Starbound: A Space Odyssey 87 The Great Hunt 9

John inserted the key in the keyhole and twisted it.

*RUMBLEEEE*

Just like before, the moment the door started to open, the entire landscape trembled like it was occurring an earthquake.

He changed his stance to have more balance and not fall flat on the ground because of the quake.

Once the was fully open, John glanced at the landscape and challenges that awaited him.

The moment his eyes laid on the scene in front of him his face fell.

The next landscape was a swamp, but not an ordinary swamp.

It was clear from the color of the water, fog, and the putrid smell coming from there that the swamp was poisonous.

The trees of the area were towering big. It looked like a mixture of swamp and jungle biomes.

As for what kind of poison, John was uncertain.

[d.a.m.n...this is going too far...] John cursed the organizer of the Great Hunt in his mind.

John hesitated just for a second before deciding to go forward.

He had a mission, a mission that could decide the fate of the universe. There were five more challenges to overcome after this one. He shouldn't give up; he needed to keep going forward.

The knowledge about the Ruin was minimal, and even if Esther Bright tried to share it, people would think that she was crazy or that it was only a legend.

Even with the destruction of Earth and a few more planets by the Ruin, it hadn't created the biggest alarm.

The size of the universe was almost endless, what could possibly mean a few planets being destroyed?

Many reasons of course, but the last reason that would come to one person's mind would be the end of the world.

If even Itsuki and the Central Ocean Faction that were usually very cautious and careful with their future were still skeptical also when Esther showed them so many evidence, one could imagine what would happen if it was made to public knowledge.

So with that being said, John was almost alone in this quest to determine the fate of the universe.

While he and Esther were doing the possible to find a way to deal with this looming threat, the other giant forces of the world were fighting each other, wanting even more power.

John closed his eyes and banished the unnecessary thoughts away from his mind.

The clock was ticking.

Once he opened his eyes, they flashed with a determined light as he kept walking forward, into the foggy, and toxic environment.

...

A few minutes after John had walked into the Poison Swamp, the door that divided both landscapes started to close.

*RAMBLEEEEE*

Just as the door was about to be completely closed, a blur pa.s.sed through the narrow opening and entered into the Poisonous Swamp.

"What a sssurprise it isss..." The figure was shrouded in the shadows. "A Human in the Great Hunt. A very interesting Human..." The figure mischievously grinned. "Looksss like thisss time the Hunt isss going to have sssomething a lot more entertaining than jussst hunting down a sssingle bea.s.sst."

The figure only paused for a second before it started to move again.

Its speed was blindly fast as the figure pa.s.sed through creatures and other hunters without them noticing a single thing.

...

John looked around and climbed the towering tree that was near him.

Because of the poisonous water of the swamp, John had only a single way to move forward, jump from tree to tree.

It was also a lot faster doing this way by swinging in the vines coming from the jungle trees.

Luckily for John, his green camo armor was finally able to show some purpose. He was able to hide from predators of the landscape and easily bypa.s.s them without having to engage in a meaningless fight.

Of course, there were some places that it wasn't flooded with poison water, but they were few.

John suddenly stopped moving when he located a green, slug-looking creature. It was about 60 centimeters high, and it moved very slowly.

It moved forward at a terrible slow move speed.

John was just about to ignore the creature when he saw something surprising.

He saw as the slug creature suddenly turned around and spotted a small bird that had just landed in a tree branch.

The green creature locked its sight at the bird and spat a ball of green liquid from its mouth.

The bird realized the incoming ball of liquid too late, and so he was. .h.i.t by it.

As the liquid entered in contact with the bird, the animal slowly melted in a pool of blood.

[Such strong acid...] John thought to himself as he looked at the scene. [I think I saw this creature before...]

John aimed the camera of his PIPS at the slug creature and took a photo.

Once the photo was taken, he searched for it the Universal Bestiary Codex.

[So that's why I thought I had seen it before...the creature is called Snaunt. It is usually found in toxic, aquatic, and radioactive environments. The poison that is produced on their bodies is extraordinarily acid and can even melt t.i.tanium if there is enough poison. They are weak against Ice elemental weapons...] John read what was written in the Universal Bestiary Codex.

After observing the Snaunt for a while, John decided to keep moving forward.

He easily traversed the environment while avoiding any situation that might put his life at risk.

This time he was able to avoid fights because he could use the environment to hide and stealthily move around without arising attention.

He used his camouflage clothing to his advantage as he blended with his surroundings, rendering predators and also Florans unable to spot him.

When he got tired, he decided to find a safe place to rest.

He found a tree with a huge tree trunk and opened a ma.s.sive hole inside using his Matter Manipulator.

Once he was inside the tree trunk, he retrieved the Matter Manipulator and closed the entrance using the same wood that he collected when making the hole.