Chapter: 211

Jay ate some more bondtussle root as he walked down the hill, a smile on his face as he was happy with his new boots.

“Mmm, these are quite comfortable for some weird other-language boots.” he thought, jumping off a large rock.

As Jay was walking he noticed something strange.

“That seems a little… out of place.” he squinted at a skinny spindly tree with black bark. He didn’t recall seeing it as he was walking down or up the hill last time.

The tree was about as tall as Jay, and it stood out from other trees as it had black bark; most were evergreens or tall with shades of brown and green bark.

“Hmm…I definitely would’ve noticed you before…” he squinted as he slowly walked towards it.

“…what the fa-” he was startled as he got closer, noticing something on it’s branches as he stepped closer.

“…an eye..? An eye! That’s a damn eye! What the fuck!…” he shifted his ring into the orbital-bone form; bones began floating around his body forming a passive shield as he stepped back, pulled out his shield and waited for an attack.

Jay had seen some strange things so far, but this was perhaps, in his mind, the most demonic and twisted thing he had seen so far.

Implanted into the tree’s branches was an eye, staring at him. As Jay looked, he began to notice a few more, mostly where the branches connected. Soon, little slits on the tree opened up, revealing more eyes, all staring directly at him.

Jay’s face scrunched up from the uneasy feeling it gave him, he continued to back up as he was freaked out, feeling like the tree had locked onto him with its eyes. He had no clue what the tree could do after all; he had never even heard of an eye-covered tree..

After a moment all the eyes finally closed, the branches shook, and suddenly the tree disappeared.

“… the fuck was that… Is it gone or invisible… I won’t take my chances.” he went in the opposite direction of the disappearing tree, walking for a while before continuing to head down towards the mist keep dungeon. He was mostly down the hill at this point, and it was closer than the adventurer association.

“I’ll go find some other adventurers… safety in numbers” he thought “…but I’ll stay behind them, just in case.” he shrugged. Jay was going to let someone else be the bait, there was nothing in it for him to take chances with some sort of mutant demon tree.

Jay shifted his ring back into the normal form before quickly heading down towards the bottom of the hill, finding the familiar stone path at the bottom.

With a light jog he followed it before finally making it back to the destroyed tower surrounded by the destroyed wall; the two stone statues still protecting the entrance – of course, these were merely decoration.

Jay looked around for the party of adventurers what initially tried to recruit him, but to no avail.

“Hmm.. the others must have gone in.” he thought as he looked around. The guy who was trying to recruit him into a party was gone now, along with the circle of people sitting down, which would have been his party.

A few other adventurers were standing around, preparing to go in, but they seemed weak to Jay; they still looked excited and bright-eyed as they waited to enter the dungeon, which was a red flag – meaning that they haven’t yet suffered very much.

Shaking his head “they’ll find out soon enough.” he thought as he dashed past them.

Most people who had fought as much as Jay had would lose their rosey enthusiasm quite quickly – of course, if Jay could afford to go at a slower pace, perhaps he would enjoy this lifestyle.

“Ugh, I’ll just go in.” Jay was disappointed by the lack of other adventurers around, as this meant there would be less bait for whatever that eye-tree was.

“It’ll probably be safer in there than out here. Besides, it’s an instanced dungeon, so nothing can follow me into the dungeon unless it’s in my party.” he reasoned.

To the surprise of the other adventurers in the courtyard, Jay jogged through the broken down gate, right up to the dungeon door and entered without hesitation; they all began talking among themselves in disbelief. Seeing someone try to solo a dungeon like this was idiotic – after all, the average level of adventurers was level 4; most wouldn’t even have the extra money to purchase blunt weapons, and this guy just went straight in without a second thought.

“What the? Did you just see that?” One of the adventurers standing near the gate asked.