The Confused Explorer

This savage and wild creature hid in the darkness near the duo, however it seemed like Turul had noticed his presence long ago and was only waiting for him to get closer in order to get a decisive blow. Mike on the other hand hadn't noticed a figure hiding in the darkness at all as he seemed quite pleased with their recent find of strange metallic strawberries.

However this figure barely registered the two of them, instead its eyes flashed with boundless greed as its stares intermixed between the bushel of berries and Mikes grey backpack. Its clawed fingers twitched with joy at finding such things, its eyes grew even more bloodshot, it could not contain its ravenous need for wealth and objects. Only one thing truly stopped it. The aura that the large golden bird radiated was suffocating, it made it feel small and weak, as if it was about to be crushed any second, but it would not leave. The aura of the objects in the backpack made its body unable to move away, it was to mesmerized.

The feeling of want and anger flashed through its eyes more than once as it finally landed its gaze on the creature that had these things. That creature sang a merry tune as it held one of the fruits in its hands.

Finally the clawed beast could hold back its greed and anger no longer, it silently moved closer to the golden bird. It would take out the most dangerous of the two creatures first with a sneak attack in order to secure the wealth it d.e.s.i.r.ed. Inching closer within the shadows, it avoided anyway in which it would make noise as it finally arrived near the towering golden bird.

Within touching distance of the bird, in the shadows, the clawed beast with as much power as it could swiped at the bird towards the neck, its most vulnerable spot! However, fate played a cruel trick on this creature. Before it had a chance to relish in its victory, before it even had a chance to realize what was happening. It died. It's head flying freely from its body as it stared at the moonless sky before it died.

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Caught up in his delusions on what the new found fruit could be, Mike jumped horribly at the sound of a dying animal all to close to their location. Turning his head quickly, Mike saw Turul standing proudly in front of a freshly made corpse of a weird creature.

Looking at this corpse was kind of disgusting, it must have been the ugliest thing Mike had ever seen that was alive. Just its body alone was all he needed to know it was beyond saving in beauty factor. It was tiny as well, probably barely up to his knee in height, including its head if it was as big as he thought it was.

Peeking at the progress bar, Mike knew he still had a ways to go until it was done. So he did what he thought was best. Mike walked over to the corpse in order to examine it as he would scan it after he was done with the fruits. This corpse oozed red hot blood as its claws still slightly twitched after death. Its skin was a pale yellow that flaked and crumbled.

✵

The wait wasn't that long and after about a half an hour wait, the progress was finished. To Mike however it felt like an eternity. What the little strawberry fruit was called was a 'Metallic Bomb Fruit' with a red lettering 'New' to the side of it as always.

Pulling himself from looking into it more as for one he was scared immensely at the thought they were bombs and two he needed to scan whatever animal it was that followed them and tried to kill them.

Scanning the body really quickly Mike afterwards hurriedly pulled up the new log as the progress bar went to the right corner of the screen to allow him to read the new information.

--Metallic Bomb Fruit: These fruits were born evolutionarily with the process of animals eating their fruit then, with enough pressure, they would explode out of the animal with a metallic buckshot of seeds of the fruit to which they could be planted. As the seeds travel far distances and can shoot through most obstacles they can be found in most places. The lumps on the skin are the seeds of the fruit that will explode out when enough pressure is applied to them. This variation of the plant has evolved a special way of gaining its nutrients as there is no sun in order to go through photosynthesis. This plant is a parasite, s.u.c.k.i.n.g nutrients out of other nearby plants, thus repeating the process.

Environment: Almost Any

Effects: Explodes Under Pressure

Danger Level: Extreme

Rarity: Rare

Reading over the information, Mike calmed down slightly. At least they weren't going to explode randomly, in fact they were quite useful as weapons if used correctly. Though it would be a scary thought for Turul to bring back dinner only for it to explode in a million pieces of buckshot.

Happily picking some up, there were only about 5 of them, excluding the one Mike cute in half. Putting them in a little side pocket of the backpack, Mike felt good about gaining a new weapon for his defense, hopefully he wouldn't have to use them as they seemed to be a friendly fire sort of deal.

As the progress bar slowly filled up for the dead creature. Mike decided to go on a little quest in order to find the beasts head, which didn't take very long as it only flew a few feet away. Luckily Mike was used to the smell of death and blood what with gutting and skinning the animals that Turul brings back.

