him where they could most likely find their target.
Out of the three subjugation quests he only wanted to avoid Diamond Crusher Ant Soldier, if it could crush diamonds then metal was like chewing gum to that monster. John also agreed that they should avoid it and focus on hunting Lava turtles after John's suggestion.
" We are entering the territory where they are commonly found. Ready your weapons to fight and don't think they would be easy to defeat." John spoke.
After searching here and there they finally heard a growl, John was able to recognize that and instructed Dave to approach from the other direction while he volunteered to be the bait. Dave liked the plan, only because he didn't want to be the bait and did as he was instructed to.
Dave ran in circles as he also spotted the huge turtle with a rocky back. There were red prism-shaped crystals over it and its head looked more like an alligator than a turtle.
Just as planned John was about to act as bait while Dave would attack from behind something but something odd happened. Suddenly something bit him on his right leg when he turned he saw a huge snake biting his leg.
" Activate [ Poison Resistance]" Dave activated his skill.
[ You have gained immunity against the specific poison]
' I should probably use [Metal Body] Before I run out of mana because of these kinds of attacks.' Dave thought and activated his new skill.
[ 8 units of mana are consumed]
The skill was useful but it consumes most of his mana, he only had brought 2 mana potions because of not have enough money. He didn't let Iris know about it because he believed that he would never need more than that and currently the guild was running at a loss.
He grabbed the snake by its head and tossed it away because he had to focus on the turtle. However, it was already too late. John who acted as bait struggled as the turtle fired lava out of his mouth.
He had told dave to get rid of the crystal on its back that empower the turtles to attack. Dave ran quickly towards the turtle from its blind spot while it was busy firing lava at John.
However, suddenly he turned toward Dave and started firing Lava at him.
' How can a turtle have such reflexes?' Dave thought as he was met with a constant barrage of lava that the monster was spitting.
His body's defense stats were high enough to protect him but he found that he was unable to get any close to the turtle. He struggled to fight against it and from behind he heard John's voice activating his skill the next moment the crystals on the turtle's back were cut by his sword and then the crystal fell over to the ground.
The turtle didn't even notice what happened and continued to fire the lava with whatever energy he had remaining in his body. However, after realizing it had been feeling weaker he stopped attacking and turned back to see John.
Dave ran forward and punched his shell from sideways, the 40-stat strength metallic punch was successful to make at least one crack over the shell. However, something unexpected happened as the turtle went inside his shell quickly.
" Get Away From It!" John shouted and Dave got away.
The turtle's shell started to spin and out of the holes hot lava came out spreading into the 2-meter radius of the beast.
" Are you hurt?" John asked as he came closer to him.
" Just a little bit of Lava," Dave answered, His newly bought leather armor was melting over his body. " What was that?" He questioned.
" Some of these turtles store some of the lava inside their shells so whenever they are in grave danger they spread that lava around themselves so the enemy wouldn't get near them," John explained.
" So what do we do now?" Dave asked, " I could just jump on his back and break its shell."
" It will spin again as soon as you jump, their back is sensitive so when you punched it, it must have felt an unimaginable pain. He has resigned to not fighting anymore so let's wait until the lava hardens." John spoke and then added furiously. "...And, you still have to tell me why you delayed your attack."
" I was bit by a snake, just before I was about to attack," Dave explained.
" Wait, do you have poison resistance skills as well?" Johns asked.
" Yes, is there any problem with that?" Dave asked.
" Nothing, that makes it your 3rd skill that I know. It was surprising since there is only one other person I know that has 3 skills."