A few hours into Diedrich's hunting spree he had killed a few boars and weasels, along with a strange looking rabbit that had two horns on its head, it was called a horned rabbit and was a rank 0 creature.
Through the hunting, Diedrich had managed to level up once and was getting quite frustrated at his slow progress.
On the plus side however, Diedrich had spotted two more Euterpe tree's which he could use to create more weapons and tools for the village.
Currently however Diedrich was staring at a strange pond, or to be more specific at a small tree about two meters tall that was somehow miraculously growing out of the middle of the pond.
The tree's leaves looked vibrant light green with specs of white through them and had 7 glistening reddish-green fruits hanging from them, Diedrich could already smell a sweet fragrance enticing him to eat it, so he knew it had to be something special.
He would only have to swim about 7 meters to reach the fruit but was stopped by his rationality as the place was eerily quiet and the lack of animals around it further heightened his suspicion.
The water was murky green, making Diedrich unable to see what was beneath it, however, his intuition told him something was definitely under there.
Holding the dead horned rabbit in his hand Diedrich decided to test out his theory and threw its corps into the lake.
After the initial splash of water the corpse resurfaced and slowly drifted around.
Waiting for a few seconds Diedrich suddenly saw a long slender shadow in the water, heading for the rabbit, when it reached the corpse it disappeared, just when Diedrich was starting to get confused a smooth green scaly head rose from the water with the entire corpse of the rabbit in its mouth.
The giant snake that had appeared continued to rise until it extended about 3 meters out of the water, it then checked its surrounding to see if there was any more prey.
Luckily Diedrich had immediately hidden behind a tree when the snake first appeared, so it didn't see him.
Diedrich was shocked, the snake was dark green with black spots on its body while it was about 40 centimeters thick, making it twice as big as his thighs.
Its length must also be absurd because from what Diedrich could see the snake was already 3 meters above water and the largest part of it must still be underwater.
Not seeing any prey the snake extended its jaws a bit and instantly gulped up the rabbit, with Diedrich being able to see where the rabbit passed as it visibly bulged through its body, after that it slowly descended back into the pond.
Seeing the snake Diedrich, thought about it for a while but eventually decided that he would fight it, although it was big it seemed to prefer the water so if he could somehow convince it to go on land he taught it would be an even battle, additionally, Diedrich was getting annoyed at the slow progress he was having.
But first however he had to prepare a few things and walked back into the jungle.
After 30 minutes Diedrich felt that he had sufficiently prepared, he had created three spears and two wooden bracers that he placed on his front arms, he had also hunted three more boars that he luckily found roaming around in a pack and even got another level from it, making him level seven further boosting his confidence.
Diedrich placed the boars in a manner that each one was further away from the other although close enough that you could still clearly see it while the last one he placed at the edge of the pond, Diedrich hoped that they would act like breadcrumbs and would lead the snake straight to the area Diedrich was awaiting it in ambush.
And as expected the snake showed up a minute later, immediately gobbling up the boar as if it were nothing, the snake seeing the other boar became a bit reluctant as it continuously looked at the tree behind it but still it slowly left the pond.
Finding that nothing was happening however as it gobbled up the second boar it immediately went to the last one as it slithered across the jungle vegetation.
Seeing the entire snake Diedrich became dumbfounded as it was at least 10 meters long, however seeing that it was quite slow on land and with the extra weight from the boars it just consumed Diedrich became more confident.
Having eaten the last boar the snake first looked around to see if there were any more juicy boar's around however seeing none it decided to return, and just as it turned its head around it was met by a spear from Diedrich aimed towards its head.
The spear connected and went partly penetrated its skull, but then stopped.
The snake hissed in annoyance as it shook its head making the spear fall to the ground.
Diedrich not expecting such little damage to be done had already committed by revealing himself and running towards the snake.
Seeing another prey the snake also attacked and tried to tail whip Diedrich, seeing the attack coming Diedrich rolled to the side and continued his stride as a small crater was created in the ground from the snake's impact.
Being close to the snake now Diedrich threw another spear at it, although this time aimed at its throat, his aim being true it hit the snake and went in deeper than last time although still not enough as it fell out again even though the wound began to bleed.
The snake getting annoyed opened its mouth wide and activated a skill Diedrich hadn't expected, a red gas quickly expelled from its mouth forming a menacing cloud heading towards Diedrich knowing that he should avoid it at all costs he tried to retreat as quickly as possible.
Turning around to run Diedrich hadn't expected that the Snake would follow with another tail attack and got hit with full force in the back sending him flying and crashing into a tree.
Turning his body around Diedrich found that he had definitely broken some ribs as he coughed up blood, having managed with difficulty to turn around the only sight that greeted him was the form of a giant snake slithering way faster than he thought possible in his direction, making him realize he had royally f*cked up.
The snake seeing the human still alive as it sat up against the tree decided to hit it with another poison attack Diedrich being unable to dodge simply took a deep breath before the poison hit him.
If any outsiders were watching all they would see was a defenseless bloody man with a calm expression on his face as he became engulfed by a reddish mist expelled by a giant snake, with the force of the mist being so powerful it parted into two streams as it went against the tree.
After 8 seconds the snake stopped its skill, and when the poison cloud parted all there was to see was a man laying dead on the floor with the spear having fallen out of his hand.
Using its tail to wrap around the middle part of its prey the snake raised the man's body above its head while extending its mouth, intending to eat the prey whole.
Slowly descending the man into its mouth, just as his arms entered its mouth he suddenly opened his eyes completely red due to the poison and laughed while he yelled "Got you B*tch", as his two bracers turned into spears instantly piercing the snake's head from the top and the bottom, skewering it's brain.
The snake's eyes went still as it fell to the ground with a thundering sound.
Diedrich realizing it would fall didn't have any energy left and could only fall with it as he did manage to revert the spears into bracers while exiting his hands from its mouth.
In pain Diedrich moaned as he stood up weakly, he immediately began to dissect the snake to look for its soul core, knowing that his time was running out.
It took Diedrich ten minutes, which was much longer than usual this was mostly due to him not knowing the snake's anatomy and him being very weak with the poison causing him to continuously puke blood now and again, while the internal damage... Diedrich rather would not find out.
In the end, Diedrich found the soul core along with a black orb a that was a bit bigger than the soul core.
It was an item called an Elemental Orb and its grade was rare, and after using it, one would obtain the corresponding skill. If Diedrich used it, it said he would gain the rank two skill Vermillion poison cloud.
Diedrich couldn't be bothered by it for now and immediately absorbed the soul core gaining 2 levels, when Diedrich looked at his status he finally realized it had changed a lot since the beginning even two of his skills had improved.
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Name: Diedrich
Race: Human (✩✩✩✩)
Tier: 1 (Lv:9)
Stats: Strength: 39, Intelligence: 49, Agility: 43, EP: 57, Constitution: 38
Affinity: Beast
Class: Beast Guardian (✩✩✩✩)
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Skills: Sapling of Life (✩✩✩✩), Novice Life Whisperer (✩✩✩✩)
Treant Creation (✩✩✩✩)
Description: Able to create [7] puppet creatures from a plant. (Strength and size of Treant is determined by the material used as a medium and amount of element used). Every [3] levels adds [1] extra Treant.
Wood Manipulation (✩✩✩✩)
Description: Form any shape out of Wood the user is in physical contact with. [max 1.80 meter, uncommon material]. Length increases by 10cm every level.
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Feeling a sort of ease that he was doing alright in this world, he suddenly puked blood again as it seemed even with his enhanced constitution from the level ups it wasn't enough.
Seeing no other option Diedrich made his way to the tree in the middle of the pond. The pond wasn't very deep only coming up to Diedrich's shoulders at the deepest part which was the middle, feeling like he was about to faint Diedrich used his spear, to pierce the fruits in the tree.
Getting one and detaching it from the tip of his spear he looked at its description to make sure it wasn't poisonous.
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Item: Bone apple
Grade: Uncommon (+)
Description: Grown from the Bone tree, getting its nutrition through light, water, and bones, this apple can increase the toughness of bones, increasing Constitution by +3.
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Shocked at the effect of the fruit and seeing it as his opportunity to survive as constitution dealt with health and regeneration, Diedrich quickly devoured the fruit, it tasted very strange with the apple tasting similar to sweet milk however when he looked at his status he had 3 extra stat points in constitution, he then quickly devoured another only gaining 2 stat points in constitution this time, and after eating another he only got 1 extra stat point.
Realizing what direction this was heading towards Diedrich decided not to eat the other apples he also felt a bit better and had stopped puking blood.
With constitution now being his third-highest stat at 44 having surpassed agility, Diedrich thought that everything should be fine.
Making him finally think about other things such as the tree and weird description of the Bone apple, Diedrich previously hadn't noticed but it seemed the tree was really very small being only meter 2.50 while it was growing on top of a bunch of bones which Diedrich verified by pulling out a spine from some random creature the serpent had killed.
It seemed the snake had already gained all the stats it could from eating the blood apples, and was using the enticing smell of the fruits to lure creatures into entering the water so it could ambush them, or that was at least was Diedrich reasoned.
Going up to the snake Diedrich decided to finally check its status even though he already knew it was a rank two what he saw still slightly shook him.
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Species: (Juvenile) Toxic swamp snake (✩✩)
Gender: Female
Tier: 1 (Lv:18)
Affinity: Nature
Skills: Vermillion poison cloud(✩✩), Tough skin(✩✩), Acid spray (✩✩), Vermillion venom (✩), tail whip (✩)
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"It was juvenile?", looking with wide eyes over at the 10-meter-long snake Diedrich gulped at the thought of having to face it once it was an adult, it also had many skills it hadn't used against Diedrich, showing how he was extremely lucky to be alive.
Diedrich made himself a solemn promise to never do something this reckless again, especially for only a few levels, even though Diedrich got a sense of Deja vu when he said that, for some reason this time he felt like he meant it.