A hour flew by in this beautiful forest as I slowly healed my wounds, banking on this world being more game-like than before to be able to heal my broken arm and the dagger-like incision in my chest.
grazing a finger over the two wounds the pain makes me flinch, almost to the point of screaming in pain. but I endure, not without biting my tongue however as the searing pain fogs my mind.
..
[hp: 55/55 injured]
"my wounds didn't heal? but my health did?" Ali muttered looking down at his still shattered left arm.
his mind fluttered back to when this all began, the first words the system announced.
"world system announced, resetting base stats and bodies eh".
Ali had heard from the others at camp that some sick and crippled people could function as normal after the system appeared, maybe it could heal this too?
"hey system, can you hear me. how can I reset my body again, or at least heal this wound"
[system advises Ali to get stronger and find out with time]
'well, thanks for nothing. this shouldn't matter too much? should it, I hope not.' Ali finally thought to himself before getting up and moving out of the area.
the forest was grand, and he travelled through it for a long time before he could find even the slightest hint of action in the surroundings. hours passed in silence as the ever present sun hadn't even began to drop yet.
'we've been in the portal for longer than a day, yet if I remember clearly the sun has not moved more than a couple inches in this time' he thought while wiping the sweat off his forehead. in the distance just ahead was yet another grass-born bull, front right leg torn from the bone and thrown just ahead of it.
"what the fuck is that thing?" Ali wondered in horror as a 10-legged centipedal-like creature was feasting on the grass bulls leg right in-front of it, yet the bull was to afraid to even fight-back just stood there shivering in fear.
the giant centipede-like monstrosity was clad in a faint orange Armor with each leg ending in a sword-like edge, its back bending upwards with the tail portion flowing up the tree-trunk.
Ali set his sights on the tree only to find deep embedded wounds trailing up it, carving out-pockmarks in its branches with the centipedes legs making more as the feast continued.
the centipede must have been nearly 10 meters long, with its hind disappearing into the branches and dense foliage above, the creature quickly finished the meal only to slash its front leg and bisect the bull in two instantly, and setting upon the now split carcass of the beast.
Ali had viewed the entire process from a hundred or so meters away, his face pale with horror before slowly backing away and re-tracing his steps to get as far away from that thing as he could.
as he walked he paid even closer attention to the nearby tree's. fear in his heart increasing with every-pockmarked tree he saw and by the time he was halfway to the camp he had spotted at least 20 potential centipedes.
among other potential tracks and markings in the environment. "it feels like this forest has a lot more life than I previously thought" he muttered while checking out a rotting dusk-ant carcass-pile.
"there's loads of them here, maybe a hundred? or more. and to pile them up like this, something smart? but what" he thought.
he tried checking the corpses for clues but he just saw mangled messes with no explanatory factors of the cause. but just as he climbed up and found a more intact corpse.
*hiss*
he flinched, spinning around to meet the voice of the creature that made that noise.
black scales met his eyes, lots and lots of black scales, an intricate amalgamation of scales distancing back into the pile, he couldn't tell how large it was. moving his foot slightly he realised he was standing on top of a living creature.
purplish-red blood leaked from between the scales masking its presence alongside the dusk ants that covered its hide.
tracing the body of the beast with his eyes he tried to find its head, see if it knew he was there.
*hiss*
the creatures voice seeped out again, Ali didn't know if he miss-understood it, but the voice was filled with pain. "no, its not its voice. the mana around it is filled with pain. such a creature, even the mana it owns is hurt by its demise?" tears started to well up within Ali's eyes as his own mana started to resonate with the snake below him.
"is this why I could get up here without dying? because of how much mana I have?" vague thoughts and emotions not his own were welling up within him.
"SIT, SMALL CREATURE" a voice. definitely not his own echoed through his head. it had a compelling nature to it. almost forcing Ali to follow in its wishes.
the voice resembled the dragon's from before, weaker but definitely the same. Ali almost against his own choice took a seat upon the scale of the beast.
"I DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME, SMALL CREATURE, ETERNAL SLUMBER AWAITS ME. THERE IS A MONSTER IN THIS FOREST." a silhouette of a multi-armed humanoid appeared within his head.
"AVOID IT, AND IF YOU CAN. KILL IT".
[new passive skill unlocked: abyss snakes will]
[effect: you have been pseudo-blessed by an Abyss snake. +1 base stats +50% damage against #!*$ creatures]
"y-yes Abyss snake. I will try"
Ali was choked between fear and tears. for his mana was now completely in-sync with the beasts and he could feel that the monster could kill him with a thought. if it wished.
for the monster now could see all that he could, feel all that he could and experience all that he had ever experienced.
the feeling was mortifying and yet fuelled Ali's determination to never be this weak in comparison to another again.
"YOU SEEK LEVELS? YOU SEEK TO GROW, WITHIN OUR SIGHTS IS A NEST. CLEAR IT OUT AND YOU SHALL GAIN WHAT YOU SEEK".
*hiss*
the mana surrounding the duo vanished, draining his mana as well and forming into 2 silhouette's of pitch black snake's beside him one giant one and one small one.
the small one swam around Ali for a few laps before burrowing into his right arm, and embedding itself into him as a tattoo.
[new skill unlocked: abyss snake dart]
[effect: channel the mana of the abyss-snake tattoo to poison the target dealing 10% intelligence damage per second and slowing the targets movement speed by 10% for 15 seconds cooldown 120 seconds - intelligence cost 25mp]
but before Ali even had the opportunity to react to the message the larger Abyss-snake flew directly into the sky before exploding in the most glorious of fireworks. mana cascading down from the skies towards the Abyss-snakes graveyard.
[effect gained: 20% exp gain while within mana-cloud]