After traveling for some time, the scenery surrounding them changed again. There were huge trees with twisted branches with many branches intertwined with each other.

Occasionally they came across many decayed trees. The forest floor was covered with occasional bushes, decayed leaves, decayed logs, etc.

They had to watch their steps as the soil was moist and there was a possibility of slipping on it.

Both the twins had serious expressions on their faces. They had perceived several small critters hiding among the cover of the leaves on the trees, among the various vegetation on the ground, and even under the ground.

Those under the ground were very hard for them to perceive with their Perception mastery, but they still got a rough idea as they were not too deep inside. Whatever those were, they were waiting silently for their prey.

Something fell from one of the branches onto Yumi. She sidestepped and dodged it. It fell beside her. She found it was a centipede monster, less than a foot long. Without her Perception mastery, it would be impossible for her to detect the monster falling on her, as it did so very silently. It tried to run towards her to bite her but an arrow to the head nailed it to the ground.

Suddenly as if a dam was broken, centipedes attacked them from all directions. Some fell from the branches above, some came out of the bushes and under the logs or various rocks, and some burrowed out of the soil.

Drake and his group started their fight with them. There were too many but not too high leveled so Drake and Aria were able to fight them, even though barely.

Ayame cut any centipedes that fell from the trees in half while crushing the centipedes on the ground under her feet, her peak Beginner Stage Unarmed Combat Mastery was helpful in that.

Yumi accurately shot every one of the centipedes near her or Drake. They were small but with her Intermediate Stage Archery Mastery, it was easily doable.

With his load less, Drake helped Aria with her share of centipedes. Aria could dodge the centipedes falling on her and then they cut the centipedes on the ground with their swords.

After fighting like that for a few hours, they reached empty land with no living trees only some dead trees, and only moist soil. In the middle, they saw another Purple-Dotted ivy plant.

After their previous two experiences, they guessed what kind of monster would be guarding the herb.

They waited for some time but nothing happened. The eerie silence only increased the uneasiness while waiting.

Drake got impatient and ordered Ayame, “Go check it out”, then ordered Yumi, “Keep an eye on her”.

Both agreed. Ayame moved carefully towards the plant. She reached the plant but still nothing happened. She turned to Drake for instructions who only nodded in return. Understanding, she proceeded to cut its leaves.

Just as her dagger was about to reach its leaves, she jumped back. Just as she jumped, the earth beneath their feet erupted in an explosion of soil and debris. With its segmented body gleaming with a sickly iridescence, a colossal centipede monster burst forth from the ground with terrifying speed.

 

Name: Scourgejaw Scolopendrax

Level 0

 

The centipede had a black and shiny exoskeleton with a pair of red, long, and sharp legs at each of its body segments. Its countless legs churned the soil as it lunged forward, its gaping maw lined with razor-sharp mandibles dripping with venomous saliva.

With lightning-fast speed, it attacked Ayame again. She used both her daggers to stop its mandibles which were big and strong enough to snap her in half. The attack was stopped but still pushed her back a few steps.

She attacked it with her daggers but other than creating a clanging sound, it did nothing to the centipede monster. She moved quickly around it attacking it at various locations but with no effect.

The centipede didn’t just let her attack it. Wherever she moved, it moved its huge body flexibly to attack her. She dodged all its attacks easily.

After a few bouts, she noticed the joint locations of the centipede’s body segments. She thought that since the monster was not stiff but rather flexible enough to move its whole body in various directions and angles, its joints could be its weak points.

There was very little space between the body segments and with continuous movement of the centipede, it was difficult to hit with accuracy. But with her Intermediate Stage Dagger Mastery, it was not difficult for her. When she got an opportunity, she impaled her dagger as far as she could, on the joint closest to its head.

“HIIISSSSSS”

Her guess was correct as it let out a deafening hiss. She continued attacking the same joint. The centipede could do nothing but more around erratically in pain. It was frightened and wanted to run back into the ground.

She didn’t give it any opportunity for that. Whenever it tried to burrow inside the ground, she would punch its head, it would do nothing more than disorienting it for a second, but that was enough for her to attack a few more times.

