[D'sP] Those Were Babies? - Chapter 538
Derrick shrugs, “I deal with plants. Though sadly as the dungeon has proven, my field isn’t as separate from the study of animals as it once was.”
Ace rolls his eyes, “We both know your research proved that the assassin vines were actually possible pre-system. Now, how about you talk about your trip?”
Derrick sighs, “So it started easy enough.”
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The ten had been traveling for a while and so far? Mostly trees. To be honest, they found it a bit boring as they had expected something different at this point. After preparing for harsh deserts or sky-piercing mountains? More of the same old, same old? Disappointing.
Still, the trip wasn’t for fun so they kept going.
And going. The forest didn’t seem to want to stop. Among the group, a couple complained about this, as other directions had more open scenery. Derrick only laughed at that. He knew how the world looked before humans got a little ax happy.
There had been a ton more forests. So the fact that there seemed to be endless forests? Well, that isn’t out of place.
The complaints about the never-ending forest didn’t survive, anyway. It took a while, but eventually they reached an open plains.
Up until then, Derrick and the team had gotten by. Monsters weren’t weak, but they could handle it. And when they couldn’t? Well, trees were easy to climb with plant magic. After which, you just use some more magic to erase the scent trail.
An open plains was worse than some might expect. The grass grew tall enough to obscure the beasts, but humans still stuck out like a sore thumb. Oh sure, a few deer off in the distance could be seen towering over the grass. Except Derrick chose the word “towering” for a reason. These deer were TALL.
They didn’t approach them, but estimated those deer at the low-end were taller than a two-story house. Quite impressive, and Derrick guessed quite strong. After all, this isn’t pre-system anymore where a giraffe can amble about. To grow that big meant they could defend themselves despite being seen from quite a distance.
Ace interrupted at this point to note that defense doesn’t mean a powerful attack. Derrick just shrugged and continued, he wasn’t exactly going to risk it at the time.
There was enough danger already that the group didn’t need to look for more. In particular, blast from the past, wolves were a big threat. Some sort of variant wolf made this section of the plains their home.
What kind of variant? At first, the team figured it was similar to the grassen goat. The wheat wolves seemed to have replaced their fur with long strands of wheat-like grass.
After killing a small group, though, they found out that wasn’t quite the case. In reality, the “wheat” was much more disturbing. The stuff was almost hair, but still a living part of the wolves, so more like tendrils.
Honestly, Derrick didn’t really know how to define it? But since they are so far from the community at the moment, figured the in-depth research could wait.
Derrick also made sure to point out that there were beasts with actual plant-like parts. None like the grassen goats. Every example in the plains had specialized organs that produced plant structures. Whereas grassen goats are actually goats with grass growing on them.
Though in the whole of the trip, the plains was only a small portion. What met them at the end, was not.
On their trip, they had come across and crossed more than a few waterways. The plains itself had some small creeks running through it. However, it seems the plains itself was bracketed by rivers.
Two large rivers converged on their group and met, forming one giant river. A river which would be the backdrop for the rest of their way out. Now, it wasn’t record-breaking in size, except none of the people on the team remembered a river that looked like that.
It was a little too perfect. Rivers meeting at a right angle, with the combined flow going straight? The river wasn’t going to last as it is. Couldn’t last as it is. Along their journey, the group tested the banks and the results told a story. Soft, hard, in-between? This was the bank of a river that should not be flowing like it is.
Some of the banks should be wearing away by now, spreading out the river. In some places? There were even dips in the terrain where the river should have already flowed into, altering the path. Instead, the raised bank held strong after what should have been months of erosion.
An admittedly slow process. Except that the river flowed fast! The riverbed, deep and straight as an arrow, had nothing to slow the water down. In fact, the only way the group safely crossed the river was because right at where the two previous rivers met and made this new one, was the only slow point. Even with magic, they weren’t sure about crossing the combined river.
Though on the bright side, this meant the river provided a relatively safe direction. Oh sure, a bird or two came at them and there were monster amphibians that came out occasionally. However, the simple fact that when a pack or herd attacked them, nothing would come from that direction? They felt a great deal of safety.
Then Ace told him off for making that assumption. All it would take is a wolf pack with water magic using wolves to have ruined them. They got lucky.
That sobering thought out of the way, Derrick continues.
Though almost by design, the scenery doesn’t change much. Trees to both sides of the river with no large hills, let alone mountains, to be found. Just a straight line of water, preserved by the system, likely under the whole “weather protection” thing.
