Novel The Confused Explorer

Chapter 20: Peaceful Days

These eggs slowly crawled and moved about, signifying that they were close to hatching after their mother's death.


As these small shrimp like creatures popped out of the eggs one to tens at a time, they very quickly filled up the surrounding area making the scene around the large dead mother shrimp into a scene of baby shrimp the size of houses as they swam and moved rapidly, like a tornado, around the area.


This process took an undetermined amount of time, by the time all of these babies were hatched it was like a school of fish that swam together up until the last hatchling came out. Once the last one came out, it turned into a scene of chaos and carnage.


All of the young very quickly and very decisively attacked one another killing rapidly and continuing on in a haze of dead carcasses and mangled shrimp flesh. Seemingly without end these animals killed their own brethren into a haze of colorless blood and empty shells. Until there was only one left from the hundreds. This single baby shrimp became the sole inheritor of its mother shrimps powers.


Its clear and soft carapace wasn't even fully developed and yet it had went through a war against its own kin. As this child had won, it swam to eat as much as it could of its fallen brothers and sisters in order to heal its hurt body.


After gorging on everything it could eat until it was overstuffed, it slowly walked away on the lake floor, creating very minute trembles with each step, looking for a place to build a shelter and call home.

---

Moving around and making sure everything was ready to go, Mike and Turul were ready to head out onto the quest that they had given themselves, to head towards the mountain!


In order to get to the mountain they'd have to walk alongside the lakeside as it was straight ahead of them.


Along the way, just like they have been doing, they'd stop and look, or try, to scan anything interesting or fight strong opponents in order for both of them to level up!


Walking along the lakes shoreline, calling it a lake was kind of wrong since it seemed to be like an ocean in size, Mike looked at the still swirling pink galaxy not even bothering to look at what was ahead of him and almost tripping multiple times.


Under impulse, Mike Crouched down and cupped some of the water in his hands, Mike pulled up The Explorers Log and scanned it. Once the scanning initiated the bar seemed to zoom to the finish line, not even taking 1 minute to finish scanning.


Clicking on the new log it was called 'Pink Water'.



--Pink Water: This water has turned pink due to small algae called Dunaliella that take in the salt content within the water and create a byproduct that has turned this water pink.


Environment: Needs Dunaliella

Effects: None

Danger Level: None

Rarity: Common



Laughing slightly, Mike had guessed that this water was almost completely normal, but he didn't expect The Explorers Log to tell him why it was pink!


Shaking his head a little with a slight smile, it was nice to see something so beautiful yet so normal every once in a while.


Progressing forward it seemed like Mike forgot about any worries that he might of had as him and Turul moved closer to the mountain.

---

Days seemed to pass by them in a blur, though they weren't exactly days per say since the sky never changed, however they came and went all the same. These days were peaceful for the both of them since they didn't meet a single creature that wanted to eat or kill them.


Though most of the time they stayed and slept near the shore of the lake that seemed to stretch along with them endlessly, they still adventured out into deeper parts of the woods either to look at weird places that may hold special materials or to look at strange creatures.


Mike had managed to snag a couple more logs in The Explorers Log so he was pretty happy, though sadly neither him nor Turul leveled up once in the past couple days of no action or anything of amazing worth.


They were peaceful though and that's exactly what Turul and Mike needed after going through days of fighting, running, or surviving. Especially Turul since he went through a lot of fights in order to keep Mike from dying.


Mike needed it as well as these days had a sort of therapy effect on him since he never really had a chance to just relax since coming here, and with these peaceful days with Turul he had managed to relax and feel more safe than ever with his surroundings.


It seemed like not only were Mike and Turul were becoming more of a team, they were becoming more like adventurers, especially Mike. Ever since coming here he'd had nothing but hard time after hard time, after finally being able to relax for longer than an hour without sleeping, Mike finally started to pick up on the thoughts of adventuring, exploring, and finding awesome things as being fun as he was having fun as he explored the weird and cool areas of the surrounding forest, though they never found anything that really stuck out as an amazing item or animal, they still did enjoy the process!


The progress they made during these couple of days were hard to measure. It seemed like no matter how much they moved closer to the mountain, it always only seemed to get bigger but not closer.


Either they were farther away than they thought, or something was going on.

---

The always slightly damp and yet barely cold surroundings of the air on this 'morning' woke both Mike and Turul up slowly. The fire was long extinguished yet Mike was able to sleep peacefully with the broad bear skin that he kept along with him on their adventures.


Shifting slightly under the large blanket/pillow, Mike rolled around unable to get himself to get up fully as it was colder outside than in the blanket.


