After a few moments of walking, we find a ''natural'' road, as it has no trees and the grass has gaps, with some parts of the land not having grass, forming a path that guides us.
Perhaps many adventurers have passed through here and decided to cut down the trees, or perhaps nature itself has decided not to make trees here.
The land on this level is light, similar in color to beach sand.
Sakura trees surround us on either side, with the road leading us to our destination, level 15.
Until, as we're walking, a noise comes from my right.
Looking deeper into the woods, I see nothing, but looking up from the trees, in the branches, I see two amber-yellow eyes on top of the trees.
Looking at the pink silhouette, it seems to be a feline figure.
Is that... a Pink Panther!?!?
The panther suddenly jumps towards Reinier who is on my right, who is walking looking at the map.
"Watch out!" I push him away just as the panther would slash Rei's face with its sharp claws.
The moment I push him, Reinier manages to dodge being thrown to the side, but the panther's claws graze my left forearm.
The cut wasn't deep, but it still hurt.
Now that she's in our view, I can see the monster more clearly.
The Pink Panther, a level 14 monster. It is about 2 meters long (6.5ft). Her eyes glow a yellow similar to the sparkles of sunlight and amber. Her coat is a deep, deep pink, but her chest converges to a snowy white.
The monster snarls, looking at me showing its sharp teeth.
I look to the side and see Reinier quickly unsheathing his sword, imbuing the sword with flames and attacking the panther with a horizontal slash!
The panther jumps back reflexively. The cut she made on my arm bleeds, and blood drips through the cuts the monster made in my clothing.
Now is the time to strike back!
I position both fists close to my face in preparation for battle.
But I strangely feel my body getting frozen. I try to move my fists, but I just can't move them.
I can't move!
It can not be! The claws had paralyzing poison!?
"Hey Reinier, I'm going to have to let you fight this beast alone." I say to Rei, who is in front of me.
"What happened?" He asks.
"The panther's claws have paralyzing venom; be careful." I say.
Reinier, who is in front of me, turns his head back and looks at my wound.
"You can leave it to me." He speaks with confidence.
(POV Reinier)
The panther is in front of me, skittish and showing its teeth. I need to end this soon!
Lifting the sword upwards with both hands, the sword begins to boil with heat until the blade turns red. The monster comes running towards me, and that's when I bring the sword down with full speed, launching a Flame Slash towards it and taking all the heat from the sword.
The panther dodges the flames, jumping to the left. Immediately, it jumps on the trunk of one of the trees that is on its side and picks up momentum to attack me jumping with claws and teeth!
I somersault backwards just as the panther's claws are about to hit me. The claws sink into the ground, demonstrating how sharp and dangerous they are.
When I go to get up, the panther again jumps at me.
The moment she jumps, I quickly lay my body down in a somersault movement, and the moment the panther passes over me, I propel her backwards with my two feet on her belly, completing the somersault!
I get up quickly and turn to the monster, who has been thrown away and is getting to his feet.
"Good one, Reinier!" Kaiser exclaims behind me, paralyzed.
Wasting no time, I attack with my sword, making a diagonal cut from top to bottom, advancing towards the panther.
The moment the sword blade is about to hit it, the monster jumps back. However, I was already expecting this; with my other hand, I make a Fireball and throw it at her!
With no chance to dodge mid-dodge, the panther is hit in the chest by the Fireball!
The panther roars and heads back into the woods.
"You didn't even thank me for my compliment..." Kaiser says.
If I had answered earlier, I would probably have lost my concentration.
"Thanks." I answer.
(POV Kaiser)
Uff...
"Nice job." My movements are still returning to normal; it's very difficult to move in this condition.
"Will you need an antidote?" Reinier asks as he holsters his sword.
"I don't think so. I can move now, but my body feels very heavy, as if gravity were heavier." I say as I try to move.
I can take a few steps, but they take a lot of effort.
"If you want, we can wait a while until you're fully recovered." Reinier says.
"Relax, let's go." I walk with a lot of effort, following the road.
As we resume walking, I pull some bandages out of my bag and place them on my arm where the panther attacked.
"Are you feeling better yet?" Rei asks.
"I think eighty-five point three percent recovered." I answer.
"Apparently you're fine already." He says seriously, with disappointment.
Walking to the next level, we find the cave that leads to level 15 and start going down it.
My movements are already recovered; the paralyzing poison possibly works only for the panther to paralyze the prey to kill it. If it was a deadly poison, I would probably be worse off.
Arriving at level 15, we are faced with an autumn forest. Yellowish and red leaves fall through the air and land on the ground.
The trees are slightly taller than the previous levels, and they have a thinner trunk. Some trunks have a white trunk.
The ground is completely covered with leaves, especially under the trees.
The ceiling has Crystals of Light all over it. They have a faint yellowish glow, but they still manage to light up the area.
"And off we go." Reinier says as he takes the map out of his fanny pack. "This way." Rei turns northwest and starts walking.
As we walk, I can see some squirrels climbing the trees, owls that stay in the branches of the trees just watching the movements of the forest, and even some foxes.
Certain foxes have more than one tail on their bodies. So far, I've seen a fox with 3 tails. These foxes are very famous all over the world; they can have up to 9 tails, being the apex of this monster's evolution.
Their color can vary from a soft yellow, with red eyes, to a saturated orange, with black eyes. Yellow foxes are the rarest to find, and their fur is much sought after by those who make clothes and rugs.
This level also has some bears, but until now I haven't seen any of them, thank goodness.
"Hey, look at this." Reinier, who is walking in front of me, points to the ground, wanting to show me something.
I approach and see a footprint that looks like a bear; it is much larger than a common bear.
"It can only be a joke."
We kept walking until we found the entrance to the next level, without thinking too much about those footprints.
The weather at this level is pretty mild; if I were to guess, I'd say it's about 23 degrees Celsius (73.4 Fahrenheit).
Along the way, Reinier and I found a bunch of leaves walking, probably a monster that camouflages itself and attacks its prey.
After going all this way, we finally find the cave that leads to level 16, the level where things get interesting.
Entering the cave, we slowly noticed the temperature rising; this must be level 16 weather, a relatively high temperature, with plenty of moisture in the air.
I hope there aren't many mosquitoes because I didn't bring repellent!
"Hey Reinier, did you bring repellent?" I genuinely ask.
"I didn't bring it. If you're worried about mosquitoes, we can make a basic repellent." He says
Usually the repellents they sell are Peppermint oil; with its menthol scent, peppermint oil is effective in repelling mosquitoes and other insects.
"Wait, how do you know how to make a ''basic'' repellent?" I know Rei probably learned this where he lived, but I didn't expect his knowledge to be so vast...
"In my village, we made repellents with eucalyptus and mint leaves. We crushed the leaves and put water in a container with them; after a few minutes, we would use a tissue to catch the liquid and apply it to the body." Surprisingly, he knows how to do this!
"Damn it, I don't know if you're some kind of genius or a dick." I say sighing.
"Huh!?" he asks nervously.
Getting close to the end of the cave, we started to see the light at the end of it. Anyway, let's move on to the main objective: finding a new member for my House at level 16!