79 Sprint

Jason ran before the monsters finished summoning. He desperately needed to extra distance and who would blame him, the giant monster gorilla was back with minions this time. Jason just headed for the bamboo forest in a straight line. He was much faster than before but he could hear the monkeys behind him.

He pushed on, noticing that the monkey sounds had disappeared. He just ran jumping through tree after tree. He was around the halfway point when a familiar shadow was projected on the ground underneath Jason. Jason put on the gas and again leaped for the next plank. Just in time the plank and tree were again completely crushed by the weight of the giant monster gorilla.

Jason smiled a bit, he was sure that he could reach the bamboo forest before the giant monster gorilla reached him again. He picked himself up on the plank and kept on jumping through the trees. The bamboo forest only got closer and closer to Jason. Jason started to get happier and happier the closer he got to the forest.

He thought to himself smugly.

'Yeah, that's right, I'm getting stronger and faster.'

right before Jason reached the bamboo forest the three monkeys spread in front of him. It was sorta like the first time when he was barred from the forest by the giant monster gorilla. He stood on the edge of the plank facing the 3 monkeys who were hanging from the last tree that Jason needed to jump on to get into the forest. Jason was planning to do his strategy from before. Just go around them and use a large detour. But with three of them, it might be difficult.

Jason started to go into thought when he saw the monkeys screeching and laughing while pointing to him. Well, it didn't matter he started thinking about which one he should ambush fir....OH FRICK, THEIR WAS A HUGE SHADOW ABOVE HIM THE ENTIRE TIME.

Jason looked up which in hindsight he should have never done. He was greeted by a giant mass of fur meters away from him and before he knew it he was in the sky. He looked down, again a mistake and he saw the giant monster gorilla looking at him while sitting on the plank that had just launched him.

'Wait why the heck did the plank not break?'

Jason flew through the air trying to ask himself 'what went wrong?'

His answer was 'the plank' the plank screwed me over. Only when he was midair in his flight did he think to himself about being a bit too cocky.

Jason was flying for a long time long enough that he got a notification on it

[you have gained insight into flying magic]

He looked down to where he could see the training center and the large area that it inhabited. He also saw the forest, mountains, and plains that surrounded it. It was a good view. Oh yeah, he needed to land. Frick he was going to land.

He quickly asked Boops

"Boops I got a really deep question for you"

'yeah?'

"WILL I SURVIVE???"

'currently no, if you grab the branches below you on your way down yes'

Jason rolled his eyes and grabbed the branches as he fell. He did cut himself a bit but he was able to successfully break his fall enough so that he could fall without any serious injuries.

Jason landed in a superhero pose and stood up, lifting his head up proudly at the crazy fall he had just survived. A notification arrived

[you have failed the agility course]

[you have failed at the end of section one awarding +1 agility]

He dismissed the notification looked around and froze.

An entire den of purple snakes were sleeping around him. It was a miracle that they weren't awoken by Jason's fall, and Jason didn't want to let the miracle down. Jason was right in the middle of the den where the snakes were thickest. The snakes were coiled around each other and if Jason woke one up he was definitely waking up the rest of the den. Jason was able to see the ground on some parts. They were small but Jason could work with it.

He jumped up and landed with precision on the small gap. With Jason's increased agility he was able to jump toward the outside. Where ever he was, he was sure he could find a way back. He had successfully reached the edge of the snake den and stepped out. It was a scary 3 minutes and every time he had placed his foot down he thought he could feel a withering snake underneath.

He was in the clear and turned around to look at the den he had just escaped from.

"Phew~ Good thing those dumb monster were sleeping like a log."

Boops gave off a heavy sigh

'Jason, Jason, Jason you ever heard of a death flag?'

"what do you mean?"

'haaa, okay all that you need to know, is that you should be running'

"now?"

'now'

Jason was just about to run when a sound came from the pile of snakes he turned to see the snakes moving. He was about to turn back and run when a glint of light caught his eye. And that glint of light came from underneath the pile of snakes. Jason turned to the glint with an insatiable greed in his eye.

Boops was trying to deter Jason

'No Jason, stay'

"This is the first time I saw treasure in this game, I'm not letting it go"

'Yeah, but it's under a literal pile of monsters'

Boops analyzed the snakes to prove his point

'Look see the snakes are level... Oh...'

[purple snake level 13]

[purple snake level 15]

Boops quieted down then started talking again

'okay I changed my mind, sik em Jason'

Jason ended the argument in his head successfully and charged the den with his sword. He was laughing the entire time as he chopped snakes in half. Turns out fighting snakes was much easier then he thought he just needed to guard his legs and counter-attack whenever they attacked and baam one headless snake. But that was only for the outskirts of the den that was where you could easily find footing and actually see the floor.

So Jason did the next best thing besides charging in there and getting himself killed. He cleared out an entire section of the den, selected a small corner then surrounded himself by metal spikes and screamed as loudly as he could

"COME TO DADDY"

Jason could hear numerous hissing sounds responding to him, he prepped his sword and started swinging.

3 level ups later Jason plopped on the floor in exhaustion. But he was only on the floor for a few seconds he quickly looted the den and then ran to were to the former pile of snakes had been lying on.

It wasn't a chest (sadly) it was a weird contraption that gave off a pungent smell. The contraption was a metal container with a large blue crystal embedded on the cover and a small purple crystal on the bottom. The entire thing gave off a mechanical hum.

[monster baiter: a contraption used to bait monsters to a location]

Jason went into deep thought, thinking about how he was able to use it. Ah yes, he could use it to farm monsters. He just needed to make sure that the monsters baited wouldn't be something he a level 23 couldn't handle. Well, it was useful nevertheless and Jason chucked it into his inventory and walked off.

Boops had map function so he knew exactly where he needed to go. He now just needed to survive, make sure he had a good amount of food and water, evade the metric crapload of monsters, make sure that Boops would stop bothering him over the loli no touch and figure out how to camp and make a shelter when night fell unless he wanted to travel all night and he had to travel about 10 miles through the thick forest. He still couldn't believe that he was catapulted that far but the map spoke for itself.

Yeah, Jason wasn't getting stressed, not at all, not at all.

Jason reassured himself

'I got this I have a good skill level in basic survival'

A thought hit Jason, he was going to miss the first training session with Ardem wasn't he

He hit the tree nearby in frustration. The tree itself endured the impact but the strength in the punch made the entire tree shift which made all of the birds nesting to fly out. It created a large ruckus in the quiet forest and tow sounds were heard in response to Jason. Again he felt joy in one and deep dread in another. A roar by an unknown creature that reminded him of the roar a t-rex would give in dino movies and the second one was a familiar howl.