Seed of Titan-Chapter 56: Encountering the Mother of All Roots

Back in the forest, Christo and the others were sitting near Auri who was being examined by Flo.

"How is it, Flo?" Jian asked with a worried face.

Flo didn’t immediately answer as she was still checking Auri’s condition. Not long after, she finally turned around, wiping her sweating face.

"I’m not a certified medical personnel, so I won’t pretend to be an expert about this. But based on my examination, this was caused by the monkey bite earlier. You can see that the tissue around the bite mark on her hand has slightly darkened."

The others turned to look and saw that it was exactly as Flo described.

"Why did you have to butt in, Auri? We could’ve just let those bastards be and go on our merry way. But look what happened..." Jian lamented as he watched Auri’s pale and sweating face with pity.

"I’m sorry..." Auri suddenly whispered.

"N-no—I mean—just rest, idiot!" Jian quickly reprimanded.

Natalia just shook her head upon watching this scene.

Flo then continued with her explanation.

"Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be rabies because rabies symptoms will only manifest after five days at the very least—unless this is actually an unknown variant with a rapid incubation period. But let’s hope not, since we would truly be hopeless if that’s the case.

"So this leaves us with poisoning—or envenomation to be precise. At the moment, the envenomation symptoms seem to include dizziness, loss of strength, fever, shivering, and slight breathing difficulties.

"Based on my knowledge, these basic symptoms aren’t enough to figure out the venom’s type and lethality. But regardless, there’s not much we can do here. We have to escape and bring Auri to a hospital or capable healer asap."

"How much time do we have?" Christo asked.

"I don’t know for certain. It’s been at least three hours since she was bitten, and different venoms take different times to severely take effect or kill. Some venoms might be lethal after a few days, while others only need hours. The most lethal ones can even kill in just a few minutes, but luckily we’ve already passed that mark long ago."

"So you’re saying we just have to make haste and pray," Natalia somberly remarked. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"I’ll try to do what I can to alleviate the symptoms, but you’re right. This is way out of my league," Flo said, looking sorry and regretful.

"It’s not your fault, Flo. I’m the one who led us into this predicament in the first place. For now, we just have to try our best to escape," Christo said as he stood up. Compared to the others, he didn’t seem as shaken.

The other members then turned to Auri, quietly looking at the poor girl while their minds were preparing for the worst.

A few moments later, the group packed up and went on their way.

***

Several hours later in another part of the jungle, a song was playing from the top of a tree. It was the opening jingle of Brutal Battles, a fighting show that Drai used to watch years ago.

See the muscles plow, then you’ll come to know... ♪

Drai’s eyelids twitched as he started to wake up.

... Brutal Battles is the best show! ♪

Yawning, Drai reached for his comm and quickly turned of the alarm.

"...is the best show..." Drai muttered in stupor, rubbing his eyes.

A few minutes later, Drai was already back on the ground, stretching his body. He then ate a few cuts of sandwich and drank some water before finally leaving the area.

"It’s a good day for an adventure," Drai remarked smilingly as he looked at the bright "sky".

Drai was in high spirits this morning. Perhaps he really needed this excursion after months of continuous lessons and training sessions.

It didn’t help that Drai never left the campus too, unlike most students who occasionally went home or to the shopping and entertainment center in the capital.

Along the way, Drai picked up some rocks to replenish his supply. Having eaten around half of the food in the storage, he now had more space for his ammunition.

After walking for a while, Drai stumbled upon a pack of dogs who were drinking from a stream. These dogs were similar to the ones Christo and the others faced yesterday.

Seeing that a prey had appeared out of nowhere, the dogs barked excitedly and began rushing toward Drai.

As the frontmost dog pounced at him, Drai stood still, looking at the dog indifferently.

A second later, with a single slap from Drai, the dog whirled in the air before crashing into a nearby bush.

"See? Size definitely matters. If the tiger back then were your size, I would have easily slapped it too," Drai remarked.

Apparently, Drai still hadn’t moved on from yesterday’s encounter with the tiger.

For the next few seconds, slapping and crashing sounds filled the area near the stream. In less than half a minute, the fight was already finished.

"Count yourselves lucky that I’ve already eaten breakfast," Drai said to the sprawling dogs around him as he walked away.

Making his way through the forest, Drai wondered where his friends were and what they were doing.

’I think they’ll be fine with Christo leading them. His passion is adventure after all. He must have skills that will help them survive and escape. The problem is me—how will I ever get out of this place?’

As he was thinking of this, Drai suddenly stopped because a peculiar object had just entered his sight.

It was a small wooden cabin. Unlike the stone building that brought the party here, it looked rather normal. It had a door and several windows, and on its front porch were two chairs and a small table.

Drai quickly approached the cabin. After getting a closer look, he saw that the cabin wasn’t in a good condition. Similar to the stone building, moss had grown all over the cabin. The woods of the walls and roof looked worn down.

’Looks like it’s been abandoned for some time,’ Drai thought as he inspected the cabin.

After contemplating briefly, Drai decided to enter the cabin. He was prepared to tear off the wooden door in case it was locked, but to his surprise, the door creakingly opened rather easily.

"Sorry for the intrusion," Drai said as he entered the door.

The inside of the cabin was a single room. It looked just like any other cabin minus a fireplace. It had a sitting, kitchen, and sleeping area. The items and appliances looked rather vintage, and the whole room was covered in dust and cobwebs.

Drai went to the kitchen area and tried to turn on the stove, which didn’t work. He then opened the kitchen cabinets and saw that they barely had anything inside, only a few kitchenware and dinnerware, along with what seemed to be condiment jars.

’Who even lived in this place? And where have they gone?’

