Into the Forest
Traversing through the twisting jungle was not easy for the children, it was just too dense. Branches had to be cut, roots needed to be carefully walked over, an eye watching out for any tiny poisonous insects. And above all else, one needed to maintain constant vigilance over the surroundings for any of the denizens of the deep jungle.
Whether intentional or a simple side-effect of trudging through the primeval forest, it didn't take long for the mass group of humans to wander away from each other. Eventually, the only humans one could see were those who were in groups together, no one else remained close.
Xing and Lei were no different, they were paired together and they could not see nor hear any human near them. As the duo struggled forward into the dank undergrowth all they could see was the dense and twisting undergrowth carrying on deeper into the maze. And all they could hear were the sounds of the forests' foliage and the constant noises of its wildlife, as-well-as the occasional enraged roar or howl from beasts.
"How deep into the forest should we go?" Xing questioned as he stepped over a large decaying root.
"The deeper you go, the stronger the monsters get- whether through raw strength or intelligence," responded Lei.
As she broke off an interloping branch she spoke up, "We should be far enough to start seeing weak monsters, we'll stay around this deep for a few days picking up as many cores as possible."
"What sort of creatures as we talking about here?" Xing asked as he too broke an offending branch.
"An assortment of different species of beast, bird, insect, and reptile who have strengthened themselves enough to create a core- nothing too menacing around these parts for the both of us. The magical monster species who are born with cores roam much deeper. What we really need to be careful of is-" Lei interrupted her speech and halted her steps, as she took a battle-ready stance with her stone spear.
Announced she thrust the spear forward, toward an inconspicuous branch, resulting in a loud dying screech.
Lei pulled her spear back toward her, as Xing noticed that pierced upon the tip was some kind of reptile that was as big as an adult males head. A dark-red liquid was dripping down the spear-tip, down the wooden handle, and onto the forest floor, mixing with the decomposing vegetation in the soil.
Shaking the spear downward, the corpse fell to the ground, and Lei walked over to it while wiping the blood off her spear with a picked leaf.
"Can't believe we ran into a Hiding Tongue-Constrictor Lizard, these things are rare!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"What is that exactly?"
"Hiding Tongue-Constrictor Lizards are reptiles that can blend into their surroundings where they hide and wait for prey to come by, and when it does they launch their tongue out toward the throat, wrapping around it. Without being able to breathe the prey would eventually die and they get a meal. They are classified as F Rank- equal to Rank 1 Warriors and 1st Circle Shaman."
'So like a chameleon except bigger, and a tongue like a boa constrictor,' thought Xing, 'Wait…'
"Wouldn't most creatures be able to escape such a thing by cutting off the tongue?" Xing asked as he watched Lei bring out a stone carving-tool and messily cut the abdomen of the creature wide open, spilling more blood everywhere.
"Yeah they could, but it is a race against time as the lizard's saliva is a paralytic plus sleeping poison, and it starts taking effect upon contact, so if they are not fast enough they'll be paralyzed and become helpless as they slowly drift away into slumber. Many humans die to these reptiles, but their favorite food is what I was going to tell you to be wary of."
Lei rummaged around the insides of the lizard with her bare hands, gaining a look of happiness as her hands pulled out a perfectly round orb the size of a golf-ball, "Ahah! Our first core, and its F-Rank! We are so lucky, finding a rare monster and also acquiring a core from it!"
The core was pulsating with blue energy- mana. Xing had no prior knowledge about monster cores as they were rare and he never saw them as often as mana-crystals. However, with the ceremony requiring the collection of monster-cores Xing had acquired the knowledge about them from his father.
'They really are just mana-crystals except more concentrated, and they also have the benefit of elements being mixed in. This one, however, is just pure mana- no element. We really are lucky that our first kill resulted in a core, normally cores dissipate upon death. I wonder what happens to those unlucky enough to not even acquire one after so many kills and fail the ceremony because of it. I suppose luck is apart of one's strength.'
Lei cleaned herself and the core of blood before putting it into a bag strapped to her back. Standing back up brushing any dirt off of her leather armor, hemp shorts and white agile legs, she slid the stone carving-tool back into a pouch at her waist.
"Now, back to what I was saying about the monsters, we need to be careful around." She turned toward Xing giving him a serious look, "What we need to be extra careful of are Goblins, more specifically, tribes of goblins."
"Goblins? As in weak little green humanoids? How can they be a threat to us?" Xing was confused.
"They aren't much in terms of quality sure, but in terms of quantity… They never travel alone and are always in groups of at least a dozen. Their tribes contain hundreds of the little devils in the outskirts of the jungle, and the deeper you go the bigger the tribes get until you have tribes with tens-of-thousands. So you can imagine why we need to be careful when fighting groups of goblins; you never know if there is another group, or heaven forbid- an entire tribe, nearby to support." Lei shivered when speaking those final words.
"However, because of their quantity, they are a good source for monster-cores, albeit crap quality as they are only G-Rank Goblins in the outskirts. Decimating an entire tribe of the creatures should result in one or two- so they are a bane but also a boon for us during the ceremony."
She turned forward and began walking the same way they were going previous," Now, let's carry on!"
***
After half the day had gone by, Xing and Lei had encountered a few dozen monsters. The pair had killed the majority of them, with a few running away too fast to catch. The harvest was negligible and only one more core had been retrieved.
