The Dreamer's POV

The dark flames said to burn through everything and my grand rocks rammering through it, the ugly creature stood no chance and soon became undone, dead as the vines fried earlier.

Then the notifications stormed in, the second best thing from a fight, rewards.

'Better be good.'

[System Notification]

[You've defeated the Muck Guardian Demon]

[Muck Guardian Demon essence]

'An essence as expected, should I combine it with Trent and make it much stronger or just create a new minion?'

Aside from the obvious essence, I got a number of other items.

[You have received Life Vine]

[You have received Muck Whip]

[Congratulations, You have leveled up.]

I let out a happy sigh, it had been quite a while since I had leveled up, I was thinking that the leveling up mechanics had somehow been busted, however, it seemed and I had known this, that it gets harder to increase one's level as one's level increases.

It was just a single increase, but it was nice, and it gave me the soothing confirmation that I wasn't really stagnant in power, I was progressing, and getting much stronger. How I wished the demon guardian dropped some currency at least, I was broke and I hated being broke, it limited my freedom too much.

I let out a sigh, and left the scene of the battle, walking further into the Emoni jungle.

"Ughhhh!" I groaned as I batted plants away, I then equipped an ordinary sharp dagger and began cutting at the plants that blocked my path.

Insects buzzed at my ears, and some of them were even obnoxious enough to dig into my skin for a sip. It was all too uncomfortable, too annoying. I soon activated <Haven>, and none could get to me.

I had spent about thirty minutes walking, hoping to get further into the jungle and complete the floor, and in the time I took so far, I had been attacked by giant carnivorous plants that found me delectable, which was a mistake on their part. If anything, they should find me scary and run away from me, or hide, whatever it was that carnivorous plants do to avoid predators.

A couple were attached by the trees I had passed, but they were very easy to destroy. They were much too large, and too slow, and I was the exact opposite of that. Stay tuned to empire

They didn't drop essences since they were the normal flora of this floor, just like I wouldn't get essence or drops from cutting down a tree.

I had been cutting vines, ducking tree branches when something caught my eye. A glimmer of light that blinded me momentarily, and captured my attention.

'It came from over there.' The light came right at me so it was forward, just down the path I was taking, and so I continued my steps.

I then spotted the thing that reflected the light. My eyes wide in mild surprise. It was a chip, a golden shard of something embedded atop a tree's stem. I stood atop the tree's thick roots, stretched to my toes, my other hand on the tree for support, and then I picked the shard from the tree surface.

Up close, I noticed that the shard had shallow cuts on it, intricately done and ornate. The shard in itself was about the width of half of my thumb.

"Hmmm… could probably give me a special hidden quest, and if it doesn't, I'll keep it for good luck."

My eyes gleamed with a warm yellow light as I activated <Absolute Appraisal> hoping to get something from it, but it was to no avail.

[Golden Shard]

I got nothing I hadn't actually known.

I continued my journey into the Emoni Jungle, and had to once again suffer the innumerable plants, and then I realized that with <Haven> activated, I didn't have to worry about cutting the plants to gain passage. All I needed to do was to levitate and my energy shield would break the branches as I moved.

And so I remained slightly afloat with <Haven> on, journeying seamlessly. I had to be below in search of the solar flare, and I reckoned that the hidden city would be hidden under the canopy of the trees, I needed to search from the bottom as inconvenient as it might be.

As I flew, a procession of large flies hummed beside me startling me. They were so fast, I vaguely noticed their existence and they were gone. A couple went splat on my screen, and from the mangled corpses, I could tell that they had to be about the size of my eyeballs.

I checked my the floor's information and confirmed that one of my quests was to tame what was a gnat in these parts.

I drooped my shoulders reading it. The life in these parts weren't the most friendly and I could only imagine the challenge that this one would pose considering that I had to tame it. And by all means, I wasn't required to achieve the quests, only that I would gain rewards for achieving them, but they were by no means necessary.

I hated to leave things undone and so regardless of how I personally felt about insects, it was going to be another hurdle I needed to cross.

I was mentally absent from my surroundings, and lost in thought, when I felt a loud bang on my <Haven>, and a ripple of disturbed energy swept across it.

"What the…" I turned to where it came.

Before I did however, I heard a wild angry roar. The thing that had just inflicted the blow was a wild animal, and it was a…

I turned to see the creature that dared to attack me.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"A Gorilla!" I blurted.

The creature jumped back, giving me a chance to highlight it better. It was not your ordinary gorilla, an ordinary gorilla wouldn't have caused a bang on my <Haven>, that was clear.

The gorilla creature that attacked me, had the semblance of a gorilla, it had the stature save that it was much taller, and larger and embedded in its chest was a golden thing… Another golden shard.

And when it roared, a golden light met my eyes. It had in his mouth a golden shard as well.

I looked to my hand, bringing the golden shard from my pocket space.

"Don't tell me I'm holding a tooth."