A little while later, Jordan found it. From the center point that was the base of his Kingdom, the edge of his territory was now roughly 25 miles away. Which, when one looked back at how that translated into the total area of the whole territory… was a lot of space. As far as someone else crossing that border went, that much distance meant that even if they beelined it for the center, there should be plenty of time for a response.
He was still in a forest of giant trees, but it was a bit different from the one he had grown familiar with. Actually, that was quite an understatement. As around here in what was definitely a new hexagonal biome, all the trees appeared to be made of stone. They all still had the texture of normal bark for trees and such, along with stone leaves. Though they were certainly made of pure rock, as here the ground was also covered in leaves, which made for a very constant rumble as his drone had to drive over them.
Though Jordan wasn’t too worried about the amount of noise that had been made. For as far as his drones circling around went, this was the first time Jordan had gone out in this particular direction. And with this spot as a new central point for his drones’ range, that made for fresh hunting ground for all directions other than the way he’d come from. And of course, that came with an equally fresh list of notifications for Jordan to inspect as he took a second to have a drink of water.
Experience Earned!
+39 EXP
Experience Earned!
+39 EXP
Experience Earned!
+ 56 EXP
Experience Earned!
+39 EXP
…
There were a couple dozen more notifications and counting, each one an indication that the creatures around here were a healthy mix between Level 3s, Level 4s, and a very occasional Level 5. Just all of this was so far a bit under 1500 Experience Points earned. Though it was almost funny how quickly one could be spoiled by new expectations. Because compared to how much more Experience it’d take him to gain a Level now…
EXP: 4997/27,225
Yet despite how much a Level 4 creature and its 56 EXP was now a drop in a bucket compared to what it’d take currently, Jordan felt warmth in his chest. He could only be grateful that out of all possible things, being too high of a Level for fast grinding was something for him to complain about.
No matter what the future would hold in terms of that countdown in six days… technically less now, before every monster on this planet gets injected with steroids, he was in the best position possible to survive it. He could easily see a world where Haje had never met him but eventually got that Prodigal Lord Slayer Title for himself, or that there could also be anyone else like him out there, that this System had offered a real chaos factor of a Class.
Just have to do what I can in the meantime. Six days isn’t a long time, but this is still only our third night here. There’s a lot that can still happen before the System ups the ante, so gotta stay on my toes, Jordan told himself before he hopped back on his drone. The young man then blinked, as a glimmer of light hit his face.
Another difference between this forest and the one he was used to was that the number of trees wasn’t quite as dense. And it was this fact that allowed the first light of dawn to hit him as this world’s sun peeked over the forest-hidden horizon. With it, Jordan had to make a small mental correction to his earlier thought.
It was now the start of their fourth day on the alien planet known as Vervina-C.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
***
Leo wasn’t sure how things had come to this. One moment, he had been grabbing fast food from a burger joint near the mall shortly after saying goodbye to Adam in the parking lot. The next moment, he found himself somewhere underground with a group of random people. A couple of which had died either on the spot or shortly after their teleportation, just to make an already shocking situation immediately worse.
Now, over the last few days, things had only been spiraling from bad, to worse, to even fucking worse. From the original starting group, it was now down to just Leo… and four kids. The oldest of whom was only around nine, and the youngest was just six years old. And while Leo was doing his best to keep those kids from panicking, it was hard when he felt like he was reaching the end of his rope himself.
The cave system they were in was a harsh one. Leo didn’t know how far deep it was, but despite days of wandering about, they hadn’t yet seen even a single hint of sunlight. It was only because of the Quest that he even knew how much time had passed, since his phone ran out of battery while trying to keep a flashlight on. The only natural sources of light were these glowing mushroom patches that seemed to pop up every few hours of walking.
While close by, the mushrooms the size of basketballs emitted plenty of light and felt like a bubble of safety, almost. At least close to safety as they could get, compared to just being blind in the otherwise dark caves. Unfortunately, something about these mushrooms meant that they only glowed while attached to where they grew from. Attempts made at cutting one off to use as a mobile light source only resulted in them dying.
At least they’re edible, Leo thought to himself as he chewed on one while they sat on the latest patch of them. The father of one of these kids had been the brave soul to try them first, to see if they’re toxic, as the survivors realized that the only food they had was whatever cheap burgers happened to be in their hands or otherwise on their person when they got teleported here. They tasted like dirt, but the man hadn’t experienced any signs of being poisoned, even after several hours had passed.
Along with that, they could at least rely on water as well. For just once so far in their journey, they had come across a stream of water by one of the mushroom patches, and had stored as much as they could. Not that they had a fire or anything to purify it with… Leo himself was a Pugilist, in regards to his Class of choice. His thought had been that if combat Classes were a choice, then it was safer to pick from one of those. And he’d taken his fair share of lessons in things like boxing and other martial arts that took his fancy, even if he did have a hard time committing to anything for more than a few months at a time.
Other than that, things had been depressing and filled with anxiety, yet it was the kind that their group had been able to push through with grit. But then just yesterday, that father… disappeared. He didn’t get attacked by any animal, nor had anything else been noticed. It was that he and another man had been on watch while the rest of them slept at a mushroom patch, and the other man claimed that he looked away, and the guy had simply vanished into thin air. A claim that was quickly deemed as suspicious, of course.
But then, it just kept happening. More and more people continued vanishing, one every couple of hours, after that father had been the first. There was never a sound or any sort of warning. Even those who’d held the disappearing person’s hand or had otherwise been close by claimed that they’d been there one moment, and just gone the next.
At the edge of his vision, there was movement. Leo’s body moved quickly, and he crushed a roach-like creature comparable in size to a dinner plate. An EXP notification flashed in his vision, indicating that he was now a bit closer to Level 3. These things had been the only creatures for him to punch. Though with how absolutely rank their insides were, he didn’t even want to think about a scenario where they’d need to be used for emergency food. Not that it may matter for him, anyway.
It’d been a few hours since the last adult, other than him, had vanished. And while it may have been a coincidence that none of the kids had disappeared, he wasn’t so sure. At what could be any minute now, Leo would probably disappear like the rest due to… who even knew what reason. And while he still tried to not show his fear to the kids, especially when they were all already at the brink of a full nervous breakdown, he couldn’t hide the truth from himself.
When Leo pulled his hand back from the oversized bug, it was with a trembling fist. Despite often being considered ‘the stoic one’ to people he met and got to know… he was still human. And still capable of feeling scared completely shitless at that moment.
