Chapter Four - Forest Floor

[You have stepped into the Elysium Forest]

[Current Location: Forest Floor]

The word beyond the barrier stunned Thorne dramatically. As he stepped onto the forest floor he was immediately struck dumb by the vibrant glow emanating from the ground.

"You've got to be kidding me."

The forest floor was covered in a soft neon moss that pulsated with a bright green light casting an ethereal glow on everything around it. The moss was interspersed with patches of glowing lichen in shades of blue and purple. The lichen formed an intricate part in on the forest floor like a neon tapestry woven by some magical creature.

As Thorne walked forward he could see the majority of the forest floor was covered with knee-length blades of grass with neon glowing veins on them. Shoulder-length glowing mushrooms poked up from the grass, their caps glowing with indecent colors. They seemed to grow in clusters creating a neon forest within the forest, each mushroom casting its own unique light.

Flowers that ranged from tiny ones to those longer than even him could be seen as well, their petals pulsing with a soft glow that made them seem so alive.

Then there was the existence of numerous large insect like creatures for some reason. The beauty of . . . Wait . . . Hold up

Buzz!

"Oh sh@##&"

A large black creature shot towards Thorne at an insane speed, catching him by surprise. It slammed into him with brute force.

Bang!

The impact knocked Thorne off his feet, throwing him back with ease like a ragdoll.

[Integrity has fallen to 2]

He crashed into a small cluster of mushrooms, effectively breaking most of them.

"What the..."

Aaaah

Pain flooded his senses as he tried sitting up.

'Damn, why is the pain adjustment so high, it's too real'

He realized his construct had dimmed down, almost fading out.

'Is this because of the reduced integrity ', he wondered.

There was no time to think about now because he finally got a glimpse of the beast that attacked him. It was a large winged black ant- like creature the length of an arm. It had distanced itself from him, preparing for another strike.

"Oh no.."

He knew he afford to let the creature hit him again.

"What do I do… hold on, Quarkite." He remembered the description of the starshard.

"Construct thoughts, ah yes! A shield! I'm thinking of a shield."

Nothing happened.

The creature seemingly realizing that the distance was enough to get another good hit, turned to face him.

Buzz!!

With another buzz, it shot forward.

In desperation, Thorne managed to somehow sense the core inside him, then driven by instinct, he channeled a string of energy into the silver orb orbiting it

Whoosh!

A golden shield construct appeared right when the creature was about to maul him again.

Bang!

The shield shattered and Thorne was thrown back again. This time there was no notification indicating a reduction in his structural integrity.

"Eureka", Thorne screamed with excitement.

Aaaaak!

The creature that was flying away from him, trying to gain some distance to strike again stopped in its tracks and slowly turned to look at him.

Aaaaaaak! Its fury was evident.

Aaaaak aak aaaaak!

Screeching as if taunted, it shot forward angrily, leaving Thorne a little surprised. What did he do to piss this guy off this much?

Anyway he couldn't care less. He was more immersed in the role, the excitement, the ecstasy. This was it.

"Come at me you beast"

Aaaaaaak!

"Hahahah..."

Pleased to hear the responding shriek, he formed another shield construct, a long rectangular one that covered him fully from top to bottom and kept the energy flow a bit longer.

From his initial construct, he assumed that more energy would mean a denser shield.

Whoosh!

And he was right.

"Olay!"

Bang!

The creature slammed into the shield again. This time the result was way different. The shield sent it rebounding into the grass, legs dangling in the air.

It was this window that allowed Thorne to notice the creature's gray midsection that stood out sorely from its all black exoskeleton.

"I've got you now"

Aaaak!

The creature rose into the air screeching furiously.

Buzz!

It shot at Thorne, who had hoisted the shield up, looking ready for impact.

When the creature got near thought, he moved. Quickly dissipating the shield, he formed another construct, this time a giant axe and not having time to cut off energy to the orb, he kept it flowing.

He sidestepped easily and with the axe, that was glowing brightly for some reason, he hacked the midsection of the creature, cleanly bisecting it.

[You have slain a rank 1 xenogenetic winged ant]

[You have obtained the creature's accumulated radiants]

As Thorne lay on the ground, fatigued, a black mist rose out of the bisected creature and assimilated into him.

[You have absorbed the radiant of a rank 1 xenogenetic winged ant]

[Your state of Solidity has increased by 2 points]

[Integrity has further increased by 20 points]

The fatigue instantly disappeared and Thorne rose to his feet

"Status." He brought up his status window.

[Status]

Name: The seventh son

Race: Syntethicon (Exclusive)

State of Solidity: 3

Core: Cosmogem of Energy (Grade???)

Energy output: –

Integrity: 30

[Starshards]: 1

Quarkite (Grade: Luminous)

Description: Construct any thought into existence

"So this radiant thing increases my state of solidity, come to think of it, what is this state of solidity stat?"

Thorne wondered. This game just seemed not to follow normal game style. Everything here seemed so different. For now Thorne chose to assume that state of solidity would be his physique stat which encompassed strength, agility and endurance. Although he could prove this theory now, after a few more kills he would be able to verify it. As for the integrity stat, Thorne was sure that it was the health stat. What he truly wanted to know was if it increased independently or was just a reflection of the health aspect of the state of solidity stat.

Anyway, all these were things he could figure out later. For now he rose up and turned his attention to an element of this glowing forest that he had missed, insects. Yes, insect. Maybe it was the beauty of the neon lights here that had stunned him and prevented him from seeing them but as he looked away from the distracting lights he noticed a multitude of these insect-like creatures.

Not only were they many, but their sizes were just too abnormal. He saw massive bee-like creatures the length of his torso with stingers of the same length flying in swarms all over the place.

"How did I miss this the first time?"

He was sure the bees were the main mobs of this area because their numbers were insane. A single swarm had over a thousand bees and there were swarms all over the place. Moving from flowers to mushroom caps and hovering in the air. There were just too many to count.

And of course there had to be variety; from red to striped yellow and black to all black and even a few brown ones.

There seemed to be no other creatures aside bees in sight.

"As if I would believe that", Thorne snorted.

He was sure there were other creatures aside bees here just like the winged ant that attacked him. They were just hiding somewhere, lying in ambush for unsuspecting prey.