The first forest thrall to lunge towards luke was the level two injured one, it lunged in a twisted fashion, closing the gap that was between them fast, luke immediately held the hilt of his sword tighter, his knuckles turning white and positioned it to swat the incoming forest thrall away.
However, at the last second vines erupted from the ground beneath them, pulling the forest thrall away from Luke’s range of attack.
’What?.. ’
Luke did not have time to finish his thought as the forest thrall immediately landed on his face, ruby red dusts sprouted from the vines from its back as it grabbed onto Luke’s head tighter.
Luke did not hesitate a second, he immediately used the opportunity to hit the forest thrall that was cuddled to his mask, cutting it in half, the forest thrall losts it’s grip, fell on the ground, shuddered once and grew still.
[You have killed a level 2 forest thrall!]
The voice of the game’s system informed luke, however luke was not in a position to pay attention to it as the environment had began to change.
The once lawn of grasses, was now slowly becoming a carpet of vines, the forest thrall who seemed a little more.
Intelligent than the previous one seemed to be keen on taking a joint attack. Luke knew the safest path he could take currently was not running away as he would fall straight into their trap and probably be wrapped by vines.
So his gaze shifted to that of the chasm that looks like the hole were the monster the uncanny seer had described, reasonably he should have waited and fought the forest thralls, however that was no longer an option as luke knew the ruby dust that had come out from the back of the level two thrall had begun weakening him in some way and the most reasonable thing to do was to face the monster directly, while he still had a bit of strength or sanity left or reverse of whatever the level two forest thrall had done to him, luke just knew he had to act fast.
He dove into the chasm, momentarily suspended in the acrid air of the dark hole, thankfully his bright sword answered to it’s name and produced a mild anount of illumination in the darkness, thankfully to it.
Luke could perceive his surroundings much better, soon enough luke landed on the ground in a thud, thankfully the chasm was not to deep and Luke didn’t feel too much pain from the landing, the space were he was enclosed, almost making like fill a bit tight, however a huge chunk of rock was carved out of it that led to a narrow passage.
Luke gazed upwards and just as he had expected, the forest thralls had also followed him into the hole, without hesitation he planted the hilt of his common bright sword into the ground and walked into the entrance that led to the narrow passage.
A few seconds passed and Luke watched with satisfaction as three forest thralls landed directly on the tip of his common bright sword, losing their lives immediately in the process.
Only one remained, which at the last second changed its direction with the help of the vines that bulged from the cave walls, from what Luke had noticed, it seemed to be the most intelligent out of the bunch.
It was the level six Forest thrall, without hesitation Luke’s common bright sword slashed at it, cutting the plant monstrosity into half.
Satisfied luke observed the five forest thrall he had killed and proceeded even deeper into the chasm. With his common bright sword luke saw that the larger part of the chasm were he crossed was illuminated.
A few minutes passed and luke proceeded even deeper into the chasm, as he walked he felt an uneasy feeling gnawing at him from within something wasn’t right.
Was it the vines or was it something else, suddenly luke recalled how the uncanny seer had said for a whole thirty years no one had raised this dungeon successfully so what was really his chance.
Luke, distracting himself observed the vines that were sprouting from the walls, he felt a deep sense of biological wrongness. The outer bark was not rough and dry, but slick, pliable, and coated in a clear, viscous sap that mimiced the sweat of a living thing.
Underneath this translucent skin, covering it’s surface, rhythmic pulsations were visible, pumping through fibrous conduits like blood through veins.
The tips of the vines hover inches above the ground, gently swaying left to right, if he stood perfectly still they didn’t move, however if he walked they seemed to slither around him like snakes, as if they were glad he was present.
’Damnation!’ ’
What have I gotten myself into, all of this just to match the leveling maniac, I am no maniac myself!’ Luke thought disappointed in himself.
He shook of the strange eerie feeling and kept on walking through the hole, more minutes passed and he couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
He then recalled one of Clara’s words, or more precisely hand signs, we’re she had told him the key to a hunters survival was quite easy, if not totally simplistic, it was to look closer.
And so lule replayed the scenes that had occurred for the past few minutes, he remembered he approached the hill fought a level two forest thrall, killed it, received a notification from the game’s system and jumped into a hole. The reason why he had jumped to was sort of foggy too, he recalled he killed four more and then walked deeper into the chasm.
Luke still hasn’t found it, was Clara wrong then?
However Luke’s eyes suddenly widened, he had gotten a game notification that he killed the level two thralls!
But had never gotten the same notification for the remaining thralls which meant..
Luke turned back, his hair standing on end as four set of green eyes stared at him from the darkness, that was the last thing he remembered.