Chương 16: Anarchy

Time until next Elemental Storm: 1 Day and 11 Hours Ethan reached out his hand to absorb the death essence clouding a corpse in the spike pits, but found it too far for his reach. He couldn't jump down beside it either, not without coating his arms in acid. Damnit, this is a waste of time. What's a little more essence even going to do for me? He stopped, and climbed back up the wooden ramp. During the climb, he noticed that the number of fruits hanging from the skies had significantly gone down.

He could barely spot any in the skies. Does that mean there's not going to be a fruitfall tonight? I can use the extra time. The drizzling from the skies didn't show any chance of stopping, so Ethan had to move with it still active. Once he reached the top of the ramp, he had a new problem to contend with. His map showed pathways still active, but half of the ones in front of him were tilted or entirely broken. Some even had a few corpses on it and seeing those around made Ethan want to harvest their life force.

Distracted again, Ethan. You only have a day left! He focused on the paths he could see, and traced them towards the water pedestal. He took the nearest one, and sent life force through his legs. Boost. The legs carried him high and far with every leap, and he ignored the sounds of the nearby monsters fighting. But try as he might, they wouldn't ignore him. A bit into his trek, he saw a line of monkey treants appear and fire small acidic coconuts at him.

Ethan had to hide behind a platform stuck halfway through the one he was currently on to avoid it. When he peaked out, he saw the monkeys jumping off the vine and trying to reach him. DE Shot. He stuffed it with as much death energy as possible, and fired it at one end of the vine. Five monkeys were still on the vine when it hit, and the vine swung down and hit a tree. The monkeys let go of it when they smacked against the tree, and fell onto a lower platform. They'll be back up.

But it would buy him time to focus on the closer threats. Or so he thought, but he heard a rumbling, and saw a golem worm winding around a large tree. The tree was the same one which held the platform the monkeys had fallen on, and when the worm reached them, it smashed its head down. A single slam was all it took to kill most of the monsters, and Ethan didn't even get any credits from it. He watched as the rock worm continued on its path up the tree, where it would soon reach him.

The remaining treant monkeys had seen the same, and instead of facing it head-on, they ran for their lives. Good idea! Ethan followed their lead, confirming one more time with his map before taking a path towards the pedestal.

Ethan huffed as he ran, his legs burning from the pain of running for so long. He sent more life force through them, and the soreness disappeared. The exercise was rapidly toning his body, but it still left him wrung out. His soul stamina was still a finite resource, and one that life force couldn't replenish. At least he'd lost the giant golem worm.

He'd also come across half a dozen other treant and golem monsters duking it out in his path, but they were so preoccupied with each other that they barely noticed him slipping past. For the past few hours, he had been running from monsters, dead-ends and broken pathways, but finally, he had reached the first pedestal he needed, just as the rain was picking up. He was wet down to his socks now, but Ethan saw the water pedestal streaked with rain and high up.

Even that sight was slowly fading out as the rain grew stronger, and he had to force himself towards it. He found another ramp nearby, curving around a tree as it went upwards. But there was a shallow river running on it. S-still the best bet I've got! He jumped onto the ramp, placed a hand against the tree, and started climbing upwards. Every second the water was getting heavier, and Ethan couldn't help but feel that he'd taken enough baths to last a lifetime. He was over the gimmick now.

Yes, it made him cold and wet and miserable, but it had been doing that for a week. At this point, he could barely feel the raindrops against his skin. He climbed the ramp, and when it broke in the middle he did a boosted jump to the upper section. Even when his legs slipped, he kept a grip on the branches, and pulled himself back up to his feet. He reached the pedestal and, wordlessly, placed the water seed inside. He already knew what was coming, but Ethan had found a hole to shelter himself from it.

He climbed back down the ramp and pulled aside the cover, as the water kept hitting him, and earthquakes shook the entire jungle. But he pulled himself in, locked out the chaos outside, and finally sat back down. That rain's not letting up. But at least I'm down to one. One more seed, and I never have to deal with this shrine ever again.

Time until next Elemental Storm: 20 Hours and 12 Minutes The rain slowed down once again, and Ethan kicked open the cover of the hole. He stepped outside and his clothes got soaked immediately. Did it even get any lighter? But he got a move on regardless. A mist was swirling in the area, obfuscating the distant platforms and trees. But Ethan could still hear sounds echoing from the haze, of monsters fighting and killing each other.