Sighing and forcing himself up, Mike stretched and proceeded with his morning routine like yawning and scratching his back as he slowly woke up.


After a little while of moving around and getting prepared, Mike and Turul were prepared for this day, though they seemed a lot more relaxed and less bothered with the surroundings.


Moving forward once again on the slightly pink tinted sand, they seemed use to this by now as they had been doing the same exact thing for days now.


Seemingly so relaxed, Mike had to battle sleepiness as they moved along the barely changing road.


Luckily it seems like Mike had been able to get in more practice with his abilities as he had more control over them as they didn't disappear upon his deviating thoughts, though there were a couple times in which they seemed like they were slightly vanishing as they released minutes amount of gray gas.


As the day passed slowly Mike and Turul seemed to be having another one of those days where nothing happens.


Finally after walking for almost the entire day, Mike and Turul stopped at their next camp site in which they'd rest for the night.


Pulling out all of the materials needed and grabbing some nearby flammable material, they had a full blown fire before them.


As Mike set up the campsite, Turul spent his time catching the dinner for tonight.


After cooking, eating, and planning for tomorrow, Mike and Turul set out for sleep.

---

Morning quickly approached for both of them as they seemed to have a repeat of the same morning from yesterday.


Quickly packing their stuff they headed on.


However, the plan for today was different. The plan for getting to the mountain was that every other day they'd just walk, however on the days they didn't walk closer towards the mountain they'd search the surrounding area.


Very quickly they veered of course towards the surrounding area in order to check it out for anything worthy of noting.


Walking on the soft ground of moss as they headed deeper into the forest, it seemed so peacefully quiet with only the sound of jingling from their bag, their almost inaudible footstep, and the occasional gust of wind that brought about an earthy smell.


The trees were spread far apart as they were very large making a lot of room to walk, along with good line of sight, even if it was slightly darker with the trees blocking some of the starlight.


Everywhere they looked to be the same with large fluorescent flowers and grasses growing illuminating the ground ever so slightly as the large trees cast weird shadows onto the land below giving a somewhat somber and dark atmosphere. The rare crunch of leaves the fell from the sparse tops of the trees did little to change the surroundings look or feel.


Mike however was used to the sights, but he still knew how to appreciate how beautiful it was.

---

After half an hour of combing the surroundings looking for anything noteworthy, the only really out of normal thing they had found out of it was an arachnid.


This spider was about 13 centimeters long that almost blended in with the surroundings, almost.


This spider seemed uninterested in them, however it web that it created spanned from three trees, making a large net the seemed to span a very long distance.


Standing about 6 feet away from the spider, Mike pulled out the explorers log and scanned it for the sake of logging it and leaving, as he didn't want to stay close to this disgusting little creature.


Staring at this spider it had long spindly yet terrifying looking legs. It had a small head and long oblong torso that seemed to kind of hump where it meets the head. This creature was a vibrant black with splotches of slightly glowing light like the surrounding plant colors.


Standing there for a little bit, Mike backed up away from the spider slightly as to not be in its danger zone incase it was something that was really dangerous.


Waiting for about 10 minutes, the scanning process finally finished to showcase the name under 'Fauna'. It was called an 'Ebb Spider'.



--Ebb Spider: This spider is commonly known for its mythologically named background. It is said that millions of years ago this spiders species had intelligence that put it above humans and thus they prospered immensely, however all of that changed with the tragic fate of the new spider queen. When she first came to power she had a mighty yet kind rule over her subjects, but when tragedy struck her life she shut herself in the castle, never to be heard from again woefully spending her days alone and in isolation from anyone else. With the loss of their queen the race slowly faded from rule and has become just another arachnid species. This species has a very weak venom that can only affect prey smaller than it, it however makes up for this with very sturdy and strong webbing that stretches for upwards of tens of feet. This spider makes up for its weak body with a natural camouflage to its surroundings, making it very difficult to see it at all.


Environment: Hot, and Damp

Effects: N/A

Danger Level: Low

Rarity: Uncommon



Mike was slightly stunned, The Explorers Log never usually did things like this where it told the background, maybe it had leveled up or something when he didn't notice? Or maybe this species of spider has a lot more to it than meets the eye.


In any case Mike was happy he'd been able to find and scan this little spider as it had been a while since he had found something this worthy of noting, even if it was only of a uncommon rank for its species.


Picking himself up lightly, Mike took one last look at the hanging threads of spider webs and the small and almost unnoticeable spider that stood still on its web, waiting for prey, before finally heading out under a dim and beautiful night sky.

