217 Sol's Soul Is Sold!
What stuck out to him were the seeds he had acquired from defeating the dryad, calling them from his subspace inventory as five, celestial-colored seeds appeared in his palm.
“…This is?” He questioned in a mumble.
There was no answer given to him by his System, leaving him without any clue as to what their use was before he stored them away again.
“Man, this forest is messed up…” He sighed.
I only came out here for some vines…But, I learned something at least: this first floor isn’t to be taken lightly, he thought.
–
Returning to the cave, Archie was munching on a portion of the cooked deer, looking up in surprise at his return.
“There ya are! Took ya bloody long enough!” Archie laughed.
The man spit out food while he talked, much to the disgust of the red-haired young man who began setting up the curtain of roots over the cave entrance.
“…I ran into some trouble,” he explained.
“Oh?” Archie said.
“I handled it,” he clarified.
Archie looked at him for a moment before laughing, “I see! Good on ya, mate!”
“…Right.”
As expected, the newfound companion of his couldn’t be bothered to be anything less than jovial about any piece of information.
With night fully set in, he used his coat as the only piece of bedding he could find, laying his head against it as he laid on the cold, cave floor. The stone was moist and chilly, rough and solid; it was the opposite of a comfortable experience.
Still, he’d grown used to sleeping in difficult environments, so it didn’t take him very long to slip into slumber nonetheless.
…Just a bit longer. I’ll find you all again. It’ll just…take some time, he thought sleepily.
As morning came, he was awoken not by the sunlight that peeked through the veil of vines that acted as the curtain for the cave, but by the thunderous footsteps that resonated outside of the temporary abode.
He instantly jumped up to his feet, placing his hands on the handles of his sheathed daggers, ready for action within a moment of waking up.
“Settle down, would ya, mate?”
“–?” He glanced back.
Almost unsurprisingly, Archie was sitting on the floor, snacking on some fruit that he must’ve gone out and grabbed before he’d woken up.
“Nothing is coming in here to harm ya, don’t worry,” Archie assured him.
“Yeah, well, better safe than sorry,” he sighed out.
“True enough!” Archie laughed.
He moved his hands away from his blades, slumping his shoulders as he finally adjusted to reality, yawning out and sitting on the floor again.
“Still, ya outta chill out every now and again, ya know? It’s real bad for ya to always be so tense,” Archie told him.
“I think it’s even worse to be relaxed all the time,” he replied.
Archie laughed, “A jab at me, eh? Fair enough!”
In the morning, it was definitely a struggle to bear with the constant laughter that emitted from Archie, who didn’t seem to be somebody who was ever exhausted or dreary.
“Heads up!”
He was nearly caught off-guard by Archie’s sudden call as he caught something thrown at him–a round, yellow-skinned fruit.
“Thanks?” He said.
“Ya wanna start searching for your friends, right? I’m guessing ya wanna move out soon–so get some energy in your body before then!” Archie told him.
“Yeah…good idea,” he nodded.
There was a lot on his mind, between the mysterious nature of the first floor and the whereabouts of his friends, but he did often forget to take care of his own needs–which he was thankful to Archie for supplying him with much needed calories at a time like this.
After finishing the sweet, juicy fruit, the two left the bounds of the cave, back into the sheer wilderness.
“Alright, then! We’ve got an adventure ahead of us, eh?” Archie said, looking up at the pale-blue sky.
“That we do,” he said in agreement.
Archie rubbed his chin, “I reckon we should aim for a settlement. Where there’s people, there’s people!”
“…Yeah? That’s…kinda obvious,” he replied.
“I mean that places with a lot of people draw in more people, ya know? You and me? We can handle the wild just fine,” Archie laughed, “but people want stability, and other people. I guess most people aimed for settlements when first coming here.” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
They started heading out north of the direction they came in from, following a riverbank, by suggestion of Archie, down the length of the forest.
“What about you?” He asked.
“Yeah?” Archie looked at him.
