Spirit Taming

Chapter 595: Rampant Thorns

Invasive species of beasts were nothing new. This was a major issue in the world that every single race knew. Beyond just the fact that existence linked worlds and different races through dungeons, it also linked the beasts.

This undeniable fact was one that caused many deaths and tragedies in the earliest of times. The humans and other races, had been unable to handle native beasts breaking in to their worlds. That was why every race was the same.

They had cities but could not easily push in to the wilderness of their worlds. It was not just their own natural beasts that lived there. It was the dungeons that brought unknown beasts.

However, existence didn't seem to intentionally bring beasts to destroy the worlds in any way liek that. There was a theory that beasts came that could be handled by the existing creatures of the world. Therefore, no beast had been able to grow so powerful that they threatened everything. Or at least not to anyone's knowledge.

Regardless, Clark felt that whatever this great existence was that had thrown a system at him and put him in this world had guided them here. A beast that had taken over a dungeon and forced it to remain open? A dungeon that was clearly broken and was suffering along with every beast within it? It was all too perfectly aligned that the group was there.

It was also an offering of sorts. The group had the opportunity to take this offer and grow stronger.

"Class, please come and listen to teacher Ella for the main lesson today." Isa drew everyone's attention making them question what act she was putting on. But when Ella started to speak, it was clear that she knew a lot more about dungeons like this from her added years of research and theory building.

"Because this is a broken dungeon, we will most likely not be fighting together. Each of us, when entering might be scattered randomly through it. Many documentations of similar instances were recorded. Even an army of over a thousand found themselves separated randomly within a five floor dungeon due to the scarlet pangolin invasion within the dungeon after being abandoned by rare beast poachers."

"They were able to eventually clear said dungeon of the invasive beasts. They suffered heavy losses and everyone was expelled from the dungeon after the cause of its broken state was removed. The records of the dungeon were left behind but the actuality of it never resurfacing are still true.

It was closer to say that after every living being within was relocated to where they had entered, that the dungeon ceased to exist entirely."

"What Ella means, is that we fight alone and that we will be tasked with getting rid of the source of those roots. So come over here and take whatever potions, medicines, and anything else you need." Maria pointed at Isa and made sure that both of them started to divide everything they could to the group. Isa was a little stingy as a merchant, but that was fine since they all got the basics.

"Now that we have this settled, what do we do to kill these things? Burnt the roots or something?" Ralph was ready for the easy solution, but his face looked less happy the more he realized that everyone was a little lost on this.

"I would say yes, but I think that we will have to find the beast that originated these thorny vines and roots. My best guess would say it's not a plant so much as a beast. But it has to have a root ball or core of sorts. Maybe a bulb. Who knows?" Clark gave his best guess and Ralph seemed to dislike that. Not that they had any other choice but to accept what Clark had said.

While they all wanted to get stronger, the idea that a beast strong enough to grow massive enough to take over a dungeon was their opponent, was a daunting task. Yet, when Brad walked in to the dungeon without saying a word, no one could bring themselves the courage to speak out in worry or have issues with it.

"And I guess that means we are heading in." Reese jumped in too and the group had to follow. Without anyone or anything holding them back, this was just what they need to do. But that didn't stop Clark from leaving behind a set up tent for when they got out. He was the only one that took his time in that respect. But it also left him to examine the map of the violent jungle one last time.

"Guess I will be changing this map. Maybe I am not really recording a map but fixing one?" This theory was enough for him to feel a little more dedicated to fixing the dungeon here.

When Clark took a step in to the broken stone archway and walked over the thorny purple roots that were climbing out of the dungeon's stairs, he noticed that they were covered in a slimy liquid. It prompted him to slide the rest of the way down whether he wanted to or not.

Looking at the pile of small beast bones, he realized this was the start of a trap that the beast had set. Some of the weaker beasts that fell from that slide would die or be injured right away. It would have been a very annoying occurrence. However, Clark also noticed that he was the only one that entered this way.

It seemed everyone else had been sent elsewhere by the degraded mechanics of the dungeon.

It felt that whatever forces governed all of this were somehow saying to him, you can begin where everything starts. Try and survive. Or at least that was what Clark felt had happened. It kind of made sense too since he was literally the only one that had ended up at the start of the dungeon. No one else in his group had ended up here.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Clark could tell that the forest like environment within the dungeon had been completely degraded. It was mostly fallen trees and pools of rotting stinking liquids. This was clearly the making of whatever beast had invaded here when left in a seed from.

The larger trees that remained were deader than anything. Their leaves were nonexistent and the only things that blocked the sightline of anyone looking were the larger thorny vines and purple leaves that grew all around the dead wood. It used them as a perch to grow more and taller in a place where the sun seemed to have given up on shining.

From just the view here alone, Clark could tell that this dungeon was a goner. Years of invasion had ruined the beauty of whatever had been here. Whatever ecosystem had existed was completely destroyed. It made his heart ache a little.

While this was a newer experience, Clark could somewhat sense that he was feeling thai way because it was against the ways of the world. It was broken away from the flow that nature should be. Every creature in existence had some tether to the worlds they lived in. naturally, they would have some instinct to protect it all instead of destroy, right?

Foregoing this feeling, Clark took a step while he put Shy back on his shoulder. His black lightning spear at the ready for whatever he might need to fight. He was not foolish enough to believe that whatever plant type beast lived here had not created some form of offshoots of young. It was too great of a place for it to grow to not do so.

As if to mock him, the grinding and cracking of wood echoed from his right. Clark tried to see a vine wrapping around a dead tree and toppling it in to the mucky ground. As if to further show off the strength of the thorny vines, they wrapped and dug in to the dead wood. The thorns acting like a saw that cut chunks out and in to the pools.

Soon the sounds and movements stopped. Clark knew that this was just the largest beast moving around and breaking down things it could use for nutrients. This would keep occurring as it needed to feed. Eventually swallowing the entire violent jungle.

"How is this not a main quest and only part of the subquest?" Clark felt that this was such a major event. He had to literally destroy a beast strong enough to control an entire dungeon. Even the weakest and smallest dungeons would need a powerful beast to control it. One that he would not normally be able to fight.

This allowed more methods of defeating the source of this attack on the dungeon to come to mind. Reasons he might not have to worry about the strength of the beast. Reasons he might be more in tune to being able to crush the beast that was running wild. Those theories and thoughts could wait though. Clark spotted some moving vines ahead of him.