Chapter 123: We need to leave here! More are coming!
Giant trees shaded the very sun; only wisps of sunlight shone through the leaves onto the masked faces of the bewildered, shocked people.
They were smaller than ants compared to the trees around them, making them feel as if they had entered the world of giants — not that they would know what giants really were.
The suits they wore covered their faces, masking each of their expressions—though they could breathe in the pure air through the suit converter capsule, they had doubts because the air was too earthy and pure to seem poisonous. Still, no one dared to remove their suits.
Instead, they marveled at the surface world, feeling the vast sky, which was very different from the fake sunlight the underground provided; they could feel the heat on their suits, making it feel more real to them.
"Gaw!’’
The loud sound startled them awake, and they looked up to see a giant red, blue-tailed bird flying overhead. Some watched with amazement in their eyes, while the cautious ones hid their figures and stared alertly.
Their beasts sensed their moods and took a defensive stance, and they were right because the bird sensed them and charged toward them at full speed.
"Run!" No one knew who yelled, but the sound of running footsteps drowned it out. The idea of admiring the bird’s beauty vanished from their thoughts—their mind recognized it as a dangerous predator.
As they ran for their lives with the help of their beasts carrying them on their backs, something happened next that made their eyes bulge out in fear.
A large web suddenly caught the bird that had been chasing them. Out of nowhere, a giant spider appeared, piercing it with its hairy, sharp legs, sinking its fangs, and injecting the bird with venom.
The bird was liquefied by the venom, making it easier for the spider to swallow—only spitting out its feathers, the sole evidence that the bird once existed.
When they thought such horrors were over, the spider turned its head toward them and let out a creepy hiss before shooting a web at bullet speed toward a nearby tree.
The group of ten people didn’t hesitate and ran with all their strength, their minds clouded with fear of this beautiful forest of trees.
A man behind was unlucky; he stumbled over a fallen branch and fell face down as his mask covering his face was torn by the thorns scattered across the branch.
"I’m going to die...I don’t want to die!" the man screamed in full-blown panic as he tried to piece the torn part together, but it was no use; instead, his frantic actions caused the fabric to tear even more.
He soon realized there was no saving him; his pockmarked face was streaked with tears and fear of death, but as time went on, the poisonous air he believed would kill him didn’t happen.
He opened his eyes cautiously, examined his face and body, but found no signs of poisoning. He took a deep breath, waited a few seconds, and nothing happened.
"Ahahaha....I’m alive, I’m saved!" His loud cheer stunned the others who were standing far away and watching.
They thought he would die as soon as he breathed outside air, but he stayed unharmed. However, before they could rejoice for him, the spider’s hairy leg pierced through the man’s chest — they saw the disbelief and resistance in his eyes before he choked on his blood and died.
It was a relief for him, or he would have felt his bones liquefying from the spider’s venom before he was swallowed whole like that bird.
The rest didn’t wait to watch the process and ran away quickly, breathing heavily with the air burning painfully in their throats from how fast they were running.
Time passed, and their pace faltered until they came to a staggering halt. Some collapsed to the ground, legs trembling and chests burning with exhaustion.
Sweat soaked through, causing their suits to cling uncomfortably to their skin, and the daring ones quickly removed their masks, inhaling the fresh, earthy air.
"Hhh...I think...hhh...we lost it." A brown-haired woman muttered through heavy pants as she tried to catch her breath.
"Everyone, be cautious of any living creature you encounter, and stay close to the group. Now that we know the air isn’t poisonous, all that’s left is finding a safe place to stay. We’ll be living here from now on," A black-haired man took charge and advised everyone.
No one challenged his leadership because he was stronger than everyone in the group, and they had to stick together to survive in this surface world. The last few minutes had taught them an important lesson.
Seeing that no one else challenged his authority, the man ordered them to rest up before continuing on their way.
Some brought out dried food and water to satisfy their taste and hunger. After a few minutes of rest, they continued on their journey; though cautious, they didn’t have a destination in mind.
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In another moment in the forest, another group faced even worse challenges, with three of their team members dying instantly, leaving just two people and their beasts behind.
The same can be said for Eva and her group; they were in a dangerous situation.
The dungeon has teleported them to a rocky mountain area. The moss-covered mountains seemed to float in the sky, with smaller mountains and trails below, surrounded by larger rocky peaks.
Each was shaped like a basin, with a clear blue waterfall tumbling from the mountains above into the mountain basin below, creating a breathtaking, mystical scene—if a giant winged tiger wasn’t currently taking Aaron away—you heard that right, a white tiger with wings.
Eva didn’t even understand what the author was thinking when she made the surface look like something straight out of fantasy.
Eva dodged the claws of another tiger creeping up from behind. Ethan and Julian were also tied up, but even though their attacks hit the tigers flying overhead, the beasts remained unharmed—their skin was so tough that their attacks left no mark.
"We need to leave here! More are coming!" Aaron shouted from above. The high altitude gave him a clear sight of the dense masses of another strange flying beast.
He ordered his crow to poke out the tiger’s eyes while he took advantage of the tiger’s howling in pain and anger to escape from its grip, his suit ripping in the process, but he was too focused on the situation to notice.
Aaron fell freely through the sky, but before he could land, his crow swooped in and caught him.
Julian heard his words and wanted to teleport everyone below when a pressure-filled roar shook the entire mountain.
Eva and the others fell to their knees, blood trickling from their ears and eyes under the force of the roar. A shrill ringing filled their heads as the ground shook violently, like an earthquake about to break. They watched the tigers flee in panic, as if running from something far more terrifying than themselves.
The roar grew louder, and they felt their eardrums were about to burst.
Julian gritted his teeth, grabbed everyone’s hands, and teleported below. He coughed up blood from the forceful act of resisting the roar.
He felt panic and fear, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a while. All his instincts screamed at him to get the hell out of there, but someone was much faster, because in the next second, the surroundings around them changed.
Eva had taken them into her space. Above, a colossal blue eye fixed on the spot they had stood only a second before. Its slit pupil gleamed sharp and predatory, framed by scaled flesh with deep crow’s-feet etched into the corners.