“Did you arrive at the Tower with anybody else?”
Archie looked forward before answering, “Nope!”
It was a surprising answer to him. He’d been in groups for so long at that point that the thought left his mind of people surviving by themselves, but it wasn’t as if he was completely foreign to that idea.
…I started off like that. Feels like an eternity ago now, he thought.
“Really?” He asked.
“Yup! Just me and my critters–it wasn’t easy, ‘course! But, we made it–and look where it brought us! I sure missed the true wild,” Archie said.
“…Yeah, I think I get what you mean,” he agreed.
Such an affable person like Archie made it seem like in their short time together so far, they had become close friends, but that was just a side-effect of the easygoing, kind nature of the Australian-hailing man.
“Yer from Korean, right?” Archie asked him.
“Yeah,” he nodded.
Archie laughed, “Bingo! Bit hard for me to figure out sometimes–names are confusing and all!”
“…Is that so? Well, good job,” he smiled wryly.
“I’ve always wanted to go there, but I’ve always wanted to go everywhere, anyway!” Archie said, “…Well, that’s a faraway dream now, ain’t it?”
“Seems so,” he said.
The forest was quite a long stretch, but with Archie’s experience in navigating the wilderness, despite it being an entirely different world they occupied, they managed to avoid gaining the attention of unwanted critters.
After a few hours, and quite a lot of fruit and river-drinking later, they found themselves at the edge of the forest, leaving the bounds of the trees.
“See that! That’s our start!” Archie pointed to the distance.
What stretched beyond the forest were great plains, surrounded by hills and mountains, curling around a large city in the near distance.
“…Yeah, looks like it,” he said with a naturally forming smile.
–
[Base of A Mountain, First Floor]
“…Where is everybody…? This isn’t right!”
The hazel-haired young man was tucked away behind a large rock, muttering to himself as heavy stomps resonated against his ears.
[Name: Sol]
[Level: 25]
At the base of the mountain, it was densely packed with foliage similar to a jungle’s claustrophobic amount of trees and tall grass, though it wasn’t very humid.
Sol had found himself having to hide from the massive beast that prowled the base of the mountain, covering his mouth with one hand and clutching his spear close to his body with the other.
Just my luck! Always my luck! It’s bad enough I got separated from everybody, but now this?! I was using that cave to sleep in last night–I didn’t know its real owner was just out momentarily! He thought.
Hesitantly, he decided to peek around the boulder to get a look at the beast that was hunting him down, gulping down as he slowly looked behind the large rock he was hidden behind.
It was a massive tiger-like creature, though its size largely dwarfed any such familiar creature as it stood taller than some trees with its length from its head to its swaying, striped tail being even greater.
The gargantuan feline was covered in blue fur with black stripes, baring large fangs as it prowled, salivating onto the grass below.
[Enemy Identified: “King Tiger” | Level 28]
By all means, it was a predator that gave off sheer intimidation, if not by its size alone then the largeness of its fangs.
What do I do?! This thing is totally looking for me! It thinks it’s got a nice meal waiting for it–but news alert, buddy–I don’t taste good! He thought.
Those thunderous stomps sealed away any temptation he had to actually run away or, god forbid, fight the beast.
Still, he could tell there was little merit in simply hiding as the beast wasn’t moving away from that specific area–he could hear its sucking air through its nostrils, sniffing him out as there was no doubt his scent was left in the air.
Is it trying to smell my fear!? He thought in a panic.
As he kept his back pressed against the boulder, controlling his breathing as sweat trickled down his head–he realized something.
It was quiet. Eerily so. The sound of the beast growling was no longer meeting his ears, and its massive steps had stopped.
Did it leave?! Praise the lord! He celebrated.
As he got up to his feet, he let out a breath of relief before glancing back–that was a mistake. It felt like his blood turned to ice in his veins as he looked back, finding the massive tiger staring him down with its vertical-slit eyes, looming over the rock he was hiding behind.
“…Err, hello,” he said quietly.