What could only be described as a man eating plant was neatly tucked away, surrounded by vibrant green plants that obscured it from sight, so Lewis only had a split second of warning when those plants were violently pushed aside to spot the two and a half meter long cone of plant and teeth that was springing out towards him.
He only has time to rase his arms protectively, his nullfield instinctively popping out to shield him, but the carnivorous plant isn't using magic, simply opening its red maw and diving down towards Lewis, his body vanishing within the plant head first as he felt the sharp teeth digging into him, but his body was too tough to do more than break the skin. Lewis began flailing desperately, using his enhanced strength to push against the walls of the carnivorous plant as he tried to get it to release him.
It actually seemed to be working as well, the mana-eating plant unable to bite down on its prey, while Lewis's flailing was damaging its body. Except, instead of spitting him back out, the carnivorous plant's throat opened wider, and Lewis was sucked straight down.
The walls squeezed and contracted around him as he was forced deeper into the creature's body. It seemed like the carnivorous plant was far larger beneath ground than it was above, its tubelike walls forcing him further down like some sort of horrific natural vacuum, but Lewis wasn't about to let some oversized plant swallow him without a fight.
Despite his limbs being restricted, he activated unravelling strike and blindly lashed out at the plant, large portions of its body disappearing, but Lewis was moving too fast to be able to exit from the wounds he was causing, not that they let in any light anyway, so he began repeatedly throwing unravelling strikes with increasing desperation in an attempt to get out of here.
After firing off his most powerful skill repeatedly with no visible result, Lewis decided to change directions, literally, as he directed all his attention in front of him, slamming both hands onto the slippery vertical tube of his prison and pushing, using his skill to blast holes in the plant's body and finally grasping a handhole to halt his descent. His body was still so tightly squeezed that it was hard to tell, but he got the distinct impression that he was upside down. Still, a ray of light broke through the oppressive darkness, Lewis reorienting himself as he fell downwards through the newly formed hole in the thick plant matter, towards that pinprick of light, using it as his guide to dig his way out of the plant's seemingly endless body.
The walls of the plant were surprisingly thick, but with his enhanced unravelling strike, each hit disintegrated portions of the tube, forming a larger exit for him to hoist himself through. It took a bit of shimmying for him to get the passage wider, using his skill and considerable strength, but now that he finally had a foothold and wasn't helplessly slipping down, he was able to enter into the light after only a few seconds, falling to the ground as the tube seemed to be attached the side of a wall and extending deep underground like some sort of natural pipe system, only with an added desire to consume human flesh.
Lewis was covered in slippery slime that stuck to his body and smelled horrible, but he was glad to be out of that nasty, carnivorous plant's body and hoped the various holes he had left down its throat would be enough to kill it. Looking around, he found that he was in a completely different space, the various plants that had been cropping up, now replaced with something more akin to a full-blown tropical jungle, with the dense tubelike plant he had just crawled out of reaching several meters into the air, as the plant reached up into the roof of the cavern and beyond.
Looks like I took a shortcut to the lower levels. He thought sarcastically, wiping off the goo from his body and looking around at the misty tropical jungle, the sounds of animals and croaking amphibians giving the place a lively feel.
You have discovered a secret trial.
Find and destroy all the ape tribes. But beware of the ape lord and his four generals. Rewards based on performance.
Oh. I hadn't been expecting to find a secret trial hidden within the stomach of a fucking man-eating plant. Is this place for real?
Whatever, I guess this seems like a good way of getting some rewards. At least assuming TP is the reward. If not, then I should at least be able to sell their corpses to the shop... God, that sounds terrible. Have I turned into some sort of capitalist madman?
Shaking his head, Lewis began trudging into the jungle, still wiping away the goo from his body and only now noticing how terrible his clothing condition is.
It looked like he had been through hell and back, his clothes burnt and shredded. Patches of blood and white goo were everywhere as his shirt was only holding on by a single thin strand over his shoulder, while his pants were also ripped and torn beneath the knees.
He pulled off his shirt since it was halfway gone anyway, using it to wipe himself down, wishing he could find a nice pond or lake to wash himself in, but he had to make do with the moist air of the dense jungle as he scrubbed himself down.
He walked randomly for a few minutes, but it wasn't long before he found signs of the apes he had been tasked with eliminating.
Their grunts and howls easily sounded throughout the jungle. Although Lewis failed to spot any other large creatures about, simply normal-sized birds and other lizards, so presumably this was a constructed environment with the apes as the only threat.
But what made that assessment more obvious was the fact that a group of ten apes was hanging out in the middle of the jungle, lifting stone dumbbells and doing pullups while cheering each other on with claps and hollers.
Great, the monkeys are dude-bros. Lewis thought, gob-smacked at the scene. And the apes weren't simply working out, they were absurdly jacked. Massive biceps and six packs adorned their bodies as they pushed themselves to perform impressive feats of calisthenics.
It was honestly quite intimidating. Being up against an ape at all would be scary, but one that can bench-press a boulder is next level. Hesitantly, Lewis identified the strongest-looking apes, hoping they weren't too high-level.