Drai continued to inspect the place, but he didn’t find anything particularly interesting.

Soon, Drai got bored and was preparing to leave the cabin. However, when he walked toward the exit, he spotted a something behind the door.

Drai promptly picked the object up and saw that it was a small notebook. It’s surface was dirty and weathered and its pages were sticking and curling, but some of the content were still legible.

’What language is this?’ Drai thought as he carefully flipped the pages. The notes weren’t written in Atrian common language, and Drai’s comm couldn’t translate it either.

Drai eventually gave up figuring out what the notes meant. He stashed the old notebook into his bracelet and left the cabin.

Before leaving the area, Drai took a last glance at the dilapidated cabin.

’Perhaps the person who lived here was part of the people who built that secret elevator. Does that mean this whole area is manmade or did they build it after discovering the area? It’s even possible that there are still people living here in the jungle...’

After a brief pondering, Drai shook his head and left the area.

Following the discovery of the abandoned cabin, the rest of Drai’s journey was rather uneventful.

He passed by several groups of animals, but they were mostly small tree mammals and reptiles that weren’t as aggressive as the pack of dogs earlier. These critters either watched Drai from afar or ran away.

Tedium had already set in, so Drai had been mindlessly removing the obstacles in his path, wondering whether he could even reunite with his friends or if they had escaped from this jungle already.

However, Drai’s eyes suddenly widened, and his excitement quickly returned.

Through the trees, Drai could see a familiar large root protruding from the ground not far away from him.

"Finally!" Drai laughingly shouted as he ran toward the root.

Perhaps due to Drai’s quick and heavy steps, the root began to react when Drai was still quite a distance away from it, unlike what happened in Flo’s case yesterday.

Seeing that the root had started to wiggle out of the ground, Drai’s eyes gleamed with anticipation.

"Come at me, root!"

As if responding to Drai’s shout, the root finally surfaced and immediately shot toward Drai.

Unlike yesterday, this time Drai was prepared. When the root was close to stabbing his chest, Drai shifted to the right and evaded it.

If Samara were here, she would be praising Drai because at the following moment, Drai’s diligence in combat training would show its results.

As Drai shifted his body to avoid the root’s attack, his footwork connected his dodge to a counter stance. Following this, Drai planted his leg and rotated his hips, sending a powerful hook at the root.

The root was slammed aside, and the part on which Drai’s hook had landed was nearly smashed apart.

Drai immediately rushed toward the root and followed up with a kick, sending the root swinging upward and slamming into the ground at the other end of its base that was sticking out from the ground.

"Come on, root. You know what I want," Drai said as he sprinted toward the base of the root. He then leaped forward and smashed the root with a double axe handle, which lodged the part he hit into the ground.

Drai then quickly hugged the root near its base and swung it vertically to his left, slamming it into the ground.

Drai wasn’t done though, as he swung the root again but this time to the right, slamming it into the ground once more.

As if he weren’t satisfied with the results, Drai started swinging again, but this time he didn’t immediately slam the root but instead twirled it above his head as if trying to throw a lasso.

When Drai felt that the momentum was enough, he finally brought the root down.

BOOM!

The ground shook as the root slammed into the jungle floor, sending pieces of broken wood flying. Due to the impact, the outer part of the root had broken apart, leaving its middle section bare.

The tattered root finally had enough. Similar to yesterday, it started wriggling into the ground, trying to hide or escape from its uncooperative prey.

"I’ve been waiting!" Drai shouted with excitement as he repeatedly kicked the root while his arms were holding onto it tightly.

Drai’s continuous attacks seemed to accelerate the root’s fleeing as it wriggled even faster into the ground.

However, Drai didn’t seem to have any intention to cease his kicks nor let go of the escaping root. Even when he was started to get pulled into the ground, he kept holding on and kicking.

Soon, the whole root had disappeared from the area. It was slithering rapidly underground, bringing Drai who was clinging to it along.

Drai kept his eyes and mouth close since his whole body was digging into the soil. It was hard to keep attacking the root, so he just maintained his tight hold without moving much.

’My butt is getting a bit sore,’ Drai thought. The brunt of the digging was mostly bore by his ass that was jutting out from the root, and Drai’s ass was constantly scrapping off chunks of dirt and rocks from the wall as the root retracted through the tunnel.

Not long after, the root’s movement started to head upward. Drai felt a slight relief as he was beginning to run out of air. He would have to let go of the root and dig his way up if the trip were any longer.

Finally, Drai was hit with fresh air as he emerged from the surface buttfirst. He finally let go of the root and landed on the ground.

His whole body was covered in dirt, but Drai didn’t have time to worry about this, because towering in front of him was a gigantic tree that seemed to reach the sky.

Compared to its size, the tree didn’t seem to have that many leaves. And what Drai and his friends had assumed to be a root was actually a tree branch, for dozens of them were currently extending from the upper part of the tree, hanging above Drai’s head threateningly.

Drai was speechless when he saw this spectacle. He did want to locate the main body of the "root" to find its sapling or seed to bring back home, but he didn’t expect to stumble upon such a gigantic tree or be ambushed by the numerous large branches.

"Uh... Can we talk it out, Mr. Tree?" Drai asked, scratching his head awkwardly.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a cultivation novel nor that kind of fantasy world—old trees in Gaia didn’t have spirits, so Drai’s words were lost to the wind.

At this moment, the countless branches finally came crashing down like a wave of huge wooden tentacles.

As Drai watched the speeding branches above him, he couldn’t help but let out a rueful smile and mutter, "Fuck..."

Shortly after, Drai’s figure disappeared as the raging avalanche swallowed him whole.

***