The large, brown feathered Therizinosaur roared at Gamma in a challenge, its long, sword long claws digging deep furrows into the Titanspawn's bony armor. Still, the Bone Beast refused to back down, as it forced the dinosaur-like creature to take another step back. Several hounds weaved through the much larger pair's legs, nipping at the creature's legs and dodging its wild swipes. At the same time, the shadows of a few stalkers could be seen high in the dense canopy; every so often, a barbed tail would lash down from above the Therizinosaur's blind spot before quickly retreating.

Jonah had to admit, this was going a lot better than he'd initially thought. At first, he'd been hesitant to even enter the portal; the memory of when he'd tried to leave with Reggy and Gwen was still fresh in his mind. Eventually, he'd convinced himself to go through; he might not know who his mysterious benefactor was yet, but if they really wanted him dead, there were more straightforward ways to do so. Once through, Jonah was surprised to find that not only could he breathe, but the mana density was only slightly lower than inside the Titan.

If this place was "C-rank," what did that say about Earth? Did that mean it was only D-rank? Or more likely still only E? If he had gone with Reggy and Gwen like he was offered, was there even anywhere on Earth that could support him? Or would he have been doomed to slowly suffocate as they tried to desperately feed his ever-increasing mana consumption? Jonah didn't bother spending much time on "What ifs," though; he'd already cast his lot, it was too late to question if it was the right choice or not.

Instead, he returned his focus to the fight in front of him. Things were starting to draw to a close, as the Therizinosaur was forced to take another step back, only to bump into one of the large trees. The wild but intelligent glint in the creature's eyes quickly turned to panic as it glanced at the tree to its back and then to the pack of Titanspawn, slowly encircling it, growling and snapping at it. Gamma stood at the forefront, the gashes on its armor already starting to fill in with white, fresh bone. Each time the dinosaur tried to break out of the encirclement, Gamma would move to intercept it, displaying agility surprising for its bulky, large frame.

The Titanspawn pack continued to taunt and harass the creature, seeming to enjoy its growing panic, before Jonah gave the mental command to finish it. Suddenly, the bark on the tree directly above the Therizinosaur shifted and moved. The creature went wide eyes, but before it could react, a long, double barbed tail materialized from the bark and stabbed deep into its neck.

Alpha, still clinging to the tree, gave it's tail a twist before jerking it out, removing a watermelon-sized chunk of flesh along with it. Therizinosaur didn't roar this time; it screamed, a high pitch shriek that made Jonah wince, and the hounds whine. Even Gamma shook its head and took a step back. The dinosaur began to thrash and wildly swing its claws around, trying to strike anything it could, and dug out several deep gouges into the tree behind it, though the sneak Alpha had long escaped with its prize.

The Titanspawn retreated away from the quickly tiring creature, content to wait, and if the red waterfall pouring from the behemoth's neck was anything to go by, they would not have to wait for long. Seeming to understand its fate, the Therizinosaur charged the pack, swinging its sword claws in a frenzy, as if to take as many of them with it as it could. However, the hound's agility proved too much for the severally wounded creature, let alone Gamma's armor or the sneaky stalkers far above.

After a long moment, the dinosaur finally collapsed in the middle of the small clearing its rampage had created. It weakly cried out before finally growing still. Still, Johan waited, barely able to hold back the pack's frenzy until a short while later, the screen he'd been waiting for popped into existence.

Congratulations!

You have slain "Therizinosaur" [Level 33]

You've obtained 10 Fragments

Jonah sighed in relief.

This was the third such creature over level 30 they'd taken down since entering the forest. The first one had almost gored Beta, after the Alpha Hound had rushed the supposedly dead creature, only to learn a lesson the Leviathan Worm had taught Jonah himself, all those months ago. After that first time, he had learned to hold them back until he'd gotten the kill notification.

It seemed that level 30 was some kind of milestone or boundary, at least for monsters, it seemed. They've already seen hundreds of smaller creatures under level 15 and dozens between level 16 and 23ish. After level 20, however, higher-level creatures started to become rarer and rarer. In two days of broad sweeping searches, they'd only seen maybe a dozen animals break level 25. And of those, only five had broken level 30.

Even with half their levels, a Pack was enough to deal with anything under level 30, often through sheer numbers, although they'd already had to return to the Titan to "resupply" twice already. But once a creature broke that threshold, only a coordinated effort from all three packs could hope to bring it down.