It also didn't take long before Mike quickly got bored of waiting for the progress bar to finish at the snails pace it was going. This animal was probably a grade or more higher than the Metallic Bomb Fruits, but if so what was it exactly? It seemed really weak for its grade as usually Turul has to fight a little bit longer than one move in order to kill these creatures, unless Turul got that much stronger in the time that they hadn't fought anything big.

No matter what it was it had to have some reason for being so weak for its grade, unless the beasts that Turul had been fighting have been above in strength in their category which is also a possible answer.

The new found question had been going through Mikes mind as he sat by Turul in front of the corpse waiting for it to be done scanning. Although Mike liked to just sit around and pet Turul for a while and think, it eventually got boring.

Looking over the information of their current levels, it seemed like both of them leveled up once!

Mike was currently level 9 after the level up and Turul was level 6.

The Explorers Log

Name: Mike

Age: 19

Occupation: Explorer

Level: 9

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Guardians

Name: Turul

Species: Roc

Level: 6

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The wait was an hour and a half of excruciating boredom. It was finally done though. This beast appeared to be called a 'Swipe Goblin'.

--Swipe Goblin: Born out of greed for material wealth and treasures, this species will stop at nothing in order to get treasures. Swipe Goblins have innate senses that allow them see the 'aura' of treasures, the better the treasure the bigger the aura of it. With strong robust legs Swipe Goblins are excellent climbers allowing them to not only leap and climb great distances, but their legs also allow them to remain virtually silent on almost any terrain. Lethal poison is a Swipe Goblins main attack, their brown long claws allow them to kill most of the opponents they will face. When Swipe Goblins gain a treasure they eat what is called 'Treasure Energy' out of it, which is their main food source, allowing them to become stronger after each successful gaining of wealth. Although they are called Swipe Goblins, these creatures have no correlation with the Goblin species except for in appearance only.

Environment: Any

Effects: N/A

Danger Level: Extreme

Rarity: Epic

It wasn't to far from what Mike might have expected. Though certainly you don't know what something wants from you if it attacks you randomly, except to maybe eat you, however if you have a Roc next to you unless that animal is delusional on being able to kill a legendary bird it must have been something else.

One thing kind of bothered Mike. If Swipe Goblins took treasures and, after a certain point, become really strong after s.u.c.k.i.n.g all of the Treasure Energy out of them, when is it that they become really strong? This Goblin certainly didn't seem to be at that phase yet, and it must have eaten all of the good treasures in the entire forest in this area! Although it was really frustrating that Mike hadn't been able to scan any of those really awesome treasures here, at least he got to scan this strange and really annoying creature.

Lifting himself up Mike stared directly at the corpse.

"it'd be best to just leave it here since I have no use for it." Quickly following him, Turul got up and walked beside Mike as they walked back towards the beach front.

✵

Arriving near the shore, Mike sighed. He was very depressed, but more so than depressed he was angry. He hadn't been able to scan anything that that little gremlin ate! His occupation was exploration and discovering now! What use was he when he would miss important materials?

Mike had fully embraced being an explorer now. After all it was fun so why wouldn't he? Though it was a little challenging at times and there were rough and potentially really horrible that didn't make it any less of an adventure for Mike because what was an adventure without hardsh.i.p.s? Boring.

Shaking himself out of his unhappy mood Mike thought of the options they had now.

They could head towards the mountain straight on instead of worrying about going through the forest again, though they'd have to go through some more forest as the beach was about to end really soon.

This option seemed the most plausible as there would definitely be a more diverse range of things to scan and fight on the mountain.

The option was set. They would walk straight for the mountain now. There would be no use in searching the forest near this area since that Swipe Goblin had probably eaten anything worth more than a penny.

Their day had barely even started so they had started on the ongoing walk towards the mountain.

As the time slowly progressed the quietness of the forest and the almost inaudible waves of the residing pink lake was mesmerizing. The swirling galaxy of the pink waters as it slowly went on with its rotations was quite a beautiful scene to look at. It seemed like this place had every beautiful scenery Mike could ask for at the moment.

"I wonder what this place would look like at the top of the mountain?" Quietly whispering to himself Mike was quite motivated to get to the top of the mountain. He completely forgot that it took a lot more than conviction to reach the top of a mountain.

This time it was Turul's time to sigh as he saw Mike walking faster with a big glitter of light in his eyes as he looked at the mountain like a long lost lover.

Heading forward with new found conviction, it was bound to be another adventure on the cusp of being found! Who knew what laid in store for Mike and Turul this time around? Whatever it was however was going to be fun! No matter what it was.