The Dark Forest [I] (Edited)

The pages in the old man's diary that had been glued together contained information about a small cave the old man had discovered. According to the journal, it was on his last trip into the Dark Forest that the old man had stumbled across the small cave. Just after entering the small cave he had heard the sounds of people close by, not wanting to share his newly found treasure he quickly left the cave, upon leaving he erected a powerful ward to prevent anyone else from discovering the cave.

Unfortunately for the old fellow, he ran into a group of unsavory mercenaries, who upon seeing that he was all alone, attempted to rob him. Fighting his way through their ranks, he was severely injured.

Looking at the last pages, Jayde could see that the brown substance that had glued the pages together was old blood. These pages must have been his last entry, thought Jayde, but once again the old man had come through for Jayde, not only did he leave a map to the cave, but he also mentioned that he had found a small stash of dwarven dark gold.

In his diary he also mentioned that he sensed something extraordinary in the cave, he theorized it was some sort of divine treasure or artifact. Jayde was really excited that she had a lead to the dwarven dark gold that she needed as well as some kind of treasure.

Jayde was especially pumped up about her new adventure into the Dark Forest, not only was she going to collect the herbs that she so desperately needed to advance to the copper stage, but she would also be gathering the herbs required to earn points, and now she was only going treasure hunting.

Early the next morning Jayde set off for the Dark Forest, after exiting the tunnel, she followed the overgrown path, and soon entered an area that she hadn't explored before.

Moving cautiously, but with a modest speed Jayde made significant progress, she was headed to the cave that the old man had left a map too, but it wasn't long before she encountered danger.

Facing her was a taurussoos, it was a large bull type creature, with massive horns on the side of its head, it's skin was three times thicker than an earth rhinoceros, it had four large ivory teeth sticking out of its mouth, and worst of all it was notoriously bad-tempered. The only good thing according to the old man's notes was while it was quite vicious it was slow moving.

The taurussoos attacked, it lowered its head and rushed towards Jayde trying to impale her. Jayde reacted immediately, swiftly leaping away. Jayde spun into a low crouch, withdrawing her sword, she waited, tense, watching for the taurussoos to spin around.

Jayde channeled her fire magic through her body, as her fire magic flared her body was surrounded in dancing flames. Channeling her magic into her sword, Jayde's sword was soon encased in a fiery orange aura.

The taurussoos eyed Jayde warily. Jayde feinted to the left, the taurussoos charged. Jayde burst into action, Jayde knew that the taurussoos' head was too hard, keeping low her sword flashed in the sunlight, as Jayde aimed for the taurussoos' front right hock❶.

Scarlet blood arched in the air, as Jayde's swords slashed across the taurussoos's ankles aiming for its tendons. The taurussoos' bellow filled the air.

Leaping away from the taurussoos, Jayde hit the hard ground shoulder-first, she rolled — and flipped to her feet. Fuck, I missed, Jayde thought as she saw the taurussoos spin around to face her. Moving incredibly quickly the taurussoos charged her. Jayde leaped and hit the ground on her right side, then using one hand she flung herself up. She landed skidding on the dirt ground on her feet. Shit, Jayde thought, didn't that old man diary say these things were slow. If this is what the old man thought as slow, then she didn't want to run into something he thought was fast.

While Jayde was moving quickly, she, however, wasn't fast enough, and the taurussoos crashed into her side. The mighty blow tossed her across the small clearing, and she crashed into a trunk of a large tree. Jayde heard the sound of a crack —from the tree, thank the gods, it was not her bones—and she slumped to the ground, her magical shield faded.

If this had happened before awakening her magic, she would be dead. Her magic-strengthened body, however, was more robust now. She gasped for breath, forcing herself up to her feet, and called her magic, raising her fire shield again.

Her fire magic enhanced her senses—including her sense of pain—the sudden shock cleared her mind. Jayde's side throbbed where she'd been struck. But she couldn't stop. Not with a taurussoos charging her again.

She flashed to the side, ignoring her pain, desperately Jayde leaped onto it back, condensing all her fire magic into her sword, and using all her strength she plunged the sword down into the back of the taurussoos.

Absolutely furious that some puny human had hurt it, the taurussoos went mad, bucking and smashing into trees, Jayde tried to hold on, but was finally dislodged from the taurussoos back.

Landing hard on the ground, Jayde was winded but had no time to catch her breath, quickly rolling away from the deadly hooves that were about to smash her head, Jayde backflipped onto her feet. Turning to face the raging taurussoos, Jayde brace her legs slightly apart, eyes narrowed in steely determination, wiping the blood dripping from her mouth with the back of her hand, she prepared herself to face the beast.

The taurussoos eyes were shaded red, swirling with madness. Steam billowing from its nostrils as it charged towards Jayde. Without a moment's hesitation Jayde stepped forward to meet it attacks, gracefully dancing out of the way, she stabbed her sword forward, directly penetrating the taurussoos eye, using all her strength, she pushed the sword through the eye socket directly into the brain.

Quickly flashing away, Jayde watched the taurussoos as its front legs collapsed, then the rest of the body fell to the ground with a mighty crash.

Seeing that the taurussoos was finally dead, leaning slightly over Jayde braced her hands on her bent knees and tried to catch her breath. The fight was a lot closer than she expected, these spirit beasts were really tough. This taurussoos was only a level two ranked beast, Jayde was now starting to understand why most people avoided the Dark Forest.

Jayde by now was disheveled, her clothes were covered in dust and grass as well as small splatters of blood, blood splattered her face, but Jayde was satisfied with her accomplishment. Wearily Jayde sank to the ground, retrieving a healing potion from for spatial ring, Jayde lifted the bottle to her lips and gulped the bitter-tasting medicine. Almost immediately the throbbing pain in her side started to subside.

After catching her breath, Jayde walked up to the taurussoos, taking out her sharp dagger she skinned it, then dug out its spirit stone. After spending a couple of hours butchering its meat, she then stored everything in her spatial ring.

Taking out one of the gourds filled with water, Jayde washed the blood off her hands and face, looking up Jayde tried to gauge how much daylight she still had before sunset. Seeing that she still had a couple of hours Jayde decided to get a move on, she really didn't relish camping near the carcass of the taurussoos. Just before sunset, Jayde found a decent place to make camp.

With the old man ward stones, Jayde was able to set up a simple ward that would protect her from the beast in the outer perimeter. After getting a campfire going, Jayde took out some of the taurussoos meat, adding some spices and salt, Jayde used a sharp stick to skewer the meat, she then placed the meat over the fire to barbecue.

After a month of just eating elven wafer bread, Jayde was sick and tired of it, so she thoroughly enjoyed her hard-earned barbecue.

Tired from her first day in the Dark Forest, Jayde made her way into her tent and fell asleep.

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📝 Notes

❶ Animal's version of an ankle.

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