 

Chapter 21: Melancholy Road

Walking away from the arachnid with a huge history, Mike couldn't help but think about all of the things The Explorers Log had described the spider as. Although sometimes it was vague and sometimes you needed to explore more into an item or creature in order to get all of the information, which Mike didn't due to the Ebb Spider because he hated spiders and was afraid of them, it had never done something like give information like that on a creature before.


The thought just wouldn't get out of his head as he stared at the beautifully backgrounded screens in front of him that told so little about itself and where it came from. It seemed so mute, it wasn't even like the screens he'd seen in video games either, it didn't give him his points of 'Strength' or 'Magic'. It was almost empty actually. It never told him the benefits of leveling up, or what was instore for him, or where he even was for that matter! It just appeared and gave him a road to follow, what laid ahead was unknown.


(AN: Remember he has two screens! One for the Log and the other for Guardians!)


It simply gave him basic information like his name, age, occupation, and level. Which is amazing that it even gave him his level anyways since it seemed to be unwilling to give him anything else. Heck it even makes him search deeper and look closer at certain things in order to get all of the information!


Mike was even more confused about its origins, it didn't seem like it came from the Jack Apple as the only one he ate had made him younger, so if he had gotten it, where did he get it from? And when did he receive it? Did it come to him when he arrived in this forest, or did he gain it after that?


Thinking of all this Mike started to get slightly depressed and no longer wanted to think about it. Remembering how he got here and all that had happened then brought up some pretty recent and sore memories that he'd rather move on from, like mainly how he felt at the time that really made him want to forget as it brought a somewhat sour taste to his mouth.


Sighing and returning back to his original thought, if The Explorers Log really did change the information given just for a single time in order to explain the Ebb Spider, what did that signify?


Maybe, just maybe the background and history is a major importance to that species for a special reason he might find out in the future, but until then he'd have to just stay content with the questions he had in his mind and could only think of the possibilities that may become of them.


Turul didn't follow him to keenly and explored nearby, but away from Mike so that they wouldn't miss anything.

---

The needlessly high trees stuck out around Mike making him feel like an ant walking around giants feet. Walking in the same pattern he had been before, Mike continued to search for something interesting.


Within in the confines of his own thoughts and the quiet whispers of the large beautifully constructed forest, Mike couldn't help but have his mind wander aimlessly. After all it had been such a long time since he had been without Turul by his side. Since the beginning of all of this actually. So left to his own devices without a sort of support, Mike started to look back on everything that happened, albeit unwillingly.


It felt like so long ago that he'd arrived here, although he really enjoyed it here and loved the thought of everything that was to come with Turul by his side. It didn't mean he doesn't miss his home or Earth anyless. You'd have to be an idiot to think this was on or near Earth, Mike knew ever since he saw the place this wasn't home, and there may be no way for him to return in his lifetime.


Mike had nothing to miss there, he didn't have any living close relatives anymore, no friends that he particularly enjoyed, and he hated his job, however he still missed it. It was his home where all of his memories of over 40 years of life resided, where he grew up and where he thought he'd die, alone and depressed, but home nonetheless. He had his memories of both joyus and tragic moments there.


His parents were his fondest memory because he loved and missed them dearly, even if they were no longer alive he'd still never be able to visit their gravestones, that were right next to each other, or look at the photos of them together with him when he was younger. He had missed the simpler times with them when they had recently passed, but now he missed the times where he was even around them at all.


There was no real reason for him to miss Earth so much besides his fond memories with his parents, yet he still felt an aching for that place somewhere deep in his heart. He knew that if he had the chance to go home and give up this fantasy esque world and Turul he wouldn't. After all this his chance and opportunity to live out a life he would be proud about!


He had one of the worlds strongest creatures and a power that would be a must have auxiliary ability for him as it allowed him to create effectively any tool on the spot. So giving up on such an opportunity would have to make him an idiot.

---

The air seemed to be closer to winter weather on the occasions it blew by. It felt cold and Mike had a hard time feeling the tips of his fingers that felt cold and unfeeling when he pressed them against the palms of his hands.


Thinking of all of these things made Mike depressed and reminiscent of the past. The beautiful scenery with glowing mushrooms, beautiful flowers, and buzzing strangely shaped bugs under a deep and beautiful black sky with a trillion sparkling lights that dazzled and sputtered in between the trees with beauty seemed to blur in the background as he no longer paid attention to his surroundings that, even though beautiful, were not as important as his own aching heart.


Eventually Mike was pulled out of his tears that poured over his eyes and onto his youthful face as he had tripped over a large root that snagged his foot since wasn't paying attention at all.