It was only going to get worse from here, so Ethan took to his map, and went down the nearest path to the final pedestal, where the wood seed needed placing. He ran and ran, and no matter how much life force he sent through his system, somehow he still felt tired. It was a tiredness deeper than the muscles. A mental fatigue that he had no hopes to remove. But he'd be free of it soon enough, if he just made it to the pedestal.

The trip by itself took more than ten hours off his time, and Ethan felt the rain gradually get harder over the course of that time. His legs slipped so many times, they began to shake even while standing still. But every time he fell on his way to the last pedestal, Ethan got up. Small monsters, golems and treants alike, hounded him, but he was too far beyond them. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Before, a single treant wolf would've taken up his entire attention in a fight. Now he stood around half a dozen of their corpses, worried more about wiping their sap-like blood from his hammer than anything else. When he finally reached the final pedestal, he wasn't alone. A small war was taking place, making it near impossible to approach. A hundred little treants and golems were bashing themselves against each other.

They ranged from the size of small dogs to taller than him, and ripped each other and the environment apart with every blow. Bark was stripped from the trees and sap was falling, platforms cracked under the weight of the fighters, and some even fell clean to the ground. The worst of them were two giant monsters, placed on a massive platform and knocking each other into trees. The first was a serpent treant the size of a bus. It was wrapping itself around a giant mole with steel claws.

A thousand hands pushed out of the snake's body at odd angles, grabbing the mole's fur and stopping it from pushing the snake off. Ethan hadn't even seen an animal yet that would have a skull big enough to suit the treant. Both of them were down below on a large and wide wooden platform, at the back of which was a tent of branches and the final pedestal. Surrounding the massive wooden platform were other, smaller footholds that could be used to jump down towards it.

But even the other monsters knew to steer clear of the massive fight happening downwards, focusing on their own battles instead. Even though he'd grown strong enough these past few days, there was no way Ethan had gotten strong enough to fight through the whole crowd. He had to sneak past, and he started by jumping downwards. He landed on a lower platform, his legs kept straight from the Boost. He looked around, and dodged the acid spit of a direwolf treant as it approached him. Nope, not fighting you!

Ethan turned and jumped towards the next platform, as the direwolf howled. It gave chase, and Ethan looked around for a way to distract it. There! He saw a large golem Ant fighting smaller wolves on another platform. He jumped towards it, and ducked under its body while it smashed its head onto the wolves. The direwolf followed and shot at him, but hit the Ant instead. That monster turned, and the direwolf growled towards it.

Ethan quietly slipped out from under the monster's legs, leaving the two to fight themselves. He then jumped three more platforms, and ducked behind a giant golem Ant's corpse as monkey treants pelted him. A single DE Shot took out the entire row of monkeys, even if he missed a few times. But it wasn't just him the monsters had been aiming for. Once they realized the monkeys had stopped throwing acid at them, a group of small golem worms fell down before him.

They weren't any bigger than Ethan was, but they tried to wrap themselves around his body. The first one went for his legs, and Ethan smashed a Boosted hammer strike where its crystal heart was. The second and third managed to grab his other leg and an arm, and squeezed. Their combined weight pulled his arm to the ground at an awkward angle, and left no room for leverage. Pain jolted through him and circulation to his body cut off.

Ethan dropped the hammer from his other hand and wrapped his knuckles in death essence. DE Overlay struck the rock worm around his arm, cracking it. His knuckles came back bleeding, but Ethan readied another blow, and smashed his fingers against the rock once more. That finally revealed the heart underneath, and Ethan shot death essence to break it. Finally, the rock gave out, and he pulled his arm out of it. The worm around his leg was no issue then. He just smashed its heart into pieces.

He was free again, and Ethan didn't waste his time. He looked at the timer and balked. Time until next Elemental Storm: 4 Hours and 25 Minutes Please let this be the last thing I need to do… He finally reached the platform the two monsters had been fighting on, and almost fell to his knees. The floor was constantly shaking, and the monsters were breaking everything around them. The pedestal seemed unperturbed, but nothing around it was the same.

Ethan didn't bother fighting them, he just ran across to reach the pedestal. But that didn't mean the monsters would ignore him. They must have realized what his presence meant. That him placing the final seed would only cause the ground to gouge up even further. In their tussle, they rolled into Ethan's path, stopping him. Boost. Ethan tried circling them, but the monsters broke apart from their grip, and the mole slammed a metal claw down in front of Ethan.

