I jolted awake in the dawn of the morning and patted Nebula on the head ran outside full of energy, which I then explore the depths of the forest to find any formidable foes, all before anybody wakes up.
Yeah, I named the dragon Nebula.
Fortunately, not long after, I encounter two brown Scargiver Bears, which was less stronger than their white colored variant. Now, why was I trying to find these monsters?
It's to become stronger.
The creatures living deep in the 99th floor alone pose a great threat to my life, more so as I rise from one floor to another. I have to prepare myself with the strength and stamina to deal with any danger that comes across my way.
I dash towards the two bears full of energy, which I silently casted a spell while sprinting.
"Stygian magic, Desuboru."
Now how do you become stronger?
A death ball forms in my hands, which the ball had grown 10 centimeters in size in comparison to the last.
"Of course..."
I charge power in my right hand and throw a death ball at the two bears. As they attempt to charge at me, I shouted.
"It's to gain experience!"
The bears stood no chance against the dense energy of the ball. Their lives quickly end due to the force, and their corpses disintegrate into black smoke and caught up turquoise flames. The corpses also dropped an indigo crystal, a power level between dark blue and indigo.
"Nice! I can defeat Scargiver bears in my own now, I've gotten stronger!"
As I had thought that I won, an eerie presence gave me discomfort.
"I feel something... What is it? It feels murky.."
Something gets closer to me as I try to figure out what it is, and its aura gets murkier.
It gets even closer and tries to sneak attack behind my back. Luckily on time, I faced on its direction with a glowing red eye and managed to dodge it instinctively.
I dashed away from the foe while curious to what it was, as it turns out, it was a giant snake.
I began to have a minor headache mid fight, which I gain the knowledge on what this creature was.
"Vicissim..." I mutter.
Vicissim, the great predator that is on top of the food chain in this jungle. We all have explored the entirety of the jungle yet there is no sight of a gate. Maybe a gate appears when you clear a certain condition..
And I think that the condition on this floor is to defeat Vicissim.
It rapidly slithers towards my direction and attempts to bite me. Luckily, I managed to react in that short amount of time and dodged to my left, but it still grazed me on my cheek.
The snake instantly camouflaged as it now treated me as its opponent rather than its prey.
At first, its location was unseeable, but it loudly hisses in an attempt to scare me off.
But, little did it know, by hissing, it made me know where it was hiding instead.
"Ha.. to think that even these giant monsters barely have any intelligence at all..."
"Stygian Magic, Desuaro."
An arrow began to form on my wrist which I then aimed on the snake's head while mimicking Kaiser's form, but to my surprise, it dealt no damage at all.
"What?!"
As I try to generate another arrow, nothing happened. It seemed that I lacked mana.
"Ahhh!!!!"
I run away from it as fast as possible, but as I was running, I noticed one of the scales near its head looked a bit different than usual.
After running with all my might for a while, I hid behind a tree and ate a starberry to replenish my energy and fatigue. As I ate, I found some brown umbrella looking mushrooms beside me and I kept them inside my bag.
Then, I took a peek to check if that snake was still there, but at the same time, Talia peeked behind the tree and scared us both.
"Woah! Talia.. you scared me!"
"Hah... Zion, I was looking for you. What are you doing here?" Talia asks.
I silently sat there, looking at her.
"I was.. foraging. Then, what are you doing here?" I ask in response.
"...You disappeared when I woke up, so I tried to find you." She said while showing a worried expression on her face.
"Oh. Okay." I sigh in relief and slightly giggled as I was just worried for nothing.
But what was that reversed scale? It might give me a clue on how to defeat it.
Once I reached the temple, I found Kaiser on the room where we stayed, and I gave him my findings.
"Hey Kai, these mushrooms are the only stuff I found..."
Kaiser grabs the mushrooms and inspects its appearance, and gives me the information.
"Zion, these are uncommon Birch Cups. It's eatable- I mean edible."
I snicker as I heard his mispronunciation, and teased him a little bit.
"Ehh?? What did you say??? It's eatable right?" I say teasingly.
"...Oh my God.. I said edible!" Kaiser says, while obviously frustrated.
"Say it again!" I yell once more.
Nebula hopped on my shoulder as me, Talia, and Kaiser had a fun time in the night.
After a bit of giggles, we once again fell asleep. And me, wondering on how to defeat that gigantic snake.
In the middle of the night, I woke up full of sweat and a familiar uneasy feeling fills my thoughts.
"What's this again? Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen tomorrow.."
I get a flashback on all the things that happen after I got my uneasiness, like the raid of Mikage-shigai. My intuition wasn't wrong when I felt murky at that time, which that exact same feeling coming back now wasn't a good sign.
So I can't just sit idly and do nothing!
I sprinted with excitement as I hunt again. But before I went outside, I forgot something important.
I then walk inside the room full of Phammaxias bugs, and the chest in the middle of all of it.
"I should get this chest first before I go out!"
But... how should I really get that chest? The bugs are lethal aren't they?
Hmm, If I can contol magic then... I can do that!
"Stygian Magic, Desuboru!"
I throw a death ball in the westernmost corner of the room, which then the bugs began to attack it, which just went in vain as the ball absorbed their life energy.
I knew it! They only rely on sound. In every strength, there is a weakness.
I tip-toed towards the chest and grabbed it successfully without attracting the bugs' attention. I then sprinted away from the room, and when I reached the exit, I tripped on my own foot and fell.
Luckily, the bugs can't exit the room and I was safe.
"That was a close one... Now what's inside this chest?" I mumble.
"I knew you would go there."
I turn to my back and see Kaiser.
"Kai?! How do you know I was here-" I asked.
"I watched the entire thing already. How you woke up and how you dealt with the bugs. I'll tell Talia that you got yourself in a life-threatening situation." He replies, cutting me off.
Damn it... Anything but Talia! How did he know I was going to get that chest?
"If you show me what's in the chest, maybe I'll consider~"
This guy..!
"Haah.." I sighed. "Alright, I'll show you. Just please don't tell Talia. Pretty please?"
"Hehe.. Consider this payback from the teasing from yesterday, but sure."
I open the chest as our eyes sparkle with expectations, and inside was not what we expected.
"A dagger and a staff!" Kaiser exclaims.
"I was expecting some money or some artifact for buffs.. Well, I'm taking it though, we need weapons more!"
An upgrade! Now I have a chance to hunt that giant snake!