The core had been acquired from a wolf pack, more specifically the pack leader. They had been surrounded by the wolves after killing and gutting a wild boar, the wolves being drawn to the smell of blood. Only the pack leader had developed a core, the rest of the pack we ordinary wolves- no threat to the pair; as such, when the pack leader was killed, the ordinary wolves scattered and ran away.
After the messy dissecting of the wolf and retrieval of its core, Xing and Lei went back to the boar, made a crude fire, cooked up its meat, and sat down to eat lunch.
Swallowing a bite of roasted boar Xing asked, "Now that we have a second core we could take it easy and pass the trial after waiting a week but I'm guessing you're like me and want to try and get the top spots, right?
Lei was stuffing her mouth with meat, "Mmmm- Mmmm- Mmmm--"
Xing interpreted her incoherent talk, "Finish what you have in your mouth before speaking Lei," mumbling, "How unladylike."
Lei swallowed what was in her mouth and pouted, "What do you mean unladylike, there is nobody around so I don't need to act like a lady!"
"What great logic. But what about me? Am I nobody?"
"You're different!"
"Different how?
Lei's face went red but she turned away from Xing to hide it whispering something.
"What did you say? Speak up."
She turned back toward Xing, now looking normal and shouted, "I DON"T WANT TO PUT ON AN ACT AROUND YOU!"
Xing was confused about what that meant, but he didn't get time to deeply ponder as his thinking was interrupted by a loud chirp from a branch above them. The chirp came from a tiny sparrow-like bird and it had flown off after making the noise.
Both Xing and Lei were looking in the direction that the bird flew off in, "What kind of bird was that? I believe I've seen them before in the tribe domesticated," asked Xing.
"They are called Followtails and hunters of the tribe domesticate them because they like following carnivorous monsters to eat their scraps. They put marks that they can follow on creatures so they can find them wherever they are. Hunters use them to track people and creatures that have been marked, and I've heard goblins also do the same."
Lei stood up and picked up her spear, "We should prepare for the worst, just in case."
The pair packed their things and traveled in the opposite direction to where the bird flew.
After traveling for a few minutes they started smelling a foul odor, "Goblins," said Lei.
Upon entering a clearing in the jungle maze they came across their first sighting of goblins- seven of them
They were everything that Xing expected: diminutive and repulsive. They were all different shades of green with dirt, blood, and other stains covering both their skin and the scraps of leather they wore. Each had beady brown eyes set above a mouth full of sharp overgrown teeth and long droopy noses. The tops of their heads were either covered in messy brown hair or balded and showing their dirty skin. They truly smelled like they crawled out of a garbage can, probably never washing since the day they were born. The stench was overpowering and Xing wondered whether that it was intentional, as it would distract both human and monster when fighting them.
Every single one was carrying wooden spears with pointed and sharpened stone tips which were now all pointed toward the pair, as they started screeching in an atrocious sounding goblin language.
"There must be more than these around. Xing! Lets quickly kill these seven and then run before we get surrounded!" Lei grasped her spear tighter, pointed it at a goblin, and charged.
Xing removed a bow which had been hung around his shoulder, notching an arrow he had retrieved from a quiver aiming at the closest goblin. While he was doing this he had begun drawing in mana from the surroundings and willed it to form the symbols and shapes that formed the spell Dark Missile.
Both arrow and missile were fired off at the exact same moment, they both cut through the air striking two of the closest goblins in the head. The arrow embedded itself within the skull and penetrating the brain, while the magic had blown the poor goblins' head straight off in a gruesome display of blood-red fireworks.
"Two down!" Shouted Xing, as he notched a second arrow, aiming at one of two goblins charging toward him.
Lei reached her first target as Xing shouted. She thrust her spear toward a goblin the moment she was within reach, piercing right through its eye. The poor goblin couldn't retaliate as it was still out of reach of her, as both the goblin arms and its spear were not long enough.
Lei's signature sudden strength had activated upon the thrust, using so much force that the goblin's corpse was thrown back off the spear point, resulting in Lei not needing to pull it out.
The goblins' two pals had now gotten within reach of her and thrust their own spears at her. Lei gracefully sidestepped both jabs with ease and then stabbed out with her spear at the second goblin, penetrating it the same way as the first.
She repeated the exact same actions for the third, now five were dead. She looked over toward Xing and saw the sixth lying on its back with an arrow sticking out of its forehead.
The seventh had reached Xing and thrust out, which Xing easily sidestepped. Xing then grabbed the goblins spear before it could pull it back, and yanked the goblin forward. The poor creature was flung toward Xing who punched out a fist to meet the goblin mid-flight.
The hit connected, knocking teeth out the goblin's mouth and sending it onto the ground as it lost grip on its spear. Xing then twirled the weapon in his own hands pointing the tip at the goblin and thrust it through its chest and out the back embedding it into the ground.
The goblin squirmed and made gurgling sounds as life was slowly leaving.
"Come we need to leave now before we get surrounded." Lei had walked over to Xing and the slowly dying goblin.
"Its already too late for that. We're surrounded, that's why I didn't finish the little thing off in one hit, I thought a little torture might drop morale." Xing looked around the surroundings.
Sure enough, soon dozens of goblins came skulking out of the surrounding woods and into the clearing, enveloping the pair.
"Damn, this is why goblins are annoying and dangerous. There are at least 30 of the little shits. Xing, try not to run out of mana during this next fight, who knows, there might be a third wave. Hehe," Lei chuckled as she got into her battle stance.
Xing took out another arrow, notched it, and started preparing another Dark Missile spell, "You've just jinxed us."