Escape

Alex was quite surprised at how stubborn this monster was in it's pursuit of him as even after flying to the other side of the underground forest it was still chasing him. Clearly simple retreating wasn't going to work on this particular monster because it was hyper fixated on him for some unknown reason. Alex didn't know if this species was just that aggressive or what , but he did know that he needed to get rid of this thing if he didn't want his trip to be totally ruined. 'Lets try and use poison to blind it first.' Alex thought seriously as he stopped and hovered in the air above the monster.

Alex began to gather water along his scales much like he did against zorah , only this time he was directly adding a black ink-like poison to the massive drop of water forming underneath him. 'Here goes nothing' he thought seriously as he cut the energy flow to the water making it immediately drop to the ground below where the monster was standing impatiently. Clearly this monster had never dealt with an attack like this before because it ignored it and just continued to stare at Alex.

This changed however in an instant when the poisoned water splashed down onto the monsters body including into it's nose , eyes and mouth. "ROAR!" The beast immediately screamed in anger and pain as the venom went to work in an same moment it enter it's body. Alex might not have the most potent venom in the world but he was sure that he definitely had the most terrifying one. Unlike most venoms Alex's had several nasty effects imbued within it that while not lethal made anything inflicted with the stuff suffer horribly. This monster was getting first hand experience what necrosis , paralysis , heightened pain and drowsiness felt like at the same time.

Needless to say the experience was not a very pleasant one at all for the monster , but for Alex it was the perfect opportunity to retreat since the monster was functionally blind for the next few hours as it's own body worked to repair the damage done by the venom. Alex wasted no time at all accelerating as much as possible as he flew away leaving a very angry monster behind. The pain in his left shoulder had lessened during this time into a dull ache as his healing ability worked overtime fixing the cracks in the bones there.

The only positive thing that came from that encounter besides identifying what level the monsters of this area were in was that the [shock absorption] trait had jumped up two levels to five. This made it clear just how hard this monster had struck Alex when it attacked. Rather than go looking around the forest again Alex called it a day and excavated a small cave into the walls of the stone at the edges of the forest for him to rest in.

The next day Alex was far more cautious after leaving the cave fully healed and well rested after eating one of the max potions he kept in his small satchel on his back. Alex had tried to stop consuming the things for about a week when he realized that they had become a habit of his but when the withdrawal hit he could only sigh and down a potion. 'There are worse things to be addicted to.' he thought off handedly before downing the small potion. Alex kept down the rock wall and into the forest below carefully so that he didn't make any sound. The last thing he wanted was to get the attention of another stubborn monster like yesterday.

'Let's take this nice and slow and start by testing these strange plants first before I get over my head by hunting stuff that could kill me like yesterday.' Alex thought as he climbed up one of the strange palm trees and grabbed one of the odd glowing fruits the size of a coconut. Even after being detached from the tree the fruit still glowed gently but Alex carefully pressed his claw into it and rotated the fruit splitting it into two equal halves.

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