Sniffling a little bit, Mike slowly picked himself back up and swept away the dirt and moss that stuck to his clothing.


Sighing Mike wiped away the tears and put himself back together as he fought against the idea of continuing on with his melancolic episode.


Looking around, it seemed like he hadn't walked far from where he originally was as he could see the area in which he just was before starting his depressed mood. It seems his thoughts and mood whirled by faster than his feet did.


Walking forward once more, Mike fought against the surges of woeful tides in his mind as he focused on surveying his surrounding more scruntitly. Looking and wallowing in the beauty of this forest once again for the tenth time, Mike seemed to feel better about everything and soon started to forget about his sadness for a little bit.


After hours of searching, Turul came back empty winged, while Mike only had the Ebb Spider under his belt for the day. It seems they had hit a period of drought with finding rare things. It was strange too since they had managed to find so many cool things when they first arrived here but ever since that fight with the lightning bug King and Queen they hadn't been able to find one single thing that was worth the actual effort of going out of their way for.


Mike had already scanned all of the flora and fauna they could find as it's his job to 'explore' and 'discover'. They had been mostly uneventful.


Sighing seemed to be Mikes favourite pastime as he looked towards the very visible mountain from the sandy beach side.


The never changing sky made Mike and Turul both tired as they couldn't stifle their yawns. They had kept on searching after meeting up at the beach, together this time, and had managed to pass most of their day doing that, yet still without a good result on their endeavour.


As they sat by a warm fire that had just cooked their food for the night, Mike looked off into space. It had been an emotionally and physically taxing day for him today, he was just ready to lay down and pass out, not even bothering with planning for tomorrow.


Eating and laying down both Mike and Turul had no trouble falling asleep that night.

---

The routine of their daily lives seemed to continue with exactly how it had been. Today they got up and, after doing the regular morning routine, they walked. For the entire day they had walked straight ahead without doing anything else besides stopping every now and again.


They once again set up their fire and food in order to sleep after walking the entire day.

---

Mike awoke abruptly. He had heard a strange noise in the forest that leered so closely to the beach. It sounded like a laugh and cry yet it was soft, but just loud enough to awaken Mike to hear it. Shifting on the broad bear rug, Mike peered at Turul who was already awake and alert to whatever was in the forest. Turul looked unblinkingly at the forest with his scary gaze waiting for whatever was there that threatened their sleep.


However it seemed like it was all just an illusion. There were no more noises during the interval in which they kept alert, like it just disappeared, not even Turul could track it.


Before long they both had decided to just get up and start their day. They both agreed Turul wouldn't go into the forest for hunting today so they had fish from the lake for breakfast. Gathering their equipment Mike walked with Turul into the forest making sure they both stayed close today as whatever was in the forest was most likely still around and Mike couldn't be alone as he was really weak.


Today they'd continue with searching the forest, except this time they'd also keep their eyes out for any sort of strange creature.


Eventually within the confines of the forest, Mike and Turul searched seamlessly looking for materials to scan. As the searching stretched too over an hour of looking they eventually found a bushel full of fruits.


They looked like warped strawberries with large round bumps on their skin instead of their seeds. These strawberries were also silver and slightly metallic in coloration. It felt squishy sometimes and other times it felt as hard as metal.


Making sure he checked everything on the outside, Mike quickly conjured up a knife. Slicing the little fruit in half was fairly easy even though it looked like and felt like it was made of metal.


The insides were a swollen and ashy yellow, it looked revolting and inedible from any angle. Pulling up The Explorers Log Mike scanned one that he hadn't touched. The bar of progression appeared on the screen signaling that it was in the process of scanning. The process seemed to be especially slow today which made Mike pretty excited for what these fruits were.


However it was bound to be an unhappy time while waiting for the bar to finish as 'That Thing' appeared. Its sharp and yellow teeth laid a glimmer in the darkness as it smiled a wicked smile along with maddened eyes of a pure red that radiated greed at its foundation. It had weathered skin that chipped and crumbled under the slightest touch or breeze, sharp claws that were a sickly brown, and strong robust legs like those of a kangaroo. It was a disgusting existence that would forever haunt all of Mike's adventures! A species that would forever be the adversary of Mike's exploration!

 

^_^

 

Chapter 22: The Adversary


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 desired. 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.

---

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, sucking 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


-

Guardians

Name: Turul

Species: Roc

Level: 6


---

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 sucking 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 days, that didn't make it any less of an adventure for Mike because what was an adventure without hardships? 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.