[Nature Ape - lvl 18]
[Nature Ape - lvl 21]
A level 21? Isn't level 20 supposed to be the limit? Ah, that's right, that probably only applies to other tutorial attendees. These monkeys probably even respawn when the trial is over.
Still, he didn't think he would struggle too much with all the power-ups he had gotten recently. Most of the orcs were around this level as well, although the orcs didn't have such bulging muscles, mostly relying on their superior height and weight. It made him wonder if he would really have the upper hand in agility here. But none of his skills had any long-range abilities, except maybe disrupting a spell with his nullfield and having it backfire, but it didn't seem like these apes were the type to start casting magic instead of simply using their long arms to tear his face off.
Even with his increased constitution, he wasn't sure he wanted to test himself against an angry group of apes on steroids. But just as he was wondering how to engage them without getting too close and lamenting his inability to simply light them up with a fireball like he knew Matt would, he suddenly slapped himself in the forehead.
I might not be able to fire out any of my skills, but I can still throw things.
Grabbing a few rocks from the ground, he kept to the trees and bushes, obscuring his position, and thought up a plan.
Out of all the apes present, he was only really concerned about the larger ones that the others were cheering on. Many of them were around level 10 and didn't seem nearly as buff, so he decided to target them first.
From the cover of the jungle, he held several palm-sized rocks in one arm and prepared to throw them with his other.
His first target was one of the apes doing sit-ups furthest away from the group. It was breathing heavily, and its body was trembling slightly, so Lewis simply waited for it to lie back down before throwing his stone as hard as he could.
The rock flew faster than he had anticipated, moving far faster than it had any right to as it whizzed through the air like a speeding bullet and slammed right into the side of the ape's head, impacting it with a wet squelch and killing it instantly.
He immediately crouched down, waiting for the other apes to notice and cause a commotion, but the sound of them cheering on the level 21ape as he bench-pressed a boulder had covered for the sound of his actions.
Emboldened and knowing it was only a matter of time until he was discovered, he tossed his second and third rocks in quick succession, shocked at how good his aim was despite launching these projectiles close to the speed of a bullet, one impacting an ape's neck and spine, dropping it on the spot. But the third had its neck ruptured by a more triangular-shaped rock, finally giving the game away as his comrades instantly noticed his wet cry of pain and surprise, spotting the other two downed apes a moment later.
But Lewis had thrown subtlety to the wind and stepped out of cover, launching his last rocks into the main group, being far less accurate as he only fatally hit a single other ape before five of the creatures were charging him with high-pitched cries, their large fangs revealed as they charged Lewis with a righteous fury. It was a very intimidating sight, making Lewis's legs attempt to flee, but he planted himself, his arms going into a boxy pose as he sensed the power coursing through his body and spirit. He had crushed the orcs, so why would he fear these apes?
And to his surprise, he found the ape's speed to be lacking as he swerved out of the first attacker's path and unleashed a sharp uppercut to its ribs, sending a pulse of destructive energy into its body as his blow mangled the ape's side, blood rupturing and flesh contorting as it was sent catapulting away.
Lewis's eyes widened at the sight, but he didn't slow down; instead he focused on the next target, a duo that was flanking him from both sides. His fist shot into the left apes head, simultaneously cracking and imploding its skull as he made sure not to take any half measures, grabbing the creature with his free hand and yanking it before him as a flesh shield against the right side ape, before repeating his trick and slapping an unravelling strike on the side of its head while it was blocked by its comrade.
He very briefly glanced behind him towards the first ape and was shocked to find his suspicion correct. The first ape hadn't died. In fact, despite its body having received a blast of unravelling strike, its body hadn't even been blasted to pieces like with everything else he had struck since obtaining his spiritual physique. Instead, it had simply crushed and mangled his internals, but the ape was visibly recovering from the injury while getting back to its feet.
Even the apes he had just killed by attacking their brains hadn't received nearly as much damage as they should have. Any other creature of their level would have had their heads completely evaporate from his enhanced unravelling strike, but these apes only had their brains crushed. If he were fighting them without his most recent power boost, his strongest skill might not even have been enough to slay them, likely resulting in him being torn to shreds.
He dodged out of the way of the other two apes, imploding one of the creatures' kneecaps before rupturing their skulls, and even then, he could feel his skill struggling to invade their bodies.
Right as the initial wave of weaker apes fell to him, he spotted two of the apes he had downed with stones getting back up, their flesh knitting back together at a visible rate, and that's when it hit him. The name of these apes should have clued him in, but he honestly hadn't thought about it until now.
Nature apes clearly had insane regeneration capabilities, like some sort of troll, except instead of being really fat like the trolls in most fantasy stories, they use this ability to better work out and get super buff without the downsides of muscle burn. Which means the bigger apes currently glaring at Lewis as they set aside their crude equipment and moved to beat him to a pulp were also likely far stronger for their level, which sucked for Lewis because that was the advantage he was relying on.
Well, this is bad. I don't suppose you fellas are willing to negotiate?