After a few more rounds, the centipede’s head finally separated. It was still not dead. Both its head and the rest of the body twitched for a long time, with the head twitching for longer.

When it died, all the materials from its body were collected. Among other materials, he got the following extraordinary materials from it:

 

Name: Scourgejaw Scolopendrax Chitin

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

Name: Scourgejaw Scolopendrax Venom Gland

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

He got many Scourgejaw Scolopendrax Chitin, one for each body segment. It was a heavy armor material but no one in his team used it, so he gave up rewarding it to anyone.

Unfortunately, due to the huge size and weight of many materials, including the chitin, they had to leave them behind just like they did with the toad hide previously.

After having a quick lunch and a small break, they started their travel again. After some time, they noticed that the vegetation was becoming sparse with many rocks here and there and the atmosphere felt dry. Even the sand had a sandy texture to it. 

While moving, a half-foot-tall scorpion monster suddenly burrowed out of the soil and attacked Drake with its stinger. Drake immediately noticed the moment it appeared and separated its tail with his sword then proceeded to cut its body in half. Drake told the twins previously not to protect him unless it was against something he was unable to handle or if his life was in danger, otherwise let him fight on his own.

They were attacked continuously on their way by scorpions of different sizes. The group was completely capable of dealing with the various scorpion monsters that attacked them.

Drake and Aria both had seen a tremendous increase in their strength from their continuous fighting of different poisonous monsters, much more than the gain they had when fighting monsters inside the territory.

Even if they were not a match for the boss monsters, they had no problem fighting their army.

After fighting hordes of scorpions, they started noticing that the frequency of scorpion attacks was decreasing, which stopped after some time. They realized they were nearing another boss monster’s location.

They found the fourth plant of the Purple-Dotted Ivy herb. It was the lone plant growing in the middle of nothingness, surrounded by just rocks and sand.

Ayame volunteered without Drake’s order and went towards the herb. From her previous experience, she knew what to expect. And true to her expectation, she was attacked midway to the herb.

A huge pincer came out of the soil to clutch her, but she jumped back and dodged gracefully. Where she landed a huge stinger came towards her. She parried the stinger and dodged again.

The monster revealed itself after coming out of the sand. It was a scorpion monster, more than two meters high and four meters long.

 

Name: Irontail Scorpio

Level 0

 

The scorpion’s body was not as strong as the centipede’s but its pincers and tail were much stronger than it.

Every attack that Ayame did was either blocked it its huge pincers or in case the pincers were unable to reach it, its tail would come to its rescue.

She employed the same method she used before on the scorpion monster. She used its pincers as a platform and jumped on its head. While dodging its stinger on its back, she quickly moved towards its tail and climbed up.

The scorpion moved its tail from side to side but to no avail as she refused to budge from her location.

She targeted the joint joining the stinger to the rest of the tail and started attacking it.

It started moving haphazardly as it felt the pain from its tail. When it tried to burrow back into the soil, Ayame shot arrows to prevent it from burrowing inside. The arrows did no damage, but they stopped it from burrowing as it had to redirect its focus to move its pincers to protect it from the arrows.

That gave Ayame enough time to separate the stinger from its tail. She jumped back to its back. With no fear of being attacked by the stinger from behind she started attacking its back. It succumbed to her continuous assault on its back and head and died.

Unlike previous bosses, three types of Extraordinary materials were gathered from it,

 

Name: Irontail Scorpio Pincer

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

Name: Irontail Scorpio Stinger

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

Name: Irontail Scorpio Venom Gland

Sequence 9, Early-Stage

 

The two pincers could be used to create shields and the stinger could be used for spearheads.

Unfortunately, like before, he had to leave the heavier materials behind.

They resumed their travel again. The scenery changed again to a forest area, but the forest was not too dense.

Occasionally, they saw trees covered with the web that gave them a hint about what kind of monsters to expect in the area. 

But after walking for a long time, they were not attacked by a single monster. That only increased their worry. The twins’ Perception Mastery and Aria’s beast instincts were screaming at them that were approaching something very dangerous.