Chapter 12: At Turtle's Pace
The sun was shining in the sky and a gentle breeze was blowing through the trees.
It was a perfect day for exploring.
Marcus himself felt ready to go on an exploration trip. His leg was almost completely healed: the new chitin had hardened during the night, and although it was still a little bit sensitive he could walk without problems. Also, he felt really well rested, since he had his first good night of sleep since he had arrived on this world. The fire had kept him warm during the night, also keeping the vermins away, and it was the first time he didn't wake up shivering from the cold.
The only thing that somehow annoyed him was his constant hunger: despite his intention to keep the lizard he had caught as provision, he had ended up grilling it on the bonfire and eating it, though weirdly enough, it didn't actually tasted that great compared to the raw meat he had so far. It felt bland, as if something was missing, and he didn't experience the usual flow of information he usually had after eating something.
Anyway, despite that, he was still hungry. It was weird, especially because he was actually eating a lot, at least by human standards. A normal man could have resisted with a tenth of what he was eating usually, and still, despite his small body, he was always hungry.
Maybe his body required a lot of nutrients for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it could regenerate.
But somehow, it didn't felt that way to Marcus. He felt like It felt like most of the things he ate went straight to a certain part of his belly located under his stomach.
He couldn't explain this feeling, but he didn't really care that much. All that he cared about was finding some reliable source of food.
This was one of the reasons he had decided to explore the territory ahead of him before trying to reach the tower. The other reason was that, if he were to meet another unexpected obstacle, he could always go back to his cave before the sun would set.
He controlled his equipment. The cloak of leaves had wilted, so he had discarded it, keeping only a small kilt of leaves and grass that was covering his genitalia. He put his shell knife in a grass belt he had made, and he had a wooden spear in his hand.
He didn't carry anything else, leaving the rest of his belongings in the cave. After all, he was planning to return before dusk.
Before setting out, he threw a few more sticks into the dying bonfire, in order to at least find some embers at his return.
First of all, he climbed the hill he was currently on, in order to pick the right direction and get a good view of the territory ahead of him.
The terrain was difficult, rocky and with few trees, and it took Marcus a few hours to finally reach the top of the hill, which was a small, flat area which was bare of any vegetation.
Marcus looked ahead. A few kilometers ahead, the tower stood on the next hill. But between the hill he was on and that one, there was a very big valley, a plain completely covered in trees.
But the trees were different from the ones he had seen so far: instead of being only oaks, he could see trees similar to cypresses and maples here and there. Also, even from where he was, he could see some large clearings where water ponds were sparkling in the light of the sun.
"Mmmmh... I could be wrong, but this area looks like a swamp." Marcus said "The thing I don't know is: is it safe to travel through it? Or would it be better to go around it?"
He looked left and right. The valley wasn't very wide, no more than 6 kilometers, but it was very long and going around it would have taken days.
He sighed.
"Well, I guess I'll try to explore it for now. If it doesn't seem safe enough, I'll just come back."
A few minutes later, Marcus was cursing as he was trudging through the muddy water that reached his thighs.
"Damn swamp! Damn forest! And most importantly, damn bugs!" he said, while slapping one of the many mosquitoes that had landed on his face.
The terrain was very treacherous, full of hidden mud pits and fetid ponds all covered by some weird species of ferns. More than once Marcus had been forced to march through the muddy water and he was really grateful that the chitin armor on his legs was protecting him from potential bites of water dwelling creatures, although the thought of the animals that could live in the mud he was walking on was enough to make him shudder.
"I can't wait to leave this damn place!" he said to himself "Maybe I should just go back and look for another path to the tower... I dunno if I can cross this swamp twice before the sun goes down..."
He was about to do that when a splashing sound behind him got his attention. He turned immediately, but there was nothing he could see at first. Only after a few seconds he noticed a few ripples on the water surface. Ripples that were slowly getting nearer to him.
"Oh shit!" he said, and started running (or at least plodding) away, searching for the nearest dry land he could find.
Confronting an aquatic creature in the middle of a swamp wasn't the brightest idea, so he elected to simply run away and find some cover.
Out of the corner of his eyes he could see other ripples converging on him from his left, but then he saw a little mound of earth, no taller than 2 meters, in front of him and with a very big moss covered rock on top of it, and he hurried to that point.
The ripples in the water were quite slow, but he was even slower because of the muddy water, and so they were getting nearer.
A few meters away from the mound, one of the ripples reached him, and the water exploded when a black serpentine shape launched itself out of the water, pouncing at him.
Marcus barely had the time to dodge, while the black creature fell back into the water.
"Fuck!" he screamed, and with a final jump, he threw himself on the mound.
"Uff... pant..." he gasped for air, believing himself to be safe now that he was on dry land "What... uff... what the hell was that!?!"
As it turned out, he wasn't really safe at all. From the water, more of those creatures jumped at him, and with a scream he jumped higher on the mound, barely dodging them.
They were enormous leeches, at least one meter long with slender, sinewy bodies that were writhing on the ground, and huge round mouths filled with needle like teeth.
"Ewwwww!" Marcus cried in disgust, but he had no time to waste. Even on land, those creature seemed quite agile, as they kept lounging at him. So he decided to get on top on the mound, and defend himself from there.
With a few steps, he got on the highest point, the huge rock that was sitting on the mound, and grabbed his spear with both hands.
"Come and get some, fuckers!" he snarled at them "I'll kill all of you!"
The leeches didn't need any further encouragement, and they quickly slithered on the ground towards him.
Now there were at least two dozens of the parasites, and many more were emerging from the water.
"Shit!" Marcus cursed. Even though he had the high ground and a weapon, the situation wasn't really positive. Those creature would overwhelm him with their sheer numbers.
But then, a weird thing happened. The huge rock under his feet moved, almost making him lose his balance.
"What the..." he said, but then something emerged from under the rock: it was a huge turtle head, covered in moss like the rock itself.
The head looked at the leeches, who had stopped for now, and then it darted in their direction, his neck becoming longer in the process, and in a fraction of a second the reptile was holding a leech in his jaws.
The turtle then swallowed the bloodsucker whole and then darted again for another one, its head so fast that all Marcus could see was a blur.
The leeches, however, were either too hungry or too stupid to retreat. They kept coming, jumping at the turtle as they had jumped at the man, but the neck of the creature was too fast, and all the leeches that had pounced him were either dodged or grabbed and eaten mid jump.
The rock moved again, and four huge, stocky and scaly legs emerged from under it.
Apparently, that huge boulder was actually the turtle's shell, and Marcus was right on top of it. He remained still for a moment, then, as the turtle was still busy eating the leeches, he jumped off the turtle, landing behind it and running away. Seeing how easily the reptile was killing all those leeches, he didn't want to remain there to experiment how dangerous it was on his skin. Instead, he opted to dart away, hoping that the beasts would keep each other occupied until he was safe.
From his elevated position, he could see that the swamp ended a few dozens meters from where he was, so he ran in that direction. He could still hear the sound of the battle between the turtle and the leeches behind him, but the noises were getting more sporadic, so he tried to hurry.
Finally, gasping and fatigued, he got out of the muddy water and only then he dared to look back.
The leeches were nowhere to be found, but the turtle had moved from the mound: right now he could see it walking in the swamp, his incredibly long neck stretched to better scout its surrounding.
Going back in that direction was far too dangerous now, so Marcus decided to proceed, hoping to find a way out of that swamp soon.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone