Again in the cave, again in front of the forest, and the marshes on the left. He hesitated, but forced himself to leave, to approach the forest. He didn't intend to enter, but to take a closer look.
As he approached, he inspected the trees, looking for snakes or other beings. He looked carefully at the shadows, looking for hidden dangers, but either there weren't any or he was unable to discover them.
And while trying to carefully inspect the forest, he also paid attention to the wide variety of plants, sending his assistant to pick up some of them. Most were for low level potions, which was logical in an area of that level, because the mana concentration is lower and affects the whole environment. That is why high level beings don't stay long if they pass by, because although they would have easy meals, it would be very difficult for them to gain power, and it would be slower to recover the one used.
Little by little and almost without realizing it, he was gaining confidence, while marveling at the beauty of the place, the sounds or the aroma of a virgin forest as he hadn't seen in his home world. But an emerald deer, like the one he had seen the previous day, told him that this wasn't a place to take a walk: half of its body had been devoured and there were footsteps around it that he didn't recognize.
He retreated, scanning the surroundings and unable to discover the great cat that was hiding in the crown of a nearby tree, and watching him closely. It had exiled there to recover from the wounds inflicted in a territorial confrontation, and it was at level 25.
Probably, it would have attacked Eldi, which would have ended in his almost certain death, if it had been hungry or threatened. Nonetheless, it had satiated its hunger with that half-eaten prey and now was resting in front of the remains it probably wouldn't eat. It was easy for the great cat to hunt there, and it preferred the meat as fresh as possible. In fact, even if it had wanted to, it would have been impossible, because a little fairy took care of the remains, making them disappear in an invisible space.
Eldi had stepped out of the forest little by little, in which he had managed to gather a considerable amount of supplies. Then, he had been walking around its perimeter, until the sight of a giant ant surprised him. It is true that he had seen them in the game, but he didn't really expect to see a being whose existence is physically impossible without something called magic.
It was dark green and level 5. From the game, he knew that ants are dangerous but weak. They have a stronger attack than is supposed for a being of their level, probably because of the powerful jaws, but their defense is low, and their health isn't very high. The most threatening is that they could gather in hundreds or thousands, very useful for leveling up in large groups and with area attacks.
He hid behind a tree, since he didn't want to deal with its companions, but a sound behind alerted him that something was coming. He waited holding the axe, because his other options were to go out into the open and be discovered, or to enter the forest.
Another ant appeared a few meters away from him. He tried to hide from that too, but failed. The huge insect approached, moving its antennae in an attitude that he didn't know if it was curiosity or threat.
He tried to go back to where he had come from, but another one appeared, blocking the way. Eldi fell back as ants continued to appear, some of them one meter tall, others two meters and more terrible looking. They were soldier ants and their levels reached up to 7. And one of them attacked him.
It wasn't very fast, but the mark it left on the tree showed how dangerous they were. Eldi decided to retreat, running in the opposite direction of the ants and trying to go towards the safety of the cave, but the ants blocked his way, forcing him to escape in another direction.
He was making distance, but, to his concern, more ants were approaching from the mountain. Soon, Eldi realized that he was surrounded, that perhaps he had gone to their hunting area and that he was their prey.
A couple of tries with Earthen Wall proved unsuccessful, as they climbed easily. He couldn't think a way to face so many of them in the open field, since they already reached half a hundred and were still increasing. And soon he discovered the reason: a hole from which more ants came, the anthill.
Maybe they considered him a prey or maybe a threat, but it didn't matter, they weren't going to stop to discuss it with him. Terrified and not knowing what to do, the presence of a cave in the mountain looked like it as his only option, so he went there.
Eldi used Smash Ground with the three ants that stood in his way, and Javelin with the one which didn't fall. He didn't miss the opportunity to finish off the injured ant with two Devastating Blow, sending his assistant to retrieve the spear, which it did when the other fairy finished extracting minor formic acid or small plates of ant jaw, among others, including ant meat that isn't edible and that he didn't know what it was useful for.
He reached the cave when another ant was going to stand in his way, dodging it for very little margin and leaving it outside, waiting for its companions.
Eldi took out a sphere of light from the inventory, a kind of lamp that floated a meter away from him, to inspect the cave before the ants went after him. He hoped it would be a way out and, perhaps as in the game, there would be an unexpected treasure. However, he found that the cave ended a little further. It was made of stone and barely thirty meters deep. He was trapped.