The gleam of the steel was so fine, Ethan could see himself reflected in it. But to him, the man looked a stranger. That's me? He didn't have time to admire himself. A second claw came down, and Ethan barely sidestepped it. The serpent treant whipped its tail at the mole's back, tracing a line of blood through the fur. The mole turned and screamed at the treant, letting Ethan free for a few seconds. He ran towards the pedestal, but the serpent blocked him again.

He heard thumping footsteps, and jumped right before the mole skewered him with its claws again. The serpent wasn't as lucky, as a large chunk of its skull was chipped away by the slash.

"Alright, fine! You won't let me through, I'll just cut through you!" Death essence gathered in his hammer and Ethan hit the mole in the knees. The monster screamed, and the serpent headbutted it to the other end of the platform. Then it stared down at Ethan, before whipping its tail downwards. Ethan dodged the slam and readied another blow from his hammer. He ran alongside the serpent's body, stopping when he sensed the mass of life force.

There, he planted a Boosted strike, but it only broke apart the shallow surface of its skin. Damnit, this thing's too big. If I had my spear I could've gone straight through! The serpent reared its tail back for another strike, and Ethan did a Boosted jump onto its back. He readied another DE Overlay, but the mole was running back for another strike. Wait a minute… He jumped down on the side of the serpent facing the mole, and shouted.

"Hey! You want me? I'm right here!" That caught the mole's attention, and it spread apart its claws as it approached. The serpent raised its tail, and Ethan waited so the aim wouldn't be off. He smashed apart the thousand arms reaching out from the serpent to grab him, and just as the mole was on him, he jumped. The serpent's tail stabbed into the mole's body, and the mole's claws into its heart. Both monsters let out a languid scream, but only one survived the encounter.

Ethan watched the green eyes of the serpent wink out, while the mole only backed away, bleeding. The wound across the mole's body was bleeding heavily, and leaking life force with every move. It dropped onto its back, scuttling away from Ethan.

"Oh no, you're not getting away." He approached with his hammer coated in thick death essence, converted from the mole's own leaking life force.

"You wanted this fight, you got it." The mole turned, and Ethan activated Boost. He was on the monster in an instant, smashing down on its left leg. Death essence spread from the point of impact, and the bones in its feet shattered into a hundred pieces. The monster dropped to the ground. In a desperate move, it tried to skewer Ethan again, but he sidestepped the slow strike. He smashed a Boosted strike into its hands, and mangled its fingers. That left the monster in pain, and it started to spasm heavily.

Despite the fact it had tried to kill him, The sight made Ethan want to throw up. But he still had a job to finish. One last DE Overlay. The mole's head was low enough for Ethan to reach, and so he planted one last strike there, killing it. [Bestiary Updated!] [+60 Credits] He let out a content sigh, and moved away from the corpse after robbing it of its essence. There were still battles going on around him, but none which were of concern to Ethan.

He walked to the pedestal in the shrine, and felt the seed in his pocket wanting to get out. Once it was out of the bag, it shot towards the pedestal, and Ethan waited for the ground to break open once again. The ground did shake, but it wasn't because it was cracking. It was because the trees were moving. Ethan looked outside, where suddenly the fighting and rain had both stopped. Utter silence filled the jungle, all except the shaking trees loosening leaves.

Branches extended from all the trees, not to rebuild the platforms, but to make something entirely new. Bridges made of branches and dotted with bushes grew in between the massive trees, hundreds of them. All extending in the same direction. Each bridge was made of so many straight branches that it looked almost flat from a distance, and moved in a smooth curve towards their destination. Once the bridges were done forming, a giant wave of life force emanated from deep in the jungle and outwards.

Ethan had never seen such a thick concentration before in his life, and it was almost overwhelming. He tried desperately to grab even a single thread of that life force, but whatever controlled it was much stronger than he was. After it had passed, he saw streams of light appear through the broken canopy, but only for a moment. He could see the clouds closing in from the edges, if slowly. No… it's still going to rain. But why? His answer came in the form of a screen.

[Dungeon Quest: The Light-Choked Jungle (Wood Shrine) Find and place the five Holy Seeds in their respective Pedestals (5/5 Placed) Defeat the Landogre at the top of the Hearttree to survive the Elemental Storm of Water (0/1 Defeated)]