What didn’t stay the same, was the monsters. Yes, there were foxes, wolves, bears, bobcats, badgers, snakes, and so on. Common enough critters. Then there were also the oddities. A small mob of emus, a panther, maybe an elephant, monitor lizards hanging out on a rock the size of a city block, some sort of feathered thing that one of the dead team members had sworn was a dinosaur, and more.
Some of that could be explained away with animals escaping from all the zoos. Especially individuals like the suspected elephant. Others, especially that last one, are another story.
Oh, and strange new animals aren't the only way the group got thrown for a loop. At this point, simple elemental variants are old hat. A bit disturbing to have a fox breath fire at you, but in a comfortable sort of way.
The odder forms? Those could get disturbing. Animals with bone spikes coming out of their flesh in a way they clearly weren’t originally meant to. Way too fluid movement from beasts with more joints than sane. And on one occasion, a bear that looked the size of a cub, yet was fully grown and had the full weight you’d expect from a grown bear.
Ace was simply happy that despite some oddities, there wasn’t anything “Fae” or “Mythos” going on, and especially at the lack of the undead. In theory, there hasn’t been enough time since the coming of magic for areas of undeath and miasma to form. Ace also acknowledges that humanity has done some really messed up things to themselves and he wasn’t willing to bet on none of those places to come back with a vengeance.
The world was supposed to get a fresh start, but the people are the same, so that isn’t true. Instead, the more Ace finds out about the situation of the world, the more it feels like a refresh. Like when a grocery store decides to move everything around so that to find your stuff, you have to look all over. What you want is still in the store and maybe even close to where it used to be. It isn’t, however, where you expect it to be.
So after all that, Derrick finally gets to the ocean.
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“It looked normal enough. Just a blue expanse of water and waves. Seagulls shouting at us. Oh, and of course the river went straight into the ocean, no stopping or spreading out.
“We decided to camp out there for a week. It was already longer than we planned on being out, so our supplies weren’t looking the best. Thank goodness water wasn’t ever a worry. But yeah, the group figured we could take advantage of a week to build up our various supplies. You know, replace tools, mix medicine, and hunt some animals to preserve the meat.”
Derrick gets a distant look, and Ace waits for him to continue. This was not a brief wait, but he did continue. “Day four at the beach was when we first got a hint. The day of blood.”
Derrick looks up and sighs, “I thought it was a red tide, an algae bloom. The beach was red, but the wind was blowing out to sea so we didn’t smell it right away.”
Derrick lowers his gaze and meets Ace’s eyes, “It was blood. I’m not even sure how much was water. We tried to analyze it, but our spells were rebuffed by the residual magic. So either it was mostly the blood of a moderately powerful monster or a little bit of blood from a truly monstrous monster.”
Ace shrugs, “Well, that is ghastly. Though it could have been a bunch of monsters.”
Derrick lets out a hollow laugh, “Yeah, that’s what we thought at first. The day before the last planned day, we had that proven wrong.
“The waves were high, but the weather calm.
“Then they surfaced. Way off the coast, past what we figured was the drop-off of the continental shelf.
“One was a whale. I’ve seen whales. This was bigger than any pre-system whale. Its head was adorned with a bone crest. Crown. A bone crown. All spiky like.
“It was followed by a... Thing. Maybe a fish? Not something we are familiar with. There were six leg fins. Like, you take a lizard leg and cut off half the forearm, replacing it with a fin. Fins that are razor-sharp. Out of the water they looked to flail around, though it worked decently at slashing up the whale.
“Except this thing was only a third the size of the whale. You know, only a little bigger than a normal whale. So those slashes were more like surface wounds.
“We ran. Partly fear, partly for safety. Their fight threw up immense waves. What we could see of them was bad enough.
“I think the shore will be unlivable. Right now? Most of the waves are controlled, but I am willing to bet that is more of the weather control. Because out there? Deep in the ocean? Creatures like that are fighting. Once the system stops regulating the weather? Giant waves will be crashing into the shore non-stop.”
Ace folds his hands and hunches forward. “Well, that is about what I expected. The ocean is lost to us, likely with no timeline to reclaim it.
“Heh, reclaim. As if we ever really claimed it in the first place. And you know what’s worse?”
Derrick shrugs, “I don’t know, Kaiju in the sea seems pretty bad.”
Ace smiles and shakes his head, “What’s worse is they’re weak. All that commotion? A side effect of their size and nothing to do with levels or stats.
“The beasts of the sea didn’t get a head start on the rest of us. Those giant beasts? Their size may be from evolving into a variant form or because they’re from some strange species. Their power? So much room to grow.”
Derrick, “What? Those were babies?”
Ace shakes his head, “No, they were likely fully grown. But so are you. And compared to how strong you are now as compared to the beginning? The difference is night and day.”