It did help somewhat that once a creature got to that level, they almost always seemed to establish a fixed territory and chase away most other challengers. This meant he didn't have to worry about being jumped by something, possibly higher level, at the end of a fight (something that had already happened numerous times below level 30). This also meant that strong creatures were much harder to track down, even if worth it in terms of experience and loot.

There was a secret here, Jonah could feel it in his bones, but he didn't have the time to think much more on it; time was limited.

[Primeval Forest of the Serpentkin]

Infiltrate the Temple of the Abyssal Serpent, through force or guile, and stop its ascension into a Flood Dragon.

Time till Ascension: 27 Days - 12 Hours - 32 Minutes - 42 Seconds

At first, he'd been surprised at the seemingly generous time frame. Even for a "Raid," a month seemed like it was a long time. But after taking two days to explore the Forest around the portal, Jonah realized that a month might not be very long at all.

To put it simply, this place was MASSIVE.

Even after climbing the tallest tree around, Jonah couldn't see an end to the Forest, no matter which direction he looked, let alone anything that looked like a Temple or any other signs of civilization for that matter. The only thing of any note was the large mountain to the east (or what he assumed was east) of the portal. For now, he had made the mountain his goal; even if there were no clues there, at the very least, it would allow him to better survey the area. While the Forest seemed unending, he doubted the System would have just dumped him somewhere totally random. Otherwise, it might have taken a month just to walk to the Temple, even if he'd known where to look.

Jonah shook his head to clear the wandering thoughts and returned his focus to the Therizinosaur body. For all of the nicks and cuts caused by the hounds, the Dinosaur was in relatively good condition. Unfortunately, their previous hunts had shown that very little of the creature was worth much. Its heavy feathering meant that scale patches were sparse, and what skin the feathers were attached to was thin and weak. In contrast, the Feathers were surprisingly durable, acting as an almost Pseudo-chainmail; lightweight, flexible, and easy to replace if damaged.

However, the vast majority were too small to be of much use, at least not without some kind of dedicated crafting skill like Reggy's. He did pluck several of the larger, more durable feathers, in case he found a use for them. The only other thing worth taking were the six long, sword-like claws on its front "arms." These natural blades were surprisingly sharp, and Jonah had several ideas of how he could put them to use. The claws when into his Red Bag with his other supplies and more valuable finds (including Fruit! Glorious, heaven-sent Fruit), while the bundle of longer feathers was strapped down to one of Gamma's Bone Beasts that had been assigned pack-mule duty.

After collecting his "Loot," Jonah gave the mental command. The Titanspawn didn't even hesitate and ponced on the Therizinosaur's corpse, snapping and fighting for every bite of the enormous creature, though several were soon overpowered and muscled out by the three Pack Leaders.

Jonah refused to turn around and look at the terrible sounds coming from behind him as he marched back into the forest, heading back to base camp.

A few hours later

Jonah tightened the harness attached to Gamma, despite the rumbling protest of the Bone Beast. He double-checked the setup, making sure the two large, head-mounted claws were firmly in place, giving the Titanspawn the appearance of an armored Longhorn. It shook its head at the unaccustomed weight but otherwise didn't seem to care.

This was Jonah's second attempt at making use of the Therizinosaur claws he'd collected. He'd first thought to make a kind of tail attachment to increase his Alpha's damage potential, but the heavy bone seemed to slow down the heavy-hitter too much, and it wasn't long before the smart Stalker had found a way to remove the harness.

Beta was out; even if he was a size larger than the other Hounds, the claws were simply too large and heavy for it to use them effectively in any way. Thus Gamma's new headgear. It wasn't a complicated thing, just two claws strapped to a worm-leather harness and reinforced with worm-plate. It wasn't even good enough to be recognized by the system (or maybe he simply didn't have the skills for that?). But what it DID do was offer the large Bone Beast another option to its limited offensive repertoire.

The Titanspawn loved to charge headfirst onto the fight, relying on its natural armor and bulky size to protect it from most of the danger, but its offensive power had been lacking. Bone Beasts had a powerful bite and strong claws, but both were designed more for crushing and breaking defenses rather than really dealing any lasting damage. Now Gamma had a bit more flexibility in what he could do. It would take a while for the Bone Beast to get used to them, and it had cost him some of the little worm-leather he had left, but Jonah felt like it was a gamble worth taking.

With that taken care of, Jonah turned his attention to the Mountain looming over them.

It hadn't seemed so big from the tree top...

Time till Ascension: 27 Days - 6 Hours - 57 Minutes - 23 Seconds